On a sunny fall day, I was walking in my hometown, dodging dozens of cars parked everywhere, legally and illegally, on sidewalks and streets, careful to avoid being run over even in pedestrian crosswalks.
I was searching for my favorite bakery that Dad used to take me to for a special treat. I was disappointed when I realized that it was gone; I half expected that it might not be there since 25 years have passed.
The building was still there attached to a row of various privatized stores after communism fell in 1989. The new occupants had opened boutiques, taking advantage of the new economic freedom of free market capitalism. What I did not expect was the discovery that the new renter of the former bakery was the Social Democrat Party. I had thought the commies were gone. Here they were, one of the twelve or so parties, jockeying for political control.
As we entered the hallway, my husband and I were still speaking English when we spied a large, occupied table. All eyes turned to us with curiosity and annoyance. The austere and smoky atmosphere was reminiscent of the former communist party planning meetings. We excused ourselves and explained in Romanian that we wanted information about their platform.
All the literature was printed in bright red in case there was any doubt about their socialist/communist leanings explained in the motto, “The LEFT is going to do everything right.”
The very young president of the Social Democrat Party admitted that he had no connection to the communist era but he wanted to do everything in his power for the future, disregarding the past completely. He said, we built a very good governing program for today’s Romania with the most knowledgeable party members, academics, professors, and union members. “We will be a party of the masses, of the workers.” This sounded like the former communist party who promised to protect the proletariat against the evil bourgeoisie, yet the planners were party apparatchiks and academic elitists. They knew what was better for the poor masses.
Promising to reinstate remuneration to the levels prior to the recent austerity measures of cutting pensions and salaries by 25 percent, the brochure explained that a person being paid 25 percent less, will work 25 percent less. I have heard this before under communism. “The communists pretended to pay the workers and the workers pretended to work.”
The Social Democrats demanded a 40 percent increase in salaries across the board, indexing by inflation not just salaries but welfare checks as well. They promised collective bargaining and guaranteed jobs to everyone. No modification of contracts would be allowed without union approval in consultation with big government.
The cost of energy would be frozen and excess cost paid by government subsidies. The rich would pay a higher tax than the middle class would. Currently, Romania has a flat tax. Financial control by the state would be increased. This sounded like the Economic Police we used to have under communism. While Romania was becoming capitalist, these PSD members were pushing for return to communism, using euphemisms, class warfare, and stratagems to accomplish it.
The new socialists were asking the welfare recipients to contribute volunteer work in the community. By doing so, they were hoping to ease the pressures on unemployment. Really?
As they promised to make government more transparent, laws and decisions easily accessible and debatable on line, I could not help but compare it to the empty promises made by our own American regime, promises that were never kept.
The Social Democrats were promising the development of infrastructure, massive infusion of capital, “green energy,” carbon taxes for polluters, changing the politics of urbanism, agricultural and rural development, similar to the White House Rural Council. If that sounds very similar to the goals of UN Agenda 21, it is.
Massive funds for economic programs and development came from the European Union to which Romania became a member in 2007. EU offers 200,000 Euros to a businessperson who is willing to invest ten percent of his/her own capital and follow their rules. EU offers 25,000 Euros for a farm with no personal investment. It sounds enticing but there are specific rules that must be followed.
The Social Democrats were guaranteeing social welfare to parents to raise their children, pay for their day care, medical assistance, physical education in communist style sport clubs, socio-cultural indoctrination, environmental education, “school after school” programs, physical education for the masses, national health care system, national pharmaceutical system, and a cradle to grave nanny state.
While the citizens were busy getting their private properties back that had been confiscated by communists from 1947-1989, the Social Democrats were working overtime to turn the country back into communism by making empty promises that could not possibly work because they have failed everywhere else they had been tried.
The new socialists encouraged birthrates by promising to pay mothers to have children just as they did under Ceausescu’s regime. Two hundred Euros were proposed to those willing to tie the knot. Special concessions and programs were promised to communities of minorities such as “rromi,” the new PC misnomer for gypsies.
The Social Democrats promised a “minimum guaranteed justice system” and a national program to stop criminality. They assured citizens that all judicial decisions would be published on the Internet. To discourage the infractions of drivers of fast cars, the speeding fines were to be correlated to the value of the vehicle.
Finally, in line with the new European programs and infrastructure (rail, roads, energy transportation, Internet), the new socialists emphasized communitarianism, smart growth, sustainability, and joint agricultural politics based on rural development and ecological production. For those of you who are not familiar with UN Agenda 21, these are their buzzwords.
Would citizens fall for this new socialist/communist rhetoric? Have they forgotten how bad life was under communism and how much they wished to be free? Some were shot trying to cross the border in order to defect to the west. Some drowned trying to swim across the Danube to freedom.
Seniors with misplaced communist nostalgia, would answer definitely yes. Middle-aged adults would answer with a resounding no. Young people, who are naïve, idealistic, and liberals at heart would eagerly try socialism. “Everybody wants free stuff. Welfare is so much better than work.” Those who do not study history carefully are doomed to repeat it.
Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh——
Bio and Archives
Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
