Labor Party (Romania)

A rebellious aristocrat and landowner, Diamandy was introduced to socialism ca. 1887, when he wrote his first articles in the Marxist review Contemporanul.{{in lang|ro}} Florin Faifer, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140522193812/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/FAIFERap.html "Moșierul"], in Convorbiri Literare, April 2002 In the 1890s, he had set up in Paris his own L'Ère Nouvelle, which represented a heterodox form of Marxism,Zeev Sternhell, Neither Right Nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, pp. 72–73. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. {{ISBN|0-691-00629-6}}; André Voisin, "Revue des périodiques. L'Ère Nouvelle", in Revue Internationale de Sociologie, Vol. II, 1894, p. 405 and helped launch the writing career of Georges Sorel. As the latter noted, Diamandy was an "unreliable" character, who "simply disappeared" from his life at some point.Sorel, pp. 165–166 Diamandy's pragmatic Marxism was developed during his years in the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party (PSDMR), where he sought to introduce a policy of alliances with the establishment parties: first a cartel with the Conservative Party,{{in lang|ro}} Victor Durnea, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140521181153/http://www.romlit.ro/c._stere_i_duelul_su_de_la_1894 "C. Stere și duelul său de la 1894"], in România Literară, Issue 1/2008 and later a form of close cooperation with the PNL, to the point of merger.C. T. Petrescu, pp. 131–134

By 1899, Diamandy supported making the PSDMR into a reformist "National Democratic" or "Progressive Democratic" party, and sealed deals with the PNL's own "Poporanist" (agrarian) wing. This effectively split the PSDMR into two or more factions: the "generous youth" faction, led by Diamandy and Vasile Morțun, registered with the PNL.C. T. Petrescu, pp. 143–151. See also Ornea I, pp. 244–248, 261–262, 268–269, 313 During the following 10 years, Diamandy, still calling himself a dialectical materialist,Ornea I, pp. 522, 538 became an internal critic of National Liberalism. His Revista Democrației Române accused the PNL establishment of having turned reactionarySorin Radu, "Liberalii și problema reformei electorale în România (1866 — 1914) (I)", in Annales Universitatis Apulensis, Series Historica, Issues 4–5, 2000–2001, pp. 140, 142–143 and sketched out a plan for the introduction of universal male suffrage.M., "Noutăți. Svonul despre revizuirea Constituției", in Noua Revistă Română, Issue 8/1910, pp. 105–106 Pushed out of political affairs by the PNL's leadership before the March 1911 elections,A.C.C., "Noutăți. Doi copii teribili în politica noastră", in Noua Revistă Română, Issue 7/1911, p. 97 Diamandy focused on his activity as a comedic writer. He returned to the mainstream during the early stages of World War I, when Romania preserved a policy of neutrality under PNL Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu. The latter selected Diamandy as his semi-official envoy to Entente countries, where he negotiated deals and treaties of mutual assistance.Butnaru I, p. 143; Ornea II, p. 77; Sorel, p. 166

Diamandy was again elected to Chamber in 1914, where he showed himself to be a cautious supporter of an alliance between Romania and the Entente.{{in lang|ro}} [http://dspace.bcucluj.ro/bitstream/123456789/36771/1/BCUCLUJ_FP_PIV1902_1916_026_0001.pdf "Din Camera română"], in Unirea, January 1, 1916, p. 3 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University [http://documente.bcucluj.ro/ Transsylvanica Online Library]) In summer 1916, Brătianu agreed to a political and territorial deal, and Romania entered the war as an Entente country. Diamandy fought in the subsequent campaign, but was soon hospitalized for a heart condition.Butnaru I, p. 148. See also Averescu, pp. 15–16, 88–89; Gorovei, pp. 159–160 In short while, Romania was overwhelmed by the Central Powers, losing the Battle of Bucharest; the government and the Chamber were moved to Iași, the provisional capital, and Romania continued to fight alongside the Russian Empire. Retaking his seat, Diamandy reemerged as one of Brătianu's extreme critics, accusing him of having mismanaged the whole campaign.Duca, pp. 133–137 The February Revolution of 1917 installed a left-leaning and republican Government of Russia, which rekindled Diamandy's radicalism. Reportedly, he argued that the new Russian democracy was incompatible with Brătianu's "tyrannical" government.Duca, p. 172

On April 27Duca, pp. 179–180 or May 1, 1917,Grigore Trancu-Iași, "Doctorul Cantacuzino în politică", in Adevărul, January 18, 1934, pp. 1–2Popescu, p. 21 Diamandy formed the PM as a parliamentary party, centered on the issue of land reform. Described in literature as a "broad bourgeois democratic" tendency,Agrigoroaiei, p. 175 a "left-bourgeois party",Lavinia-Dacia Gheorghe, Gheorghe Dumitrașcu, "Moldova — locul în care s-a întâmplat ceva. Organizațiile județene ale Partidului Țărănesc Radical", in Acta Moldaviae Meridionalis, Vols. XV–XVII, Part II, 2004–2006, p. 81 or the parliament's "socialist faction",{{in lang|ro}} Radu Petrescu, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131009200046/http://www.contrafort.md/numere/enigma-ilie-c-t-r-u-ii "Enigma Ilie Cătărău (II)"], in Contrafort, Issues 7–8/2012 it supposedly comprised "mainly [politicians] formed at the school of socialism."C. T. Petrescu, p. 312 Diamandy openly criticized the PNL for wanting to enact a redistribution of land, since, he claimed, Brătianu no longer had a "moral right" to do so.Ornea II, pp. 167–168 According to the PNL's Ion G. Duca, Diamandy was bluffing, as he himself did not support a complete land reform.Butnaru II, p. 178; Duca, pp. 196, 198, 200–201 The Minister of Agriculture, Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, was also a critic of Diamandy's politics, describing them as an elaborate "operetta" production "for the benefit of the peasants".{{in lang|ro}} Gheorghe I. Florescu, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090308235831/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/FLORESCUnov4.html "Însemnări zilnice din anii Primului Război Mondial"], in Convorbiri Literare, November 2004 According to writer and civil servant Arthur Gorovei, his friend Diamandy was known locally for persecuting the peasants living on his own estate.Gorovei, pp. 156–158

Diamandy soon became noted for his displays of Russian socialist symbolism, in particular calico redshirts, "Russian worker's blouse[s]",Duca, p. 176 or tolstovka garments. He was the PM theoretician, authoring its program and publishing it as a brochure. Calling for the union of "clean souls" and "healthy energies", it proposed a universal land reform giving each peasant 5 hectares of land, and a vote for all citizens over the age of 20, women included.Popescu, p. 21; Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 423 Also included as demands were the right to strike, child labor laws, a nationalization of the National Bank, and a new constitution enshrining class collaboration.Popescu, pp. 21–22. See also Rășcanu Gramaticu, pp. 423–424 The party also drew up plans for decentralization with economic interventionism, cooperative farming, progressive taxation, and the expropriation of the subsoil.Rășcanu Gramaticu, pp. 423–424 The brochure was immediately confiscated by military censorship, acting on Duca's orders; the latter explained that he did object to its demands, but disliked its combative nature in a time of crisis.Duca, p. 187. See also Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 423 According to Duca's hostile account, the PM was largely shaped by Diamandy's "pathological state", his heart disease having led him to lose his sense of control and moderation. Gorovei also dismissed the PM as a "prank".Gorovei, p. 161

The party manifesto was signed at the Diamandy home on 40 de Sfinți Alley, with the socialist-and-Poporanist physician Ioan Cantacuzino as its first signatory; their document was read out in parliament by Diamandy, and therefore had to be published in the government gazette, Monitorul Oficial, which rendered censorship futile. The radical agrarianist Nicolae L. Lupu, whose signature was also present on that document, was selected as the PM co-chairman. A physician and civil servant, he had published in the Poporanist press indictments of the social misery and political repression prevalent in the countryside.Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 422 Lupu's advocacy of land reform took the form of a personal conflict with Mârzescu, carried out in Chamber.Duca, p. 188

Outside parliament, several figures from civil society also signed their names to the party manifesto: journalist Eugen Goga (brother of the more famous poet), lawyer Deodat Țăranu, teachers Mihai Pastia and Spiridon Popescu, and chemist Petre Bogdan. The party was also joined by Grigore Iunian, Grigore Trancu-Iași, Mihail Macavei, and four other PNL with various grievances against their former party: Mihai Carp, Tilică Ioanid, Ioan P. Rădulescu-Putna, and Numa "Nunucă" Protopopescu.Duca, pp. 136–137, 174–175, 176, 177, 187–189. See also Agrigoroaiei, p. 175; Ornea II, p. 167; C. T. Petrescu, p. 312; Popescu, p. 21; Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 423 Reportedly, the PM also claimed to have registered a verbal pledge of support from the "peasant deputy" Andrei Marinescu, who died in the typhus epidemic. Marinescu's funeral, Duca reports, was a "macabre scene", in which the PNL and PM speakers "fought over the corpse".Duca, pp. 177–178 Other affiliates included doctors Constantin Ion Parhon and Alexandru Slătineanu.

The PM coexisted with an Orthodox Marxist group, set up in Iași by Leon Ghelerter and Max Wexler (the latter of whom was assassinated in May "for his attempts to carry out a revolution in Romania").Voinea & Calotă, p. 29 Ghelerter and his colleagues viewed the Laborites as impostors, "a diversion by the authorities to control the workers". This suspicion was at least in part validated by Trancu-Iași, who boasted to King Ferdinand I: "our party's role is to lure the working strata into a healthy direction". In specifying what was "unhealthy", Trancu-Iași nominated three leading socialists on the far-left: Christian Rakovski, I. C. Frimu, and Alecu Constantinescu.Voinea & Calotă, pp. 29–30 In addition to promoting land and electoral reforms, the PM was still widely suspected of being republican and conspiratorial. Ferdinand feared "the growth of a socialist movement in our country", and more particularly Diamandy's contacts with the Esers.Averescu, p. 156 On its left, the PM included republicans such as Lupu, who allegedly carried out secret negotiations with other politicians, and with the Russians, in order to bring down both the king and Brătianu through a putsch.Duca, pp. 173, 176–177 According to Duca, these negotiations stalled when the envoy of the Iași military soviet discovered that the "oligarchic" and "bourgeois" PM had no backing in the countryside.Duca, pp. 176–177

The PM was founded just days after a street demonstration organized by the Russian soviet, described by Duca as an attempted coup spurred on by the socialist Rakovski, supposedly thwarted by a Romanian demonstration of strength. According to Duca, the PM intended to partake in the putsch, but "in the end got scared [...] because they sensed that if the Russian revolutionaries are to stage a coup, it would not go in their favor".Duca, p. 180 Diamandy, who was structurally a monarchist, printed a call to order, addressing it to the Romanian proletariat.Gorovei, pp. 160–161 Afterward, the Laborites portrayed themselves as patriotic resisters, and Lupu even threatened to duel those who questioned his loyalty.Duca, pp. 180, 189–190, 194–195 The PM continued to have links with the revolutionary activist Ilie Cătărău, who was Lupu's emissary among the Romanian-speakers of the Russian Bessarabia Governorate. He contacted the National Moldavian Party, whose leader Pan Halippa dismissed the PM as irrelevant.

File:Victor Ion Popa - Nicolae Lupu, 1922.png, by Victor Ion Popa]]

Trancu-Iași reports that, in May–June 1917, renewed offensive of the Central Powers and a serious government crisis, decision-makers to "implore" that Diamandy and Cantacuzino join the cabinet team as PM representatives—Cantacuzino refused the offer. The ailing Diamandy, meanwhile, became one of the various Romanian public figures taking refuge in Russia.Butnaru II, p. 178; Duca, p. 205 He was caught there by the October Revolution, and again took flight, died on board a refugee ship sailing the North Sea.Duca, p. 205 The same month, Lupu also left Romania as a delegate of the University Professors' Association,Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 424 campaigning for the Romanian cause in the United States. According to Duca, his escaping was the equivalent of a desertion, leaving typhus-stricken Romania without a highly trained physician.Duca, p. 212 Lupu defended himself against such accusations by citing his role as a founder of the Labor Party: "in this capacity, I could form direct links with the Western democracies"; his contacts included Marcel Cachin and Ramsay MacDonald.T. B., "Importantele declarații ale d-lui dr. N. Lupu. Rolul României în lupta dintre democrație și absolutism", in Dimineața, August 16, 1936, p. 7

Lupu was still PM president in early 1918, when a Conservative cabinet, presided upon by Alexandru Marghiloman, was called in to sign peace with the Central Powers. The PM, which coalesced around a Iași newspaper called Tribuna,Agrigoroaiei, passim; Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 424 fought against that measure, and against Marghiloman's other policies, presenting its own candidates for the 1918 election.Ornea II, pp. 209, 212–213 These were held with universal male suffrage, the Laborites having been instrumental in blocking legislation for Demeny voting and other such forms of disenfranchisement.Agrigoroaiei, pp. 176–180 Marghiloman's candidates emerged as winners with a crushing majority, with the PM taking no seats in Senate and only one in Chamber—with Trancu-Iași.{{in lang|ro}} Georgeta Filitti, [https://web.archive.org/web/20180503104805/https://radioromaniacultural.ro/alegeri-parlamentare-sub-baioneta-straina-de-georgeta-filitti/ Alegeri parlamentare sub baionetă străină], Radio România Cultural, May 3, 2018 With Simeon G. Murafa, Cătărău founded his own "Romanian Revolutionary Party", a blend of anarchism and Romanian nationalism, before the Russian government arrested him for his propaganda in Bessarabia.

Although the PM's Carp announced a worldwide "rapid evolution to the left" and the transfer of social control toward "the grand army of labor",Agrigoroaiei, pp. 179–180 the group as a whole was viewed as moderate, or even reactionary. An editorial note by the satirist George Ranetti suggests that, in December 1918, the PM was presided upon by Protopopescu, who, as a millionaire landowner, did not have to work for a living. Also according to Ranetti, Protopopescu's promises of sweeping reforms, including Jewish emancipation and women's suffrage, could only be read as a "seductive yarn", as long as the leadership was fundamentally cut off from the lower strata of society. The party was also joined by civil servant Grigore Filipescu, formerly a dissident Conservative. He was close to the politically ambitious General Alexandru Averescu, supporting a broad front against the PNL, to be established under Averescu's presidency.Popescu, pp. 21–23

In April 1919, represented by Trancu-Iași, the PM signed up to the People's League (PL), created in Iași by Averescu.C. T. Petrescu, p. 313; Popescu, p. 23 Various other former PM members opted to return into the PNL.C. T. Petrescu, p. 313 The PM was generally considered defunct by late 1918 or early 1919.Agrigoroaiei, p. 183; Victor Mitocaru, "Restituiri. Ion Borcea", in Vitraliu, Issues 1–2/2004, p. 6; C. T. Petrescu, p. 312; Rășcanu Gramaticu, p. 424 However, the LP was purposefully created as a federation, allowing for the existence of individual parties–Filipescu personally moderated between the LP's far-right, represented by A. C. Cuza, and his PM colleagues.Popescu, p. 23 Weeks before the November 1919 elections, Trancu-Iași announced that he was chairman of the Labor Party and that he would submit a Laborite list, separate from, and in competition to, the LP."Se vor face alegerile?", in Evenimentul, October 19, 1919, p. 1 A note in the PNL organ Mișcarea reported that the PM in Iași County had become a "Peasants' Party" and was "made up of only 8-to-10 people", "unsure about whether to field candidates or to form a cartel with any other group"."In preajma alegerilor. Candidaturile din Iași", in Mișcarea, September 14, 1919, p. 1 Throughout the interval, the Laborites had talks with the consolidated Socialist Party (PS), a nominal successor of the PSDR. Lupu and his followers negotiated directly with the PS, but found it impossible to agree on a common platform.

During the elections, Lupu signed up with the Independent-Popular List, getting himself reelected. This group, which won support from Adevărul newspaper and used a bell for its electoral symbol, also included dissidents from other parties, among them Constantin Costa-Foru and N. D. Cocea.Murgescu et al., pp. 312, 315, 320–323, 370 Trancu-Iași and his followers endorsed Averescu, who became Prime Minister in March 1920. Trancu-Iași's own contribution as Romania's inaugural Minister of Labor was controversial, with writer Vasile Savel assessing that he was a hypocrite, who clamped down on striking clerks while still passing for a "far-leftist element, as one who had been in Mr Lupu's labor party".Vasile Savel, "Guvernul și greva da la Poștă. Inainte de alegeri mișcare legitimă, după, anarhică", in Dimineața, July 14, 1920, p. 1 He was also hotly contested by the mainline PS, resulting in the workers' unrest of October 1920.Voinea & Calotă, p. 30 Trancu-Iași himself was satisfied with his tenure, noting in 1934 that all demands stated in the PM's original manifesto had by then been fulfilled.

Defining himself as a "socialist in my own way", a "national socialist" and a monarchist, Lupu was also an ally of Ion Mihalache's Peasants' Party (PȚ), and strongly opposed to Averescu's policies.Rășcanu Gramaticu, pp. 425–426 To his old proposals for reform, he added mandatory leasing and rent regulation, in an effort to ensure affordable housing.Murgescu et al., pp. 379–380; Popescu & Ungureanu, pp. 37–38 In 1920, he registered the PM as a component of the "Parliamentary Bloc" governing alliance, which comprised the PȚ, the Romanian National Party, the Democratic Nationalist Party, the Bessarabian Peasants' Party, and the Democratic Union Party.Popescu & Ungureanu, p. 37 Lupu continued to claim leadership of the PM, when, in 1921, it formalized its fusion with the PȚ;Ornea II, pp. 213-214; C. T. Petrescu, p. 313. See also Popescu, p. 22 Parhon, affiliated with the short-lived Laborer Party (Partidul Muncitor), had rallied with the PȚ in 1919.Agrigoroaiei, pp. 183–184; Ion Ilincioiu, "Studiu introductiv", in Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe (eds.), Doctrina țărănistă în România. Antologie de texte, p. 9. Bucharest: Editura Noua Alternativă & Social Theory Institute of the Romanian Academy, 1994. {{ISBN|973-96060-2-4}}; Murgescu et al., pp. 223, 303–305 Macavei remains the only documented case of a PM member joining the PS; affiliating with the socialists' far-left, he later became a member of the outlawed Communist Party.

{{Reflist|3}}

• Ion Agrigoroaiei, "Tradițiile democratice ale presei ieșene: ziarul Tribuna (1918)", in Cercetări Istorice, Vol. VII, 1976, pp. 175–184.
• Alexandru Averescu, Notițe zilnice din războiu. Bucharest: Editura Cultura Națională, [n. y.]
• Adrian Butnaru, "File din viața unei familii. Frații Constantin și George Diamandy în preajma și vremea Primului Război Mondial. I", in Gândirea Militară Românească, Issue 1/2013, pp. 135–149; "File din viața unei familii. Frații Constantin și George Diamandy în preajma și vremea Primului Război Mondial. II", in Gândirea Militară Românească, Issue 2/2013, pp. 177–188.
• Ion G. Duca, Amintiri politice, II. Munich: Jon Dumitru-Verlag, 1981.
• Arthur Gorovei, Alte vremuri. Amintiri literare. Fălticeni: J. Bendit, 1930.
• Bogdan Murgescu et al., România Mare votează. Alegerile parlamentare din 1919 "la firul ierbii". Iași: Polirom, 2019. {{ISBN|978-973-46-7993-5}}
• Z. Ornea, Viața lui C. Stere, Vols. I–II. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 1989. {{ISBN|973-23-0099-X}} & {{ISBN|973-23-0268-2}}
• Constantin Titel Petrescu, Socialismul în România. 1835 – 6 septembrie 1940. Bucharest: Dacia Traiana, [n. y.]
• {{in lang|ro}} Andrei Popescu, [https://web.archive.org/web/20151001225237/https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/38998/ssoar-annunivbuch-2012-2-andrei_popescu-Grigore_N_Filipescu_1886-1938_Repere.pdf "Grigore N. Filipescu (1886–1938): Repere biografice"], in Analele Universității din București. Seria Științe Politice, Vol. 14 (2012), Issue 2, pp. 17–46.
• Cornel Popescu, George Daniel Ungureanu, "Romanian Peasantry and Bulgarian Agrarianism in the Interwar Period: Benchmarks for a Comparative Analysis", in The Romanian Review of Social Sciences, Issue 16, 2014, pp. 31–59.
• Oltea Rășcanu Gramaticu, "Un luptător pentru apărarea idealurilor democratice: dr. Nicolae Lupu", in Acta Moldaviae Meridionalis, Vols. XXV–XXVII (II), 2004–2006, pp. 421–431.
• Georges Sorel, "Lettres de Georges Sorel à Jean Bourdeau. Deuxième partie: 1913–1921", in Mille Neuf Cent, Issues 15/1997, pp. 127–214.
• Andrei Răzvan Voinea, Irina Calotă, Locuințe pentru munictori și funcționari. Casa Construcțiilor și parcelarea Vatra Luminoasă (1930—1949). Bucharest: Asociația Studio Zona, 2021. {{ISBN|978-973-0-34405-9}}

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