The 80 cannot be compared to the times we?re living now, where it comes to activity or technical performances. Now we make only blanks, not products. During those times we made 32 types of locomotives. There were 7 engine types, 3 types of tanks, entire factories worked?

Between 80 and 85, 23^rd August Factory was the pride of Romania.

We sometimes worked badly? Why? Because it was a Party task. This was the mistake. They forced you to deliver a production that could not be done in 24 hours. Because of these deadlines, you screwed up. If one had let the worker do his job according to what technology allowed him to do, things would have been much better, I am telling you.

The production plan was respected much more than today. The structures may have been good or bad, but the production discipline was definitely better.

The bad things about the structures in factories were the party controls. That was a mistake. When politics interfered with the technique. A big mistake- to give orders like that, ?I don?t care how, you must have such and such outcome?. This was the big mistake. When politics interfered with the technique. The politics should have minded its business, which to provide a general framework, guidelines, but not to decide deadlines, not to stipulate: ? do this, don?t comment!? Politics were good somehow, because if one went hierarchically up, when something went wrong, the reports went gradually higher; if one said, ?I am going to report it to the party leadership?, it could be solved.

For instance, I was on duty to the general director (a former minister sanctioned by Ceausescu) and we had power restrictions so he called the minister of energy, he said who he was, and ?I need 8 megawatts?. No problem, he gave 8 megawatts to 23^rd of August.

To tell you one more example: in 87, I was on duty at the general director office, the third shift. We had a group of security agents there, like in any institution. He came and asked what officers on duty were and then he went to check things up, to see if anybody had said something or complained about something; he asked me if anybody had reported ?Do people mind their business? Yes, it?s all right?. Then he went and he checked and from time to time he called in to say that he was in such and such factory or in a certain department and if any party official called I was to tell that, he, captain whatever, was checking department such and such. ( 22)