Fasci Siciliani
socialist inspiration | |
Outcome | State of emergency in January 1894, dissolving the organizations, arresting its leaders and restoring order through the use of extreme force. The revolt inspired social reforms and social legislation, including workman's compensation and pension schemes. The suppression of the strikes also led to increase in emigration from Sicily. |
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The Fasci Siciliani (Italian: The Fasci gained the support of the poorest and most exploited classes of the island by channeling their frustration and discontent into a coherent programme based on the establishment of new rights. Consisting of a jumble of traditionalist sentiment, religiosity, and socialist consciousness, the movement reached its apex in the summer of 1893, when new conditions were presented to the landowners and mine owners of Sicily concerning the renewal of sharecropping and rental contracts.
Upon the rejection of these conditions, there was an outburst of
Characteristics
The Fasci movement was made up of a federation of scores of associations that developed among farm workers, tenant farmers, and small
While many of the leaders were of socialist or
The rural Fasci in particular were a curious phenomenon: both ancient and modern. They combined millenarian aspirations with urban intellectual leadership often in contact with workers’ organizations and ideas in the more industrialized Northern Italy.[9] According to the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, the Fasci were millenarian insofar as the socialism preached by the movement was seen by the Sicilian peasantry as a new religion, the true religion of Christ – betrayed by the priests, who were on the side of the rich – that foretold the dawn of a new world, without poverty, hunger and cold, in accordance with God’s will. The Fasci, which included many women, were encouraged by the messianic belief that the start of a new reign of justice was looming and the movement spread like an epidemic.[10]
Foundation and rapid growth
The Fasci were the result of the revolt of the Sicilian peasants against the introduction of capitalist relationships into the rural economy aggravated by the world depression in agriculture of the 1880s.[11] The agrarian crisis between 1888 and 1892 led to a steep decrease in wheat prices. The island’s main sources of wealth – wine, fruit and sulphur – suffered a heavy blow. The dominant landowning class channeled most of the economic burden on to the peasantry, in the form of higher rents and discriminatory local taxation. As social tension rose, a handful of young and hitherto quite unknown socialist intellectuals – many of them recent graduates of Palermo University – seized their opportunity. The movement grew under the first government of Prime minister Francesco Crispi (1887–1891) and coincided with unpopular tax increases and ratification of a series of laws curtailing personal freedom. The Italian economy had been sliding into a deep recession since the late 1880s. New protective tariffs had been introduced in 1887 on agricultural and industrial goods, followed by a trade war with France, which badly damaged Italian commerce and affected Italy’s agricultural exports, the only potentially dynamic economic sector of Southern Italy. Many farmers suffered severely.[12][13]
The first official Fascio was founded on May 1 (
The keenest socialist among the Fasci leaders was Garibaldi Bosco. In August 1892, he attended the Socialist Party’s congress at Genoa and on his return obediently purged his Fascio of its anarchist and other non-socialist members. His ideal of a united democratic front was shared by the father of Sicilian socialism, Napoleone Colajanni. The leader in Catania, De Felice, also maintained contact with leading anarchists like Amilcare Cipriani. On these and other important issues there was much friction between Catania and Palermo.[12]
Crispi was replaced as prime minister by
Initial success
From its initial origins in Eastern Sicily, especially in Catania, the movement got its real impetus with the establishment of the Fascio of Palermo on June 29, 1892. The Leagues rapidly radiated over all Sicily.[8] In the spring of 1893 the leaders of the movement decided to carry their propaganda to the peasants and miners of the countryside. Between March and October the number of fasci grew from 35 to 162 with more than 200,000 members.[4][15] From that moment on the dynamics of the movement started to change; no longer the workers and craftsmen in the urban centres, but rather the peasants became the driving force behind the organisation. The centre of gravity moved from the city to the countryside.[16]
On May 21–22, 1893, a congress was held in Palermo attended by 500 delegates from nearly 90 leagues and socialist circles. A Central Committee was elected, composed of nine members:
In July 1893 a peasant conference at Corleone drafted model agrarian contracts for labourers, sharecroppers and tenants and presented them to the landowners. When those refused to negotiate, a strike against landowners and against state taxes broke out over a large part of western Sicily. The so-called Patti di Corleone (Corleone Covenants), are considered by historians to be the first trade union collective contract in capitalist Italy.[18] In September, the state authorities intervened and some of the landowners were persuaded to capitulate. Elsewhere the strike continued until November 1893. Railwaymen of Catania and Palermo, the sulphur-miners and many other workers followed their example winning higher wages or better working conditions.[3][4]
In October 1893, a congress of miners was held in Grotte in the province of Agrigento which was attended by some 1,500 people, including workers and small producers. The miners demanded that the minimum age to be raised to 14 years for those who worked in the sulfur mines, the decrease of working hours and setting a minimum wage. Small producers demanded measures to avoid exploitation by large owners. The minimum-age measure was meant to improve the situation for the carusi, minors that worked in conditions of near-slavery that sparked public outrage and inspired many complaints.[19]
The successful struggle convinced the Sicilian ruling elite that the "upheaval" had to be stopped. They were seized by panic and some even demanded the closing of all schools to halt the spread of subversive doctrines. Prefects and frightened local councils bombarded Rome with requests for the immediate suppression of the Fasci. Despite the heavy pressure from the King, the army and conservative circles in Rome, however, Giolitti would neither treat strikes – which were not illegal – as a crime nor dissolve the Fasci nor authorise the use of firearms against popular demonstrations.[20] His policy was "to allow these economic struggles to resolve themselves through amelioration of the condition of the workers" and not to interfere in the process.[4]
Rising tensions
Nonetheless, Giolitti acknowledged the need to stifle the agitation. From May 1893 onwards, leaders of the Fasci were arrested occasionally and police and military reinforcements were sent to Sicily. In the autumn of 1893 the leadership lost control over the Fasci and the popular agitation got out of hand. Peasant squatters seized land, violent crowds demonstrated for work and against local misgovernment, tax offices were burnt down and clashes with the police grew more frequent and bloody. The violent social conflict almost rose to the point of
However, his attitude could not be maintained. Landowners were infuriated by the unwillingness of the government to use force, while the peasants were annoyed by the unwillingness to redistribute land from the
In addition to the unrest in Sicily, a wave of rioting spread through Italy in August 1893, triggered by the
Crispi's good intentions got lost in the outcry for strong measures. In the three weeks of uncertainty before the government was formed, the rapid spread of violence drove many local authorities to defy Giolitti’s ban on the use of firearms. In December 1893, 92 peasants lost their lives in clashes with the police and army. Government building were burned as well as flour mills and bakeries that refused to lower their prices when taxes were lowered or abolished.[25][26] Eleven people were killed on December 10, 1893, in Giardinello after a rally that asked for the abolition of taxes on food and disbandment of the local field guards (guardie campestri). The protestors carried the portrait of the King taken from the municipality and burned tax files. On December 17, 1893, many people were wounded when troops fired on a manifestation in Monreale. Another 11 protestors were killed in Lercara Friddi on December 25.[27][28][29] On January 1, 1894, 20 people were killed and many wounded in Gibellina and Pietraperzia. On January 2, there two dead in Belmonte Mezzagno and the next day 18 dead and many wounded in Marineo.[30][31] Two days after, on January 5, thirteen dead and many wounded closed the series in Santa Caterina.[32]
The disorders were not the product of a revolutionary plot, but Crispi chose to believe otherwise. On the basis of dubious documents and reports, Crispi claimed that there was an organised conspiracy to separate Sicily from Italy; the leaders of the Fasci conspired with the clerics and were financed by French gold, and war and invasion were looming.[24][33][34]
Crackdown
On January 3, 1894, Crispi declared a
In the early days of January, 1894 a meeting of the Central Committee of the Fasci took place in Palermo to discuss the position of the movement. Two sharply contrasting positions emerged. De Felice Giuffrida, known for his anarchist tendencies, supported the need to take advantage of the situation of unrest to provoke a revolution on the island. However, the majority took an opposite view, arguing the need to proceed peacefully. A revolt was not only inappropriate, but it would be detrimental to the movement. The meeting condemned the violent incidents in various parts of the island, and launched an appeal to stay calm and not to retaliate. In the end De Felice Giuffrida accepted the position of the majority. But the die was cast for the authorities to arrest De Felice, Montalto, Petrina, and others. Garibaldi Bosco, Barbato and Verro were arrested on board the steamship Bagnara that was about to leave for Tunis.[24][38]
On February 28, 1894, Crispi presented the "evidence" for a widespread
Trial in Palermo
The trials of the central committee of the Fasci, that took place in Palermo in April and May 1894, were the final blow to the movement. In spite of an eloquent defence, which turned the Court into a political platform and thrilled every socialist in the country, they were condemned to heavy sentences of imprisonment.[24] On May 30, 1894, the leaders of the movement received their sentence: Giuseppe de Felice Giuffrida to 18 years and Rosario Bosco, Nicola Barbato and Bernardino Verro to 12 years in jail.[18][41]
"In front of you", Barbato told the judges, "we provided the documents and evidence of our innocence. My friends thought it necessary to support their defence legally; I will not do so. Not because I have no confidence in you, but it is the law that does not concern me. So I do not defend myself. You have to sentence: we are the elements that destroy your sacred institutions. You have to sentence: it is logical, human. I will always pay tribute to your loyalty. But we say to our friends outside: do not ask for pardon, do not ask for amnesty. Socialist civilization should not begin with an act of cowardice. We demand a condemnation, we do not ask for mercy. Martyrs are more useful to the holy cause than any propaganda. Condemn us!".[42]
The heavy sentence aroused strong reactions in Italy and in the United States. In Palermo, a group of students went to the
Aftermath
The brutal repression backfired to some extent. The Fasci leaders used the military tribunals to make impassioned and well-reported speeches in their defence. The tribunals were too repressive and revolted the Liberal consciences of many Northern Italians. In an attempt to regain his former 'left wing', Crispi introduced a bill in July 1894 to take over large estates and uncultivated land. The idea was to rent out the land on long leases in medium-sized holdings and leaseholders would be given reduced credit and tax concessions. While the bill failed to convince the Radicals and democrats of Crispi's good intentions, it angered the Sicilian landowners. After the suppression of the Fasci those were now unwilling to make any concessions. Under the leadership of Di Rudiní, they battled against the bill. When Crispi fell from power after Adwa in March 1896, their proponent Di Rudiní became Prime Minister and the Sicilian landowners were safe.[37]
Nevertheless, the revolt inspired social reforms. In 1898, two measures of social legislation were passed by the minister of the treasury of Di Rudini’s cabinet, Luigi Luzzatti. The industrial workmen’s compensation scheme from 1883 was made obligatory with the employer bearing all costs; and a voluntary fund for contributory disability and old age pensions was created.[44]
Many former adherents of the Fasci left Sicily. Life had grown hard and employment difficult to find because of their involvement with the movement. For those in Sicily who wanted to change their life for the better in those days, there were only two alternatives: rebel or emigrate. After the failure of the rebellion many peasants had no choice but to vote with their feet and opted for emigration.[3][37] Others remained, and a year later, in 1895, protests against unjust taxes and about the issue of communal land resumed in many towns in Sicily. The disbandment of troop had to be postponed.[46]
According to Hobsbawm, the Fasci were a prime example of primitive agrarian movement that became modern by aligning itself with socialism and communism. Many of its leaders continued in the Socialist Party and continued the struggle for land rights and land reform once they were released. Despite the 1894 defeat, permanent movements were set up in some areas of Sicily using modern socialist models of organisation.[47]
With the dissolution of the Fasci, the unrest on Sicily did not subside. In January 1898, peasants demanding work and bread ransacked the town hall in
The role of women
The role of women in the Fasci Siciliani was substantial,[50] but is regularly overlooked in historical accounts.[51] Women were often at the forefront of demonstrations and strikes, speaking in public meetings and conferences. During municipal elections they made sure that men were going to vote (women did not have the right to vote at the time). They patrolled the taverns to prevent the men from betraying the duty of militancy with bottles of wine. They also took care of many organizational aspects and were particularly active in proselytizing for the movement, decorating the stage of the rallies, preparing ceremonies such as the inauguration opening of the flag of the Fasci, and welcoming the leaders who came to the towns with flowers.[51][52]
Women were among the most ardent. In some municipalities the women organized themselves into women's sections and in others even in exclusively female Fasci.[52][53] The strongest and most numerous presence of women was in the Fascio of Piana degli Albanesi, where over a thousand of the 3,500 members were women in a town of 9,000 inhabitants.[51] The female Fascio delle lavoratrici had their own meeting hall where they held their own meetings; they carried their own banner when participating in protest marches.[54] For the Fasci the women abandoned the Church, but not the religious sentiment, to protest against the priests, who had tried to frighten them and isolate them with the threat of excommunication.[51] In Piana the women organised a boycott of annual religious procession in protest of the priest’s opposition to the movement in 1893.[53][55]
At the congress in Palermo in May 1893 where the union of all the Fasci in Sicily was decided, Maria Cammarata, of the Fascio of Piana, urged the audience to ensure the registration of women.[51] The presence and political sophistication of the female representatives at the congress surprised the editor of the Giornale di Sicilia: "I could not believe it myself. They spoke loudly and clearly, with ease and astonishing courage."[53] One of the most prominent women was Marietta De Felice Giuffrida, the daughter of Giuseppe de Felice Giuffrida – one of the founders of the movement. Only 14 years old, she accompanied her father throughout Sicily to help him setting up Fasci in the interior. She was "extraordinarily animated by the spirit of socialism, who spoke to the people with a fervour of a missionary, and because of her sex and age, she commanded the fascination of the masses".[53]
The authorities watched the Fasci closely and in a report to the government in Rome noticed that the female Fasci in Piana, Belmonte Mezzagno and San Giuseppe Jato should be considered as dangerous. The women had developed "highly successful propaganda activities and revolutionary agendas, through which they exercised considerable influence on the other Fasci in the region".[53]
Mafia involvement
Some historians emphasize that the leagues were engaged in class struggle against a coalition of landowners and mafiosi and ignore evidence of strategic alliances between the Fasci and
In order to give the strike teeth and to protect himself from harm, Verro became a member of a Mafia group in Corleone, the Fratuzzi (Little Brothers).[21] However, during the great strike of the Fasci in September 1893, the Fratuzzi mobilized to boycott it, providing the necessary manpower to work on the lands that the peasants refused to cultivate. After that, Verro broke away from the mafiosi, and – according to police reports – became their most bitter enemy. He was killed by the Mafia in 1915 when he was the mayor of Corleone.[56]
In literature and film
- Luigi Pirandello's 1913 novel I vecchi e i giovani (The Old and the Young) retraces the history of the failure and repression of the Fasci Siciliani in the period from 1893–94.[57] Although Pirandello was not an active member of this movement, he had close ties of friendship with some of its leading ideologists: Rosario Garibaldi Bosco, Enrico La Loggia, Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida and Francesco De Luca.[58]
- The film Venice film festival.[59][60] The play, a monologue depicting a peasant woman whose husband was killed in the events at Caltavuturo, was written by Rosario Garibaldi Bosco and first performed on February 2, 1893, in Palermo to raise money for the victims.[61]
References
- ^ (in Italian) Scuola Ducato Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro
- ^ Fascio (pl.: fasci) literally means "faggot" (as in a bundle of sticks), but also "league", and was used in the late 19th century to refer to political groups of many different (and sometimes opposing) orientations.
- ^ a b c d e f Bruno Cartosio, Sicilian Radicals in Two Worlds, in: Debouzy, In the Shadow of the Statue of Liberty, pp. 120-21
- ^ a b c d e f g Seton-Watson, Italy from liberalism to fascism, pp. 162-63
- ^ Colajanni, Gli avvenimenti di Sicila e le loro cause, p. 14
- ^ (in Italian) Il tribunale militare fu un abuso di Crispi, La Repubblica, 5 February 2009
- ^ Colajanni, Gli avvenimenti di Sicila e le loro cause, p. 17
- ^ a b c d Scolaro, Il movimento antimafia siciliano, p.18
- ^ a b c Clark, Modern Italy, 1871 to the present, pp. 124-25
- ^ Hobsbawm, Primitive rebels, pp. 98-101
- ^ Hobsbawm, Primitive rebels, p. 96
- ^ a b Seton-Watson, Italy from liberalism to fascism, p. 161
- ^ Duggan, The Force of Destiny, p. 339
- ^ (in Italian) L’eccidio di «San Sebastiano», La Sicilia, February 8, 2009
- ^ Leoni, Storia dei partiti politici italiani, p. 251
- ^ Renda, I fasci siciliani : 1892-94, p. 10–11
- ^ (in Italian) Il «battesimo» del socialismo, La Sicilia, May 24, 2009
- ^ a b (in Italian) La firma dei «Patti di Corleone», La Sicilia, September 14, 2008
- ^ a b c (in Italian) Movimento contadino e sindacale, Umberto Santino, Narcomafie, Nr. 2, February 2005
- ^ De Grand, The hunchback's tailor, pp. 47-48
- ^ a b c d Alcorn, Revolutionary Mafiosi.
- ^ Cabinet Forced To Resign; Italian Ministers Called "Thieves" by the People, The New York Times, November 25, 1893
- ^ Duggan, The Force of Destiny, p. 340
- ^ a b c d e f Seton-Watson, Italy from liberalism to fascism, pp. 165-67
- ^ Shot Down by the Soldiers; Four of the Mob Killed in an Anti-Tax Riot in Sicily, The New York Times, December 27, 1893
- ^ Sicily Under Mob Control; A Series of Antitax Riots in The Island, The New York Times January 3, 1894
- ^ (in Italian) La strage di Giardinello, La Sicilia, December 11, 2011
- ^ Colajanni, Gli avvenimenti di Sicila e le loro cause, pp. 178-79
- ^ (in Italian) Scolaro, Il movimento antimafia siciliano, p. 57
- ^ (in Italian) 1894, a Marineo un'altra strage, La Sicilia, January 2, 2011
- ^ Serious Affair in Sicily, The New York Times, January 6, 1894
- ^ Sicily Under Mob Control; A Series of Antitax Riots in the Island, The New York Times, January 3, 1894
- ^ Duggan, The Force of Destiny, p. 342
- ^ Trouble Has Been Long Brewing; Quantities of Arms and Ammunition in Hands of Revolutionists, The New York Times, January 6, 1894
- ^ The Italian Government Alarmed; More Troops Called Out for Service in Sicily, The New York Times, January 4, 1894
- ^ Martial Law Proclaimed In Sicily; Stern Measures Resorted To to Quiet the Anti-Tax Troubles, The New York Times, January 5, 1894
- ^ a b c Clark, Modern Italy, 1871 to the present, p. 126
- ^ (in Italian) I Fasci dei lavoratori in Sicilia Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, by Pietro Siino, Società Siciliana per l'Amicizia fra i Popoli
- ^ (in Italian) I contadini in ginocchio, La Sicilia, January 8, 2012
- ^ (in Italian) Crispi sciolse i Fasci contadini, La Sicilia, January 7, 2011
- ^ Sicilian Rioters Sentenced, The New York Times, May 31, 1894
- ^ a b (in Italian) Il «manifesto» di Nicola Barbato, La Sicilia, January 10, 2010
- ^ Pardon for Italian Socialists, The New York Times, March 14, 1896
- ^ a b Seton-Watson, Italy from liberalism to fascism, pp. 185-86
- ^ Freed Italians Unrepentant; Many Socialists Greet Giuseppe de Felice, Bosco, and Barbato, The New York Times, March 18, 1896
- ^ (in Italian) Il malcontento in Sicilia, La Stampa, August 18, 1895
- ^ Hobsbawm, Primitive rebels, pp. 101-105
- ^ (in Italian) Gravi fatti in Sicilia, La Stampa, January 3, 1898
- ^ (in Italian) Scolaro, Il movimento antimafia siciliano, pp. 89-92
- ^ Hobsbawm, Primitive rebels, p. 99
- ^ a b c d e (in Italian) L'anima femminile dei Fasci siciliani, La Repubblica, 9 March 2010
- ^ a b (in Italian) Scolaro, Il movimento antimafia siciliano, pp. 31-34
- ^ a b c d e Guglielmo, Living the Revolution, pp. 36-39
- ^ Fracchia, Joseph (2010). "Hora": Social Conflicts and Collective Memories in Piana degli Albanesi. Past & Present, Volume 209, Issue 1, November 2010, Pages 181–222, https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtq030
- ^ (in Italian) Donne ribelli nella Sicilia dei Fasci, La Sicilia, February 6, 2012
- ^ (in Italian) Verro, una vita contro la mafia, Città Nuova di Corleone, November 3, 2004
- ^ Cody & Sprinchorn, The Columbia encyclopedia of modern drama, p. 1073
- ^ (in Italian) Biografia di Luigi Pirandello Archived 2010-06-20 at the Wayback Machine, Biblioteca dei Classici italiani di Giuseppe Bonghi (Accessed November 2, 2010)
- ^ Biography of Pasquale Scimeca Archived 2012-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, Rai Internazionale (access date August 10, 2010)
- ^ Il giorno di San Sebastiano, British Film Institute database (access date August 10, 2010)
- ^ (in Italian) Il drammaturgo della rivoluzione Archived 2014-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, La Repubblica (Palermo edition), February 19, 2008
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