Transnational Radicals: Italian Anarchist Networks in Southern Ontario and the Northeastern ...

379 Pages·2010·2.31 MB·English

TRANSNATIONAL RADICALS: ITALIAN ANARCHIST NETWORKS IN
SOUTHERN ONTARIO AND THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES, 1915-
1940

by

Travis Tomchuk

A thesis submitted to the Department of History

in conformity with the requirements for

the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Queen‟s University

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

(November 2010)

Copyright © Travis Tomchuk, 2010
ii

Abstract

Previous studies of the left have tended to focus on groups or movements within the
confines of national boundaries. Yet the adherents of these organisations were often migrants
who travelled to and lived in multiple states. The Italian anarchist movement emerged during the
latter half of the nineteenth century during the process of that country‟s unification. As the need
for cheap labour in the industrializing nations of north-western Europe and North and South
America grew, a mass exodus of migrants left Italy. Among those migrants were anarchists who
established networks that spanned continents and the Atlantic Ocean. Wherever Italian
anarchists settled they began to publish journals, engage in anarchist activism, and re-create the
radical culture that had its roots in Italy. This dissertation examines a portion of the transnational
anarchist movement that existed in Canada and the United States between 1915 and 1940. The
themes explored in this work include the formation of these transational anarchist networks, the
divisions within the Italian anarchist movement and their repercussions, how transnational
activism was conducted, and the culture these transnational radicals created.
iii

Acknowledgements

My deepest and sincere thanks go to my supervisor, Ian McKay, for his enthusiasm and
dedication to this project. I would also like to thank the other members of my defence
committee: Karen Dubinsky, Ariel Salzmann, Richard Day, and Kirk Shaffer for their insightful
questions and suggestions. My life in the History Department at Queen‟s was made easier with
the help of two invaluable individuals: graduate secretary Yvonne Place and secretary Cathy
Dickison. I am also grateful to my parents, Ernie and Trudy Tomchuk, and my partner, Meghan
Gallant, for their love and support.
iv

Table of Contents

Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................... iii
List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... v
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One: Anarchism and the Italian Tradition ......................................................... 58
Chapter Two: Migrant Anarchists ................................................................................ 124
Chapter Three: Anarchist Identity Formation ............................................................... 156
Chapter Four: Factional Disputes................................................................................. 193
Chapter Five: Anarchist Culture .................................................................................. 239
Chapter Six: Deportation Struggles.............................................................................. 281
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 329
Appendix A: Photos .................................................................................................... 340
Appendix B: Mastheads............................................................................................... 344
Appendix C: Political Illustrations ............................................................................... 347
Bibliography ............................................................................................................. ..350
v

List of Abbreviations

ACS Archivio Centrale dello Stato
AdR L‟Adunata dei Refrattari
AAFNA Alleanza Anti-Fascista del Nord America
ACWU Amalgamated Clothing Workers‟ Union
AFL American Federation of Labour
CCF Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
CFS Canadian Federation of Students
CGDCF Comitato Generale di Difesa Control il Fascismo
CGL Confederazione Generale del Lavoro
CNR Canadian National Railway
CNT Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
CPC Casellario Politico Centrale
CPC Communist Party of Canada
CPR Canadian Pacific Railway
CPUSA Communist Party of the United States of America
CS Cronaca Sovversiva
CSC Correctional Service of Canada
DKP David Koven Papers
EGPP Emma Goldman Papers Project
FA:EGP Federico Arcos: Emma Goldman Papers
FAI Federazione Anarchici Italiana
FIOM Federazione Italiana Operai Metallurgica (Italian Metal Workers‟ Union)
FLQ Front de Libération du Québec
FSI Federazione Socialista Italiana
IISH International Institute of Social History
ILGWU International Ladies Garment Workers‟ Union
IM Il Martello
IWMA International Working Men‟s Association
IWW Industrial Workers of the World
JGP Jacques Gross Papers
JLCP Jacob Lawrence Cohen Papers
LC Labadie Collection
NDP New Democratic Party
OBU One Big Union
OFI Ordine Figli d‟Italia (Order of the Sons of Italy)
OGPU Ob'edinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie
OND Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (National Afterwork Organisation)
OPCCA Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association
OPIRG Ontario Public Interest Research Group
OVRA Opera Volontari Repressione Antifascista
PNF Partito Nazionale Fascista
POI Partito Operaio Italiano (Italian Worker‟s Party)
PSAR-FI Partito Socialista Anarchico Rivoluzionario – Federazione Italiana
vi

PSI Partito Socialista Italiana
RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police
SFI Sindicato Ferrovieri Italiani (Italian Railway Workers‟ Union)
SIA Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista
SLP Socialist Labour Party
SLRSI Società dei Legionari della Rivoluzione Sociale Italiana
SM Social Movement
SOPF Save Our Prison Farms
SPA Socialist Party of America
TSM Transnational Social Movement
UAWMF Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
UIL Unione Italiana del Lavoro
UMWA United Mine Workers of America
USI Unione Sindicale Italiana
1

Introduction
In 1920, Attilio Bortolotti left his hometown of Codroipo in the region of Friuli-
Venezia Giulia at the age of sixteen. Having witnessed firsthand the brutality and
senselessness of the First World War, he was determined to avoid the service in the
Italian military mandatory for males beginning at the age of eighteen. His experiences
during this conflict also led him to question the religious beliefs of his parents. After he
and his mother Maria discovered dead soldiers in a ditch, the young Bortolotti asked, “If
there is a God, why does he allow wars and killing like this if he is so powerful?”1
Bortolotti, who had an older brother, Guglielmo, living in Windsor, Ontario, decided he
wanted to go to Canada. When he arrived in Windsor that July, Bortolotti was able to
find employment through his brother as an assistant to a blacksmith who worked for a
public works contractor. Bortolotti had experience in this trade. As a youth he had
apprenticed to a blacksmith in Codroipo and, after the local blacksmith relocated to
Bologna, became the town smith. During his time working and living in Windsor,
Bortolotti attended night school to learn English and become a machinist. His training in
the latter led to a new position as a lathe operator at the same business. Though
Bortolotti was making headway at work, his days in the shop were plagued by the racism
of his supervisor, who never called Bortolotti by name – only “wop” or “dago.” After
nearly two years of abuse, Bortolotti was at the end of his rope. One day, while he was
being berated by his supervisor for not repairing the shop‟s generator fast enough,

1 Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (Oakland: AK Press, 2005)
178.
2

Bortolotti threw a hammer at the supervisor‟s leg, knocking him down. This ended
Bortolotti‟s employment with this particular firm.2
Bortolotti spent his spare time at the Windsor Public Library studying astronomy
and the history of religion. He was also reading the works of the naturalist Charles
Darwin and the sociologist Herbert Spencer. Bortolotti and his brother Guglielmo would
also get together with Italian friends and discuss themes such as religion. The friends
would congregate at the apartment of a local grocer, possibly Fortunato Mariotti, an
anarchist originally from Fano, Friuli-Giulia Venezia.3 This personal study and group
discussion helped to solidify Bortolotti‟s anti-religious position and led him to declare
himself an atheist in 1921. However, it was not until the following year that Bortolotti
became interested in anarchism. He had read a pamphlet on the arrest and incarceration
of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the two Italian anarchists arrested for their
supposed involvement in a payroll heist that occurred in Braintree, Massachusetts, in
April 1920 that had left the payroll master and a security guard dead. Both men were
found guilty and sentenced to death. The pamphlet explained that the two men were
innocent of the charges of robbery and murder, and had been convicted on the flimsiest of
evidence. At this point Bortolotti had never heard of Sacco and Vanzetti or anarchism.
He wanted to find out more about the two men and the political philosophy to which they
adhered, and was given a few anarchist newspapers and some pamphlets by notable
anarchist writers Errico Malatesta and Sébastien Faure to read. It took him half a year to
fully understand the material but it had a long-lasting influence. The next time he was

2 Avrich, Anarchist Voices 179.
3 Avrich, Anarchist Voices 179; G.B. Ambrosi, Vice Console, Toronto, to Consolato Generale d‟Italia,
Ottawa, 7 July 1933, Fortunato Marriotti, busta 3075, Casellario Politico Centrale (CPC), Archivio
Centrale dello Stato (ACS), Rome.
3

among friends, Bortolotti stated that he was an anarchist opposed to all government and
authority. Two anarchists, most likely Giulio Ghetti and Giuseppe Tubaro, came over to
Bortolotti and shook his hand.4
Bortolotti‟s becoming an anarchist coincided with Fascist Benito Mussolini‟s
march on Rome and he was actively involved in antifascist activism in both Windsor and
Detroit. Around this time, he met a Friulian bricklayer who had been living in the United
States and who had been recently hired by Bortolotti‟s brother in Windsor. The
bricklayer was an anarchist and asked Bortolotti to hand deliver a letter to a comrade in
Detroit. The letter was addressed to Fortunato Cernuto, the Sicilian-born owner of a
candy store located on Rivard Street.5 The store also served as an anarchist meeting
place and radical library for Il Gruppo “I Refrattari,” a local anarchist circle aligned with
the New York-based anarchist journal L‟Adunata dei Refrattari. After Bortolotti
delivered the letter, Cernuto invited him to peruse the anarchist literature and he took
some pamphlets. This was Bortolotti‟s first introduction to Il Gruppo “I Refrattari” and
would mark the beginning of his involvement with these Detroit anarchists. From that
point on he would travel to Detroit every Sunday morning to attend meetings. However,
Bortolotti continued his interaction with his Windsor comrades and was present for
weekly fund-raising dances or performances.6
In the oral histories conducted with Attilio Bortolotti, he does not elaborate on the
specific antifascist activities he and others were involved in during the early 1920s in

4 Avrich, Anarchist Voices 179; Attilio Bortolotti and Rossella Di Leo, “Between Canada and the US: A
Tale of Immigrants and Anarchists,” Kate Sharpley Library, http//:www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8pk1h4
(accessed 18 July 2010); Attilio Bortolotti, “Guardian of the Dream: A [sic] Oral History with Art
Berthelet,” Kick It Over 17 (Winter 1986/1987): 1.
5 Avrich, Anarchist Voices 179-180; Prefetto di Messina, Messina, to Ministero dell‟Interno, Rome, 5 Dec.
1912, Fortunato Cernuto, busta 1257, CPC, ACS, Rome.
6 Avrich, Anarchist Voices 179-180; Bortolotti and Di Leo, “Between Canada and the US: A Tale of
Immigrants and Anarchists.”
4

Windsor other than his mention of “fight[ing] the Fascists.”7 Bortolotti believed that his
difficulty in finding work in Windsor was a direct result of his antifascism which led to
local Fascists seeking to blacklist him. Bortolotti was able to find employment as a
mason with brother Guglielmo, who by this time had relocated to Detroit and was
constructing houses.
Regardless of whether Bortolotti was living in Windsor or Detroit, his anarchist
and antifascist activities continued uninterrupted. And, even while living in Detroit he
maintained close contact with comrades in Windsor who would notify him about
antifascist actions in that city. For example, Bortolotti was present when the Italian
Consul to Canada visited Windsor in 1926. At that meeting, Bortolotti raised his hand to
speak but the chairman8 would not recognize his right to speak. As Bortolotti recalled,
I called him [the chairman] what he was – a coward. On the platform
one of fascist leaders in Windsor said, „If you have the guts, come here
and speak.‟ I got up as fast as I could and in five seconds I was there. I
told the consul what they [the fascists] were – a bunch of killers, liars,
and the rest. At my shoulder was a picture of the [Italian] king
[Vittorio Emanuele III]. I tore it off the wall, crumpled it in my hands,
and threw it in the face of the consul. That started a melee. In less than
a minute the whole audience was fighting each other. The fascists
retreated into one corner. My brother came over with a couple of
comrades and said, „Tilio, let‟s go.‟ We could hear the police sirens
coming.9

In early 1927, Bortolotti was again living in Windsor after United States
immigration officials began to monitor his brother Guglielmo‟s work sites in Detroit.

7 Bortolotti, “Guardian of the Dream” 1.
8 The chairman of this meeting was actually a former boss of Bortolotti‟s by the name of Luigi Merlo, a
prominent member of Windsor‟s Italian community. Merlo came to Canada in his teens and later
established companies in construction and land development among others. He was involved in the
Separate School Board, was a member of Knights of Columbus, in addition to two golf and country clubs,
and “a loyal Liberal Party supporter,” ostensibly after his involvement chairing fascist meetings. Susan
Petkovic, “Italians in Windsor: The Development of the Erie Street Community from Ghetto to Via Italia,”
MA Thesis, Queen‟s University, 1992, 64-65.
9 Avrich, Anarchist Voices 181.