Italian Seafarers' Federation

The Italian Seafarers' Federation is presented as a powerful maritime union led by Captain Giulietti. Its clearest role in the narrative comes in October 1919, when Giulietti allied with Gabriele D’Annunzio and intervened in the movement of a freighter carrying arms and provisions. The action linked the union’s labor interests to the armed rebellion in Fiume.

Leadership and Alliance

Giulietti, described as the Federation’s powerful head, ordered the crew of the freighter Persia to change course for Fiume. The shipment had been intended for the counterrevolutionary armies of Cossack generals in Russia who remained loyal to the tsar. By the evening of October 14, the ship was anchored in the port of Carnaro, and its weapons had been placed in the depots of D’Annunzio’s legionnaires.

The alliance served a dual purpose: it was framed as support for people’s liberty and formed part of a calculated standoff with the Italian government. Giulietti sought concessions for the workers represented by his union, making the diversion of the ship a means of political and labor pressure as well as material support for Fiume.

Role in the Fiume Crisis

The Federation’s intervention helped redirect a cargo intended for Russia into the hands of D’Annunzio’s forces. The book contrasts the popular legend that Adriatic pirates diverted the Persia with the account that Giulietti issued the order. In this telling, the episode reveals the union leader’s direct role in the Fiume struggle and the Federation’s capacity to turn maritime control into leverage against the government.

The Federation is not otherwise given a developed institutional profile in the available account. Its significance here rests on this specific alliance: labor demands, control of shipping, and the armed politics of Fiume converged in a single act of redirection.