<strong><em>Scissione e nuovo schieramento nel campo sindacale mondiale</em></strong> [Split and new alliance in the world-wide syndicalist camp]. <strong>New York: American Federation of Labor, International Labor Relations Committee, 1949.</strong>
<p>This 16-page pamphlet is a republication of a magazine article, that is, "Ripubblicato, in seguito a speciale autorizzazione, dal numero di gennaio 1949 de FOREIGN AFFAIRS, rivista americana trimestrale, 58 East 68th Street, New York [Republished, following special authorization, from the number of January 1949 of FOREIGN AFFAIRS, triannual American review, 58 East 68th Street, New York]."<br /><br />A long history of the relationship between the International Ladies Garments Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Italian left, with shifting alliances, precedes this 1949 work.<br /><br />In years past, the ILGWU, of which author David Dubinsky was president in the 1940s, had an uneasy historical relationship with Italian syndicalists who were also anti-fascist, as well as with Italian communists. <br /><br />One of the ILGWU's more influential leaders then was Luigi Antonini, born in Avellino (Campagna), who was then head of the famous Local 89.<br /><br />The split took place because many of its members dissented over the use of violence and, above all, because of the presence of communists. <br /><br />Going back to the 1920's, because the socialists considered the Anti-Fascist Alliance domineering under Carlo Tresca, in February 1927 they broke off from AFANA and founded the Anti-Fascist Federation of North America for the Freedom of Italy. <br /><br />Note that there was yet another spinoff from AFANA - the Anti-Fascist United Front, which in 1933 published a handbill in the Collection, <em>Athos Terzani, Facing trial for murder on the false story of "General" Art J. Smith of the Khaki Shirts, will put his case before the people of Philadelphia at a Mass Meeting Friday, November 24, at 8 P.M.</em><br /><br />Also in the collection is a 1942 work, <em>DRESSMAKERS ITALIANI, volete che la nostra Locale 89 sia la piu forte e la piu nita della I.L.G.W.U.? Votate per il "leadership" di Luigi Antonini!</em> [ITALIAN DRESSMAKERS, do you want our Local 89 to be the strongest and sharpest of the ILGWU? Then vote for the leadership of Luigi Antonini!], in which Cacchione issues support for Antonini as head of Local 89 of the ILGWU. <br /><br />But only two years later, in 1944, in <em>La verità su Luigi Antonini </em>[The Truth about Luigi Antonini]. Brooklyn: Peter V. Cacchione Association, 1944, q.v., Cacchione criticizes Antonini for treating his union members badly, hypocritically (according to Cacchione) decreeing the lack of democracy around the world while he doesn't abide by democracy's rules in running his union <br /><br />The split discussed in the present work carried over from some of the same issues from many years before - support or not of communists among the ranks - but took place, of course, with the backdrop of the end of World War II and the different as well as continuing issues relating to support of or opposition to the Stalinist Soviet Union despite its membership in the Allies during the war, and the anti-communist hysteria in the U.S. that was soon to follow.</p>
David Dubinsky
American Federation of Labor, International Labor Relations Committee
1949
21.5 x 14cm; 16 p.
<em><strong>Antinatale</strong></em> [AntiChristmas]. <strong>New York: Biblioteca "Novatore" No. 4, [1910].</strong>
Libero Tancredi was the journalistic pseudonym of Massimo Rocca (b. Torino 1884 - d. Salò 1973). This work dates from Rocca's youth, when he wrote for anarchist and syndicalist newspapers. However, by the beginning of 1920, he flirted with and then fully embraced fascism, writing for <em>Il Popolo d'Italia</em> when that newspaper was directed by Mussolini. <br /><br />In 1923, he co-founded, with Giuseppe Bottai, an important fascist hierarch, the magazine <em>Critica fascista</em>.<br /><br />The Collection contains another work by Tancredi: <em>Dio e patria: nel pensiero dei rinnegati.</em> New York: [n.p.], [c. 1924-1925].<strong> <span style="font-weight:400;">There, the second essay recounts a religious debate between Tancredi and a priest in Providence, R.I., on December 11, 1910, likely the same year as the publication of this work.</span></strong><br /><br />This copy is notable because it bears a prized stamp for a collector interested in the first women's bookstore and publisher among the Italians: the stamp of "Libreria Editrice | ELVIRA CATELLO|1946 First Avenue, New York City…." See discussion of Elvira Catello's life and work in the description of Tomaso Concordia's <em>Argomenti libertari</em>.<br /><br />The "Novatore" of the Biblioteca "Novatore" is presumably Renzo Novatore, author of works published posthumously in <em>Verso la nulla creatore</em>, q.v.
Libero Tancredi
Biblioteca "Novatore" No. 4
[1910]
19.5 x 11.25cm; 15 p.
Italian
<em><strong>L'I.W.W.: la sua storia, struttura e metodi</strong> </em>[The I.W.W.: its History, Structure and Methods]. <strong>Brooklyn: Libreria Ed. Del Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo, [c. 1919].</strong>
Like <em>Che cosa è l’I.W.W.?,</em> this work and<em> L'I.W.W. nella teoria e nella pratica</em> of Justus Ebert three years later, in Chicago, q.v., are translations from English-language originals, intended to reach an Italian-language-only audience of workers who could help swell the ranks of the Wobblies.<br /><br />Vincent St. John, like Bill Haywood and Frank Little, was trained in the hard school of the Western Federation of Miners, a kind of model labor union that was prominent in that era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A metal miner by trade, St. John joined the Western Federation in 1894, and soon became an influential voice in its councils. He remained a member of the board of the that union until 1907.
Vincent St. John
Libreria Ed. Del Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo
[c. 1919]
19 x 13cm; 39 p.
Italian
<strong><em>Auto-difesa: pronunciata davanti al Tibunale di Mantova il 27 Ottobre 1909</em> </strong>[Self-Defense: pronounced before the Tribunal of Mantova, Oct. 27, 1909]. <strong>Bologna: Casa ed. "La Controcorrente", 1909.</strong>
Title page stamped "Liberia Editrice Elvira Catello, 1946 First Avenue, New York City," on this work published in Bologna. <br /><br />Bolognese herself, Maria Ryger (1885-1953) wrote often on syndicalist topics; another of her works was <em>Il sindacalismo alla sbarra: riflessioni d'una ex-sindacalista sul congresso omonimo di Bologna (Bologna: La Scuola Moderna, 1911)</em> [Syndicalism on Trial: reflections of an ex-syndicalist].<em><br /><br /></em>See discussion of Elvira Catello's life and work in the description of <em>Argomenti libertari.<br /><br /></em>
Maria Ryger [Rygier]
Casa ed. "La Controcorrente"
1909
16 x 11.5cm; 19 p.
Italian
<strong><em>L'assassinio di Giacomo Matteotti</em></strong> [The Assassination of Giacomo Matteotti].<strong> New York: A cura dell'Italian-American Labor Council, New York City, 1945.</strong>
Preface by Luigi Antonini. <br /><br />Modigliani (b. Livorno 1872 - d. Roma 1947) was an attorney and politician, a Socialist Party Deputy, and brother of Amedeo Modigliani, the painter. His position as an anti-fascist was close to that of Gaetano Salvemini. He represented one of the parties in the civil trial for the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, the socialist deputy who was outspoken in his opposition to Mussolini, and killed for it. In January 1947, Modigliani became president of the Socialist Party of Italian Workers.<br /><br />The publication of this work in the U.S. at the time of Mussolini's downfall and near the end of the war reflects the continuing significance of socialist deputy Matteotti's assassination by the fascists, a traumatic event of two decades before that riveted Italy for years.
Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani
A cura dell'Italian-American Labor Council, New York City
1945
22.5 x 15cm; 32 p.
Italian
<em><strong>Unionismo industriale e Sindacalismo</strong> </em>[Industrial and Trade Unions]. <strong>Brooklyn: Casa ed. Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo, 1923.</strong>
The title page states Giantino as the author, with no publication date; however, this pamphlet begins with an introduction by Mario De Ciampis dated 1923. Like most unionist pamphlets, this pamphlet contains the preamble of the I.W.W., and also discusses industrial and trade unionism in the U.S. and Europe. <br /><br />“Giantino” was the pen name of Alibrando Giovannetti (1875–1945). In Italy, Giovannetti was secretary of the Unione Sindacalismo Industriale’s metalworkers union. A believer in non-violence, he saw peaceful occupation of factories as a substitute for insurrection. He and Armando Borghi, several of whose works are in the Collection, led one such factory occupation in Liguria in 1920.
Giantino
"G. Gianformaggio"
[Alibrando Giovannetti]
Casa ed. Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo
1923
17.5 x 11cm; 15 p.
Italian
<em><strong>Uno storico processo di classe: I precedenti e lo svolgimento del processo dell'I.W.W. a Chicago, Illinois </strong></em>[An Historic Class Trial: the records and the development of the trial of the I.W.W. in Chicago]. <strong>[Chicago]: [Libreria Ed. I.W.W.], [1919].</strong>
The title on the cover also states, “Giustizia Capitalista” (Capitalist Justice), not present on title page. This work recounts the mass trial of I.W.W. members from 1917–1918 in the I.W.W.’s hometown of Chicago, in which a total of 820 years of prison sentences were handed down by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, whose later appointment as Major League Baseball Commissioner was controversial. For his role in the trial, Judge Landis became one of the intended recipients of 13 bombs mailed by anarchists in late April 1919 in a plot that was instrumental in the deportation of Galleani, and that followed as well as preceded the passage of politically repressive acts, such as the Sedition Act of 1918, and the ultra-restrictive immigration law of 1924. <br /><br />Faggi (b. Florence, 1885; d. Piacenza, 1967) was deeply committed to the Federazione Socialista Italiana and had been a trade unionist active in Italy, France and Switzerland before coming to the U.S. Faggi was forced to flee from Italy to Switzerland for leading protests against Italy’s war in Tripoli, opposing the majority of Italians in the U.S., who took intense pride in colonialist wars, see, e.g., the popular 1911 Italian Book Company work written by Antonio <span style="font-weight:400;">De Martino: </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">Tripoli italiana: La guerra italo-turca. Le nostre prime vittorie</span></i>. <br /><br />After leading demonstrations in Europe against the treatment of Ettor and Giovannitti during the Lawrence Bread and Roses Strike of 1912, Faggi was again compelled to leave his home, and came to the U.S. He replaced Giuseppe Cannata as editor of <em>Il Proletario</em>, and brought the newspaper’s focus more towards worker organization rather than propaganda. <br /><br />Deported from the U.S. in 1919, Faggi returned to Italy, where he remained vehemently anti-Mussolini, pushing for both a syndicalist revolution and support for the Russian Revolution. Unable to stay out of conflict he again fled Italy, after he and several other leftists planted a fatal bomb at the Diana Theatre in Milan as a protest against bourgeois indifference to the attacks of the fascist squadristi (action squad members).
Angelo Faggi
[Libreria Ed. I.W.W.]
[1919]
19 x 13.5cm; 286 p.
Italian
<em><strong>Unionismo industriale e trade-unionismo: può un socialista e industrialista far parte dell'A.F. of L.?: resoconto stenografico del contradittorio tra [Ettor] and [Caroti] tenutosi a New York il 26 Marzo 1911 </strong></em>[Industrial Unionism and Trade Unionism: Can a socialist and industrialist belong to the A[merican] F[ederation] of L[abor]? Stenographic account of the debate between Joseph J. Ettor and Arthur Caroti held in New York on the 26th of March 1911].<strong> Chicago: I.W.W., [1911].</strong>
In the year following this “debate” between the revolutionary trade unions of the I.W.W. (and the Federazione) and the reformist A.F. of L., Joseph Ettor became one of the leaders of the Lawrence “Bread and Roses” strike of 1912. <br /><br />It was fateful that Giovannitti, who later joined Ettor and Joseph Caruso in that strike, would write the preface to the record of this debate. Arturo Caroti had long been the administrator of <em>Il Proletario</em> and the FSI’s official propagandist in 1904–05, as well as a strong partisan of Tresca personally and politically, admiring the latter as a “man of action, courageous to the point of recklessness . . . always in the front lines of the proletarian struggle. . . .” <br /><br />This is Mario De Ciampis’s personal copy, with his name written at the top of the front wrapper. See De Ciampis’ connections to <em>Che cosa è il I.W.W.?</em>, <em>Il Proletario</em>, <em>Unionismo industriale e sindacalismo</em>, and <em>Cinquantesimo Anniversario 1908-1958. La Parola del Popolo</em>).
Joseph J. Ettor
Arturo Caroti
I.W.W.
[1911]
20.5 x 13.5cm; 46 p.
Italian
<strong><em>La parola del popolo: rivista bimestrale: Cinquantesimo (50) Anniversario 1908-1958 </em></strong>[The Word of the People: bimonthly review: 50th Anniversary 1908-1958]<em></em><strong><em>.</em> Chicago: La Parola del Popolo Publishing Assoc., 1958.</strong>
One of the longest-lived of the socialist publications, <em>La Parola</em> went through many name changes to evade postal authorities and for other reasons. <br /><p><span style="font-weight:400;">This is a large-format, 336-page commemorative edition for the 50th anniversary of the newspaper whose name since about 1922 was </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">La Parola del Popolo.</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;"> Its pages contain many illustrations by the leading leftist illustrator, Fort Velona (see </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">Sotto il segno del littorio</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;"> and </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">Memorie di vita di tempeste sociali</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">), and large black and white photographs of leading anti-fascist scholar Gaetano Salvemini and of Giacomo Battistoni (see holograph letter of Carlo Tresca to Battistoni in the collection), as well as of the objects of the “</span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">ommagios” </span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">[tributes] to several influential radicals. <br /><br />Note the large number of prominent names in the "Sommario" of articles, reproduced above, including by Domenico Saudino (q.v.), Filippo Turrati, Giovannitti and Mario De Ciampis.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400;">Fort Velona’s summary of the history of this important organ of Italian socialists shows the parallel growth of the Italian socialist movement in the U.S. and the newspaper that was its banner: after a period of name changes from </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">La Parola dei Socialisti, </span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">its name in 1908, in a vain attempt to evade postal authorities’ efforts to prevent sending subscribers copies of the newspaper of the fledgling Federazione Socialista Italiana (</span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">La Fiaccola</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;"> and </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">L’Avanti! </span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">were two others), and following the ending of World War I, when postal suppression relaxed, the former </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">La Parola dei Socialisti</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;"> (see </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">La morale di Arlecchino</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">) was reborn as La </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">Parola del Popolo</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;"> in 1920. <br /><br />From that time, when Egidio Clemente took over the renamed newspaper, publication continued uninterrupted until its final issue in 1982. Years after his editorship of </span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">La Parola</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, Clemente (b. Trieste, 1899; d. Chicago, ?) established his own imprint, which published Giovannitti’s Italian poems in 1957 (</span><i><span style="font-weight:400;">Quando canta il gallo</span></i><span style="font-weight:400;">, q.v.</span><span style="font-weight:400;">) and again, posthumously, in 1962, in a commemorative edition of “Collected Poems” of the English-language poems of the perfectly bi-lingual Giovannitti.<br /><br /></span></p>
E. Clemente, ed. and E. Grandinetti, co-editor
La parola del popolo publishing assoc.
1958
27.5 x 20cm; 336 p.
Italian
<strong><em>La tattica sindacalista in America </em></strong>[Trade Union Tactics in America].<strong> Brooklyn: Libreria dei Laboratori Industriali del Mondo, [1921].</strong>
<span>Giuseppe Cannata succeeded Edmondo Rossoni in the Federazione Socialista Italiana and as editor of <em>Il Proletario</em>. He was also, along with Tresca, a founding member of AFANA, the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America.</span><br /><br />A list of all works in the Libreria Ed. dei Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo [Bookstore of the I.W.W.] is on the rear cover.
Giuseppe Cannata
Libreria dei Laboratori Industriali del Mondo
[1921]
16 x 10.5cm; 32 p.
Italian
<strong><em>La tecnica industriale e la rivoluzione proletaria </em></strong>[Industrial Technique and the Proletarian Revolution].<strong> Brooklyn: Libreria dei Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo, 1922.</strong>
On the rear cover is a list of newspapers and magazines published by the I.W.W., in English, Italian and 7 other languages. <br /><br />Giuseppe Cannata succeeded Edmondo Rossoni in the Federazione Socialista Italiana and as editor of <em>Il Proletario</em>. <br /><br />The earlier of these two pamphlets contains a section on industrial development in America, the state of sociological development, the American Federation of Labor and the “brotherhoods” of railway workers, independent unions, and the I.W.W. <br /><br />Cannata was also, along with Tresca, a founding member of AFANA, the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America.
Giuseppe Cannata
Libreria dei Lavoratori Industriali del Mondo
1922
19 x 13cm; 23 p.
Italian