ABSTRACT
When the proprietor of a restaurant in the Romanian Jiu Valley mining town of Petrosani asked me to his table to introduce me to two of his former teachers, one of the elderly men wanted to know my purpose in the valley. As I told him about my interest in labor, miner working conditions, the health of miners and the impact of unemployment, he cocked one eyebrow and looked at me quizzically, ‘What are you,’ he said, ‘a Communist?’
