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Alberto Meschi (27 May 187911 December 1958) was an Italian
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
,
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
organizer, writer, and
anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
fighter.
Meschi was born on 27 May 1879 in
Borgo San Donnino
Fidenza (Parmigiano: ; locally ) is a town and ''comune ''in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. It has around 27,000 inhabitants. The town was renamed Fidenza in 1927, recalling its Roman name of ''Fidentia''; before, it was cal ...
(now Fidenza),
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
,
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
. He was involved in the workers' movement in
La Spezia
La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy.
La Spezia is the second largest city ...
from a young age, working as a bricklayer. By 1899, he had become a political writer, creating articles for ''Pro Coatti'', the union magazine ''
L'Edilizia'', and the
anti-militarist
Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First International, First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine t ...
''
La Pace''.
After emigrating to
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
in 1905, Meschi mixed with
anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in b ...
militants and became involved in union organizing and writing. He returned to Italy in 1909 after being expelled from Argentina. He took up similar activities in Italy, writing for the anarchist newspaper ''
Il Libertario'' and being heavily involved in the
Camera del Lavoro
A list of national trade union centers in Italy include:
Trade union centers Main national trade union centers
The following three confederal trade unions are considered and recognised by the Italian Republic as relevant counterpart:
* Italian Ge ...
from 1919 to 1922.
Meschi was drawn to
Carrara
Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, west-northwest o ...
, a hotbed of anarchist and union activity, where his organizing work with
Ugo Del Papa led to a two-week strike by quarry workers in the summer of 1911 that resulted in improved conditions. A year later, a general strike occurred within the marble industry for the right to a pension. In the spring of 1913, workers in Carrara and
Versilia Versilia is a part of Tuscany in the north-western province of Lucca and southern part of Massa-Carrara, and is named after the Versilia river.
Known for fashionable Riviera resorts, it consists of numerous clubs that are frequented by local celebr ...
achieved the
eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses.
An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...
. The most difficult struggle occurred at the end of that year and in early 1914, involving a lockout in the marble industry. Meschi, Del Papa, and
Riccardo Sacconi were all arrested on 11 January 1914, but a strong reaction led to their release on 31 January and the end of the lockout.
In 1912, Meschi helped to found the
Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana (''USI''; ''Italian Syndicalist Union'' or ''Italian Workers' Union'') is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers' Association (IWA; ''Associazione Internazionale dei Lav ...
(USI) a revolutionary syndicalist organisation. With the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the USI experienced a major split over the issue of Italian involvement in the war. The pro-war minority were thrown out of or left the USI in September 1914, with the passing of a motion by Meschi which expressed "their trust in the proletariat of all countries to rediscover in themselves the spirit of class solidarity and the revolutionary energy required to take advantage of the inevitable weakening of State forces and of the general crisis caused by the war in order to act to sweep away the bourgeois and monarchist states which have been cynically preparing for this war for fifty years".
Meschi was conscripted to fight in the
Italian army
"The safeguard of the republic shall be the supreme law"
, colors =
, colors_labels =
, march = ''Parata d'Eroi'' ("Heroes's parade") by Francesco Pellegrino, ''4 Maggio'' (May 4) ...
and became a prisoner in the
Carpathians
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...
. After the war, he returned to Carrara and rejoined the General Council of the USI, but by 1922 he had left for France to escape
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
repression. In Paris, he helped to found the
Antifascist Concentration and the
Italian League for Human Rights
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, also being a member of the
Pietro Gori
Pietro Gori (August 1, 1865–January 8, 1911) 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, i ...
group of anarchists. He also founded the exile newspaper ''
La Voce del Profugo'' and magazine ''
Il Momento''.
With the outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, Meschi joined the
Rosselli Column, fighting until the fall of the Republic. After returning to France and being imprisoned in a concentration camp, he escaped to Italy in 1943. With the Italian Liberation, he returned to the Camere del Lavoro in Carrara, where he served until 1947. He was also involved in the publication of ''
Il Cavatore'' (''The Quarry Worker''), a libertarian workers' news sheet. He died in Carrara on 11 December 1958.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meschi, Alberto
Italian anarchists
Italian anti-fascists
Italian people of the Spanish Civil War
Italian male writers
People from Fidenza
1879 births
1958 deaths
Anarcho-syndicalists
Italian exiles
Unione Sindacale Italiana members