Francesco Renda (18 February 1922 – 12 May 2013) was an Italian

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

historian, Communist politician and a university professor. Renda was born in Cattolica Eraclea in Sicily. He graduated in philosophy. At a young age he enrolled in the Italian Communist Party (''Partito Comunista Italiano'' – PCI). He became Secretary in charge of '' Camera Confederale del Lavoro'' in Agrigento.Addio a Francesco Renda
, Blog Sicilia (Giornale di Sicilia), 12 May 2013

Portella della Ginestra Massacre

He was an eye-witness of the

Portella della Ginestra massacre The Portella della Ginestra massacre was one of the most violent acts in the history of modern Italian politics, when 11 people were killed and 27 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on 1 May 1947, in the municipality of Piana degli Alb ...

, when 11 people were killed and 27 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on May 1, 1947, by the bandit and separatist leader

Salvatore Giuliano Salvatore Giuliano (; Sicilian: Turiddu or Sarvaturi Giulianu; 16 November 1922 – 5 July 1950) was an Italian bandit, who rose to prominence in the disorder that followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In September of that year, Giul ...

and his band. That May morning he was supposed to speak at Portella, but due to a defect of his motorcycle he arrived late. "Before my eyes this horrific tragedy happened," Renda recalls. Immediately after the massacre, the peasants of Piana wanted their own justice, threatening to kill the mafiosi of their county. "I convinced them,” Renda remembered, "that that would have been the provocation needed to outlaw the Communists."Una provocazione contro la sinistra?
La Sicilia, May 1, 2011

Political career

In 1951 he was elected member of the Sicilian Regional Assembly for the People’s Block (''Blocco del popolo'') – a coalition of the PCI and the Italian Socialist Party (''Partito Socialista Italiano'', PSI) for the district of Agrigento, and was reelected in PCI for five consecutive legislatures. He resigned in November 1967 to run for the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic ( it, Senato della Repubblica), or simply the Senate ( it, Senato), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral sy ...

. Elected senator in the 5th legislature (1968–1972), he was a member of the Committee on regional issues.Francesco Renda
Senato della Repubblica

Academic career

He did not run again in 1972 and returned to the University. He became Professor of Modern History at the Faculty of Political Science of University of Palermo and subsequently president of the Gramsci Institute in Sicily. As a Marxist historian, he is one of the most important scholars of the peasant movement in Sicily.Morto lo storico Francesco Renda
La Repubblica, 12 May 2013 Renda described himself in his autobiography (2007) as a historian of the peasant movement who was born and raised in that world, and then become a witness and leader of its revival.
La Repubblica, 14 May 2013 His most important works are a history of the

Fasci Siciliani The Fasci Siciliani , short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori (Sicilian Workers Leagues), were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, which arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894. The Fasci gained the support o ...

, the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...

, and a 1493-page history of Sicily in three volumes (''Storia della Sicilia dal 1860 al 1970'') published in 2003. Since 1997, he was a professor emeritus at the University of Palermo. He died on 12 May 2013 in Palermo.Funerali laici per Francesco Renda; memoria di uomini e cose di Sicilia
Blog Sicilia (Giornale di Sicilia), 13 May 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renda, Francesco 1922 births 2013 deaths People from Cattolica Eraclea Italian Communist Party politicians Senators of Legislature V of Italy Politicians from the Province of Agrigento Antimafia Italian Marxist historians Academic staff of the University of Palermo 20th-century Italian historians 21st-century Italian historians