[Source: Marijan Milevoj, Postcards from Labin / Daniel Načinović, Kartulini z Labinscini, translation to English by Valter Kvalić, Naklada Matthias (Labin, 1997), p. 5-11. All © copyrights reserved. Note: the original translation of this text is by Walter Kvalić. It has been further corrected for grammatical errors.]

Recent history of Labinšćina is all imbued by mining which became not only a symbol of this part of Istria, but also influenced all segments of it's life, from economy and political and social milieu to the formation of a special proletarian-internationalist spirit. Black and green colors, mining lamp and hammer became trademarks and contours of recognizing of the residents of Labin and Labinšćina, even after mining lost it's importance and power, which was undoubtedly present, not long ago, for this country and people. We are here, particularly proud on our mining tradition.

Like French history which is linked to Napoleon Bonaparte, the history of mining in Labinšćina has also it's Napoleon by the name of Eugene, viceroy of Italy, who signed a decree, on April 6, 1807, on behalf of Emperor Napoleon the First, allowing the export of pit coal from Istria, providing that a two percent tax was assessed. Istrian Mines "Raša" considers this date the official commencement of mining in Labinšćina. However, Tulio Vorano, curator of the Labin Museum, ascertained from the documents of The Historic Archives in Pazin, that there was continuous coal mining in Krapan at least from the year 1785 on. The mine was managed then by Antonio Merigo, and in 1801 [the] mine employed about 40 miners, with an output of 560 tons, and [the] manager was Lorenzo Furlani. The coal was sold to the sugar mill at Rijeka.

Since the seventeenth century, coal and coal-tar pitch were used for caulking ships. A certain Filippo Veranci was granted an agreement by the Venetian Council of Ten (Consiglio dei Dieci), to collect coal-tar pilch within a four miles diameter from Labin, and 33 years later, a native of Labin Lodovico Dragogna was granted concession for the coal-tar pitch production in the valley of Krapan. All these attempts ended unsuccessfully. The situation did not improve even when the rich Venetian family Nani claimed ownership over the mine. Mining was then unimportant for Labinšćina. Agriculture and cattle breeding were the main sources for living. Arrival of Austrian rule in 1814 brings many news. All land was registered through land-registry offices (Rabac belonged to land-registry office Gemeinde-Ripenda), and the first census was carried out, which included population, housing and livestock. According to the census from 1818, on the borough of Labin were registered 2,365 houses with a population of 10,069. Although land was highly priced, feeding of the family depended upon land, natives of Labinšćina, preferred cattle farming. According to data from the middle of the nineteenth century, the borough of Labin has 287 horses and donkeys, 3,252 cows, 18,460 sheep and goats and 1,765 pigs. Oxen were used mostly for harnessing. Besides farming and cattle-breeding, there was a slender class of craftspeople, merchants and state employees developing in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Establishment of the first mines (Sv. Barbara, Sv. Ivan and Krapan) in such almost feudal social formation, had great impact on it, although at first, equipment was rather primitive, production low and workforce unskilled. Faster changes were generated in 1835, when the corporation "Adriatic Coal Mines in Dalmatia and Istria" ("Adriatische Steinkohlen Gewerkschaft in Dalmatien und Istrien") took over management of the mines. The Viennese banker Salomon M. Rothschild was it's largest shareholder. The mine then began to attract significant investments, workforce and various supporting industries, which had a crucial impact on the shaping of Labinšćina. Constructors and various craftspeople were busy: hides and textiles were processed. There were many of other lesser activities, offering a certain degree of security to the population. Labinšćina became attractive for the inhabitants of other parts of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire (even some Poles arrived here), and in 1857, total population of Labinšćina was already 15,307. The mine employed permanently or temporary about 200 persons.

2) Coal mine in Strmac by the end of ihe nineteenth century. 4) On the fortieth anniversary of the Society for the Mutual Help of the Miners from Labin, this commemorative postcard was published.

In 1863, the mine was awarded a copper medal at The Business and Agriculture Fair in Trieste. In 1876, new mining shafts were opened at Vinež and Dubrova.

Rothschild sold the mine to "Trifail Coal Mine Corporation" from Vienna, which promptly intensified the production. Technology got modernized, horse-traction was introduced into the mines, and finally locomotives. At the same time a narrow-gauge train began transporting coal in the Bay of Raša (Val Pidochio). In all shafts, there was a total of about fifteen hundred miners employed, generating daily output of 400-500 tons of coal. The mines no more represented a secondary means of earning one's living, they were then a backbone of Labin's economy; they were like a tree with more and more branches. Miners got more class-conscious and socially organized, becoming a power that had to be reckoned with. Earlier, in 1867 in Krapan was founded a fellowship of miners, as a common form of trade organization. Interestingly enough, this was not an independent social link between miners, but was under supervision of the employer and the state. The first organization that tried to help the working people was "Società di mutuo soccorso fra gli operai albonesi" (Society for mutual help between Labin's workers). Despite its middle-class leadership, the society had a great impact in forming the interests of the working class. Within the society, a women's branch was established in 1881. Under strong influence of socialist ideas, The society became more open toward this movement, with the contribution of Giuseppina Martinuzzi.

The miners first expressed dissatisfaction with their material status in 1861, and in 1878 their strong stand was noted when 120 miners requested help from the mayor in solving their problems. The first strike among the miners took place by the end of March and beginning of April 1883 in Krapan. The headquarters of the mine was there and the school with a trilingual teaching program - Italian, Croatian and German. It is not known what was the outcome of this strike, but from then on, until the big strike of March 2, 1921, better known as "Labinska republika", miners used this means in the struggle for their rights.

The mining shaft at Vinež [Vines], near Red Square, where the events known as "Labinska republika" were initiated. Water was pumped out of the mine and it was used in the village. Therefore, the presence of the women with "brentas" along with the miners

In a series of strikes, the one of April 25, 1902 was most interesting because it occurred due to a discreet decrease of wages which the management executed through several consecutive months, after being instructed from Vienna. More than the strike, it is interesting that the strikers' leader was one of the wealthiest and most distinguished natives of Labin, count Giuseppe Lazzarini. His attitude was rather unusual having in mind his social position. Referring to "imported" strikebreakers, which were brought from Kočcvje, after being invited by management, he said:

"If you take over the job, I will get down with 300 strikers, and we will beat you all to death! We will also destroy the railway and telephone lines, to prevent anyone from helping you."

The reporter of the "Nasa Sloga" from Trieste wrote about the strike and behavior of the red count Lazzarini. According to this reporter, the strike was initiated by workers "who dig coal in Krapan near Labin. They request from the owners of the mine, a modest increase of meager wages, to what owners oppose. On April 30, 120 workers wanted to prevent other workers from loading the coal on the station Stalije, but they could not, owing to the presence of armed guards. However, strikers did remove rails and telephone lines on two locations. There were no other disturbances until now." The strike lasted throughout the month of May, because management refused to negotiate with workers, and even threatened to fire all miners that do not return to work by May 20. "Workers did not return by May 20, but they act very soberly and peacefully, and authorities have no reason to act."

The management tried to end the strike by employing mentioned strikebreakers, and employing Macedonians, which began working in Slovenian mines in the eighties of the nineteenth century. However, they left Krapan soon "after being threatened if they took over the job. Due to these threats, well-known social-democrat baron Lazzarini from Labin was arrested. He was prosecuted by the Stale Attorney at Rovinj, because he allegedly threatened Macedonian workers that they would all be thrown into the sea if they took over the job that the domestic workers had quit. Baron Lazzarini was indicted these days before the court in Rovinj, but was acquitted and released. When he returned to Labin, strikers arranged an ovation, as a token of gratitude, for all he had done for them."

Miners' strike in Krapan in 1902. This postcard was mailed two years later - on June 12, 1904.

The same year miners from Labinšćina founded their Federation, and a year before the Consumer's Association, which were new forms of their self-organizing. Count Lazzarini was present among the miners in the next years. On May 1, 1906. he delivered a passionate speech in front of about a thousand workers. He wrote articles, and fought by all means for the workers' rights. He was therefore forced to leave Labin and Austrian-Hungarian Empire, so he took refuge in Italy. Thus ended his close relationship with miners, but also his socialist orientation. With the arrival of Italy, he soon became the first and most prominent political figure of the Municipality of Labin.

In time, the best known fighter for the elementary rights of miners became Giuseppina Martinuzzi, born in a middle-class Italian family from Labin, a person of strong social awareness, a fighter against national intolerance on Istrian soil, the mutual homeland of Italians, Croats and Slovenes. She often mentioned miners and their situation. In her speech "Edmondo dc Amicis and Social Issues", among others she said:

"Comrades, can we talk same things about workers who make hardly both ends meet in our city, about those who struggle against rugged nature, on the fields of the whole Julian March, and about those most wretched, those who daily risk their lives in Labin's mines, and are unable to make enough to feed their family? Where are the schools for them? Did the ruling classes, which govern with our municipal and regional property, ever think, that even these simple workers might be gifted with the ability to comprehend, which gives them the right to wrest themselves out of the state of ignorance, which now forces them to remain in the slavery relations against a brought up and educated person?"

"When I render my account to the nature, please take my remains into your custody, to conduct rituals and ceremonials, which are not contrary to our socialist principles. You have to mark my funeral as a final act of modest existence. Therefore, without any pomp, wrap my coffin in our sacred international flag, decorate it with a flower symbolizing social liberation, and lay it without any further ceremonies in the lap of our mutual great mother. My farewell with the living world should be, owing to your care, last testimony of the faith in the victory of proletarian causes.

Faithful and an old comrade of
the proletariat
Giuseppina Martinuzzi"

This great fighter for the victory of the proletariat and Italian-Slavic brotherhood in Istria, died on November 25, 1925 in Labin. According to her wishes, she was buried in a civil ceremony (the first in Labinšćina). She was accompanied by a vast multitude of miners carrying burning lamps, expressing thus their great love and respect to a woman, who behaved toward them the same way - with love and full understanding of their situation.

5) Red square is one of the most significant localities of the "Republic of Labin". On the morning of the March 2, 1921, a column of miners, started from here toward Labin. On the same spot, but four years later, was taken this photograph of the supervisors and managers of the Labin's mine. Following people are recognized from this snapshot: Mate Kokot, Ivan Juricic, Mate Files, Antun Načinović, Gino Fontana, Pietro Montante, Rumenić, Vatovac, Pavao Bučić (one of the most significant union activists in Labin), Marko Černjul, Ivan Vlačić, Gregorije Lukek, Bortolin Vihar, Anton Milevoj, Anton Bolanac, Ivan Lckan, Petar Batelić, Martin Vlačić, Paškvalin, Štemberga, Martin Mikuljan, Anton Gobo, Zamarija Bučič, Josip Višković and Petar Zahtila.

After the collapse of "The Republic of Labin" conditions were rather hard. There were constant frictions and divisions between socialist and young communists, although they entered elections together and won. Union work was getting harder, and a fascist union was also established. The leader of Labin's miners in "The Republic of Labin" Giovanni Pipan resigned as union representative on April 30, 1923, because he was about to be arrested, and after a short stay in Turin, he finally immigrated to U.S.A. The condition of the miners got worse, because wages decreased for about one quarter.

6) Mining tunnel in Krapan in 1926. The photograph is interesting for the locomotive, propelled by compressed air. Such locomotives were used in the mine until 1930, when they were replaced by electrical ones. 7) In the beginning of the century, Stalije was connected to the mine by railroad. Such steam locomotives were used for some thirty years, until new electrical machines were introduced.

Moreover, by the end of 1923 and the beginning of the next year, the mine was closed for four months to force out subventions from the state. The first wave of immigrants toward French mines and the U.S.A. was then initiated. Despite all this turmoil and insecurity, and with the aggressiveness of new Italian rule in Istria, workers got organized and celebrated May Day. In April 1925, miners successfully entered another strike, and for May Day red proletarian flags flew on the church-tower in Labin and on the spire in Strmac.

With the emerging of Italian jurisdiction in Istria, schools in Croatian language began to close in villages from 1918, and this process got accelerated after Gentili's school reform 1923. That year all Slavic classes were abolished, and two years later the ban was complete. By the end of 1921 the borough of Labin had a population of 14,197 and Plomin of 4,258. One year later, the borough of Sušnjevica (not Šušnjevica) was established, with a population of 2,128. Besides farming and cattle-breeding, which was still the main source of living, gradually increased exploitation of bauxite in Šumber and Vetva, and cement was produced in Koromačno. With public works, certain economic boost was generated by melioration of The Raša Valley and reclamation of The Čepić Lake. Commerce and catering were also developing, following faster growth of mining, which in time became not only the backbone of Labin's economy, but of the economy of the larger part of Istria as well.

8) Cere. Bauxite was transported from here to Rabac by a funicular.

With the shift of state colors flying over Istria, the shift over the ownership of the mine was somewhat postponed. By the end of 1919, Anonymus Mining Company "Raša" ("Arsa") was founded with head-quarters first in Labin and later in Trieste. Its largest shareholder was "Trifail" from Trbovlje. The first president was Guido Segre, and FIAT had its share in the company. For some time, one of the members of the board of directors of "Arsa" was Giovanni Agnelli. However, due to doubtful profits, FIAT quit after one year, and was subsequently replaced by Banca Italiana di Sconto and Trieste Shipping Company, Trieste Technical Enterprise, Trieste Shipyard, Lloyd Triestino and Trieste Bank of Commerce.

Their business operations, however did not start successfully, primarily due to high prices of excavation and high percentage of sulphur that made sale difficult. In the beginning of 1925 some changes were underway. Antonio Brunner and his family, became the largest shareholder in "Arsa," after forcing "Trifail" out. He invested considerable resources in modernization of the mine. Thermo-electric power plant "Vlaska" was built, undercutting chain machines on compressed air were introduced, the whole production process was reorganized, and year 1929 yielded, until then, unattainable 193,000 tons of coal. One year before the output was 104,930 tons and in 1922 160,350 tons.

The Brunner family was also the owner of a large cotton processing plant which sustained heavy losses in 1929. Their spinning-mill became property of Trieste Commercial (Commercial Triestina), along with the bulk of "Arsa" shares. The company was saved with the help from the government, and it broadened it's business activities. In order to secure the government's favor, the company became co-founder of Sardinian Mining Company. In 1933, 1,071 employees produced 266,650 tons of coal.

Production was growing further, mainly due to new machines with striking heads, which also improved granulation of the coal. Market conditions however, were not favorable, competition was very strong, and prices low. About three quarters of the production was sold to steamships, thus port of Brsica became one of the busiest bunkering ports in the Adriatic. The way out of crisis, was attempted with classical "remedy" - by laying off miners and decreasing the wages.

There were significant changes in 1935. The government, basing its policy on economic autocracy, founded Enterprise of Italian Coal Mines ("Azienda Carboni Italiani") with public capital. By the end of the year, the government owned 60 percent of the shares of Istrian Coal Mines and Sardinian Mining Company. The intentions of the state were clear - to have control over energy production, which corresponded with preparations of fascist Italy to embark in a new world war adventure.

From then on, until the collapse of the Italian fascist regime in September 1943, when Italy withdrew from Istria, "Raša" was in a constant economic-expansion and Labinšćina as well. Along with armed forces and merchant marine, the coal was also used on state owned railway company. While in 1935 "Raša" yielded 383,000 tons of coal, with 1,813 employees, only one year later, 4,767 employees produced 725 thousand tons of coal. A million tons of coal, turned out of the shafts of "Raša" in 1939, when as many as 8,957 miners excavated exactly 1,005,432 tons of coal. The record year in the history of this mine, was 1942, with 1,157,000 tons. After the war the best year was 1959, with an output of 890 thousand tons.

These were times of intense investments, the sites were enlarged and miners' settlements - first Raša and later Podlabin were built. The shaft "Štrmac" was reopened, and coal was excavated from the depth of 300 meters. Once, the coal was excavated from this shaft rather shallow, so the miners could hear the sound of an ox cart that was moving through Dubrova! Due to the fast increase of jobs, miners were coming, not only from impoverished Istrian villages, but also from Furlania, Calabria and other parts of Italy. In many small houses of Labinšćina, dwelled subtenants, because this was another opportunity for some additional income.

9) Main railway station at Karlota, where all railway lines of the mines crossed. A group of workers poses in front of a modern Siemens' electric locomotive, one of those introduced in the mine in 1934, marking significant investments and a steep increase of the production. 10) Between the two wars, passenger ship "Albona" sailed along the Istrian coast.

The newspaper "Corriere istriano" which was published in Pula in Italian language, often wrote articles about the situation in the Istrian Coal Mines, which was then most important collective in Istria, and Labin and Raša were most dynamic boroughs on the peninsula. In 1937 "kovarice" (miners' buses) brought miners for work as far as from Porestina, according to this newspaper. That year coal was excavated from 200 prepared sites; daily output was 3,200 tons, monthly 80,000 tons. Newspaper informed about the construction of new tunnels in the zone of Plomin toward Strmac and Ripcnda. According to that newspaper, coal was found 800 meters deep. Layers are thick up to three meters, with average thickness of one meter. In 1937 port of Brsica could supply 200 ships with 110 thousand tons of coal. Accelerated production, hard working conditions, "plundering" coal-beds, along with insufficient investments in safety on the sites, influenced on the sharp increase of fatal accidents. In 1936, 16 miners lost their lives in "Raša", one year later 31 miners died on the sites. Miners were exempt from military service, and the mine was controlled by General Commissariat for Wartime Production, bringing to the miners only stricter working discipline, and rigorous supervision over their performance. Despite all measures, accidents on the sites were common and a large scale disaster was imminent. It occurred on February 28,1940, in recently built Raša, when after an explosion of deadly methane, 187 miners died, and 304 were hurt. Officially, this number was reduced to only 97 dead. The disaster was caused by damage on the isolation of an electric motor. These were the first victims of the Second World War in Istria, where war was not officially declared. According to eyewitnesses, the accident occurred at 4:30 A.M., while mines were set off, which caused the explosion of methane. This was the worst night in the history of mining in Labinšćina; the terrible explosion, scenes of terror, screams and despair, all this still rings in ears of many natives of Labin.

During the war, especially after the capitulation of Italy, on September 8, 1943, coal production was quite insignificant, and the cement plant in Koromačno ceased its work. Traffic along the coast came to a standstill, sailing ships were fewer and fewer... Labinšćina was the scene of many important events from that period like: formation of the Italian Union for Istria and Rijeka, printing of "Glas Istre", partisans' hospital on Ubas, forming of the theater troupe "Otokar Kersovani"...

The last German soldier left Labinšćina on April 28,1945. A celebration of delighted people, which lasted several days was held on the square in old Labin, which will be subject of the next pages with words and postcards. The people were finally able to salute peace and freedom.