15 November 1987 Memorial
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This year Brasov celebrates 19 years since the local anticommunist mutinous rise of November 15, 1987, announcing the imminent collapse of the communism in Romania. The rebellion started at the Tracks Factory Brasov by a strike initiated on the night of 14 November, at the third shift, and continued the next day morning by a march till downtown, in front of the siege of the County Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. The courage the worker of Brasov to protest against the communist regime was cruelly punished; some workers were thrown in jail, some others were deported on under house arrest. The traumas they have endured seriously affected their health; some of them died meantime.
Arrests and Tourtures
Florin Postolachi, the president of the Association ?15 November 1987? Brasov records the atrocious sufferings the demonstrators had to endure: ?The refuse of the communist authorities to negotiate with the mutineers determined the assault of the communist seat by the mutinous crowd. The portrait of the dictator Ceausescu was got off the building?s frontispiece and burnt. It followed the brutal intervention of the special troops of Securitate, the arrests and the tortures. Initially, the authorities have announced the capital punishment for the arrested workers. Under the pressure of the world public opinion, the communists had to reconsider their decision: through a framed process, 61 workers were deported, 27 persons had their workplaces changed. Over 300 persons were arrested and investigated in the Militia and Securitate headquarters of Brasov and Bucharest.
Solidarity Connections
Most of the deported workers returned in Brasov after the events. Vasile Vieru, one of the 61 relegated demonstrators died in September 1988, less than a year from the investigation, because of the beatings that the repressive forces have administrated him at Bucharest.
On January 2, 1990, soon after the collapse of the communism in Romania, the Association ?15 November 1987? was established at Brasov. Along the approaches unfolded to render the civil rights to the returned relegated workers, on May 10, 1990 the Association proclaimed itself as a segment of the civic society in Romania, on the eve of the first free elections since the war. The Association?s leaders have been keeping in touch with the leaders of the ?Solidarnosci? Syndicate.
Honourable Guests
In order to celebrate the memory of those who had the courage to fight against the communism while nobody could even imagine then that the communist block were about to fall, Brasov hosts several actions meant to mark the event: 15 November Cross, international meetings and a large conferences and public meetings cycle. The invitations were honoured this year by the ambassador of the Polish Republic Jacek Paliszewski, the ambassador of the Slovac Republic Jan Soth, the ambassador of the Check Republic Petr Dokladal and Argyelan Gyorgy, first counsellor at the Embassy of the Hungarian Republic, along with many of those who fought against the red plague.