Amilcare Cipriani

Infobox Person
name = Amilcare Cipriani


caption =
dead=dead
birth_date = October 18 1843
birth_place = Anzio, Italy
death_date = March 1918 (aged 74)
death_place = Paris, France
known_for =
occupation =
nationality = Italian

Amilcare Cipriani (October 18 1843 – March 2 1918) was an Italian anarchist patriot.

Cipriani was born in Anzio to a family originally from Rimini. At the age of 16 he fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi alongside French troops in the Battle of Solferino in the Second Italian War of Independence, but against them at Aspromonte in 1862.

Cipriani founded the "Democratic Club", and along with Emanouil Dadaoglou organized a group and took part in the revolution against King Otto of Greece in 1862. After joining the First International in 1867, Cipriani partook in the defence of the Paris Commune in 1871, for which he was condemned to death but instead was exiled to a penal colony in New Caledonia along with 7,000 others. [Cobban, Alfred. "A History of Modern France". Vol 3: 1871–1962. Penguin books, London: 1965. Pg. 23.] In the amnesty that followed in 1880, Cipriani returned to France but was quickly expelled. Arrested in Italy in January 1881 for "conspiracies", he served seven years of his twenty year sentence before a popular campaign secured his release in 1888. At the Zurich congress of the Second International in 1893, Cipriani resigned his mandate in solidarity with Rosa Luxemburg and the anarchists who were excluded from the proceedings. [cite book |last=Joll |first=James |title=The Second International, 1889-1914 |page=72 |location=Lincoln |year=1974 |isbn=0710079664 ] In 1897, he went with Garibaldi's son to Greece to fight against the Turks and sustained wounds before being re-imprisoned in Italy for a further three years on July 30 1898. [Donna Gabaccia and Fraser M. Ottanelli (2000). "Italy's Many Diasporas: Elites, Exiles and Workers of the World" ISBN 1857285824]

He was elected deputy of the new Italian Chamber of Deputies (and subsequently re-elected eight times)cite news |first= |last= |page=13 |title=NOTED REVOLUTIONIST DEAD; Amilcare Cipriani Was Often Elected, but Never Sat in Italian Chamber |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=950CE2DD1238EE32A2575AC2A9639C946996D6CF |work=The New York Times |date=1918-05-29 |accessdate=2008-03-27 ] but was unable to claim his seat because he refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the King. In 1891, he was among the delegates to the conference which established the short-lived Socialist Revolutionary Anarchist Party.

He wrote for "Le Plébéien" and other anarchist periodicals. Cipriani died in a Paris hospital at the age of 73. His writings were banned as subversive literature in Italy in 1911. [cite book |page=112 |last=Goldstein |first=Robert |title=The War for the Public Mind |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |year=2000 |isbn=0275964612 ] The parents of fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini gave him the middle name "Amilcare" in honour of Cipriani. [cite book |last=Farrell |first=Nicholas |title=Mussolini: a New Life |publisher=Phoenix Press |location=London |year=2005 |isbn=1842121235 |page=page 10]

References

ee also

*Anarchism and nationalism