Galleanisti: An Argument for Cosmopolitan Revolution
On November 24, 1917 a bomb blast ripped through the police station in Milwaukee Wisconsin killing ten policemen and one bystander. This was the first strike in a bombing campaign that would last for three years and culminated in the Wall Street bombing of September 16, 1920.These acts were carried out by a group of anarchists known to history as the Galleanisti. This was a radical group loosely based around the subversive newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva and its editor, Luigi Galleani.
The bombing campaign was carried out by the most radical elements of this group, who had been in hiding in Mexico since the spring of 1917 due to the harsh legislation enacted against radical groups since America’s entry into WWI. The current belief among historians is that they had immigrated to Mexico to facilitate a return to Italy to participate in the anticipated revolution that would come to Europe following the Russian revolution in February of 1917. This belief is widely held because Galleani himself urged the group to go to Mexico for this purpose.[1] This is perhaps why this belief has met with little scrutiny in the past.
Though these men were known as Galleanisti, neither he nor they considered him a leader. It must be remembered that Galleani and the group that coalesced around him were anarchists, by definition people opposed to leaders and hierarchy. Galleani and the group centered around his newspaper were also anti-organizationalists.[2] With this in mind, and with an eye to future events, a closer look at the motivations behind the Mexican interlude is surely merited.
The Galleanisti who went to Mexico left in the face of harsh government crackdowns on radical groups after America’s entry into WWI. The Wilson administration passed several Acts in succession that specifically targeted radical groups, and the immigrant community who were viewed as threat to national security. The Espionage Act and the Conscription Act were passed in 1917, and the Sedition Act in 1918.[3] The Galleanisti were considered the most dangerous group in America and were under intense surveillance.
Many Galleanisti though remained in the U.S. and either registered for the draft or changed their names and moved around to avoid detection and arrest by the authorities. Why a small group of men went to Mexico while the rest remained in America leads to some question of motivation. If this journey was taken with the intention of returning to Italy, why then did they remain in Mexico so long? And why did they return to the U.S. instead? These men remained in Mexico for three months before returning to the U.S., whereupon they began a bombing campaign that lasted for three years. Could this bombing campaign, and the planning involved in its success have been the reason behind the exile in Mexico? Under intense pressure in the U.S. due to the Draconian laws passed by congress under Wilson’s guidance there would have been little chance of success.
This group made their way back to the U.S. in the fall of 1917. Their first act on arrival was the Milwaukee station house bombing on November 24. That this group was responsible is borne out by the fact many of these men were in the area at the time, Including Mario Buda, Carlo Valdinachi, Emilio Coda, Giovanni Scussel, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti namely.[4]
After this attack Valdinachi, under an assumed name and Gabriella Antolini, a Galleanisti from Patterson New Jersey, boarded a train bound for Chicago with a suitcase full of dynamite, where they were to meet Buda. Along the way they made an overnight stop in Steubenville Ohio, which was the home of fellow conspirator Emilio Coda. This stop was most surely to procure additional dynamite. Coda was a mine worker and the head of the local United Mine Workers union, and thus had access to plenty of dynamite. Also in Steubenville at this time were Scussel and Vanzetti. Valdinachi and Antolini continued on to Chicago while Vanzetti made his way back east by way of mining camps along the way. Antolini was arrested with the suitcase of dynamite on her arrival in Chicago, but Valdinachi traveling in another car was able to evade capture.[5]
That the Galleanisti bombing campaign was able to continue despite Antolini being arrested with the case of dynamite points to the fact that they were able to obtain more dynamite in Steubenville. Scussel or Vanzetti must have been used to smuggle the additional dynamite back east to Massachusetts. This belies some meticulous prior planning on the part of the conspirators. The fact that these plans included Galleanisti that had remained behind in the U.S. seems to point to the fact that this may have been the plan all along.
[1] Paul Averich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background (Princeton, Princeton University Press 1991).
[2] Christopher Wellbrook, Seething with the Ideal: Galleanisti and the Class Struggle in Late Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century USA, The Journal of Labor and Society vol.12 no. 3(September 1, 2009).
[3] Peter Connolly-Smith, Reading Between the Lines: The Bureau of Investigation, the United States Post Office, and Domestic Surveillance During World War One, Social Justice vol.36 no.1(2009).
[4] Paul Averich
[5] Paul Averich
