Anarchism and violence: Severino Di Giovanni in Argentina 1923-1931 - Osvaldo Bayer

A biography of the Italian insurrectionary anarchist Severino di Giovanni.

Submitted by dendrite303 on November 22, 2016

Like many others di Giovanni was obliged to flee Mussolini's Italy, eventually settling in the large Italian expatriate community in Argentina. There he engaged himself in anti-fascist activity, and then, stimulated by the murder of Sacco & Vanzetti, he began to light the fuse on the dynamite of vengeance. From May 1926 to his death by firing squad on February 1st 1931 he carried on a campaign of bombings and anarchist propaganda, funded at the end by bank robberies. This included not merely publishing a paper called Culmine while on the run from the police, but also establishing a print shop to publish anarchist classics, producing the first volume of a collected Elisee Reclus. Di Giovanni is a figure of interest to anyone who's dreamed of making real their desire to strike back. However he is almost entirely unknown to English-speaking anarchists. This book is a translation of what is supposed to be the best book about Di Giovanni and gives a very interesting account of his activities.

Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni, one of the most vocal supporters of Sacco and Vanzetti in Argentina, bombed the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, a few hours after Sacco and Vanzetti were condemned to death. On November 26, 1927, Di Giovanni and others bombed a Combinados tobacco shop. On December 24, 1927, Di Giovanni blew up the headquarters of the Citibank and the Bank of Boston in Buenos Aires in apparent protest of the execution. In December 1928, Di Giovanni and others failed in an attempt to bomb the train that held the President-elect Herbert Hoover. These actions were almost as controversial then as they would be now, and this text is the story of what happened.

Contents:
I Face to Face with the Enemy
II For Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
III Error, Cruelty, and Blind Obstinacy
IV Anarcho-Banditry versus Drawing-room Anarchism
V The Anarchist, Love, and the Woman
VI The Bandits
VII The Struggle is Always a Bitter One
VIII For Absolute Freedom with a Colt .45
IX The Last Battle
X The End
XI Death

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