Griviţa Strike of 1933

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The Griviţa Strike of 1933 was a railway strike which was started at the Griviţa Workshops, Bucharest, Romania, on February 16, 1933 by workers of Căile Ferate Române (Romanian Railways). The strike was brought about by the increasingly poor working conditions of railway employees in the context of the worldwide Great Depression, which affected Romania significantly. It quickly turned into a riot, and resulted in clashes between railway workers and the police.

An important member of the railway employees striking was the Romanian Communist Party member Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who later became the leader of Communist Romania. In 1933, Gheorghiu-Dej was sentenced to 12 years' forced labour by the courts of the Kingdom of Romania for his role in organising the Griviţa strike. He escaped in 1944, and after the installation of the Communist regime in Romania in 1948, became the country's de facto ruler as General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party.