Page 160 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 160
plex Gateways
of Rijeka. He virtually lost his mind, cynically asking whether ‘the atti-
tude of Yugoslavia regarding Primorska [the coastal region of Slovenia] is
to be the same as that of the Italian invaders?’ (Petrinja 1997, 78). At the
end of the day, Petrinja’s opponents threw in the towel, and he was prom-
ised tariffs on more favourable terms.
An even bigger challenge for him was the construction of a rail-
way line between Luka Koper and Prešnica. It was built between 1964
and 1967, at a time when the economic reforms were reaching their peak.
Obtaining finances from any federal or republic fund was completely out
of the question, since the latter had been abolished by the reform. Petrinja
was now fighting for commercial loans on far less favourable terms than
before, and he begged interested partners to form a consortium of inves-
tors. This time he ran afoul of President of the EC of the SRS and Party
big shot Viktor Avbelj. At a meeting in February 1964, Avbelj was furi-
ous at Petrinja for lobbying in the press for the railway. After the meet-
ing Petrinja resigned from his post as director, but the workers’ council of
the Port of Koper did not accept the resignation. Petrinja survived, and
financial resources were secured for the railway. Slovenian Railways took
out loans for the 31-kilometre Koper-Prešnica railway in 1971; by then the
economic reform was already dead (Petrinja 1997, 84–7). But in the late
1960s these loans were a considerable burden on the Port of Koper, par-
ticularly on its workforce. The same could probably be said for the loans
taken out for the construction of the port itself years earlier. This burden
undoubtedly contributed to the strike of 1970, the event to which we will
now turn.
I have already briefly discussed the ‘minor work stoppages’ at the
Port of Koper in 1965. This should not be taken to mean there were no
other port strikes in the period following the events of 1965, leading up to
1970. It does mean, however, that something really important happened
in 1970, since it resulted, inter alia, in the founding of a special commis-
sion at the Koper Party branch. The commission’s report is preserved in
the archive of the CC LCS. I should also mention that I was unable to ob-
tain any other Party reports on strikes in the period. Moreover, Party
documents reveal that in the heat of reforms, the Port of Koper was not
considered the most pressing problem in the coastal region of Slovenia.
Tomos, a motorbike factory in Koper, appeared to be far more problem-
atic. It suffered from the typical problems of a young market economy.
Suddenly it became extremely hard to obtain certain parts for motor-
160
of Rijeka. He virtually lost his mind, cynically asking whether ‘the atti-
tude of Yugoslavia regarding Primorska [the coastal region of Slovenia] is
to be the same as that of the Italian invaders?’ (Petrinja 1997, 78). At the
end of the day, Petrinja’s opponents threw in the towel, and he was prom-
ised tariffs on more favourable terms.
An even bigger challenge for him was the construction of a rail-
way line between Luka Koper and Prešnica. It was built between 1964
and 1967, at a time when the economic reforms were reaching their peak.
Obtaining finances from any federal or republic fund was completely out
of the question, since the latter had been abolished by the reform. Petrinja
was now fighting for commercial loans on far less favourable terms than
before, and he begged interested partners to form a consortium of inves-
tors. This time he ran afoul of President of the EC of the SRS and Party
big shot Viktor Avbelj. At a meeting in February 1964, Avbelj was furi-
ous at Petrinja for lobbying in the press for the railway. After the meet-
ing Petrinja resigned from his post as director, but the workers’ council of
the Port of Koper did not accept the resignation. Petrinja survived, and
financial resources were secured for the railway. Slovenian Railways took
out loans for the 31-kilometre Koper-Prešnica railway in 1971; by then the
economic reform was already dead (Petrinja 1997, 84–7). But in the late
1960s these loans were a considerable burden on the Port of Koper, par-
ticularly on its workforce. The same could probably be said for the loans
taken out for the construction of the port itself years earlier. This burden
undoubtedly contributed to the strike of 1970, the event to which we will
now turn.
I have already briefly discussed the ‘minor work stoppages’ at the
Port of Koper in 1965. This should not be taken to mean there were no
other port strikes in the period following the events of 1965, leading up to
1970. It does mean, however, that something really important happened
in 1970, since it resulted, inter alia, in the founding of a special commis-
sion at the Koper Party branch. The commission’s report is preserved in
the archive of the CC LCS. I should also mention that I was unable to ob-
tain any other Party reports on strikes in the period. Moreover, Party
documents reveal that in the heat of reforms, the Port of Koper was not
considered the most pressing problem in the coastal region of Slovenia.
Tomos, a motorbike factory in Koper, appeared to be far more problem-
atic. It suffered from the typical problems of a young market economy.
Suddenly it became extremely hard to obtain certain parts for motor-
160
