«The tragedy, which took place on 19 October 1937 in the Schisòrgiu coal pit in Carbonia, cannot be forgotten».
To fulfill the civil duty of memory Mauro Pistis dedicated himself to the study of an unjustly neglected story. His in-depth work resulted in the volume "The tragedy in the coal mine of Schisorgiu".
“The real reasons for the disaster are understood well - he underlines - by examining not only the official documents, but above all the original and confidential ones, in which the inefficiencies in the management of all mining activities during the fascism emerge. The cause of the numerous and frequent accidents at work can be attributed to the responsibility, not only of the management of the local and also central mining company, but above all of the highest offices of the regime, including Benito Mussolini himself".
The fact
October 19, 1937. A violent explosion devastates the mining site of Schisorgiu in the same plain where Carbonia would be born the following year. Fourteen miners lose their lives. “With the policy of autarchy decided by Mussolini – explains Pistis – the lignite mines of Sulcis and Arsia, in Istria, managed by a single public organization, A l'A.Ca.I. (Company Carboni Italiani), become strategic. They are subjected to intensive exploitation, to the point that production quickly reaches one million tons of coal per year with the consequent increase in often fatal mining accidents. In the short period of eight years, 1935-1943, thousands of workers were employed in the two basins, reaching a total of almost thirty thousand workers. In this feverish and irresponsible production, the safety of workers is sacrificed".
Carbonia and Arsia
In those years the destinies of the Sardinian miners and the workers engaged in the Istrian mine were closely linked because they lived in the same conditions of precariousness and insecurity. On February 28, 1940, an explosion at the Arsia mining site caused a devastating explosive wave. Tragic budget. 185 victims, about 150 intoxicated. It is one of the most serious disasters in world mining history. Mauro Pistis, in his volume, through the memory of the tragedy in the tunnels of the Schisorgiu mine, offers a picture of life in the bowels of the earth, very hard work with very little protection and guarantees. “Young people must know these painful events. I wrote the book to avoid the risk of oblivion”.