Paolo Schicchi

Paolo Schicchi aka 'il leone di Collesano' (d. 1950), Italian anarchist supporter of the spontaneous/anti-organisational current (anarchico-spontaneista/tendenza antiorganizzatrice), anti-militarist, anti-clericalist, who was prominent in the anti-fascist struggle, born. An individualist anarchist since an early age, he represented the tendency advocating terrorism i.e. the attentat as a way of sustaining the current political struggle at the 1891 libertarian socialist congress in Capolago. A regular resident of Italian jails, he was editor of the 'L'avvenire Anarchico' (The Anarchist Future) newspaper in Pisa in 1910 and a great influence among Sicilian workers and also the Partido Socialista Italiano (Italian Socialist Party) in the region. He also published 'La Zolfara' (The Sulphur Deposits), 'Il Piccone' (The Pickaxe) and 'La Zappa', and was active in the land occupations of that period. After WWI, in 1921, he founded 'Il Vespro Anarchico' (The Anarchist Evening), one of the most courageous and unstinting of newspapers in the struggle against fascism and the maffia, which, despite his individualism, he used to expond his views on the need for a united front of revolutionary forces to oppose squadrismo. Mussolini reacted by banning 'Il Vespro' and jailing Paolo. He managed to escape prison and leave Italy a few months later, settling in Tunisia. In August 1930, he tried to return to Italy to rejoin Salvatore Renda and Filippo Gramignano in the internal fight against Mussolini, with Severino Di Giovanni providing financial assistance in getting him back into the country. However, the ship's captain betrayed him and he was arrested. At his trial he was defiant and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Upon his release he was sent into internal exile. Following the defeat of fascism, he began publishing 'Conversazioni Sociali', a series of collections of memoirs and old and new writings and, from March 1946 with a new monthly magazine 'L'Era Nuova', "rivista mensile di cultura sociale" (monthly magazine of social culture), in which he argued "the absolute necessity to form a united front of all revolutionary healthy forces to oppose any reactionary forces anywhere and under any banner that might come". This led him to work with communists and socialists alike in the realisation of a policy that still informs Italian anti-fascism today. He died on December 12, 1950 after having spent forty years in prison and in both internal and external exile. Paolo Schicchi died on December 12, 1950 after having spent forty years in prison and in both internal and external exile.