Romanian Political Scientist: Strikes Are the Most Important Factor for Overthrowing the Regime
- 30.03.2021, 10:48
At one time, Ceausescu made a mistake that cost him his power.
Political scientist Alina Mungiu-Pippidi has been working in the Berlin Gerty School of Government in Germany for the last few years, the Radio Svaboda website writes.
During the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi was 25 years old. Shortly before that, she graduated from the institute and worked as a psychiatrist. The revolutionary events completely changed her professional and personal life:
- Mr. Ceausescu made a big mistake - he organized a rally in his support, but this rally turned against him. And in just a few hours, a lot of people took to the streets, he had to get into his helicopter and run away.
This did not happen in one day - in the western part of Romania, in Timisoara, the uprising had been going on for a week, they were already free from the communists for a whole week, until the rest of the country joined in. But this was an extraordinary strategic mistake of Mr. Ceausescu - he gathered a rally to accuse the people in Timisoara, to call them traitors, and this is a big risk - to call for such a rally people in a country where people had no electricity for many hours and where there was a terrible lack of food. ...
Alina Mungiu-Pippidi believes that Belarusians need to pay close attention to strikes:
- Firstly, experience shows that in order to overthrow the regime, the most important factor is strikes. If possible, demonstrations should be accompanied by strategic strikes.
Preparing for them can take a long time if not all groups are equally unhappy with Lukashenka. We need to negotiate with trade unions and with people who have the ability to paralyze the regime with strategic strikes. You need to strike at a more favorable moment. I am sure that such favorable moments will appear.
The second thing: you need to prepare for the transfer of power. It needs to be prepared very well. Again, I'll give the example of Estonia. When people came to power, they already had the texts of laws. Laws on how to administratively reorganize the country. How to move from a cumbersome and complex system that oppressed people to a simple administrative system with clear transparent rules that people can understand.
Do not wait for your coming to power to do this. Do it now - this is a challenge for nongovernmental organizations and think tanks. This is not a task for everyone - some are good at organizing demonstrations, some are on strike, but some people in think tanks know how to plan, so they have to do it.