Severino Di Giovanni
Severino di Giovanni (born March 17, 1901 in Chieti , † February 1, 1931 in Buenos Aires ) was an Italian anarchist who was known for his violent actions in the course of the support campaigns in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti .
Life
Severino di Giovanni grew up in poor conditions in Chieti, Italy . He attended teacher training courses and began working as a teacher before finishing school. Di Giovanni learned typography autodidactically and read the books of Michail Bakunin , Errico Malatesta , Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Élisée Reclus in his free time . At the age of 20 he began to participate in the anarchist movement and the following year he married Teresa Masciulli, with whom he had four children. After the march on Rome and Mussolini's takeover in the same year, he and his wife decided to emigrate to Argentina .
In Argentina, Severino di Giovanni sought contact with anti-fascist and anarchist groups. Within the anarchist movement in Argentina, he was closer to the radical group around the magazine La Antorcha than to the FORA and its magazine La Protesta , which was published by Emilio López Arango and Diego Abad de Santillán . He took part in meetings planning actions against Italian fascism. Its first action took place on June 6, 1925, when the 25th anniversary of Victor Emmanuel III's accession to the throne at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires . was celebrated. Present at the celebration were the Argentine President Alvear with his wife and the Italian ambassador, who had organized numerous black shirts to protect the celebrations. When the orchestra began playing the Italian national anthem, di Giovanni and his colleagues threw leaflets through the hall in protest of the celebration. The group was quickly overwhelmed by the black shirts and handed over to the police.
Shortly afterwards, di Giovanni was released and took part in international protests against the arrest and threatened execution of Sacco and Vanzetti . He was one of the most active supporters in Argentina and wrote about the case in various magazines, including New York's L'Adunata dei refrattari and his own newspaper, Culmine , which he founded in August 1925. On May 16, 1926, a few hours after the death sentence was pronounced in the Sacco and Vanzetti case, Severino di Giovanni carried out a bomb attack on the US embassy, in which the front of the building was completely destroyed. As the perpetrator of the attack could not be determined, di Giovanni was arrested on the advice of the Italian ambassador. He was held and tortured by the police for 5 days without confessing. He was released for lack of evidence.
On July 21, 1927, the US embassy published an article in the conservative daily La Nación in which Sacco and Vanzetti were portrayed as common criminals. A day later, Severino di Giovanni carried out two bomb attacks: one bombed the George Washington statue in Palermo and the second hit a Ford factory building . On May 23, 1928, di Giovanni, together with the brothers Paulino and Alejandro Scarfó, set off a bomb in front of the Italian consulate in Buenos Aires. The explosion claimed several lives and severely damaged the building.
After the military coup of José Félix Uriburu he was arrested and a military court sentenced to death . He was born on Feb. 1, 1931 executed and by order of the Argentine interior minister Matías Sánchez Sorondo from the public in the cemetery of La Chacarita buried.
literature
- L'Adunata dei refrattari: The Buenos Aires Tragedy. The Last Fight of Severino Di Giovanni & Paulo Scarfo. London / Berkeley 2004.
- Osvaldo Bayer : Severino Di Giovanni. El idealista de la violencia. Buenos Aires 1970.
- Cristina Noble: Severino Di Giovanni. Passion Anarquista. Buenos Aires 2006.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fernando López Trujillo: An Interview with Osvaldo Bayer, Argentinean Public Intellectual and Social Historian ( Memento of the original dated November 26, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2001.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Di Giovanni, Severino |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | di Giovanni, Severino |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian anarchist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 17, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chieti |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 1, 1931 |
| Place of death | Buenos Aires |