Luigi Galleani Archive
Written: 1914.
Source: From RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
1861 He was born on August 12 in Vercelli, where he attended high school.
1881 He enrolled at the University of Turin which he attended for only two years.
1883 He collaborated with the newspaper “L’Operaio” published in Vercelli. After the “Libero operaio” and finally, always in Vercelli, he founded the newspaper “La boje! On July 23rd he was sentenced to 3 months for “duel” always connected to his militant activity.
1887 Around this time he took part in the “Gazzetta operaia” and on his inspiration the socialist circle “Difesa del lavoro” and the “Lega dei lavoratori” were founded in Vercelli, based on the principles of workers’ resistance and organization. In order to advance the concept of worker resistance and to promote a unified movement among the masses of workers in the area, in the summer of that year, he held a large round of conferences among the workers of the Biella area. Around September of the same year, his writings appear on the “Workers’ Beam” where he remarks the importance of abstentionism. He is sentenced to seven days, again for political reasons, on the charge of “having moved on to a de facto route”.
1888 He made several propaganda tours in several important centers in Piedmont with the aim of creating organizations sensitive to anarchist demands and therefore led to direct strikes and proletarian agitations towards libertarian objectives while pushing the anarchist ideal.
In June of the same year he took part in the organization of strikes in Turin. His tactic of insertion to the workers’ base that constituted the organizational network of the POI was supported by the “Workers’ Gazette” and at its closure, after repeated seizures, by the “New Workers’ Gazette” that immediately replaced it. In September of the same year he participated in the IV Congress of the Partite Operaio, held in Bologna, as representative of the “Nuova Gazzetta operaia”, of the “Questione sociale” of Florence and of the “Lega dei lavoratori” of Vercelli, section of the POL But in that Congress, despite his skillful oratory, Galleani was unable to bring the POI to the positions of electoral abstentionism and revolutionary positions.
1889 Galleani did not give up and, in June of that year, we see him at the head of the grandiose strikes in Turin that led to the solidarity of many categories of workers. Wanted by the police headquarters in Turin as one of the major perpetrators of the unrest, Galleani took refuge in France, where he met the chemist E. Molinari and Amilcare Cipriani.
1890 He was arrested in France for his further “subversive” activity. He stays 4 months in jail without trial. He’s being released. He moved to Switzerland where he is a guest of Elie and Elisée Reclus. At the end of October, he was arrested by the Swiss police and handed over to the Italian police. Later, at the amnesty of November 23rd, he was released.
1891 In January-Participation in the Congress of Capolago where he approaches the positions of Malatesta. Great controversy with the reformist currents of the workers’ movement on the occasion of the international meeting for workers’ rights held at the Cannobiana Theater in Milan, where he presented an ode in favor of participation in the May Day event, seen as an example of the “international solidarity of the working people”. Following a protest demonstration by the unemployed in Alexandria, he was arrested and sentenced to 3 months in prison and a fine of 50 lire. After serving his sentence, he moves to Sampierdarena.
1892 He took part, together with Pietro Gori, in the Congress of Genoa, where he made a heated speech in favor of abstentionism. After the split from the Socialists, Galleani continued his propaganda in various towns, and especially in the Genoa area. He contributes to the newspaper “Il Carbonaio” of Genoa and, sporadically, to the “Indipendente” and “Caffaro”, also of Genoa.
1894 Together with A. Pellaco tries to create a unitary association of the anarchists of Genoa. For this reason, together with 34 other comrades, he was arrested and sentenced to 3 years for “conspiracy”, plus 5 years of forced residence. Pietro Gori was his lawyer. Discounted the prison, is sent to the forced home on the island of Pantelleria.
1897 Still in Pantelleria, he refused the offer of a candidacy-protest that would have allowed him to regain his freedom.
1899 To a new proposal for candidacy-protest, and against them in general, to support and reaffirm the vitality of the anarchist movement, to support anti-legalitarianism and anti-parliamentarianism, from his forced home he puts forward the idea of the publication of a single issue: “The Dead”. The newspaper was in fact published in November of that year, in Ancona, with an editorial by Luigi Galleani on the front page. At the end of the same year he managed to escape from the island and settled in Cairo for about a year.
1901 In early October it reaches the United States. He immediately made contact with the anarchists of the area, especially the emigrants, and took over the direction of “La Questione sociale” which was published in Paterson.
1902 Also in the same city, in June of that year, he led the grandiose and violent general strike and, during the demonstrations, was wounded at the mouth by a gunshot. He is sent to Montreal, Canada, from where he continues his collaboration with the newspaper.
1903 He returned to the United States under the false name of Luigi Pimpino and settled in Barre. In the summer of that same year the publication of the periodical “Cronaca subversiva” began, which will be published for 16 years in the United States and then for almost a year in Turin.
1906 The police discovered his hideout in Barre, extradited him to New Jersey, where he was arrested in December.
1907 At the trial, the jury could not agree on a unanimous verdict and Galleani was released in April.
Between 1907 and 1919, he undertook several battles with the “Subversive Chronicle”, including one against the methods used in the Mexican revolution by Madero but also against Zapata himself. On the occasion of the war in Libya, it intensifies the fight against nationalism and militarism. During this period, he was also denounced by the Italian judiciary for his articles on “L’agitatore” and “Volontà”. As the First World War approached, it sided against interventionism, thus entering into great contrasts with Kropotkin and Cipriani who had declared themselves for intervention in that war. He increases his interventions in the United States by fighting against military conscription and war. He is repeatedly accused of “incitement to rebellion”.
1919 His action during the war years resulted in his expulsion from the United States and deportation to Italy for “reasons of public order”. In July he arrived in Genoa and, given his poor health, he retired to the countryside for a short period.
1920 He moved to Turin and began publishing the Italian edition of the “Cronaca subversiva”, which could only be published for nine months. In September, in fact, Galleani is again indicted for an article entitled “Brother Soldier”.
1922 After two years of absconding, on October 18, he presented himself at the police headquarters in Turin, a few days before the trial, and on October 28 he was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months, then subjected to special surveillance.
Between 1922 and 1927 he was again sentenced to another 6 months in prison for “having received subversive publications”.
1927 He was sent to the island of Lipari for confinement.
1930 Due to his very advanced age, he is released on liberty.
1931 He died in Caprigliola, in the province of Massa Carrara, on November 4.
For the war, for neutrality, or for peace?[1]