America’s Forgotten Terrorists

America’s Forgotten Terrorists

From Shepherd Express by David Luhrssen

The Rise and Fall of the Galleanists, by Jeffrey D. Simon

At the turn of the 20th century, anarchist groups across the world waged war against not only corporations and governments but against the very idea of authority. In the U.S. many anarchists were led—and contradictions of leadership are always rife in anarchism—by a charismatic, cultivated Italian immigrant. He is forgotten today but was for many years the focus of police investigations and prosecutions across America. He was Luigi Galleani and his followers called themselves by his name.

In his latest book, security consultant Jeffrey D. Simon turns his attention to the anarchists who took Galleani’s lead. Most of his disciples were fellow Italians, victims of discrimination and deemed “not white” in American society. In the South, Italians were sometimes lynched. Galleani’s newspaper, Cronaca Sovvesiva, was written in Italian; his speeches were largely in that language and directed toward his countrymen, hard-pressed at that time by American bigotry.

America’s Forgotten Terrorists includes several compelling characters, starting with Galleani, the Professor Moriarty of anarchy who continually slipped the net (and noose); Ella Antolini, the beautiful teenager, dubbed the “Dynamite Girl” by the press when arrested for transporting 36 sticks of dynamite to Milwaukee (intending to blow-up the district attorney); and Rayme W. Finch, agent for the FBI’s predecessor agency who doggedly pursued Galleani and his followers.

The Galleanists were philosophical absolutists. They condemned socialists, argued with other anarchists and took a role in strikes, always with a mind to inciting violent revolution. On June 2, 1919, they set off bombs in seven cities, including the home of the U.S. Attorney General. They were also probably responsible for the country’s first vehicular bombing a year later when a horse cart exploded on Wall Street, killing 38 and wounding hundreds.

All their efforts were in vain, as capitalism and the U.S. government survived their assaults and continued to evolve. America’s Forgotten Terrorists is an object lesson about idealists who broke no compromise, even as they broke people and buildings in a Quixotic lurch toward their idea of Utopia.

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You can still feel the pockmarks in the walls around the NYSE.

Paul Avrich's book on the subject is an excellent deep dive.

Usually what's referred to as terror means a goal of striking fear into the population. That wasn't their goal. Theirs was a response, and a very reasonable one. A dog cornered will bite. When the dog bites, our Western mindset says "bad dog! You bit!" while outright ignoring that the dog in this context is acting as a vent to the greater underlying tensions.

The Galleanists were having a really really free marker. A revolver was being openly exchanged in the park. A cop saw this, and couldn't believe one of those eptithets for an Italian would be doing such a thing. This started an investigation.

They were always people of action, rather than creators of fear. Action proved that the powerful of that time weren't untouchable after all. But, theirs was a rousing of the public, an over-zealous call rather than a campaign of fear. 'Cronica' peaked at about 45k subscribers.

The other context is the first Red Scare. A few core people in the loose group fled the US initially to Chihuaha, Baja to assist the in Magon brothers during the Mexican rev. When that fell through and they returned to the US their time was limited, and deportation on the horizon. Something else happened. An anarchist was being interrogated many floors up in a lower Manhattan courthouse, and mysteriously committed suicide by jumping out of its windows (so the officials said). Some decided to fight back, and live their remaining days in the states on their own terms, rather than constantly humiliated marginalized people.

There wasn't much of a choice. It was: "Palmer is coming, and you will be delivered into the hands of Mussolini."

Maybe it some people to realize that any of, when cornered, has the potential to bite!?

The bigger lesson is that it didn't matter what Sacco and Vanzeti had been a part of, or that they were probably hiding weapons and devices instead of papers. It was that they were tried and convicted for some entirely different crime without any evidence. The state was willing to pick up two people and frame them (and also frame them because of cultural prejudice). The state doesn't give a shit about life then, nor now.

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