Giuseppe Ciancabilla
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Ciancabilla was one of the important figures of the anarchist movement who immigrated to the United States
in the late 19th century, along with F. Saverio Merlino, Pietro Gori
, Carlo Tresca
, and Luigi Galleani
.
, Ciancabilla was one of the most impressive (now one of the least well known) of the anarchist speakers and writers. Giuseppe Ciancabilla was born in Rome in 1872.
At the age of 18, he went to Greece to join in the battle against Turkish oppression there. He acted as a correspondent for the Italian socialist paper, Avanti!, but rather than fighting with the Italian volunteers he joined a group of anarchist combatants from Cyprian Amalcare who sought to encourage a popular insurrection through partisan guerrilla war.
In October 1897, he met Errico Malatesta
to do interview for Avanti!. This meeting and the response of the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) leadership to the discussion led Ciancabilla to leave the socialist party in disgust and declare himself an anarchist. This “Declaration” appeared in Malatesta’s paper, "L’Agitazione" on November 4, 1897. The choice of becoming an anarchist forced Ciacabilla and his companion, Ersilia Cavedagni, to flee Italy. After a short time in Switzerland and Brussels, Ciancabilla moved to France where he collaborated with Jean Grave
on the paper, Les Temps Nouveaux, though the editors felt the need to occasionally point out their differences with his perspectives. In 1898, when the Italian authorities pointed him out as a “dangerous anarchist”, Ciancabilla was expelled from France. He returned to Switzerland where he attempted to bring together Italian revolutionary refugees. He was expelled from Switzerland for writing the article “A Strike of the file” in defense of Luigi Luccheni [he stabbed the Empress Elizabeth of Austria —ed.] for the anarchist-communist paper "L’Agitatore" that he had started himself in Neuchatel.
Giuseppe Ciancabilla moved to The United States in 1898 and settled in Paterson, New Jersey, a major stronghold of Italian anarchism. He became the editor of La Questione Sociale (The Social Question), a paper which Pietro Gori
helped establish in 1895, and one of the leading organs of Italian anarchism in the US. However, due to changes in his ideas, he quickly found himself in conflict with the editorial group of the paper who supported Malatesta’s organizational ideas and methods. In August 1899, Malatesta came to the US and was entrusted with directing "La Questione Sociale". This led Ciancabilla and other collaborators to leave that magazine and to start the journal "L’Aurora" in West Hoboken
. Besides spreading anarchist ideas and propaganda in L’Aurora, Ciancabilla used it for translation including works by Jean Grave
and Kropotkin
. His Italian translation of Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread
even managed to make its way into Italy despite legal hardships.
Ciancabilla eventually moved westward, settling among the Italian miners of Spring Valley, Illinois
. After the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, the anarchist groups were raided by the police, and Ciancabilla was driven from pillar to post, arrested, manhandled, and evicted.
Driven out of Spring Valley, driven in turn out of Chicago
, Ciancabilla wound up in San Francisco, editing the journal La Protesta Umana when he suddenly took ill and died in 1904 at the age of 32.
for a specific purpose, and we constantly change these groups as soon as the purpose for which we had associated ceases to be, and other aims and needs arise and develop in us and push us to seek new collaborators, people who think as we do in the specific circumstance."
He ends "Against organization" by saying "We do not oppose the organizers. They will continue, if they like, in their tactic. If, as I think, it will not do any great good, it will not do any great harm either. But it seems to me that they have writhed throwing their cry of alarm and blacklisting us either as savages or as theoretical dreamers."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the late 19th century, along with F. Saverio Merlino, Pietro Gori
Pietro Gori
Pietro Gori was an Italian lawyer, journalist, intellectual and anarchist poet. He is known for his political activities, and as author of some of the most famous anarchist songs of the late 19th century, including Addio a Lugano , Stornelli d'esilio , Ballata per Sante Caserio Pietro Gori (14...
, Carlo Tresca
Carlo Tresca
Carlo Tresca was an Italian-born American newspaper editor, orator, and labor organizer who was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World during the decade of the 1910s. Tresca is remembered as a leading public opponent of fascism, stalinism, and Mafia infiltration of the trade union movement...
, and Luigi Galleani
Luigi Galleani
Luigi Galleani was an Italian anarchist active in the United States from 1901 to 1919, viewed by historians as an anarchist communist and an insurrectionary anarchist. He is best known for his enthusiastic advocacy of "propaganda of the deed", i.e...
.
Life
According to historian Paul AvrichPaul Avrich
Paul Avrich was a professor and historian. He taught at Queens College, City University of New York, for most of his life and was vital in preserving the history of the anarchist movement in Russia and the United States....
, Ciancabilla was one of the most impressive (now one of the least well known) of the anarchist speakers and writers. Giuseppe Ciancabilla was born in Rome in 1872.
At the age of 18, he went to Greece to join in the battle against Turkish oppression there. He acted as a correspondent for the Italian socialist paper, Avanti!, but rather than fighting with the Italian volunteers he joined a group of anarchist combatants from Cyprian Amalcare who sought to encourage a popular insurrection through partisan guerrilla war.
In October 1897, he met Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
to do interview for Avanti!. This meeting and the response of the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) leadership to the discussion led Ciancabilla to leave the socialist party in disgust and declare himself an anarchist. This “Declaration” appeared in Malatesta’s paper, "L’Agitazione" on November 4, 1897. The choice of becoming an anarchist forced Ciacabilla and his companion, Ersilia Cavedagni, to flee Italy. After a short time in Switzerland and Brussels, Ciancabilla moved to France where he collaborated with Jean Grave
Jean Grave
Jean Grave was an important activist in the French anarchist movement. He was involved with Élisée Reclus' Révolté...
on the paper, Les Temps Nouveaux, though the editors felt the need to occasionally point out their differences with his perspectives. In 1898, when the Italian authorities pointed him out as a “dangerous anarchist”, Ciancabilla was expelled from France. He returned to Switzerland where he attempted to bring together Italian revolutionary refugees. He was expelled from Switzerland for writing the article “A Strike of the file” in defense of Luigi Luccheni [he stabbed the Empress Elizabeth of Austria —ed.] for the anarchist-communist paper "L’Agitatore" that he had started himself in Neuchatel.
Giuseppe Ciancabilla moved to The United States in 1898 and settled in Paterson, New Jersey, a major stronghold of Italian anarchism. He became the editor of La Questione Sociale (The Social Question), a paper which Pietro Gori
Pietro Gori
Pietro Gori was an Italian lawyer, journalist, intellectual and anarchist poet. He is known for his political activities, and as author of some of the most famous anarchist songs of the late 19th century, including Addio a Lugano , Stornelli d'esilio , Ballata per Sante Caserio Pietro Gori (14...
helped establish in 1895, and one of the leading organs of Italian anarchism in the US. However, due to changes in his ideas, he quickly found himself in conflict with the editorial group of the paper who supported Malatesta’s organizational ideas and methods. In August 1899, Malatesta came to the US and was entrusted with directing "La Questione Sociale". This led Ciancabilla and other collaborators to leave that magazine and to start the journal "L’Aurora" in West Hoboken
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
. Besides spreading anarchist ideas and propaganda in L’Aurora, Ciancabilla used it for translation including works by Jean Grave
Jean Grave
Jean Grave was an important activist in the French anarchist movement. He was involved with Élisée Reclus' Révolté...
and Kropotkin
Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin was a Russian prince and anarchist.Kropotkin may also refer to:*Pyotr Nikolayevich Kropotkin , Soviet/Russian geologist, tectonician, and geophysicist*Mount Kropotkin, a peak in Antarctica...
. His Italian translation of Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread
The Conquest of Bread
The Conquest of Bread is a book by the anarchist communist Peter Kropotkin. Originally written in French, it first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journals Le Révolté and La Revolté . It was first published as a book in Paris in 1892 with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also...
even managed to make its way into Italy despite legal hardships.
Ciancabilla eventually moved westward, settling among the Italian miners of Spring Valley, Illinois
Spring Valley, Illinois
Spring Valley is a city situated on the Illinois River in Bureau County, Illinois. The population was 5,398 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
. After the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, the anarchist groups were raided by the police, and Ciancabilla was driven from pillar to post, arrested, manhandled, and evicted.
Driven out of Spring Valley, driven in turn out of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Ciancabilla wound up in San Francisco, editing the journal La Protesta Umana when he suddenly took ill and died in 1904 at the age of 32.
Thought
Ciancabilla adhered to insurrectionary anarchist views and as such in "Against organization" he writes "we don’t want tactical programs, and consequently we don’t want organization. Having established the aim, the goal to which we hold, we leave every anarchist free to choose from the means that his sense, his education, his temperament, his fighting spirit suggest to him as best. We don’t form fixed programs and we don’t form small or great parties. But we come together spontaneously, and not with permanent criteria, according to momentary affinitiesAffinity group
An Affinity group is usually a small group of activists who work together on direct action.Affinity groups are organized in a non-hierarchical manner, usually using consensus decision making, and are often made up of trusted friends...
for a specific purpose, and we constantly change these groups as soon as the purpose for which we had associated ceases to be, and other aims and needs arise and develop in us and push us to seek new collaborators, people who think as we do in the specific circumstance."
He ends "Against organization" by saying "We do not oppose the organizers. They will continue, if they like, in their tactic. If, as I think, it will not do any great good, it will not do any great harm either. But it seems to me that they have writhed throwing their cry of alarm and blacklisting us either as savages or as theoretical dreamers."