Attilio Bortolotto

Italian anarchist and anti-fascist. An apprentice blacksmith and potter in 1915, he emigrated to Canada with his brother Umberto and two friends in September 1920, settling in Windsor where he lived his brother Guglielmo (William) and worked for a Ukrainian blacksmith. In 1922 he joined the anarchist movement in Windsor. In Detroit, where he worked in the Chrysler factory, he participated actively in the agitation in support of Sacco and Vanzetti. In 1924, in a symbolic act to protest the death of Giacomo Matteotti, he burnt his passport in opposition to the fascist regime in his country. In 1926, as the militant member of Il Gruppo i Refrattari he attended a meeting involving the Italian consul and, to the surprise of all, smashed up the portrait of the King of Italy, causing a massive fight. Between 1927 and 1929 he worked at Ford Motor Company as an adjuster and took part in union agitation. On October 12, 1928 (Columbus Day), he was involved in a clash with a group of Blackshirts marching in Detroit and which resulted in the death of anarchist Antonio Barra. In 1929 he was arrested in Detroit for distributing leaflets announcing a rally in memory of Sacco and Vanzetti and the process of deportation to Italy was started against him. However, he broke bail ($3,000) and fled to Toronto, where he got a job as a car mechanic. Between 1933 and 1935, he directed and coordinated Il Libertarian theatre company of Il Gruppo Libertario, presenting works by Pietro Gori, Gigi Damiani and others.

In 1934 he met Emma Goldman and became an activist in the Toronto Libertarian Group. In 1939, during a workers' picnic, he brought along some self-made dolls to be shot at with bow and arrow as a bit of fun: the figures represented Franco, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, which disturb some passing communist militants, resulting in a noisy altercation. On 4 October 1939 he was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Toronto with three other Italian comrades and accused of "spreading revolutionary propaganda" during the Canadian Anti-Deportation Campaign against anti-Fascist activists supporting the Spanish Revolution; two were released, but it was proposed that Bortolotto and Marco Joachim, who had both entered Canada illegally, were to be deported to Italy. Finally, after a long campaign led by Goldman, they were released. Joachim, instead of being deported to Italy, managed a get visa for Mexico, and Bortolotto, after paying a fine of $400, was placed on probation in Toronto on January 14, 1940 - just four months later on May 14, 1940, Goldman died. As a result of his imprisonment, he fell seriously ill and Goldman had to nurse him. In 1959 he founded Bartell Industries Inc. and the profits of the company went to fund propaganda libertarian ('Antistato', 'A Rivista Anarchica', Cienfuegos Press, Galzerano Editore, etc.). During the Vietnam War, he gave refuge to many American deserters who had illegally crossed the border into Canada. Between 1968 and 1969 he directed 'The Libertarian', paper of the Toronto Libertarian Group. In 1984 he participated in the Incontro Internazionale Anarchica in Venice.

Bortolotto Attilio died on February 11, 1995, in Toronto.