Run, Comrades, Run!

Miners are a professional category that will be forever ingrained in Romanians’ collective memory. You cannot say miners and not think of the events of 13-15 June 1990, when former president Ion Iliescu used them as a mass to manoeuvre against the students and “intellectuals” gathered in downtown Bucharest. The latter had been occupying Piața Universității for almost two months to protest against the neo-communist party that had taken over the country after the 1989 Revolution. The event is known as “Mineriada” and it left behind hundreds of wounded, six dead people and a fissure in our society that can be seen at play again. On the one hand, nowadays there’s the fight against the “parallel state”—NGOs, the judicial institutions that investigate corrupt politicians, multinational companies—declared by the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD); on the other, you have people hating against the PSD voters, calling for their extermination, as they are considered the “red plague”.

Fast-forward 17 years and you find the miners in Valea Jiului being used as a different kind of tool. This time they’re not sent to the capital to beat up people who hold different opinions, but they’re sent underground with virtually no protective equipment to dig for coal in unsafe coal mines, supported by pillars that fall apart when you touch them. Meanwhile, the state-controlled company responsible for the mine is pocketing the money allegedly spent on “new” pillars. The company’s pillar supplier, Gerom International, was owned between 1994-2006 by the county’s prefect, a close friend of the former minister for internal affairs; Gerom’s shareholders are now secret.

Here is the story of a miner who survived a mine collapse, but who will probably not find his peace any time soon, after watching two of his friends and colleagues die.