February Strike of 1933

the general designation used for the various strikes in the Rumanian railroad and petroleum industries during January and February 1933. The strike was provoked by the mass arrest of Communists and the employers’ refusal to grant the wage increase they had previously promised.

The call for the strike was issued by the Rumanian Communist Party, and walkouts took place in several cities, including Bucharest, Ploieşti, Iaşi, Galaţi, and Cluj. In the course of the strike, the workers formed action committees, occupied various enterprises, and organized self-defense squads. Among the leaders of the workers’ demonstrations were G. Gheorghiu-Dej, Stoika Chivu, and I. Pintilie, under the general direction of the central action committee of the railroad workers’ union in Bucharest. On February 16 a demonstration of 7,000 workers from the Grivija railroads yards in Bucharest was put down with the help of artillery and machine-gun fire, and the strike was thus effectively ended.