Thousands of Romanians Demand a 2nd Revolution : Eastern Europe: Anger focuses on prices, shortages. It is the most serious protest since Ceausescu’s ouster.

Angered by skyrocketing prices and perpetual shortages, nearly 200,000 Romanians marched Thursday to demand a second revolution in the most serious outbreak of anti-government sentiment since last December’s uprising.

The demonstrations in Bucharest, Timisoara, Brasov and other large cities were organized to protest a Nov. 1 government decree allowing state producers to set prices for their goods according to what the market will bear while wages remain fixed and private enterprise severely limited.

But the unexpectedly large street protests illustrated a deeper discontent with the course of political and economic reform in Romania, threatening turmoil as the new leadership acts to push the nation toward a market economy after half a century of Communist repression that was the worst in Eastern Europe.

“We fight. We work. We starve!” demonstrators chanted in Brasov as they marched through the Transylvanian city.

The protesters denounced President Ion Iliescu, demanding his resignation and accusing his party of hijacking the anti-Communist revolt of a year ago that ousted and executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Officials of the National Salvation Front government granted permission for the demonstrations in order to show tolerance toward dissent, and state-run television carried unusually detailed accounts of the events. It said that 70,000 marched in Timisoara, birthplace of last year’s revolution, in addition to the larger crowd in the capital and tens of thousands more in Constanta, Cluj, Brasov and Iasi.

Police lined the protest routes but made no effort to interfere with the peaceful processions.

Government spokesman Baltazar Bogdan had predicted on the eve of the protest that few Romanians would bother to take part, describing those discontent with government policy as “a handful of troublemakers.”

Nevertheless, the government took defensive action in announcing early Thursday that salaries will soon become negotiable between employees and employers, to balance the effects of the price reforms, which doubled or tripled the cost of most goods.

Necessities like bread, milk, meat and cooking oil were exempt from the price boosts announced months ahead by Prime Minister Petre Roman, and pensioners were simultaneously granted a special raise to help defray the new hardships. But even staples remain in short supply in state-run stores because of Romania’s antiquated processing and distribution facilities, forcing many consumers to do without or buy at more expensive farmers’ markets.

Labor and Social Security Minister Catalin Zamfir said the new wage liberalization bill to be presented to Parliament would ease tensions resulting from the pricing changes.

“Practically everybody will be able to earn as much as he wants, if he is good,” Zamfir said at a news conference.

The leadership also sought to defuse tensions by declaring Thursday an official celebration in honor of a workers’ uprising in Brasov three years ago to the day, now seen as a precursor to last year’s revolt.

The turnout of nearly 100,000 in Bucharest, despite the announced reforms, was likely a surprise for the National Salvation Front leadership, which won resounding victories in the May elections.

“Eleven months of lies!” the Bucharest procession shouted, snowballing in size as it swept through the capital’s center.

The protesters denounced Iliescu as a Communist in reformer’s clothing and accused his ruling circle of feasting off the fruit of the working man’s labors.

“Our last solution, another revolution!” the marchers chanted.

Thursday’s demonstrations were initially called to commemorate the Nov. 15, 1987, rioting in Brasov, about 130 miles north of Bucharest, in which an unknown number of protesters were killed by Ceausescu’s Securitate secret police and more than 300 were arrested and tried as instigators.

But the memorial served as a magnet for Romanians disappointed with the policies of their new government.

“With our salaries, we cannot afford to buy anything,” said Neicu Alexandru, a 21-year-old worker at a metal fabricating plant in Bucharest. “Today (the leadership) is following the same lines the Communists used--shortages for the populations so that the leaders can live the good life.”

The hostility seems directly targeted at Iliescu, who won a landslide 87% of the vote for president in elections that foreign observers described as “flawed.”

Once a member of the powerful Communist Party Central Committee under Ceausescu, Iliescu was politically exiled by the dictator, but returned to the political forefront after the revolution to lead the interim government in the National Salvation Front’s election drive.

Intellectuals and students, who make up the bulk of the anti-government protesters, have since accused Iliescu and his party of plotting to transfer to themselves the same monopoly on power and privilege enjoyed by Ceausescu and his Communist cronies.

Several prominent figures in the overthrow of communism a year ago addressed the crowd of about 12,000 in Brasov.

“We do not need hypocritical, violent demagogues,” former dissident Doina Cornea told the crowd from a balcony overlooking the medieval City Hall Square, flanked by pastel-colored town houses.

She alluded to Iliescu’s actions in summoning a horde of miners to Bucharest in June to quell unrest with a two-day spree of random beatings and destruction of opposition party headquarters.

Williams, The Times Budapest bureau chief, is on assignment in Bucharest.