Antifa originals. The formation of the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America to combat the influence of Mussolini’s Blackshirts among Italian workers in the States. For years a mini civil war raged in Italian immigrant communities between right and left as the conflict in Italy arrived in the U.S.Cannata was at this time editor of the I.W.W.’s Il Proletario.

‘An Anti-Fascist United Front’ by Giuseppe Cannata from Industrial Worker. Vol. 5 No. 13. April 21, 1923.

The appearance of the first signs of fascist organization in America has spurred the Italian workers of New York City to take a firm and united stand in defense of their rights. Up to this time the anti-fascist activity and propaganda had been carried on independently by the various radical groups and bore mainly on the infamous activity of the fascisti in Italy. The sentiment for concerted action, however, had been growing steadily and the attempt to organize fascist groups in America has led to the formation of a vast anti-fascist UNITED FRONT.

The Italian chamber of labor, an independent body representing all the Italian local unions of New York City, has taken the lead in this movement by calling a preliminary conference, held on Tuesday, April 3, at the Italian labor center, 231 East 14th St., New York City. Over 100 enthusiastic delegates representing local and central bodies of the Workers party, Socialist party, Industrial Workers of the World, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the Mosaic and Terrace Workers, the Amalgamated Foodstuff Workers, the Journeyman Barbers, etc., participated in the meeting and approved unanimously the plan of action proposed for an anti-fascist campaign.

The activities discussed will include a vast propaganda campaign by means of the printed as well as the spoken word in all the Italian centers of this country. Speakers will be routed across the country in order to present the fascist movement to the workers in its true light. A servile and corrupt daily press has consistently lied to the great masses of Italian workers as to the character and aims of the Fascisti: this lying propaganda will be counteracted by the publicity planned. The movement will not limit itself to illuminating the Italian worker as to the danger of the fascist theories and activities to organized labor, but will present this problem to American labor also. The fascist groups in America will lack the middle class elements which in Italy have given it some semblance of political idealism; in America the movement must degenerate into subsidized agencies of GUNMEN AND SCABS, manouvered by American capitalists to destroy American labor organization. The Italian chamber of labor and the new anti-Fascist united front will bring this aspect of the situation before the highest councils of the American Federation of Labor in order to force official action in the matter.

Besides these purely defensive steps, the labor organizations represented have decided to launch an offensive against the fascist regime in Italy because of its savage oppression and persecution of the Italian organized workers. The immigrants living here will be told to boycott Italian products, withhold remittances and deposits from all Italian state institutions, and to refuse to recognize the official representatives of the Fascist regime in America. The Harding administration will be made to realize that the Italian workers in America at least, do not consider the Mussolini regime a lawful and legitimate one, for it is maintained by systematic violence and armed force against the will of the PRODUCING CLASSES.

The committee formed will also launch a campaign for funds to aid the victims of fascist banditry, the widows and orphans in Italy, the maimed and the refugees from the reign of terror of the Italian reactionaries.

It is expected that at the next meeting many more organizations will send delegations, the committee will organize permanently and will authorize the formation of local committees in other cities which will work together with the central committee in New York.

The united front of Italian labor in America against Fascism will be an accomplished fact and Signor Mussolini will have something more to worry about.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

Access to full issue: https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=IWW19230421