Hakluyt
01-26-2006, 07:05 PM
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0106bencivenni.htm
Lost and Found: The Italian-American Radical Experience
by Marcella Bencivenni
Marcella Bencivenni teaches history at Hostos Community College in New York. She is currently writing a manuscript on radical Italian immigrant culture in the United States. Her most recent article, “Letteratura e arte radicale dei calabresi a New York,” appeared in Amelia Paparazzo, ed., Calabresi sovversivi nel mondo: L’esodo, l’impegno politico, le lotte degli emigrati in terra straniera, 1880–1940 (Soveria Mannelli, Cosenza, Italy: Rubbettino Editore, 2004).
Philip V. Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, eds., The Lost World of Italian-American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003), 346 pages, cloth $79.95, paper $29.95.
When, almost ten years ago, I came from Italy to study in New York I was shocked by the discrepancy between Italian-American and Italian politics. To my amazement, I discovered that the left, which has always played, and still plays, an important role in Italian politics, occupies a marginal, if not nonexistent, place in Italian-American political culture. Even worse, I learned that Italian Americans are perceived as a basically conservative group, whose only ties to Italy appear to be the Mafia and food. How did Italian Americans end up identifying themselves, and being identified, with such conservative values and reactionary political forces? Why did their political consciousness diverge so markedly from their Italian counterparts?
The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism, a collection of articles edited by Philip Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, helps provide an explanation to these questions. The book shows that, despite their present conservative image, Italian Americans have a vibrant and rich radical past. Italian immigrants, for example, played a central role in the working-class struggle of the early twentieth century, providing both leadership and mass militancy in major strikes across the country—notably the Lawrence textile strikes of 1912 and 1919, the Paterson silk strike of 1913, the Mesabi Iron Range strikes of 1907 and 1916, and the New York City Harbor strikes of 1907 and 1919, as well as coal mining strikes. They also made important contributions to American labor unions, especially the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. At the same time, they were able to build vibrant radical communities wherever Italian immigrants settled that replicated the traditions, cultures, and institutions of the old country. They formed, for example, their own political and social clubs, mutual aid societies, alternative libraries and press, as well as their own orchestras and theaters, designed to promote and sustain a radical subculture that was in stark opposition to both the hegemonic culture sustained by prominenti (the powerful men of the Little Italies) and the individualistic culture of capitalist America. Yet, this radical world has been almost completely forgotten, perhaps deliberately suppressed from both American and Italian-American memory.
..
With this anthology, Cannistraro and Meyer have sought to break the many silences, like that of Cammella Teoli, that have distorted the history and identity of Italian Americans. The editors themselves have long been committed to recover, and uncover, the lost stories of Italian-American radicalism. Philip Cannistraro, who passed away on May 28, 2005, was a major figure in Italian-American studies and modern Italy, contributing numerous books and articles, especially on fascism and antifascism. Gerald Meyer has also significantly enriched the field of Italian-American radicalism with a biography of radical Congressman Vito Marcantonio and articles on Italian-American communism and labor.
Organized into three sections—“Labor,” “Politics,” and “Culture”—the book brings together sixteen essays, selected from the more than sixty papers presented at a groundbreaking conference sponsored by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College in 1997. Along with the pioneering research of veteran scholars of Italian immigrant radical history and culture (such as Rudolph Vecoli, Nunzio Pernicone, Calvin Winslow, Paul Avrich, Donna Gabaccia, Salvatore Salerno, Gary Mormino, George Pozzetta, Paola Sensi-Isolani, and Fred Gardaphè), the book introduces original contributions by younger historians (Jennifer Guglielmo and Charles Zappia) and new interpretative studies on the literary work of Italian-American women (by Mary Jo Bona, Julia Lisella, and Edvige Giunta) and the involvement of Italian Americans in the civil rights and student movements of the 1960s (Gil Fagiani and Jackie DiSalvo).
Providing a general background to the other pieces, a fifty-page introduction by the editors traces the history of the Italian-American radical movement, from the formation of the first anarchist and socialist groups at the beginning of the twentieth century to the eventual decline after the Second World War. Much of the information contained here is not new; yet this is the first attempt to bring together the different components of the Italian-American left and offer a synthesis of the radical experience as a whole, in all its multifaceted aspects. The authors justly emphasize not only the political but also the cultural importance of Italian-American radicalism. Besides political initiatives aiming at promoting class consciousness, great attention and energy were given to cultural activities for educational, associational, and recreational purposes, such as lectures, picnics, plays, and dances. Perhaps the best example of such a cultural vitality was the radical press, with nearly 200 newspapers—a number that qualifies Italian immigrant radicals in the United States as the third most prolific ethnic group after the Germans and the Jews.
The importance of this radical culture is depicted with particular force in the essay by Mormino and Pozzetta on the radical community of Ybor City (Florida), where Italians, Cubans, and Spaniards, who worked in the cigar industry, were able to overcome ethnic barriers and create a “Latin” culture based on common values such as working-class solidarity, internationalism, and anticlericalism. Here, as well as in other American cities, Italian immigrants created socialist circles, anarchist groups, labor unions, and later on, sections of the Communist Party. At the same time, they formed educational and recreational circles, Università Popolari (People’s Universities) with librerie rosse (red bookstores), as well as dramatic societies and orchestras, which helped sustain and promote revolutionary ideas while also entertaining the immigrants.
This radical movement included anarchist and socialist émigrés, immigrants—both educated and self-taught, who often were radicalized in America—and, starting with Mussolini’s rise to power in 1922, anti-Fascist refugees. Contrary to the belief that the radical leadership came from the northern cities of Italy, The Lost World reveals that the most important figures among the sovversivi (as Italian radicals were collectively called), as well as the largest numbers of their adherents, were children of the south. It should also be noted, that while the movement was male dominated, women were not completely absent, as has been traditionally assumed. Gugliemo, for example, argues that Italian immigrant women played an important role in the anarchist groups of Paterson, New Jersey, as well as in the Italian garment and needle-trades labor unions.
[continued^]
Lost and Found: The Italian-American Radical Experience
by Marcella Bencivenni
Marcella Bencivenni teaches history at Hostos Community College in New York. She is currently writing a manuscript on radical Italian immigrant culture in the United States. Her most recent article, “Letteratura e arte radicale dei calabresi a New York,” appeared in Amelia Paparazzo, ed., Calabresi sovversivi nel mondo: L’esodo, l’impegno politico, le lotte degli emigrati in terra straniera, 1880–1940 (Soveria Mannelli, Cosenza, Italy: Rubbettino Editore, 2004).
Philip V. Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, eds., The Lost World of Italian-American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003), 346 pages, cloth $79.95, paper $29.95.
When, almost ten years ago, I came from Italy to study in New York I was shocked by the discrepancy between Italian-American and Italian politics. To my amazement, I discovered that the left, which has always played, and still plays, an important role in Italian politics, occupies a marginal, if not nonexistent, place in Italian-American political culture. Even worse, I learned that Italian Americans are perceived as a basically conservative group, whose only ties to Italy appear to be the Mafia and food. How did Italian Americans end up identifying themselves, and being identified, with such conservative values and reactionary political forces? Why did their political consciousness diverge so markedly from their Italian counterparts?
The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism, a collection of articles edited by Philip Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, helps provide an explanation to these questions. The book shows that, despite their present conservative image, Italian Americans have a vibrant and rich radical past. Italian immigrants, for example, played a central role in the working-class struggle of the early twentieth century, providing both leadership and mass militancy in major strikes across the country—notably the Lawrence textile strikes of 1912 and 1919, the Paterson silk strike of 1913, the Mesabi Iron Range strikes of 1907 and 1916, and the New York City Harbor strikes of 1907 and 1919, as well as coal mining strikes. They also made important contributions to American labor unions, especially the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. At the same time, they were able to build vibrant radical communities wherever Italian immigrants settled that replicated the traditions, cultures, and institutions of the old country. They formed, for example, their own political and social clubs, mutual aid societies, alternative libraries and press, as well as their own orchestras and theaters, designed to promote and sustain a radical subculture that was in stark opposition to both the hegemonic culture sustained by prominenti (the powerful men of the Little Italies) and the individualistic culture of capitalist America. Yet, this radical world has been almost completely forgotten, perhaps deliberately suppressed from both American and Italian-American memory.
..
With this anthology, Cannistraro and Meyer have sought to break the many silences, like that of Cammella Teoli, that have distorted the history and identity of Italian Americans. The editors themselves have long been committed to recover, and uncover, the lost stories of Italian-American radicalism. Philip Cannistraro, who passed away on May 28, 2005, was a major figure in Italian-American studies and modern Italy, contributing numerous books and articles, especially on fascism and antifascism. Gerald Meyer has also significantly enriched the field of Italian-American radicalism with a biography of radical Congressman Vito Marcantonio and articles on Italian-American communism and labor.
Organized into three sections—“Labor,” “Politics,” and “Culture”—the book brings together sixteen essays, selected from the more than sixty papers presented at a groundbreaking conference sponsored by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College in 1997. Along with the pioneering research of veteran scholars of Italian immigrant radical history and culture (such as Rudolph Vecoli, Nunzio Pernicone, Calvin Winslow, Paul Avrich, Donna Gabaccia, Salvatore Salerno, Gary Mormino, George Pozzetta, Paola Sensi-Isolani, and Fred Gardaphè), the book introduces original contributions by younger historians (Jennifer Guglielmo and Charles Zappia) and new interpretative studies on the literary work of Italian-American women (by Mary Jo Bona, Julia Lisella, and Edvige Giunta) and the involvement of Italian Americans in the civil rights and student movements of the 1960s (Gil Fagiani and Jackie DiSalvo).
Providing a general background to the other pieces, a fifty-page introduction by the editors traces the history of the Italian-American radical movement, from the formation of the first anarchist and socialist groups at the beginning of the twentieth century to the eventual decline after the Second World War. Much of the information contained here is not new; yet this is the first attempt to bring together the different components of the Italian-American left and offer a synthesis of the radical experience as a whole, in all its multifaceted aspects. The authors justly emphasize not only the political but also the cultural importance of Italian-American radicalism. Besides political initiatives aiming at promoting class consciousness, great attention and energy were given to cultural activities for educational, associational, and recreational purposes, such as lectures, picnics, plays, and dances. Perhaps the best example of such a cultural vitality was the radical press, with nearly 200 newspapers—a number that qualifies Italian immigrant radicals in the United States as the third most prolific ethnic group after the Germans and the Jews.
The importance of this radical culture is depicted with particular force in the essay by Mormino and Pozzetta on the radical community of Ybor City (Florida), where Italians, Cubans, and Spaniards, who worked in the cigar industry, were able to overcome ethnic barriers and create a “Latin” culture based on common values such as working-class solidarity, internationalism, and anticlericalism. Here, as well as in other American cities, Italian immigrants created socialist circles, anarchist groups, labor unions, and later on, sections of the Communist Party. At the same time, they formed educational and recreational circles, Università Popolari (People’s Universities) with librerie rosse (red bookstores), as well as dramatic societies and orchestras, which helped sustain and promote revolutionary ideas while also entertaining the immigrants.
This radical movement included anarchist and socialist émigrés, immigrants—both educated and self-taught, who often were radicalized in America—and, starting with Mussolini’s rise to power in 1922, anti-Fascist refugees. Contrary to the belief that the radical leadership came from the northern cities of Italy, The Lost World reveals that the most important figures among the sovversivi (as Italian radicals were collectively called), as well as the largest numbers of their adherents, were children of the south. It should also be noted, that while the movement was male dominated, women were not completely absent, as has been traditionally assumed. Gugliemo, for example, argues that Italian immigrant women played an important role in the anarchist groups of Paterson, New Jersey, as well as in the Italian garment and needle-trades labor unions.
[continued^]