Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Di Vittorio, also known under the pseudonym
Nicoletti (August 12, 1892 — November 3, 1957), was an Italian
syndicalist
trade union
ist and communist
politician, one of the most influential leaders of the labor movement after World War I
.
, Apulia
, into a family of poor agricultural day laborers. As an autodidact
, Di Vittorio became active in the socialist
movement from adolescence: at fifteen, he was a member of the Socialist Youth Circle in Cerignola, and, in 1911, moved to lead the Camera del Lavoro
in Minervino Murge
, and then the one in Bari
.
Giuseppe Di Vittorio was among the most influential union leaders in the history of the labor movement, leading the Confederazione Generate Italiana dei Lavoratori (CGIL) in its refounding after Fascism and the powerful World Federation of Trade Unions(FSM) after World War II.
After his father's death Di Vittorio was forced to leave school and work as a day laborer. He joined the May 1904 general strike, an event during which five workers were killed by troops in Cerignola. Di Vittorio was strongly influenced by the growth of peasants' organizations and the spread of socialist ideas, giving rise to his participation in the local young socialist organization in Cerignola. He was radicalized by affiliating with the national Federazione Giovanile Socialista (Federation of Young Socialists), an organization led by syndicalists in opposition to the official Socialist Party Youth Federation.
As a native of the Mezzogiorno
, Di Vittorio became involved in the syndicalist plans for solving the region's acute problems (in the manner illustrated by the Fasci Siciliani
in final decade of the 19th century). A partisan of insurgence, Di Vittorio became a leader of the anarcho-syndicalist
trade union Unione Sindacale Italiana
after its formation in 1912. Unlike the majority of the group (which opposed militarism
and Italy's entry into World War I
), Di Vittorio, Alceste De Ambris
, and Filippo Corridoni
advocated irredentism
. He subsequently fought in the conflict, and was discharged after being gravely wounded.
's split at its Congress in Livorno
, he joined the Italian Communist Party
(PCI). Di Vittorio joined the militant anti-fascist organization Arditi del Popolo
, and was then elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
on the PCI list in 1924. The new situation after the rise of Fascism
and the March on Rome
made him an enemy of Benito Mussolini
's regime. Sentenced to twelve years in prison by a fascist special tribunal in 1925, he managed to flee to France
, where he refounded the dissolved Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) and led it into the Soviet
-managed Profintern
. Di Vittorio lived in the Soviet state from 1928 to 1930, representing Italy to the Red Peasant International
. He then returned to Paris
, where he entered the Politburo
of the PCI.
He joined the Republican
side fighting Francisco Franco
's forces during the Spanish Civil War
in 1936. He was Political Commissar of the XI International Brigade
. After the fall of the Republic, he headed the board of a Paris-based newspaper with an anti-fascist
message. After the World War II
Fall of France to Nazi Germany
, Di Vittorio was arrested by Nazis, taken in custody by the Italian police, and detained on Ventotene
. In 1943, as the Fascist regime fell in most of Italy, he was set free by partisans
, and subsequently joined the Resistance
in fighting against Mussolini's Italian Social Republic
in Northern Italy.
and Oreste Lizzardi in Rome
. The pact recreated CGIL as a representative of all currents of trade unionism in Italy - communist, socialist, Christian-democrats, and anarcho-syndicalist. In 1948, the organisation split after a general strike
protesting the assassination
attempt on PCI-leader Palmiro Togliatti
. The Christian Democrats left to form the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori. On March 5, 1950, the social-democrats
(who would become supporters of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party
) left to form the Unione Italiana del Lavoro.
Giuseppe Di Vittorio led the CGIL, as a group favoured by the PCI and the Italian Socialist Party
, until his death at Lecco
in 1957. He was also a long-time leader of the World Federation of Trade Unions
. His strong charisma made him the most popular myth of the Italian workers. His funeral was attended by more than three million people coming to Rome from all over Italy.
He was followed in his position at the CGIL by Agostino Novella.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Nicoletti (August 12, 1892 — November 3, 1957), was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
syndicalist
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
ist and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
politician, one of the most influential leaders of the labor movement after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Early activities
He was born at CerignolaCerignola
Cerignola is a town and comune of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, 40 km southeast from the town of Foggia. It has the third-largest land area of any comune in Italy, at 593.71 km², after Rome and Ravenna.-History:...
, Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
, into a family of poor agricultural day laborers. As an autodidact
Autodidacticism
Autodidacticism is self-education or self-directed learning. In a sense, autodidacticism is "learning on your own" or "by yourself", and an autodidact is a person who teaches him or herself something. The term has its roots in the Ancient Greek words αὐτός and διδακτικός...
, Di Vittorio became active in the socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
movement from adolescence: at fifteen, he was a member of the Socialist Youth Circle in Cerignola, and, in 1911, moved to lead the Camera del Lavoro
Camera del Lavoro
Camera del Lavoro were centers for Italian Syndicalist labor unions, modeled on the French Bourse du Travail, which flourished from 1895 to the rise of Fascism in the 1920s....
in Minervino Murge
Minervino Murge
Minervino Murge is a town and comune in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani in western Puglia, southern Italy, on the western flank of the Murgia Barese mountain chain. It is 16 km south of Canosa di Puglia and 17 km north of Spinazzola, in the Alta Murgia National Park.The town's...
, and then the one in Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
.
Giuseppe Di Vittorio was among the most influential union leaders in the history of the labor movement, leading the Confederazione Generate Italiana dei Lavoratori (CGIL) in its refounding after Fascism and the powerful World Federation of Trade Unions(FSM) after World War II.
After his father's death Di Vittorio was forced to leave school and work as a day laborer. He joined the May 1904 general strike, an event during which five workers were killed by troops in Cerignola. Di Vittorio was strongly influenced by the growth of peasants' organizations and the spread of socialist ideas, giving rise to his participation in the local young socialist organization in Cerignola. He was radicalized by affiliating with the national Federazione Giovanile Socialista (Federation of Young Socialists), an organization led by syndicalists in opposition to the official Socialist Party Youth Federation.
As a native of the Mezzogiorno
Mezzogiorno
The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...
, Di Vittorio became involved in the syndicalist plans for solving the region's acute problems (in the manner illustrated by the Fasci Siciliani
Fasci Siciliani
The Fasci Siciliani, short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori , were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, which arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894...
in final decade of the 19th century). A partisan of insurgence, Di Vittorio became a leader of the anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
trade union Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers Association , and the name of USI is...
after its formation in 1912. Unlike the majority of the group (which opposed militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
and Italy's entry into World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
), Di Vittorio, Alceste De Ambris
Alceste De Ambris
Alceste De Ambris , was an Italian syndicalist, the brother of Amilcare De Ambris. De Ambris had a major part to play in the agrarian strike actions of 1908.-Life:De Ambris was born in Licciana Nardi, province of Massa-Carrara....
, and Filippo Corridoni
Filippo Corridoni
Filippo Corridoni was an Italian trade unionist and syndicalist....
advocated irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
. He subsequently fought in the conflict, and was discharged after being gravely wounded.
Opposition to Fascism
In 1921, after the Italian Socialist PartyItalian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
's split at its Congress in Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, he joined the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI). Di Vittorio joined the militant anti-fascist organization Arditi del Popolo
Arditi del Popolo
The Arditi del Popolo was an Italian militant anti-fascist group founded at the end of June 1921 to resist the rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and the violence of the Blackshirts paramilitaries...
, and was then elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
on the PCI list in 1924. The new situation after the rise of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and the March on Rome
March on Rome
The March on Rome was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy...
made him an enemy of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's regime. Sentenced to twelve years in prison by a fascist special tribunal in 1925, he managed to flee to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he refounded the dissolved Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) and led it into the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-managed Profintern
Profintern
The Red International of Labor Unions , commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Communist International with the aim of coordinating Communist activities within trade unions...
. Di Vittorio lived in the Soviet state from 1928 to 1930, representing Italy to the Red Peasant International
Red Peasant International
The Red Peasant International, generally called by its Russian abbreviation Krestintern, was an international peasants organization formed by the Communist International in October 1923. The organization was dissolved in 1939....
. He then returned to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he entered the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
of the PCI.
He joined the Republican
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
side fighting Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's forces during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
in 1936. He was Political Commissar of the XI International Brigade
XI International Brigade
The XI International Brigade fought for the Spanish Second Republic in the Spanish Civil War.It would become especially renowned for providing desperately needed support in the darkest hours of the Republican defense of Madrid on 8 November 1936, when, with great losses, it helped repulse a major...
. After the fall of the Republic, he headed the board of a Paris-based newspaper with an anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
message. After the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Fall of France to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, Di Vittorio was arrested by Nazis, taken in custody by the Italian police, and detained on Ventotene
Ventotene
Ventotene, in Roman times known as Pandataria or Pandateria from the Greek Pandoteira, is one of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Gaeta right at the border between Lazio and Campania, Italy...
. In 1943, as the Fascist regime fell in most of Italy, he was set free by partisans
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
, and subsequently joined the Resistance
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
in fighting against Mussolini's Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
in Northern Italy.
Later years
When war ended in 1945, he was elected secretary of the CGIL - which he had helped bring back into politics through a pact signed the previous year with Dino GrandiDino Grandi
Dino Grandi , Conte di Mordano, was an Italian Fascist politician, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs and president of parliament.- Early life :...
and Oreste Lizzardi in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. The pact recreated CGIL as a representative of all currents of trade unionism in Italy - communist, socialist, Christian-democrats, and anarcho-syndicalist. In 1948, the organisation split after a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
protesting the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
attempt on PCI-leader Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
. The Christian Democrats left to form the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori. On March 5, 1950, the social-democrats
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
(who would become supporters of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
The Italian Democratic Socialist Party is a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. Mimmo Magistro is the party leader. The PSDI, before the 1990s decline in votes and members, had been an important force in Italian politics, being the longest serving partner in government for Christian...
) left to form the Unione Italiana del Lavoro.
Giuseppe Di Vittorio led the CGIL, as a group favoured by the PCI and the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, until his death at Lecco
Lecco
Lecco is a town of c. 47,760 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan, the capital of the province of Lecco. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como...
in 1957. He was also a long-time leader of the World Federation of Trade Unions
World Federation of Trade Unions
The World Federation of Trade Unions was established in 1945 to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions. Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations...
. His strong charisma made him the most popular myth of the Italian workers. His funeral was attended by more than three million people coming to Rome from all over Italy.
He was followed in his position at the CGIL by Agostino Novella.