Slovene Social Democracy in Trieste in the Period between 1889 and 1900

Abstract

The Workers Society, founded in Trieste in 1889, was lead by Italian, Slovene, and German socialists. Although on an equal footing, the Italians felt superior to the other two groups, which was evident from their candidacies for the 1891,1897, and 1901 elections as well as from the manner in which they tried to hinder Slovene social democrats. Since Trieste had a large Slovene population, Slovene socialist agitators from the hinterland had been brought to the city, where they founded their own socialist party that competed with the Italian one. Since the former centralistic system had been replaced by federalism in the social democracy of Austria even the nations that were, so to speak, »without their own history«, had been allowed to join in and stand in line behind the »historic nations.« Yet the socialists never managed to capitalize upon their being different from others. Denying the existence of impoverished working masses, this workers' elite had overlooked many a strike and injustice and hurried ahead, leaving others far behind. It also had to struggle against nationalism.