Read an Excerpt
Chapter XXVIII
Adversus hostem aeterna auctoritas![i]
Galleani and the groups still standing do not intend to lower their heads, all the more so since, once the global conflict is over, the intensity of worker demands increases in the United States as well as in several parts of Europe. Between late October and early November 1918, insurrectional uprisings explode in Hungary and Bavaria, and the armistice puts an end to years of brutal war paid for by millions of death. In the United States, about three hundred fifty thousand people are classified as draft dodgers, while the entire left wins approval. The Socialist Party of America increases the number of its own members and, following repeated divisions, two new parties are founded, the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party. In November, in New England and in New Jersey, the textile industries give life to widespread uprisings for the eight-hour workday, and with the beginning of the new year, social disorder, increased by the unexpected cost of living, takes the form of a wave of general strikes in major US cities. In February, in Seattle, a general strike runs through the entire city for five days, while in spring the railway workers cross their arms throughout the country, followed in the summer by three hundred fifty thousand workers in the iron and steel industry and the coal miners in Illinois. In many cases the workers pass over their own unions to create wild strikes, making 1919 – The Nation would write - “an unprecedented revolt”, heavily repressed by the forces of order.[ii]
The money remaining in the cash box of Cronaca Sovversiva is used to finance the release of other papers coordinated by Zonchello and Roberto Elia, which support workers’ demands and denounce the US regime: Cronache Rosse [Red Chronicles], L’Anarchia [Anarchy], Il Diritto [Law] and Il Refrattario [The Resistant] appear.
Although a deportation order has been communicated to him, Galleani, through some legal tricks, manages to postpone implementation and on February 27th holds a fiery lecture in Taunton, Massachusetts, in which he accuses and challenges the American system as a whole. That same evening, forty kilometers away in Franklin, an explosion kills four Italian anarchists as they try to put a bomb in a factory of the American Woolen Company. In the meanwhile, the machines for printing Cronaca Sovversiva are dismantled and secretly brought from Lynn to Providence, where, thanks to the support of Coniglio, a Sicilian living in Tampa, and other activists still free, two further issues are printed, which are released clandestinely in March and May 1919. The voice of the anarchists is not yet extinguished and thus is ready to make itself heard by any means necessary, all the more so because the death of Pietro Marucco, a libertarian living in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, needs to be denounced. In March Marucco lost his life at sea, during deportation from the United States to Italy. His comrades demand revenge.[iii]
In the days immediately preceding May 1, 1919 about thirty explosive packages are sent to leading figures in government, judges, police officers, industrialists, mayors, newspaper directors. Most are intercepted at various post offices and defused, causing just one injury. The targets are all, starting with Palmer, sworn enemies of the insurgents and particularly the groups close to Cronaca Sovversiva. The persons responsible, however, will never be found. The impression left by these bomb packages on public opinion is enormous, all the more so that in the country, patriotic sentiment is at its peak: that same May 1st, in many cities, starting with Boston, New York and Cleveland, groups of nationalists and former soldiers, supported by sailors in uniform and police, attack the left’s demonstrations, while at the same time hundreds of arrests are made.[iv]
In May, amidst this fiery climate, Galleani holds repeated lectures in New London, Pawticket and Providence, while Schiavina does the same in other locations, trying to animate the resistance, which seems increasingly necessary to them. Not even a month later, something resounding happens: at midnight on Monday, June 2, 1919, in seven cities of the United States (Boston, New York, Paterson, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Washington) powerful explosions are heard no more than an hour and a half from one another. Kilos of dynamite blow up the residences of eminent people, all known for their anti-radical activism: once again, judges, inspectors, congressmen, industrialists and mayors: among these, the most sensational objective is again Attorney General Palmer, whose home in Washington is heavily damaged. Hit by a rain of shattered glass, Palmer remains uninjured, just like all other recipients of the bombs.[v] Instead one bomber is killed, one of two victims of this new series of assassination attempts together with the guard of the New York home of Judge Charles Nott Jr. The bomber is Carlo Valdinoci, a close collaborator of Cronaca Sovversiva who the investigators have been hunting in vain over the past two years.
Responsibility for both the bombs of May 1st and June 2nd is claimed through flyers exalting revenge against US authorities and inspiring a wave of disdain throughout the country. Historically, this campaign will be defined “the most extensive and best organized operation of this type that the anarchists have ever performed” and it is hypothesized that the persons responsible were about sixty Italian activists living mostly in the states of New England and New York.[vi] On June 4, 1919 the New York Tribune writes: “Nation-wide Search for ‘Reds’ Begins”[vii] The mayor of Cleveland, target of one of the June 2nd attacks, interpreting the general sentiment of the authorities, confirms:
“We will get them out of Cleveland, but we want to see the country rid of them. Such things has happened last night and the sending of bombs by post must waken the federal government to the necessity also for tightening up on immigration. This country cannot be made the dumping ground for the Red propagandists of Europe”.[viii]
After these events, the US authorities make a decisive effort to deport Galleani. In May, Galleani decides to marry Maria, probably to try to further delay deportation.
Galleani in a mugshot.
The Department of Justice is convinced he is behind the assassination attempts, and within a few days he is arrested and brought to the East Boston immigration office. He knows that deportation to Italy awaits him. The judge offers him the chance to leave on his own volition for Europe, in exchange for cancellation of the deportation order. He refuses, and in response asks to be sent to Egypt. He receives a visit from his family: Ilia is interrogated by agents, to whom she responds in a scornful manner. Transferred to Ellis Island, on June 24, 1919 he is forced to board the Duca degli Abruzzi, together with eight other activists, including Schiavina, Fruzzetti and the Sanchinis with their two children. At fifty-eight years old, after eighteen years in the United States, he returns to Italy. He leaves Maria and the six children, including three with American citizenship: he knows that he many never see them again.
[i] The adage refers to a law of the 12 tables taken from Roman law, which indicates legal action is inapplicable against foreigners, and in the last decades of the 1800s is used in parliament to express that it is unnecessary to compromise with enemies of the homeland. Galleani uses this several times, translating it in “into good vernacular” as: “all means are good against the enemy”, see Mentana [Luigi Galleani], “Può venire, l’attendiamo di piè fermo!”, op. cit.
[ii] See J. Brecher, Sciopero!, op. cit., pp. 113-150.
[iii] See Il Diritto, “Pietro Marucco”, Il Diritto, New York, year II, no. 8, April 1919.
[iv] See Boston Herald, May 2, 1919; Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 2, 1919.
[v] See Boston Globe, June 3-4, 1919; Boston Herald, June 3-4, 1919; Pittsburgh Press, June 3, 1919; Philadelphia Inquirer, June 4-5, 1919; New York Times, June 3, 1919; New York World, June 3-4, 1919; New York Call, June 4, 1919; Washington Post, June 5, 1919.
[vi] See N. Pernicone, Luigi Galleani and Italian Anarchist Terrorism in the United States, op. cit., pp. 472, 484-485.
[vii] R. Boyer, H. Morais, Storia del movimento operaio negli Stati Uniti, p. 282.
[viii] Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 4, 1919; Pittsburgh Press, June 3, 1919.
