On 7 March 1921, what has been called the first ever anti Fascist rebellion took place which led to the so called Labin Republic. It happened even before the fascists took power in Italy. It occurred as a result of a miners’ strike caused by Mussolini's brown shirts assaulting a union leader which led to a strike and then the mines being occupied by the workers and then to them forming their own very shorted lived republic. This is the story. In November 1919 the director of Trifailer, Julije Belak, was forced to sign a co-production contract with a group of Italian businesspeople headed by Guido Segre which became the Società Anonima Carbonifera Arsa. After an eighteen-day strike in the summer of 1920, the miners obtained a 10% pay increase and elected the socialist Giovanni Pippan to lead the union. From this period it became highly radicalised which led to the 1921 strike. In February 1921, the mine owners did not to pay a bonus as the miners as they had taken a day’s holiday to observe Candlemas on 2 February, although the management had abolished it as a holiday. For the miners the Candlemas was, next to the feast of Santa Barbara, the most important day because 2 February symbolized light. The union headquarters was attacked by fascists who attempted to burn it down and beat up members of the staff. It was widely believed that the mine owners were behind this. On 1 March 1921, Giovanni Pippan was assaulted by a group of fascist thugs at the railway station in Pazin. The news reached Labin the following day and on 3 March the miners assembled and decided to occupy the mine works in response. Initially they attempted to negotiate but management dragged its heels. On 7 March 1921 the miners proclaimed themselves as the independent Labin Republic in the occupied mines with the slogan Kova je nasa ("The mine is ours"). The idea of a Labin Republic was not new, a Labin Republic had existed in Roman times when it was called Albona. When a group of peasants from the surrounding countryside joined them, a "red guard" was organized as a security force tasked with maintaining order. In this photograph we can see that some of the miners are carrying rifles. The miners attempted to organise production and appointed mining technician Dagobert Marchig as the manager. At the same time, fearing a counter strike in favour of the owners, they arrested and detained 13 Sicilian miners. On 8 April 1921, the Italian authorities took action. A force of around 1,000 men from the police and military was launched from the sea and the land. The miners withdrew to Sternazzo (today Štrmac), where they offered armed resistance. Miners Maximilian Ortar and Adalbert Sykora were killed. But poorly armed and inexperienced, they soon had to give up. Pipan ordered a ceasefire and took full responsibility upon himself. The arrested miners were sent to prisons in Pola and Rovigno. Fifty two miners were charged with occupying mines, establishing a Soviet regime, opposing authorities, taking materials from the warehouses, holding explosives and a number of other illegal activities. The trial was held in Pula from 16 November to 3 December 1921. They were represented by the lawyers Edmondo Puecher, Guido Zennaro and Egidio Cerlenizza who successfully defended the accused. All were acquitted. To say it was a republic is perhaps going a bit far, it was an attempt by miners to take over the mine and then to organise production in it. It took the Italian authorities one month to take it seriously which suggests that the mine owners must have made a great deal of effort to get a response. I think it was more of a symbol and the idea of an anti Fascist revolt before fascism may seem attractive to some. As a direct result of the strike, the Italian owners were able to get complete control of the company. The mines were nationalised by Mussolini’s regime in 1935. In 1939 they produced over one million tonnes and reached a peak in the Italian administration of 1,115,000 tonnes in 1942, the year before Mussolini’s collapse and the effective end of Italian control over the region. The area of Labin was transferred to Yugoslavia after the Second World War and the Italian population was largely deported. The last mine in Labin was closed in 1989. Company history : file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/BG_BGA076410.pdf coal photograph by Klim Musalimov