Page 163 - 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. 163
Workers of the Port of Koper and the Economic Reform Period in 1960s Slovenia
A key persona in this ‘conspiracy’ was presumably Egon Prinčič, who soon
became Petrinja’s successor (Rutar 2015, 282–3).
In contrast to my research findings, Rutar’s reconstruction of events
suggests that workers of the Port of Koper ‘rioted at their workplace’,
while the demonstration itself was apparently ‘aggressive’. In concluding
remarks, Rutar goes as far as characterizing the Koper event of 1970 as
a ‘significant violent public labour conflict’ (2015, 278–9, 288). Concrete
forms and results of this aggressiveness/riot remain unclear. Mine and
Rutar’s research does not provide numbers of those injured, equipment
or building damage, or of any detained/arrested. In any case it is safe to
assume that the Koper events of 1970 were nothing like the late 1960s
conflicts at the San Marco shipyard in Trieste. In August of 1966, work-
ers of Trieste’s shipyard called for a general strike in order to stop the clo-
sure of the shipyard. In October of 1966 conflict escalated; workers were
fighting with the police and more than 500 of them were arrested, about
80 injured, and some public buildings in Trieste were damaged. Similar
fights also broke out in Trieste in June 1968, resulting in 135 arrests and
about 50 policemen and 16 civilians injured. In 1969, San Marco shipyard
workers occupied the docks again (Rutar 2015, 285). As far as the Koper
strike of 1970 is concerned, it is very strange that the Party commission
left these juicy details out of the report. It inquired into the identities of
the warehouse workers and longshoremen, but (unlike in other cases) left
their names out. Since strikes were a sensitive topic in the period of so-
cialism, the caution – Delo reported no photos or data regarding the num-
ber of strike and rally participants – is understandable. After all, no arti-
cle on ‘work stoppages’ was published at all until the middle of the 1960s
(Kavčič et al. 1990, 88; Hadalin-Milharčič 2018, 149). But this degree
of caution is notably less understandable for an exclusive Party report
(‘Information’). Delo actually did publish a number of articles about the
event, and they provide some valuable details. It is also worth noting that
the strike at the Port of Koper nearly coincided with the 50th anniversary
of the famous railway workers strike which had led to a communist-sup-
ported demonstration of solidarity in Ljubljana and ultimately ended up
being lethally repressed by the regime at the time. The press called the
events of 1920 a ‘strike’, that is a genuine and logical manifestation of
class struggle, while industrial conflicts under the socialist regime were
only ‘work stoppages’ – they were an anomaly, something barely compre-
hensible (Jerman 1970, 2). Under Yugoslav self-managed socialism, com-
163
A key persona in this ‘conspiracy’ was presumably Egon Prinčič, who soon
became Petrinja’s successor (Rutar 2015, 282–3).
In contrast to my research findings, Rutar’s reconstruction of events
suggests that workers of the Port of Koper ‘rioted at their workplace’,
while the demonstration itself was apparently ‘aggressive’. In concluding
remarks, Rutar goes as far as characterizing the Koper event of 1970 as
a ‘significant violent public labour conflict’ (2015, 278–9, 288). Concrete
forms and results of this aggressiveness/riot remain unclear. Mine and
Rutar’s research does not provide numbers of those injured, equipment
or building damage, or of any detained/arrested. In any case it is safe to
assume that the Koper events of 1970 were nothing like the late 1960s
conflicts at the San Marco shipyard in Trieste. In August of 1966, work-
ers of Trieste’s shipyard called for a general strike in order to stop the clo-
sure of the shipyard. In October of 1966 conflict escalated; workers were
fighting with the police and more than 500 of them were arrested, about
80 injured, and some public buildings in Trieste were damaged. Similar
fights also broke out in Trieste in June 1968, resulting in 135 arrests and
about 50 policemen and 16 civilians injured. In 1969, San Marco shipyard
workers occupied the docks again (Rutar 2015, 285). As far as the Koper
strike of 1970 is concerned, it is very strange that the Party commission
left these juicy details out of the report. It inquired into the identities of
the warehouse workers and longshoremen, but (unlike in other cases) left
their names out. Since strikes were a sensitive topic in the period of so-
cialism, the caution – Delo reported no photos or data regarding the num-
ber of strike and rally participants – is understandable. After all, no arti-
cle on ‘work stoppages’ was published at all until the middle of the 1960s
(Kavčič et al. 1990, 88; Hadalin-Milharčič 2018, 149). But this degree
of caution is notably less understandable for an exclusive Party report
(‘Information’). Delo actually did publish a number of articles about the
event, and they provide some valuable details. It is also worth noting that
the strike at the Port of Koper nearly coincided with the 50th anniversary
of the famous railway workers strike which had led to a communist-sup-
ported demonstration of solidarity in Ljubljana and ultimately ended up
being lethally repressed by the regime at the time. The press called the
events of 1920 a ‘strike’, that is a genuine and logical manifestation of
class struggle, while industrial conflicts under the socialist regime were
only ‘work stoppages’ – they were an anomaly, something barely compre-
hensible (Jerman 1970, 2). Under Yugoslav self-managed socialism, com-
163
