11) ROMANIANS SAY COMMUNISM WAS BETTER THAN CAPITALISM
From a commentary first posted on the 21st Century Socialism website, by James Cross, October 2010
According to a recent poll conducted in Romania, a large majority of those who expressed an opinion stated that life was better when the Communist Party was in power than it is now under capitalism. Most people gave a favourable view about communism in principle, with over 60% saying that communism is `a good idea'. The pollsters noted a significant increase in sympathy with communist ideas since a similar poll was carried out four years ago.
Conducted by the Romanian polling organisation CSOP, the survey found that over 49% of respondents agreed that life was better under the late Communist leader Nicolae Ceaucescu, while only 23% think that life is better today. The remainder gave a neutral or `don't know' answer.
The reasons given by the participants for their positive evaluation of the communist period were mainly economic, with the availability of jobs cited by 62% and decent living conditions by 26%; the provision of housing for all was referred to by 19%.
The survey was sponsored by the government‑funded IICMER (the Institute for Investigating the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of Romanian Exile), in order to help guide the institute in its work to `educate' the population about the evils of communism. Among the most bitter disappointments for that organisation were the answers given to a question which asked whether the participants or their families had suffered under the communist system.
A mere 7% of respondents said they had suffered under communism, with a further 6% asserting that although they personally had not suffered, a family member had suffered. Again, the reasons given were mainly economic, with most of the small group who had direct or family experience of suffering under Communist Party rule citing the shortages which occurred in the 1980s when Romania implemented an austerity programme in order to repay the country's foreign debt. A small fraction of the minority who had suffered during the communist period said they had lost out by having their property nationalised, and a handful (6% of those who had experience of suffering under communism) recalled that they, or a family member, had been arrested at some time while the communists were in power.
Putting their best spin on the outcome of the survey, the IICMER noted that pluralities of those polled (41% and 42% respectively) agreed with the statements that the communist regime was criminal or illegitimate. A substantial minority (37% and 31%) explicitly disagreed with those propositions and the rest were neutral or gave no opinion...
Before the communists took power in Romania, most people were illiterate and had no access to health care. Few in the countryside, where the majority lived, had sanitation or electricity. Infant mortality rates were among the worst in Europe, and most people died from hunger or disease before reaching the age of 40. Romania had a right wing regime which allied itself with Hitler during World War Two, and as part of that alliance Romania's capitalist administration sent most of the country's Jewish population to the Nazi death camps.
Achieving power following the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in 1945, the Romanian communists ‑ hitherto an illegal underground group fighting the pro‑fascist government and the Nazis ‑ numbered only a few thousand. However, they succeeded in mobilising the enthusiasm of the people to rebuild their war-shattered country. Illiteracy was almost wiped out, health services were massively improved and extended, and ‑ as the participants in the CSOP survey point out ‑ jobs, homes and decent living standards became available for everybody.
Buoyed by these successes, the government led by Nicolae Ceaucescu went into debt during the 1970s, buying expensive industrial equipment from the West to increase the country's economic growth rate on the expectation that Western countries would increase their imports from Romania. That strategy failed, and the austerity programme implemented to pay off the national debt gave rise to increasing resentment...
In its analysis of the poll results, IICMER noted that Romanians are far from alone in their generally positive evaluation of 20th Century communism. According to a survey carried out in several Central and East European countries in 2009 by the US‑based Pew Research Center, the proportion of people in former socialist nations who take the view that life under capitalism is worse than it was during the period of communist power is as follows: Poland, 35%; Czech Republic, 39%; Slovakia, 42%; Lithuania, 42%; Russia, 45%; Bulgaria, 62%; Ukraine, 62%; Hungary, 72%.
Particulary significant in the results of the 2010 CSOP/IICMER poll in Romania is that, as they acquire more experience of life under the `market economy' people are becoming more negative about capitalism and positive about communism. In the previous poll in 2006, 53% expressed a favourable opinion about communism; the 2010 survey showed that 61% are favourable towards communism.
The CSOP's survey findings are not altogether surprising in view of what has taken place since capitalism was reintroduced ‑ increased poverty, the rise of unemployment and insecurity. Romania's health system is currently in crisis, and public sector workers have recently had their pay cut by 25%.
Information on the poll: 1133 people aged 15 and over were interviewed between Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, 2010. Interviews were conducted based on a standardized questionnaire, face to face at home. Margin of error: 2.9%.
(The above article is from the Feb. 1-14, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)