When women of Monteleone rebelled

Canada's Federal Minister of Human Resources Joe Volpe recalls the 1942 Italian revolt

Stop this war, we want our children back, we want our husbands back!" The women of Monteleone overwhelmed with these desperate shouts the religious processions of the torrid summer of 1942. The situation in southern Italy was on the verge of economic, social, and political collapse. Daily life for those women was misery, hunger, and rage for the absence of their men, sent to fight abroad in the name of the tyrant in Rome: in the hellish Libyan desert, in the harsh Balkan mountains, or in the limitless plains of the Soviet Union.
This was the context of the first real rebellion against Fascism. Researchers from the Universities of Foggia, Naples and Bologna, with funding from the European Union, reconstructed a detailed picture of what happened in August 1942 in Monteleone, Apulia. The research generated a book, Donne contro la guerra ("Women Against War"), edited by Vito Antonio Leuzzi, professor at Foggia and director of the Apulian Institute for the History of Antifascism and Contemporary Italy.
The revolt of the tiny mountain town in Apulia was sparked by many courageous women, including two grandaunts of Joe Volpe, Federal minister of Human Resources, originally from Monteleone. He told us something about the events of 1942.
"The revolt was led by the women of Monteleone, exasperated, enraged and desperate," remembers an emotional Volpe. "Following the revolt, some 180 people were thrown in jail; a few did several weeks, many more up to 14 or 15 months."
The rage exploded on the morning of August 23. The spark was the arrogance of a Carabinieri officer who seized pots of corn that some women were carrying to a local bakery. "Our children must eat," said the women, who resisted. The most vociferous of the women were brought in front of the regime-appointed mayor who sided with the military police officer. The women were jailed in a warehouse. The place was filled with cheese and other foodstuff: the rage of those starving women became unstoppable. They set the place on fire and escaped. That's when the revolt began in earnest.
The revolt turned violent along the streets of the Apulian hamlet: shouting and yelling, the Carabinieri station stormed, the rage of so many years of abuse and injustice discharged against the symbols of the Fascist regime. The police had a hard time containing the revolt: shots were fired, first in the air, then against the crowd. Finally, the crowd - armed only with pitchforks and clubs - was subdued.
"The women who had taken part in the riot," continued minister Volpe, "were jailed in Lucera. Overall, 180 citizens of Monteleone were deprived of their freedom."
This story, like many others from the same period, has a Canadian coda. The last rioters were freed 15 months later by a Canadian battalion, which fought with the British Army and managed to expel the Germans from Lucera.
Joe Volpe was in Italy this week to take part in a celebration of Monteleone's historic riot. He took this opportunity to meet several Italian authorities, including Italy's minister of Welfare Roberto Maroni, the Presidents of the Regions of Apulia and Basilicata, officials of the main unions of auto workers, and FIAT's Italian-Canadian CEO Sergio Marchionne.
"I'm proud of being able to participate to the celebration remembering the Monteleone riot," confirmed Volpe. "The ceremony was originally scheduled for the previous week, and official commitments would have prevented me from attending. The mayor decided to postpone it by seven days. That riot was really historic, first because - as documented in Donne contro la guerra - it was the very first open rebellion against the Fascist regime; second because it was led by women, with great courage and determination; finally, the personal side of this story makes me proud of my origin. Two grandaunts of mine were among the rioters, and a son was wounded by the shots fired by the police against the crowd."
Professor Leuzzi, well known in university circles for his studies on historical events in Apulia during the Fascist era (including Alleati, monarchia e partiti nel Regno del Sud - "Allies, Monarchy and Parties in the Southern Kingdom", La Puglia al voto, ricostruzione dei partiti e prime elezioni 1943-1946 - "Apulia to the Polls, Rebuilding the Parties and First Elections 1943-1946", Terra di frontiera. Profughi ed ex internati in Puglia - "Frontierland. Refugees and former internees in Apulia"), has written a book that manages to reconstruct in detail the exact moment when the people of a small town, after years of abuse and violence of every type, raised their heads and challenged Mussolini's regime, which was founded on that violence, nourished from that violence, and survived thanks to that violence.
The women who rioted paid a steep price for it, as frequently happens when people rebel against a still powerful tyrant. That slap to the regime's face did not remain an isolated happenstance. London Radio mentioned it, other hotbeds of rebellion formed all over Italy, timid and occasional at first, then increasingly bold and frequent, until they exploded in the armed Resistance.

Publication Date: 2004-11-14
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4618