106 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
been forcibly seized by the communists on January 29 after
the rupture at the Congress of Leghorn, was set on fire by
the fascists for the second time on February 9. The workers,
as usual, replied with a general strike. But the c work of
systematic destruction of everything bolshevik 31 began, with
open state assistance, in the country district of Istria, which
stretches along the coast from Pirano to Pola. Thus, e on
the evening of January 20, by arrangement with the garrison
troops, an attack was made on the Chamber of Labour at
Dignano '. On February 28 the Trieste Chamber of Labour
was attacked for the third time and entirely destroyed. To
avenge the burning of the Chamber of Labour, the workers
at Muggia, near Trieste, fired the shipyards of San Marco.
These too were destroyed.
' Troops of the Sassari brigade were then called in to
fight the rebels and a fascist aeroplane from the Portorosa
flying school flew to the scene of the disturbance. During
the night of March i the fascists of Trieste and Upper
Istria massed in Pirano, seized a ship and went to Muggia.
The vessel drew near, with masked lights, and the fascists
landed and set fire to the Chamber of Labour, which was
completely destroyed/
At the beginning of April serious incidents took place in
the Carnizza district, south of Istria. A fascist squad from
Dignano arrested and removed a Slav innkeeper. This
arbitrary act caused a revolt. The tocsin was sounded in
the neighbouring villages, peasants hurried to the spot and
the fascist gang was forced to retreat towards Carnizza with
its prisoner. There it was besieged, while soldiers, police,
and fascists were mobilized and a desperate fight took place,
under real war conditions, with barbed-wire and machine-
guns. This guerrilla war lasted several days, until finally
the forces of * order ' prevailed. * The rebel populations
were driven from their villages, which were destroyed by
fire, and the districts of Segotti, Vareschi, Zuechi, and
Mormorano were devastated either by fire or battle.5 The
struggle was prolonged in the Arsa (Albona) mines, where
1 In this section on the territorial distribution of the movement, quoted
passages where no reference is given are from Chiurco's History of the Fascist
Revolution, Vol. III.