The Labor Party (,George Baiculescu, Georgeta Răduică, Neonila Onofrei, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. II: Catalog alfabetic 1907–1918. Supliment 1790–1906, p. 668. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1969Gheorghe Biciușcă, "Vremuri mari, oameni mici", in Furnica, Vol. XIV, Issue 3, December 1918, p. 2Tamara Teodorescu, Rodica Fochi, Florența Sădeanu, Liana Miclescu, Lucreția Angheluță, Bibliografia românească modernă (1831-1918). Vol. II: D–K, Editura științifică și enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1986, p.84. modernized Partidul Muncii, PM) was a minor left-wing political group in Romania. Based in the city of Iași, and founded by George Diamandy, in its inception it was a split from the National Liberal Party (PNL). The PM responded to the major social and political crisis sparked by World War I, with the southern regions of Romania having been invaded and occupied by Germany. It notably pushed for urgent land reform, universal suffrage, and labor rights, also wishing to replace the 1866 Constitution with a more democratic one, and advocating class collaboration. Through Diamandy, its roots were planted in the "generous youth" current of 19th-century reformism.
Co-chaired by Nicolae L. Lupu, the PM grouped disgruntled members of the PNL, old affiliates of homegrown Poporanism, and left-agarianists with republican leanings, inspired by the success of Russian Revolutionary Socialists (or "Esers"). It was perceived as a nuisance by the institutions of the Romanian Kingdom, but largely dismissed as shambolic, and reportedly criticized as "bourgeois" by Russian radicals. It campaigned independently during the June 1918 elections, but these registered a sweep for the Conservative Party; the PM only held one seat in Chamber, taken by Grigore Trancu-Iași.
Pushed into obscurity by the events of the war, which drove its other leaders into exile, the PM, relaunched under the leadership of landowner Numa Protopopescu, divided itself into factions. One of these continued to survive as a separate wing of the anti-PNL People's League. Lupu later reorganized the group as a component of the "Parliamentary Bloc", backing a government formed around the Romanian National Party in 1920. He and his supporters were also among those who established the Peasants' Party in 1921.
History Origins A rebellious aristocrat and landowner, Diamandy was introduced to socialism ca. 1887, when he wrote his first articles in the Marxist review Contemporanul. Florin Faifer, "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. ; 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, Victor Durnea, "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. "Din Camera română", in Unirea, January 1, 1916, p. 3 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University 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
Activities 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", Radu Petrescu, "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". Gheorghe I. Florescu, "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.