In Kuçovë, the association “Puna” (“Work”) of oil workers was established (1935-1936), a labor association created for the organization of resistance against the exploitation of the Italian capitalists of the oil company AIPA (Azienda Italiana-Petroli Albania). Initially, the “Puna” association of oil workers included 680 members. Later, it expanded the ranks throughout the territory of the AIPA society, including the workers of Ujji i Ftohtë of Vlora and elsewhere, increasing the number of organized workers up to 3000 people. The “Puna” society of oil workers, which in its charter was named the Workers’ Society of Kuçova and the “Puna” district, drew up a broad program that mobilized the oil workers in a double struggle: against foreign concessions and the regime of the time. On November 18, 1935, it organized the first one-day strike against the exploitation of the arbitrariness of entrepreneurs, for the increase of wages and the improvement of the working and living conditions of the workers. The strike ended in victory. All laid-off workers were reinstated, their wages increased and working hours reduced. But the activity of the oilmen greatly angered the entrepreneurs and the authorities, who did not miss out on the opportunity of damaging certain workers, especially the leaders of the “Puna” society, a good part of whom were fired. The government bodies demanded the departure from Kuçovë of more than 50 workers, the most active of the “Puna” society. Against these measures, on February 11, 1936, the workers went on a general strike, which lasted three days. This strike was the peak of this company’s activity. The AIPA society alerted Rome that the Albanian workers posed a serious danger to it. The Albanian government mobilized gendarmes and officials. The Minister of the Interior, Ethem Toto, himself ordered the dispersion of the workers, the arrest of 60 of them and the departure of more than 30 others from the city. After these extreme measures , practically even the society ceased to act. (In the photo: Pilot distillation plant in Kuçovë.)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2513.
Photo: © https://naftetari.wordpress.com/fotografi-te-viteve-1918-deri-1946-per-zhvillimet-ne-naften-shqiptare/
Graphic processing: AHCF
