Milano - Piazza Fontana - Targa Giuseppe Pinelli Comune

Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli (21 October 1928 – 15 December 1969) was an Italian railroad worker and

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 ...

, who died while being detained by

Italian police 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 ...

in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

-based anarchist association named Ponte della Ghisolfa. He was also the secretary of the Italian branch of the

Anarchist Black Cross The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for c ...

. His death, believed by many to have been caused by members of the police, inspired

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureate

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. I ...

to write his famous play titled ''

Accidental Death of an Anarchist ''Accidental Death of an Anarchist'' ( it, Morte accidentale di un anarchico) is a play by Italian playwright Dario Fo that premiered in 1970. Considered a classic of 20th-century theater, it has been performed across the world in more than fort ...

''.

Early life

Pinelli was born in Milan to Alfredo Pinelli and Rosa Malacarne. His family was working-class in one of the poorest areas of post-

World War I 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 ...

Milan. Although he had to work many low income jobs, such as waiter and warehouseman, in order to make ends meet, he nonetheless found the time to read many books and become politically active throughout his youth. Among other political activities, he also worked with the anarchist group which published the weekly paper ''Il Libertario''. In 1954, he found work as a railroad fitter. In 1955, he married Licia Rognini, whom he had met at an evening class of

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

. During the 1960s, he continued anarchist activism. He organized young anarchists in the Gioventù Libertaria (Libertarian Youth) in 1962. He helped found the "

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

anarchist association" in 1965. He founded the Ponte della Ghisolfa association (named after the nearby bridge) in 1968.

Suspicious circumstances surrounding his death

On 12 December 1969, a bomb went off at the

Piazza Fontana The Piazza Fontana bombing ( it, Strage di Piazza Fontana) was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fonta ...

in Milan that killed 17 people and injured 88. Pinelli was picked up, along with other anarchists, for questioning regarding the attack. Just before midnight on 15 December 1969, Pinelli was seen to fall to his death from a fourth floor window of the Milan police station. Three police officers interrogating Pinelli, including Commissioner

Luigi Calabresi Luigi Calabresi (14 November 1937 – 17 May 1972) was an Italian Police officer in Milan assassinated by far-left terrorists. This was one of the most important murders during the historical period of social turmoil and political violence in It ...

, were put under investigation in 1971 for his death, but legal proceedings concluded it was due to accidental causes. Pinelli's name has since been cleared, and the far-right '' Ordine Nuovo'' was accused of the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing (in 2001, three

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...

s were convicted, a sentence overturned in March 2004; a fourth defendant, Carlo Digilio, was a suspected

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

informant who became a witness for the state and received immunity from prosecution). Calabresi was later killed by two shots from a revolver outside his home in 1972. In 1988, former ''

Lotta Continua Lotta Continua (LC; en, Continuous Struggle) was a far-left paramilitary organization in Italy. It was founded in autumn 1969 by a split in the student-worker movement of Turin, which had started militant activity at the universities and factor ...

'' leader

Adriano Sofri Adriano Sofri (born 1 August 1942) is an Italian intellectual, a journalist and a writer. The former leader of the autonomist movement ''Lotta Continua'' ("Continuous Struggle") in the 1960s, he was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to 22 years of p ...

was arrested with Ovidio Bompressi and Giorgio Pietrostefani for Calabresi's murder. The charges against them were based on testimony provided, 16 years later, by Leonardo Marino, an ex-militant who confessed to the murder of Calabresi, under order from Adriano Sofri. Claiming his innocence, Sofri was finally convicted after a highly contentious trial, in 1997.

In popular culture

Pinelli's death is the inspiration for: *

's play ''

'', although in the original script his name was not mentioned explicitly. *The painting ''Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli'' by Italian artist

Enrico Baj Enrico Baj (October 31, 1924 – June 15, 2003)June 15 according to the Guardian, June 17 according to the-artists.org was an Italian artist and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptur ...

. *The political documentary film ''12 dicembre'' (1972) directed by

Giovanni Bonfanti Giovanni Bonfanti (born 17 January 2003) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as centre-back for club Atalanta and its reserve team, Atalanta Under-23. Club career Born in Milan, Bonfanti joined the academy of Atalanta in 2015, a ...

and based on an idea by

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

. *The song ''Ballata per l'Anarchico Pinelli''. * The popular song ''La ballata del Pinelli''. * The movie '' Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy'': Pinelli was portrayed by

Pierfrancesco Favino Pierfrancesco Favino (; August 24, 1969) is an Italian actor, voice actor and producer. He has appeared in more than fifty European and American movies and television series since the early 1990s, including '' The Prince of Homburg'' (1997), '' T ...

. Hints of his death are also in the songs ''Asilo 'Republic by

Vasco Rossi Vasco Rossi (born 7 February 1952), also known mononymously as Vasco or with the nickname Il Blasco, is an Italian singer-songwriter and poet. During his career, he has published 30 albums (not including unofficial releases) and has written over ...

and ''Quarant'anni'' by the

Modena City Ramblers Modena City Ramblers (also known as M.C.R.) is an Italian folk rock band founded in 1991. Their music is heavily influenced by Celtic themes, and can be compared to folk rock music. The band has sold over 500,000 albums. Known for their left-wing ...

Notes

# Italian justice has used a system of '' tate witnesses' "collaboratori di giustizia-collaborators with justice" to fight against terrorism and the mafia.

References

External links