New pamphlet: Emilio Canzi : an anarchist partisan in Italy and Spain

italy / switzerland | history of anarchism | press release Saturday October 20, 2007 23:37 by KSL - Kate Sharpley Library

by Paolo Finzi and others, translated by Paul Sharkey

Just published by the Kate Sharpley Library, a collection of articles devoted to Emilio Canzi, Italian anarchist, who was a key figure in the partisan struggle against fascism in the Piacenza region.

Canzi was born in Piacenza on 14 March 1893, fought in the First World War, and joined the Italian anarchist movement in the 1920s. He helped train the Arditti del Popolo (People's Commmandos) who fought against Mussolini's Blackshirts. In exile, he agitated against fascism and fought it in the Spanish Civil War. Captured by the Germans in 1940, interned in Italy, he escaped to play a major part in the partisan struggle in his native Piacenza. He became head of the partisans of the XIIIth Zone, but was 'removed' by the Communist Party, and after escaping them, returned to fight as as "just another partisan". Just after the liberation he died after being hit by a British Army truck.
As Finzi says, Canzi always fought on the side of freedom, and his story sheds a little more light on the role of anarchists in the resistance to fascism.

Contents:
On the Same Side Throughout – Paolo Finzi
Piacenza and Back – Claudio Silingardi
Death to death: Emilio Canzi and the Arditi del Popolo in Piacenza
The Epic of One Libertarian Antifascist – Orazio Gobbi
Tragic Barcelona – Ivano Tagliaferri
Way up in the Appennines – Franco Sprega
"Isabella"'s story
Poor Devil: Canzi the Anarchist and Don Borea
"A founding father of the resistance": Orazio Gobbi interviews historian Mirco Dondi
With a Rock for a Pillow – The "Comandante Muro" ANPI Youth Committee, Piacenza
"A Very Humane Person" – Renato Cravedi
The Christian Democrat, the Communist and the Anarchist – Italo Londei
Emilio Canzi – Claudio Venza
Canzi's Epitaph
The Anarchists versus the Fascists – Massimo Ortalli

Emilio Canzi : an anarchist partisan in Italy and Spain
by Paolo Finzi and others, translated by Paul Sharkey
Originally published as 'Dossier Emilio Canzi', supplement to A Rivista Anarchica (Cas. Post. 17120, I-20170 Milano, Italy. www.arivista.org) number 316 (April 2006)
ISBN 9781873605295 Anarchist sources series #7
$3(USA) £3/£2 subscribers. Illustrated, 50 pages.

Also available: KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library #52 (October 2007)
Contents:
Prison Gates (CNT prison solidarity in the 1930s)
Librarian as cultural hero: 'Outwitting History' by Aaron Lansky of the National Yiddish Book Center (book review)
A Siberian 'Makhnovshchina' by Frank Mintz (review of 'The Anarchist Movement in Siberia in the First Quarter of the 20th Century' and 'The Anarchist Movement in Russian Civilisation's Time of Crisis (late 19th to first quarter 20th century)' both by Anatoli Shtirbul.)
Ted Leggatt (From 'Beyond the horizon : The story of a radical emigrant' by Thomas B. Eyges.)
Announcements: Hobnail Review and New Leeds ABC pamphlets (leedsabc@riseup.net)
$1 or 50 pence. Subscriptions welcome (per year: UK £3; Europe/RoW £6; USA $5; Americas/RoW $10; Institutions £20; Friend £25 or $40)

Both available from:
Kate Sharpley Library, BM Hurricane, London, WC1N 3XX
Kate Sharpley Library, PMB 820, 2425 Channing Way, Berkeley CA 94704, USA