WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY SICILIA News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria 2023 June: THE ARDITI DEL POPOLO IN CATANIA - An unknown story (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Reconstructing the history of the Catania section of the Arditi del popolo - the

first armed anti-fascist organization spread throughout the national territory -
would be almost impossible, given the scarcity of official sources available, if
it weren't for the testimonies of some of the protagonists, collected over the
years 70s and 80s of the twentieth century by the communist historian Franco
Pezzino in dozens of magnetic tapes still largely to be transcribed. The
documentation of a general nature, preserved in the Central State Archives, in
fact limits itself to indicating the number of members of the Catania section of
the Arditi del popolo as at 31 October 1921 as 227, which would make it the main
section of the South and one of the largest in Italy, surpassed at that date (but
in July 1922 the number rose to over 400 members) only by the sections of Rome,
Pisa, Perugia, Genoa, Cremona and Ancona. A month had passed since the birth of
the national movement when, on the morning of 24 July 1921, the temporary
headquarters of the Arditi del popolo was inaugurated in Catania, on the ground
floor of via Crociferi 53, in premises granted by the Federation of White Art
(pasta workers, bakers and bakers), independent of the Socialist Chamber of Labor
and the Social Democratic People's House. On that occasion, the first directorate
was also appointed, the political secretary was the lawyer. Benedetto Zuccarello
(Catania 1896-1937) and the corresponding partner the shoemaker Giuseppe Giglio
(Catania 1897-1941), both socialists of the third-internationalist current. That
same evening, in the central square of Villa Bellini, the first clash with the
fascists took place, with blows of "gnarled sticks". The police, who intervened
to separate the contenders, will arrest a fascist who had been seen shooting in
the air, a certain Armando Santapaola, scion of a family who will make a career
in the criminal world. It is the first of an uninterrupted series, until February
1923, of clashes between small groups or between individual militants of the two
opposing factions.

THE "BLACK GROUP"

The main nucleus of the Arditi del popolo of Catania consisted of the so-called
"black group":

"In the early 1920s, perhaps even after 28 October 1922, on summer evenings with
my sister and Michele[Tignino, her brother], at Villa Bellini we met with the
"black group", that is, with the group of young anarchists and Republicans who
were called "blacks" because they all wore wide-brimmed black hats and flowing
black ties. Michele was also part of this "black group". These young friends
rented chairs in advance, and so when we arrived, to spend the evening in the
cool, they found the chairs already ready. This happened in the Piazzale Grande
of the Villa, not on the hill" (Anna Tignino: testimony of 8 August 1984).

The wide-brimmed black hat and the fluttering black tie will remain the
identifying dress of the young Catanian anarchists who will not stop wearing it
even on their way to work or behind bars in prison. The group was formed in
Catania in the early months of 1920 from a split with the young socialists,
engaged in constant ideological scuffles.

"We didn't fit well with the Socialist Youth ... There was a difficult moment in
Italy, fascism was rising, it attacked, it beat up and we wanted to oppose this
movement of violence with a serious, youthful movement that could do something
instead of just sitting around argue and do nothing" (Michelangelo Tignino:
testimony of 12.6.1974).

It was made up of about forty young people, among whom stood out Giovanni
Marinelli (Catania 1894-Palermo 1924), amateur painter and ex-combatant,
Michelangelo Tignino (Gela 1903-Catania 1983), accountant, and his sister Anna
Tignino, girlfriend of Giovanni Tccetto ( Leonforte 1902-Rome 1983), engineering
student, Giovanni Consalvo (Vittoria 1887-Catania 1966), ex combatant, also an
engineering student, Gaetano Principato (Agira 1901-Catania 1978), medical
student, Nicola Giannotta (Misterbianco 1895 -Fiumefreddo 1940?), former fighter,
baker, Alberto Albo (Arpino 1904), former Fiume legionnaire, medical student,
Francesco Cavallaro Francesco (Giarre 1900), literature student, Alfio (Alfredo)
Marletta (Catania 1903), plumber , and his sister Francesca, Giuseppe Fiorito
(Misterbianco 1901), milkman, Luigi Giannini (Paternò ...), barber, Luca Librando
alias Tininu Stanziu (Mascalucia ...) On June 25, 1921, the "black group",
strengthened by elements of the previous generation ( Gaetano Zurria, Marcellino
Marcellini, Rocco Emma and others), was transformed into the anarchist group
"Mario Rapisardi" and placed its headquarters at the Camera del Lavoro in via
Santa Chiara 9, moving there from the small enclosure of Villa Bellini, where the
monument to Mazzini, the original afternoon meeting place. The anarchists of
Catania reserved a special guard of honor for the Etna poet, on the anniversaries
of his birth and death, with the deposition of a crown at the bronze bust
existing in Villa Bellini (undermined several times and subsequently removed by
the fascists). Right from the start, the new group set itself the goal of
overcoming the ideological contrasts between its components in order to bring
together the anarchist forces against the reaction that was already raging at a
national level (Errico Malatesta had recently been arrested) and against
squadrism Catania area which became more threatening in recent months: on 28
February the headquarters of the newspaper "La Liberaword" had been attacked, on
10 March that of the Arte Bianca, devastating it, on 23 April and 3 July the
Chambers of the work of Leonforte and Misterbianco, the two Municipalities of the
province administered by the socialists. In the first months of 1922 he will take
a further step: he will share the new headquarters in via Oberdan, on the corner
with piazza Umberto, with a small group of young republicans with libertarian
sympathies: Attilio Palmisciano (Castel di Iudica 1901), law student, Matteo
Ragusa (Catania, 1900), private employee, Giuseppe Falsaperla (Catania 1898),
accountant, Giuseppe Brancati (Catania ...), medical student, and a few others.
The coexistence between the two groups, initially difficult due to a different
evaluation of the Fiume enterprise, will be cemented by the common
anti-monarchist and anti-clerical sentiment, which will translate into actions of
disturbance against the Catholic Youth Congress (Catania 1-3 September 1922) and
the anniversary of September 20:

"The band under the glass stage[in Villa Bellini]played the national anthems. I
was a bit pushed at the time. There was with me a small group of anarchists with
Tccetto and Tignino. I had a stick and the inspector asked me why. We said that
the royal march had to be excluded from the national anthems because it was not a
national anthem, but a partisan anthem, while the national anthem was Garibaldi's
anthem. The inspector tried to send us away by promising me that he would
intervene. But the royal march was played. There was rioting and a general
stampede. The villa displaced. We went out to go to the section of the
nationalists and we beat them forcing them to flee, even though we were very few"
(Atrtilio Palmisciano: testimony of November 26, 1975).

RED AND BLACK ARDITISM

In addition to anarchists and republicans, the Arditi del Popolo of Catania were
made up of socialists, such as the lawyers Pasquale Spampinato (Biancavilla 1888)
and Giovanni Gorgone (Bronte 1895), the Agatino brothers (Catania 1896),
shoemaker, Salvatore Maugeri (Catania 1903) , basket maker, the very young Gino
Raia (Mineo 1906-Rome 1987) and Salvatore (Turi) Trovato (Catania 1907), high
school students; by communists, such as the lawyer Arnaldo (Nanà) Verzì
(Mistretta 1897-Catania 1939), Vito Longo (Misterbianco 1896-1984), laborer, then
itinerant photographer; by D'Annunzios, such as Nicolò Costa (Catania 1906); by
members of the White Art like Salvatore De Forte (Catania 1885) or of the Railway
Union like Alfio Di Prima (Zafferana Etnea 1884). The immediate purpose of the
organization was to protect the workers' headquarters and the meeting places of
the anti-fascists from the fascists, military garrisoning them especially during
the frequent occasions of meeting (rallies, conventions, conferences). But it was
not limited only to the "defensive" phase:

"Many young people have passed to the Arditi del Popolo which practically meant
fighting fascist violence with violence. In fact we got together and when it
happened, sometimes we took them, sometimes when we met some fascist we beat
them. We were 30 or 40 of the[socialist]Youth, but then there were very many
young people; there was a great movement, to the point of almost frightening
these fascists. We did not let's say defensive actions, but offensive ones. It
was almost us who took over the leadership... We took all the ideas to go against
the fascists... As a political current, within the Arditi del popolo, there were
socialists but especially anarchists. I remember ... we went to Misterbianco.
Comrade Vito Longo was there, he cheered us on, we sang along the way, we were
followed by a few trucks, by the police station, but week after week we always
went to comrade Vito Longo... We had a sort of outing. With the fascists who were
also in Catania we then went to Cibali and in the districts to sing "Bandiera
rossa". Everyone in a group, like a procession and there was always some exchange
of (sticks)..." (Salvatore Trovato: testimony dated May 2, 1975)

In this way the initiative was wrested from the fascists, their arrogance was
rebuffed, at the same time fortifying the fighting spirit (ardorism) of the
militants of left-wing groups, so much so that up until the March on Rome,
fascism in Catania was unable to achieve no "conquests" in the military field,
but continuous reverses where he tried to obtain them, in the city as in the
province. Indeed, groups of Arditi del popolo formed themselves in Lentini,
Carlentini, Avola, Vizzini, San Cono, Modica and Vittoria, by students enrolled
in the Catania "central". However, the results of the struggle were not always
positive:

"The truth was that, when we were at the Villa, we patrolled to give a few
fascists a beating ... If we met a large group of fascists: we regularly did not
have any weapons, as the police searched us as we went out in twos ... Then one
of our comrade - we found him towards the exit of S. Domenico - a certain Cané, a
little disoriented you know ... it seems to me that he didn't have all the
mechanisms in place - he addressed the fascist group: "Exit out Cornuti". Then we
went out ahead (of them) and we are still fleeing. The fascists cornered and
started shooting and we fled. The newspaper the next day reported that we were
shooting. We are still running away... Another conflict took place at the Quattro
Canti. In one of our groups there was a Master of St. Christopher's sticks. I was
his favorite pupil. I held the targets for him, the cigarette in my mouth. We did
some performances at Cibali. He was good, but I too had learned well. Then (a)
group of fascists arrives ... There was this conflict ... I was unable to do
anything with the stick but I defended myself from several beatings. This fencing
master had his head broken. I heard: "To the master. To the master!", but the one
with all that knew how to handle the stick could not face them (all) and they
broke his head. We escaped and took refuge in a bar... But in these clashes there
were never any dead. Small clashes, scuffles. They were throwing me off a
bridge...but there was never any deaths." (Salvatore Trovato: c.s.)

The most salient episodes took place on 4 September 1921 in viale Regina
Margherita, on 10 November 1921 on the occasion of the commemoration of the 4th
year of the Russian revolution, on 15 January 1922 on the sidelines of the joint
rally in protest against the death sentence of Sacco and Vanzetti , on 28 July
and at the beginning of August 1922 in relation to the failure of the fascist
attempts to invade again the towns of Leonforte and Misterbianco, in the period
following the "legalitarian" strike of 2 August 1922, on 12 September 1922 after
the commemoration of the march of Ronchi, on 16 September 1922 during an
attempted attack on the socialist leader Albergo, on 17 September 1922 during an
attempted invasion of the "Corriere di Sicilia".

The purpose underlying the establishment of the Catania section of the Arditi del
popolo was also to advocate the unity of all anti-fascist forces. The
organization constituted in fact a testing ground for political convergences
between its various components (despite the widely disregarded "call to order" by
the communist and republican parties). We understand then the full solidarity
that she gave to the militants targeted by the police and by the fascists; active
support for the strikes of the workers of the White Art held from 21 to 27
October 1921 and, to the bitter end, from early December 1921 to the end of
January 1922; unanimous support for the initiative of the railway workers, which
materialized on 27 March 1922, for the establishment of the Labor Alliance; the
fusion, which took place on March 22, 1922, of the socialist, communist and
anarchist student groups into a single body: the "Mario Rapisardi" Subversive
Student Union, which will bring fresh forces to the movement and will continue to
operate, after the advent of fascism, under the name of Goliardic Group for Freedom.

A FINAL FINAL

We will find again many of the protagonists of this first season of anti-fascism
in Catania after the Second World War, active in anarchist groups (Principality
and Fiorito), in the action party (Palmisciano and Brancati), in the socialist
and communist parties (Michelangelo Tignino will be top executive since the
clandestine period). Giovanni Marinelli will be missing, victim of a police
machination (he was caught in the act while getting a bomb) will be killed by the
fascist regime in the criminal asylum of Palermo; Giovanni Tccetto, also locked
up in a mental hospital, guilty of addressing the fascists on the street with the
typical phrase: "Be careful, the flies will shit you!"; Benedetto Zuccarello and
Arnaldo Verzì, who died of cancer after years of abuse and in prison. However,
the legacy of the Arditi del Popolo will be collected by the subsequent
movements, the "Italia Libera", which in Catania reached 3,000 adherents (another
story to be reconstructed), the "money", the "Protesta Matteotti" and, on the eve
of the Second World War, the Italian (but Sicilian) Anti-Fascist United Front.
"Il Piccone", single issue that the anarchists of Catania published on 16
September 1922, contains an article (Parma doceat ...), signed by Euno (probably
Giovanni Tccetto), which we could consider a summary of the experience of the
Arditi del popolo in Catania:

"We have always preached that the salvation of the proletariat is not placed in
these or those leaders, in this or that party, but simply in the proletariat
itself; and they called us violent, and they still tell us today, because we
wanted and want the workers to always be in arms against the eternal enemy and to
defend and repel any reactionary attack in every possible way. But the facts
proved us right everywhere. We have been able to ascertain that the direct action
that we have continuously indicated has borne good fruit and, where the entire
proletariat has decided to give bread for cake, the reaction has had to stop or
give in, or, if it has won, has obtained a very small victory".

Natale Musarra

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