The League Against Usury (, LCC, or Liga împotriva Cametei, sometimes shortened to Liga Cametei, "Usury League") was a single-issue, mainly agrarian, political party in Romania. Formed in late 1929 as a political answer to the Great Depression, it involved itself in the fight against "usury" (or predatory lending), bringing together politicians on all sides of the political spectrum. Its prominent backers and activists included leftists such as Nicolae L. Lupu and Ion D. Isac, independents such as Pantelimon Erhan, Stefan Frecôt, Dumitru Pavelescu-Dimo, George Tutoveanu and Eraclie Sterian, and some affiliates of the interwar far-right. It also formed a unified cacus with Jean Th. Florescu's Omul Liber faction and with Simion Mândrescu's National-Radicals. The LCC channeled protest votes, and seemed to have gained sweeping popular support during the first year of its existence. It competed in this with fascist movements such as the Iron Guard, ambiguously supporting economic antisemitism—while being generally welcoming of ethnic minorities other than Jewish.
Although perceived as an upsetting contender, the LCC effectively seconded two small agrarian groups, the Peasants' Party–Lupu and the Democratic Peasants' Party–Stere. Under their auspices, it managed to obtain one seat in the Assembly in the election of June 1931. It originally formed part of the opposition to the government formed by Nicolae Iorga, and was treated with noted harshness by Constantin Argetoianu of Internal Affairs. The authorities viewed it as a front for the illegal Romanian Communist Party; communists rejected that claim in the 1930s, but some later came to agree with it. One of the LCC arrested for sedition, Aristică Magherescu, left the group to establish his own Ploughmen's Party of Greater Romania, alongside fellow defector Constantin Iarca.
The League's fiscal proposals were slowly embraced by Iorga and Argetoianu, who also drew former LCC cadres into their government team. While other LCC activists left the League to openly embrace fascism, Antonescu was unofficially backed by Iorga in their shared cause against the Iron Guard. Though involved in supporting continued debt relief policies, the League took no seat in the elections of July 1932, by which time it had split into three rival wings, respectively led by Antonescu, Isac, and Iarca. All groups found themselves opposed to the more orthodox economic policies advanced by Iorga's replacement, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, and some engaged in street battles with the Romanian Police. In late 1932, shortly after attempting to form a larger Front for Urban Debt-clearance, the LCC finally dissolved itself, with the mainstream joining Argetoianu's own Agrarian Union Party. Other groups still reclaimed the title into the mid-1930s, by which time Antonescu was returning to politics with another protest movement, called Guard for the Defense of Private Property. Magherescu sought to revive the LCC one final time in 1944, before allowing it to be absorbed by the far-leftist Ploughmen's Front.
History
Creation The LCC was created by the jurist Emanuel "Nolică" Antonescu with support from various politicians and journalists. Its constitutive congress was held at Antonescu's home in Bucharest on Saturday, August 17, 1929."Liga contra cametei", in Adevărul, August 18, 1929, p. 2 According to one account, the movement may have had roots that predated the Great Depression: a League of the same name (later LCC chapter) was reportedly formed in 1928 by the Gorj County landowner Alexandru A. Magherescu.Politics and Political Parties..., p. 477 Voted in as LCC president, Antonescu had first stirred controversy in 1918, when he acted as a prosecutor selectively investigating wartime abuse.Alexandru Marghiloman, Note politice. Vol. 3. 1917–1918, pp. 309, 412. Bucharest: Editura Institutului de Arte Grafice Eminescu, 1927 His career in politics saw him crossing the floor: he had been a member of the Conservative and National Parties,Moldovan, pp. 129, 259, 282 and afterwards defected to the National Liberal Party (PNL). Elected for the Senate seat in Gorj, he had criticized the governing National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) for its handling of the Depression, and also for its passage of multiple and conflicting laws.Roșca & Vlad, pp. 77, 80
By December 10, 1929, when it held its first meeting in Bucharest and agreed to petition government, the League counted on the allegiances of various other activists—including George D. Creangă, C. Filotti, Constantin C. Iarca, C. Saligny, and Marin Stănoiu."Intrunirea Ligei împotriva cametei. Moțiunea", in Lupta, December 10, 1929, p. 2 The LCC's generic goal was the fight against "usury", structured into three lesser objectives: phasing out interest rates, canceling foreclosures, and auditing the "usurers".Ioan Scurtu (ed.), Enciclopedia partidelor politice din România, 1859-2003, p. 155. Bucharest: Editura Meronia, 2003. In one of it manifestos, the LCC demanded quick state intervention and the reevaluation of interest at 1%;Clapa, p. 7 according to the peasants' own claims, interest rates could climb as high as 40% or even 100% in 1930."Où va la Roumanie?", p. 17 That year, Antonescu sent out a public notification to the Romanian Regents, who were looking after King Michael I. The text, which later became the LCC's producerist platform, spoke of bankers, civil administrators, and industrialists as "parasites", and called for tax cuts on the less wealthy.Roșca & Vlad, p. 80 A peasant militant from Dolj detailed that agenda and proposed measures against the state apparatus, noting that a functionary could earn as much as 50 agricultural workers.Pandrea, p. 119
Historian Armin Heinen explains the economic mechanism leading to the establishment of the LCC as follows: The agrarian reform of 1917–1921 created a need for currency, which could only be supplied by bank loans. Agriculturists had contracted high-interest loans, either to compensate the former landowner or to furnish their new or extended property with basic supplies, or merely—given the entirely too small plots they were left for production—to ensure their living income. As an effect of the economic crisis, produce prices fell [...]. The peasants could no longer make their payments, and consequently their properties were put up for sale.Heinen, p. 442
These issues were aggravated by Western protectionism, which prevented exports, and by Soviet predatory pricing, which reduced demand."Où va la Roumanie?", pp. 16–17 As early as 1924, Stănoiu, who owned property in Craiova, was accusing the PNL government of deliberately destroying purchasing power and fostering monetary instability, both of which ensured that Romanian capital was being lost, while foreign capital remained out of reach."Criza. Băncile trebue ajutate, nu mustrate și pedepsite, pentru ei susțin industriile, declară d. Andrei Corteanu. Actualul regim economic este fundamental greșit, declară d. Marin Stănoiu", in Argus, September 14, 1924, p. 1 The Antonescu program, which argued that the conditions of capitalism had fundamentally changed, and that usury had come to interfere with all forms of production and investments,"O intrunire la Galați a Ligii contra cametei", in Universul, January 9, 1930, p. 2 was met with skepticism by various other specialists. A laissez-faire economist, Al. D. Neagu, argued that the League presented "inefficient, unjust and momentary palliatives" to a systemic crisis, none of which could reactivate demand.Neagu, pp. 337–339 Neagu also notes that the LCC's claims about usurers were largely dealt with by laws which limited repossession, and that its program was "economically and morally unjustified".Neagu, pp. 334–335 Jurist Nicolae Dașcovici also suggested that measures such as those endorsed "by the League against Usury agitators" meant "a continuous and quickened fall of trust by the capital [market]—and as such implicitly the worsening of credit ratings." The "one cure", he proposed, was "liquidating the insolvent".Nicolae Dașcovici, "Insănătoșirea creditului în România", in Societatea de Mâine, Issues 17–18/1930, p. 313
Growth and eclecticism Within months of its creation, the League enjoyed massive growth: on March 1, 1930, it reportedly mustered some 100,000 peasants for a demonstration in Bârlad, with Romanian Army units being called upon to prevent strife.Ion Dragomirescu, "Caruselul guvernamental 1930–1932. Furtuna bîntuia în adîncuri", in Magazin Istoric, July 1973, p. 40 While increasing in numbers, the LCC endured as a complex and eclectic movement. The left-wing journalist Petre Pandrea, who attended LCC meetings, saw the party as a "provisional alliance" of "the kulak and the hired hand".Pandrea, p. 115 Its sympathizers included Nicolae L. Lupu, leader of the Peasants' Party–Lupu (PȚ–L) and a left-wing critic of National Peasantist economic policies. According to historian Pompiliu Tudoran, both Lupu and Antonescu's parties should be regarded as "center-left".Tudoran, p. 295 Lupu played a noted part in setting up the League,Ioan Scurtu, "Întemeierea și activitatea Partidului Țărănesc — dr. N. Lupu (1927—1934)", in Revista de Istorie, Issue 5/1976, p. 705 but was not present for its constitutive congress, being held up by partial elections in Hunedoara County. Attending the subsequent rally in December 1929, he explained that he did so "not as a politician, but as a defender of the debtors"; he also proposed translating the German Civil Code's Article 138 into Romanian laws. According to Pandrea, Lupu had created around him a "popular myth" as a savior, but had never promised his peasant constituents any concrete form of debt relief.Pandrea, pp. 116, 118
Lupu's faction within the LCC was represented by Ion D. Isac. An educationist and decorated veteran, Isac was both the organizer of the League's branch in Gorj and chair of the national secretariat.Șerban, pp. 233–239 Also joining the LCC in 1929 was a politically independent poet, George Tutoveanu, who published denunciations of the bankers and stated that his party's mission was "to fight against suffering." In May 1930, the LCC inaugurated in Bucharest its own political newspaper, Jos Camăta ("Down with Usury"). From November 14, it had Iarca as its editor.Ileana-Stanca Desa, Dulciu Morărescu, Ioana Patriche, Cornelia Luminița Radu, Adriana Raliade, Iliana Sulică, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. IV: Catalog alfabetic 1925-1930, p. 546. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 2003. In late September, a "National-Radical Party", chaired by Simion Mândrescu, adhered to the LCC platform."Partidul radical-național și liga contra cametei", in Curentul, September 27, 1930, p. 2 From October, the LCC had a chapter in Bessarabia, supervised by Pantelimon ErhanNicolae Enciu, "Structura socio-profesională a populației Basarabiei interbelice între tradiționalism și modernitate", in Hyperion. Revistă de Cultură, Vol. 36, Issues 1–2–3, 2018, p. 129 and later joined by Dumitru Iov, who became its vice president."Ultima oră. Congresul ligei contra cametei în Basarabia", in Universul, September 20, 1931, p. 9 Elsewhere, the League also won the adherence of Sterie Ionescu, who founded in Caracal the newspaper Desrobirea ("Emancipation"), "at the service of plowmen, traders, and the League against Usury".Ileana-Stanca Desa, Elena Ioana Mălușanu, Cornelia Luminița Radu, Iuliana Sulică, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. V: Catalog alfabetic 1930–1935, pp. 243, 374. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 2009. On November 3, 1930, the LCC had absorbed into it ranks Eraclie Sterian's Association of Mortgaged Owners and Debtors."Intrunirea Ligii contra cametei și proprietarilor ipotecați", in Adevărul, November 4, 1930, p. 4 By 1931, it had a branch in Năsăud County, with the mechanic Mihai Buta as one of its prominent members.Moldovan, p. 259