12 Facts About Giuseppe Fanelli

Giuseppe Fanelli was an Italian revolutionary anarchist, best known for his tour of Spain in 1868, introducing the anarchist ideas of Mikhail Bakunin.

Giuseppe Fanelli was active in the insurrectionary, united Italian republic Young Italy movement and fought in the Milan insurrection of the 1848 revolution.

Giuseppe Fanelli went on to fight alongside Garibaldi's Redshirts in the Expedition of the Thousand in Sicily in 1860; he fought in the Polish uprising in 1863.

Giuseppe Fanelli was elected to Italian Parliament in November 1865 and fought against the Austrians in 1866.

Giuseppe Fanelli's tour took him first to Barcelona, where he met and stayed with Elisee Reclus.

Reclus and Giuseppe Fanelli were at odds over Reclus' friendships with Spanish republicans, and Giuseppe Fanelli soon left Barcelona for Madrid.

Giuseppe Fanelli stayed in Madrid until the end of January 1869, conducting meetings to introduce Spanish workers, including Anselmo Lorenzo, to the First National.

In February 1869 Giuseppe Fanelli left Madrid, journeying home via Barcelona.

Giuseppe Fanelli was a tall man with a kind and grave expression, a thick black beard and large black expressive eyes which flashed like lightning or took on the appearance of kindly compassion according to the sentiments which dominated him.

Giuseppe Fanelli's voice had a metallic tone and was susceptible to all the inflexions appropriate to what he was saying, passing rapidly from accents of anger and menace against tyrants and exploiters to take on those of suffering, regret and consolation when he spoke of the pains of the exploited, either as one who without suffering them himself understands them, or as one who through his altruistic feelings delights in presenting the ultra-revolutionary ideas of peace and fraternity.

Giuseppe Fanelli spoke in French and Italian, but we could understand his expressive mimicry and follow his speech.

For Giuseppe Fanelli, revolution was a way of life, not merely a distant theoretical goal, and his latter years as a deputy were spent on the railways, preaching social revolution during the day in peasant villages throughout Italy, later returning to sleep in the train at night.