Wikipedia

Giuseppe Pinelli

"Pino Pinelli" redirects here. For the painter, see Pino Pinelli (painter).

Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli (21 October 1928 – 15 December 1969) was an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, who died while being detained by the Polizia di Stato in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the Milan-based anarchist association named Ponte della Ghisolfa. He was also the secretary of the Italian branch of the Anarchist Black Cross. His death, believed by many to have been caused by members of the police, inspired Nobel Prize laureate Dario Fo to write his famous play titled Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

Giuseppe Pinelli
Portrait of Giuseppe Pinelli
Pinelli in 1969
Born(1928-10-21)21 October 1928
Milan, Italy
Died15 December 1969(1969-12-15) (aged 41)
Milan, Italy
Cause of deathDefenestration
NationalityItalian
OccupationRailroad worker
MovementAnarchism

Early life

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Pinelli in 1955

Pinelli was born in Milan to Alfredo Pinelli and Rosa Malacarne.[1] His family was working-class in one of the poorest areas of post-World War I Milan. Although he had to work in many low-income jobs, such as waiter and warehouseman,[1] in order to make ends meet, he nonetheless found the time to read many books and become politically active throughout his youth.[1] Among other political activities, he also worked with the anarchist group that published the weekly paper Il Libertario (The Libertarian).[2]

In 1944, Pinelli was a member of the Italian resistance movement within the Franco Brigade, and worked with a group of anarchist partisans that introduced him to libertarian thought.[3] In 1954, he found work as a railroad fitter. In 1955, Pinelli married Licia Rognini, whom he had met at an evening class of Esperanto.[2] During the 1960s, he continued anarchist activism. He organized young anarchists in the Gioventù Libertaria (Libertarian Youth) in 1962.[1] In 1965, he helped found the Anarchist Association named after Sacco and Vanzetti. He also founded the Ponte della Ghisolfa association (named after the nearby bridge) in 1968.[1]

Suspicious circumstances surrounding his death

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The new memorial tag in memory of Pinelli; the old one is still there.[4]

On 12 December 1969, a bomb exploded at the Piazza Fontana in Milan; it killed 17 people and injured 88.[5] Pinelli was picked up, along with other anarchists, for questioning regarding the attack.[2] Just before midnight on 15 December 1969, Pinelli was seen to fall to his death from a fourth-floor window of the Milan police station.[6] His death was widely believed to have been caused by members of the police.[7] Three police officers interrogating Pinelli, including Commissioner Luigi Calabresi, were put under investigation in 1971 for his death; legal proceedings concluded it was due to accidental causes,[8][9] citing active illness.[10][11][12] He was 41, and was survived by his wife and two young daughters.[10]

Since his death, Pinelli's name was cleared,[6] and the far-right Ordine Nuovo was accused of the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing.[5] In 2001, three neo-fascists were convicted,[13][14] a sentence that was overturned in March 2004;[5] a fourth defendant, Carlo Digilio, was a suspected CIA informant who became a witness for the state and received immunity from prosecution.[14][nb 1] Calabresi was later killed by two shots from a revolver outside his home in 1972.[15] In 1988, former Lotta Continua leader Adriano Sofri was arrested with Ovidio Bompressi and Giorgio Pietrostefani for Calabresi's murder.[16] The charges against them were based on testimony provided 16 years later by Leonardo Marino, an ex-militant who confessed to the murder of Calabresi under order from Sofri. Claiming his innocence, Sofri was finally convicted after a highly contentious trial in 1997.[17]

In 2022, as part of an investigative podcast about the Piazza Fontana bombing by Il Fatto Quotidiano,[18] the then 99-years-old General Gianadelio Maletti, former number two of Servizio Informazioni Difesa, the secret service of Italy's Ministry of Defence between 1971 and 1975, who was definitively sentenced to 12 months in prison for the misdirections on the Piazza Fontana investigations and had been at large in South Africa since 1980, discussed the death of Pinelli.[10] He described Pinelli's suicide as "a hoax", as General Vito Miceli had reportedly confided to him.[18] Brigadier Vito Panessa was also quoted as saying that one of the policemen who were in the room of Calabresi that night had joked: "Pinelli asked for it that night."[18] According to Panessa, there was not just an unexpected incident involving somewhat harsh policemen but someone who had taken revenge on Pinelli, who persisted in not confessing after three days of illegal interrogation.[18] Maletti concluded: "Pinelli refuses to answer questions. The interrogators then resort to stronger means and threaten to throw him out the window. They jerk him and force him to sit on the windowsill. With each negative response, Pinelli is pushed a little further towards the void. Finally, he loses his balance and falls."[18]

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Pinelli's death is the inspiration for Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, although in the original script his name was not mentioned explicitly.[2] The political documentary film 12 dicembre (1972) directed by Giovanni Bonfanti about Pinelli's death was based on an idea by Pier Paolo Pasolini and included an interview to Pinelli's mother and wife.[19] His death inspired the painting Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli by Italian artist Enrico Baj.[2] In Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (2012), Pinelli was portrayed by Pierfrancesco Favino.[20] Hints of his death are also in the songs "La ballata del Pinelli" (1969, with various versions), "Asilo 'Republic'" (1980) by Vasco Rossi, and "Quarant'anni" (1993) by the Modena City Ramblers, among others.[21][22]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The Italian justice uses a system of state witnesses, who are known as pentiti or collaboratori di giustizia (collaborators with justice) to fight against terrorism and the mafia.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Finzi, Paolo (December 2005). "Giuseppe 'Pino' Pinelli (1928–1969): the 17th victim of the Piazza Fontana bombing". Sicilia Libertaria. Retrieved 19 April 2024 – via Kate Sharpley Library.
  2. ^ a b c d e Heath, Nick (9 November 2006). "Pinelli, Giuseppe 'Pino', 1928–1969". Libcom.org. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Giuseppe Pinelli Italian anarchist militant (1928–1969)". Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia. 2008. Archived from the original on 25 January 2008 – via Recollection Books.
  4. ^ Foot, John (2014). "Divided Memories in Italy. Stories from the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries". In Hannes Obermair; et al. (eds.). Erinnerungskulturen des 20. Jahrhunderts im Vergleich – Culture della memoria del Novecento al confronto. Hefte zur Bozner Stadtgeschichte/Quaderni di storia cittadina. Vol. 7. Bozen-Bolzano: City of Bozen-Bolzano. pp. 182–185. ISBN 978-88-9070-609-7.
  5. ^ a b c "1969: Deadly bomb blasts in Italy". BBC News. 12 December 1969. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  6. ^ a b Bohlen, Celestine (26 September 1997). "Dispute in Italy Is Conjuring Up Its Terrorist Past". The New York Times. p. 2. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  7. ^ Clark, Martin; Foot, John (20 July 1998). "Italy: Terrorism of Italy". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 17 July 2011. Updated through the years.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  8. ^ "Né omicidio né suicidio: Pinelli cadde perché colto da malore". La Stampa (in Italian). 29 October 1975. ISSN 1122-1763.
  9. ^ Fleury, Matthew (1985). "Dario Fo". Bomb Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2024. The events upon which the play is based took place in 1969. A bomb exploded in the center of Milan, near the Duomo. Sixteen died. The police blamed the anarchists, one of whom, Giovanni Pinelli [sic], they seized. Later on he was thrown from a window at police headquarters. There is considerable evidence that Pinelli's death was murder, not an accident as the police claimed, so the title Accidental Death of an Anarchist, is ironic. We are sure it was not an accident ... It was murder ... But this is the official police characterization of the event. The case was filed as an 'accidental death'.
  10. ^ a b c Nerazzini, Alberto; Sceresini, Andrea (11 December 2020). "'Misero Pinelli sul davanzale. Fu così che poi cadde e morì'". Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). ISSN 2037-089X. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  11. ^ Romeo, Ilaria (21 October 2022). "La storia di Giuseppe Pinelli, morto senza verità né giustizia". Collettiva (in Italian). Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  12. ^ Romeo, Ilaria (15 December 2022). "Il caso Pinelli, storia di un anarchico in cerca di giustizia". Collettiva (in Italian). Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  13. ^ "Trio get life for 1969 Milan bombing". CNN. 30 June 2001. Archived from the original on 16 January 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  14. ^ a b Willan, Philip (1 July 2001). "Three jailed for 1969 Milan bomb". The Guardian. ISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  15. ^ "Assassinato per strada il commissario Calabresi". La Stampa (in Italian). 17 May 1972. ISSN 1122-1763.
  16. ^ Sasso, Cinzia (1 August 1988). "Un 'cassiere' raccoglieva armi e denaro delle rapine". La Repubblica (in Italian). ISSN 0390-1076. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  17. ^ Foschini, Paolo (23 January 1997). "Definitive le condanne per Sofri e gli altri". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). ISSN 2499-0485. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  18. ^ a b c d e Maiolo, Tiziana (15 December 2020). "Omicidio di Giuseppe Pinelli, così la polizia buttò l'anarchico fuori dalla finestra". Il Riformista (in Italian). ISSN 2704-8039. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Pasolini in lotta: '12 dicembre'". Cinefilia Ritrovata (in Italian). 1 July 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  20. ^ Marcellan, Francesca (12 December 2023). "12 dicembre: la memoria di piazza Fontana e il film 'Romanzo di una strage'". Volere la luna (in Italian). Archived from the original on 13 December 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  21. ^ Nawrocki, Norman (2013). Cazzarola!: Anarchy, Romani, Love, Italy (A Novel). PM Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-16-0486-315-4.
  22. ^ "Giuseppe Pinelli". Centro studi libertari (in Italian). 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
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