Nicola Petrina

Nicola Petrina (November 13, 1861 – January 11, 1909) was an Italian socialist and politician from Sicily. He was one of the national leaders of the Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Leagues) a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration in 1891-1894.

Nicola Petrina
Nicola Petrina
Born(1861-11-13)13 November 1861
Messina, Italy
Died11 January 1909(1909-01-11) (aged 47)
Messina, Italy
NationalityItalian
OccupationSocialist politician
Known forProminent leader of the Fasci Siciliani

Life

Together with the anarchist Giovanni Noè,[1] he set up the first Fascio dei Lavoratori in Messina on March 18, 1889, but the organisation remained dormant after the arrest of Petrina in July of that year. He was not released until 1892 when many more Fasci had been set up in Sicily. Another reason why the Fascio of Messina – formed after the example of the Fasci operai [Workers leagues] constituted in Central and North Italy from 1871 – initially did not develop was that it brought together not individual workers but the workers' associations of the city, which retained their independence, their status and economic orientation.[2]

Petrina was among the 500 delegates from nearly 90 leagues and socialist circles at the Congress of the Fasci that was held in Palermo on May 21–22, 1893. A Central Committee was elected, composed of nine members: Petrina was elected for the province of Messina.[3] The Congress decided that all Leagues were obliged to join the Party of Italian Workers (Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani, the initial name of the Italian Socialist Party).[2]

In July 1893, he was elected in the municipal council of Messina, where he immediately discovered serious abuses that had been committed in the City Hall for years.[4]

Following the repression of the Fasci Siciliani by the government of Francesco Crispi, he was arrested on January 4, 1894, and was brought to trial.[5][6][7] On May 30, 1894, the leaders of the movement received their sentence: Giuseppe de Felice Giuffrida to 18 years and Rosario Garibaldi Bosco, Nicola Barbato and Bernardino Verro to 12 years in jail. Petrina was sentenced to three years,[8] on trumped up charges and his contact with the anarchist Amilcare Cipriani.[9]

He died as a result of the earthquake and tsunami of December 28, 1908, when the city of Messina was almost entirely destroyed killing about 60,000 people. His body was found on January 11, 1909.[10]

References
  1. Noè, Giovanni, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 78 (2013)
  2. Scolaro, Il movimento antimafia siciliano, p.18
  3. (in Italian) Il «battesimo» del socialismo, La Sicilia, May 24, 2009
  4. (in Italian) Rossi, L'agitazione in Sicilia
  5. Colajanni, Gli avvenimenti di Sicila e le loro cause, p. 261
  6. (in Italian) Crispi sciolse i Fasci contadini, La Sicilia, January 7, 2011
  7. Scolaro, Il movimento antimafia siciliano, p.56
  8. Sicilian Rioters Sentenced, The New York Times, May 31, 1894
  9. Colajanni, Gli avvenimenti di Sicila e le loro cause, p. 359
  10. Survivors Plan Restoration of Ruined Messina, The New York Herald, January 12, 1909
  • (in Italian) Colajanni, Napoleone (1895). Gli avvenimenti di Sicila e le loro cause, Palermo: Remo Sandron Editore
  • (in Italian) Scolaro, Gabriella (2008), Il movimento antimafia siciliano: Dai Fasci dei lavoratori all'omicidio di Carmelo Battaglia, Lulu.com, ISBN 1-4092-2951-3
  • (in Italian) Rossi, Adolfo (1894/1988). L'agitazione in Sicilia. Inchiesta sui Fasci dei lavoratori, Palermo: La Zisa.
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