This article is an analysis of a long union dispute between the workers and the management of the Società Mineraria del Valdarno (S.M.V.), a company which had mining rights in the lignite basin of Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, in the municipality of Cavriglia. Cavriglia is in a ‘red zone’ in the province of Arezzo, in central Tuscany and the dispute raged on from the end of 1947 to the first half of the 1950s. The article focuses primarily on two aspects: (1) how the union dispute of the miners of Valdarno fits into the broader political strategy of the Italian Communist Party (PCI); (2) how this struggle was perceived and elaborated by workers and incorporated into the collective memory of local communities.
