Giovanni Pippan
{{Short description|Italian labor leader and socialist}}
Giovanni Pippan (also known as Giovanni Pipan and Ivan Pipan) (16 December 1894, Trieste{{cite web |last1=Jelinčič |first1=Jakov |title=OPTUŽNICA PROTIV LABINSKIH RUDARA ZBOG USTANKA 1921 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/187286 |website=hrcak.scre.hr |accessdate=4 November 2019}} – 31 August 1933, Cicero, Illinois) was an Italian labor leader and socialist, active in Italy, Croatia and the United States of America.{{cite book|author=Dominic Candeloro|title=Chicago's Italians: Immigrants, Ethnics, Americans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LgzG-rRsDj8C&pg=PA121|year=2003|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-2456-6|page=121}}{{cite web |title=1983 Union Hall of Honor |url=http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/hall-of-honor-articles/1983#pippan |website=illinoislaborhistory.org |date=4 January 2016 |publisher=Illinois Labour History Society |accessdate=4 November 2019}}
Early life
The Albona Republic
In the spring of 1921 Pippan was sent by the Italian Socialist Party to organise the striking miners of Labin on the Istrian peninsula. On March 1 he was caught by a group of fascists at the railway station in Pazin, where he was beaten. The news reached Albona the following day and on 3 March the miners assembled and decided to occupy the mine works in response.{{cite web |last1=Celeghini |first1=Riccardo |title=BALKANS: "The mine is ours!" History of the Republic of Labin |url=https://www.eastjournal.net/archives/71072 |website=eastjournal.net |date=23 March 2016 |publisher=East Journal |accessdate=3 November 2019}}
The miners proclaimed the Labin Republic in the occupied mines on 7 March with the slogan Kova je nasa ("The mine is ours"). They organized a government and the so-called red guard as a protection from the Italian law enforcement and started to manage the production of mines by themselves with the support of a section of farmers. On April 8, 1921 the Italian administration in Istria, responding to requests for intervention from the mine owners, decided to suppress the republic using military force.{{cite book|author=Robert Stallaerts|title=Historical Dictionary of Croatia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSjRbIz4iDkC&pg=PA6|date=2009-12-22|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7363-6|pages=6–}} 52 of the rebellion’s leaders were indicted for various crimes, with Pippan being first on the charge sheet.{{Cite web|url=http://istra.lzmk.hr/clanak.aspx?id=1507|title=Istarska enciklopedija|website=istra.lzmk.hr|access-date=2019-01-20}} Lawyers Edmondo Puecher, Guido Zennaro and Egidio Cerlenizza successfully defended the accused, and the jury issued an acquittal. Shortly afterwards, because of the threat to his life from fascists if he remained in Italy, he left for the United States.
Chicago
In the United States, Pippan helped organise the silk workers of Paterson, New Jersey. He was also active in the campaign to save Sacco and Vanzetti and fought against fascist elements in the Italian immigrant community.{{cite book|author1=Donna R. Gabaccia|author2=Fraser M. Ottanelli|title=Italian Workers of the World: Labor Migration and the Formation of Multiethnic States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cKS9MNlIv7gC&pg=PA178|year=2001|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-02659-1|page=178}} He became a member of the American Communist Party (1926–1931). In 1931 he went to Chicago where he became involved in the unionisation of bread delivery drivers.{{cite book|author1=Philip V. Cannistraro|author2=Gerald Meyer|title=The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOXr4cSzXL0C&pg=PA70|year=2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-97891-4|page=70}}
In the 1920s and 1930s bakeries in Chicago were controlled by criminal racketeers and delivered bread from door to door on horse-drawn carts. The drivers wanted to reduce their long hours and increase their pay, so in 1933 they approached the Socialist Federation to ask for help in forming a union. Pippan not only formed a drivers’ union, but also began trying to persuade the bakers themselves to unionise and free themselves of racketeer control.{{cite book|title=Italians in Chicago|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0q3r_TIEZsC&pg=PA115|year=2001|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-0846-7|page=115}} He was assassinated in Cicero, Illinois, most likely by the Italian-American mafia or by fascist sympathizers in the Italian community.{{cite book|author=Peter N. Pero|title=Chicago Italians at Work|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpBecW-Z7GQC&pg=PA53|year=2009|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-6187-5|page=53}} The date is variously given as 29 or 31 August 1933.