Luigi Galleani and the Red Scare

Galleani, believed in the kind of society espoused by the Russian anarchist Prince Piotr Kropotkin, one based on mutualism, a stripped down form of anarcho-communism. But in reality he theorised little. He was always more concerned with how to destroy rather than how to build. He sought to overthrow the Government by violent means. The bomb he believed held the solution. Reforming the system was a nonsense, the system had to be destroyed.

In 1912, he moved to Lynn, Massachusetts. By this time he had developed a fervent and devoted following. He wrote for them La Salute e ve Voil, a thinly disguised bomb-making manual. It wasn’t long before they were making use of it, and many anarchists were to die following its instructions. Robberies were committed, the houses of the rich were bombed, law makers were attacked in the street, and there was even a mass-poisoning. Galleani then went on to publish Faccia a Faccia el Nemico (Face to Face with the Enemy) which praised propaganda by deed and lauded its exponents. The name Galleani sent shivers up the Authorities spine and mere possession of his work was prove of a man’s guilt and worthy of a sentence of incarceration.

On 24 November, 1917, Mario Buda, Galleani’s bomb-maker and effective right-hand man, attacked Milwaukee Police Headquarters, killing 10 people, including 9 policemen. In response the Authorities closed down Cronaca Sowersiva. In October, 1918, the Anarchist Exclusion Act was passed through Congress. It allowed the Authorities to deport from the United States any known radical or subversive. In June, 1919, 8 large bombs were planted in 8 major American cities. The resultant blasts killed 3 and wounded many more. That the toll of dead was so low was purely luck, good or bad, depending on your view. A pamphlet found at one of the bomb sites read: “there will have to be murder, we will kill because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction, we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions”.

On 16 September, 1920, in protest at the arrest and arraignment of Sacco and Vanzetti, Mario Buda, a close ally and confidante of Galleani’s, bombed Wall Street leaving 30 dead, 400 wounded and causing $2 million worth of damage. The Government panicked, the FBI expanded in power and influence, arbitrary arrests were made, and the mass-deportation of radicals began. This was the infamous Red Scare. Had Galleani not already been deported in 1919, it may have cost him his life.

Luigi Galleani, was to spend the rest of his life in his native Italy, now under the control of the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. Forced to remain under virtual house arrest and under constant surveillance, he still managed to advocate anarchism and oppose Mussolini’s thugs. He died of a heart attack on 4 November, 1931, though rumours persist that he was murdered.

Postscript

On 22 July, 1916, San Francisco’s Preparedness Day Parade (preparedness for entry into World War One) was bombed. Ten people were killed and forty injured. Earlier a warning had been issued. It read: “We are going to use a little direct action on the 22nd to show that militarism cannot be forced on us and our children”. Two local labour radicals, Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings were convicted of the crime. Both men were finally pardoned in 1939, on the basis of false evidence and perjured testimony. It is now widely accepted that the bombing was carried out by Mario Buda on the orders of Luigi Galleani.

Mario Buda, returned to Italy where he died of natural causes in, 1963.