Fasci Siciliani
Popular depiction of the crackdown on the Fasci Siciliani (Il movimento dei fasci siciliani dei lavoratori, 1955, by Onofrio and Minico Ducato) | |
| Date | 1891–1894 |
|---|---|
| Location | Sicily |
| Type | Mass strikes, land occupations and ransacking local tax offices. |
| Cause | Economic crisis and a deep recession since the end of the 1880s in which the dominant landowning class shifted much of the economic burden onto the peasantry by imposing higher rents and discriminatory local taxes, pushing many into even more extreme poverty and starvation. |
| Target | Fair land rents with new sharecropping contracts that would deliver more grain to the peasant, higher wages, an end to common contractual abuses and usury, and lower local taxes and distribution of misappropriated common land. |
| Participants | Popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration; 177 Fasci with membership exceeding 200,000 |
| Outcome | Government imposed a state of emergency and reasserted control through extreme measures, including summary executions. The Fasci were banned, and many demonstrators were killed or injured. Thousands of activists — including all leaders — were imprisoned or internally exiled. All working-class organizations and cooperatives were disbanded, and freedoms of the press, assembly, and association were suspended. |
The Fasci Siciliani (Italian: [ˈfaʃʃi sitʃiˈljaːni]), short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori ('Sicilian Workers Leagues'), were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration that arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894. The Fasci gained the support of the poorest and most exploited classes of the island by channeling their frustration and discontent into a coherent programme based on the establishment of new rights. Consisting of a jumble of traditionalist sentiment, religiosity, and socialist consciousness, the movement reached its apex in the summer of 1893, when new conditions were presented to the landowners and mine owners of Sicily concerning the renewal of sharecropping and rental contracts.
Upon the rejection of these conditions, there was an outburst of strikes that rapidly spread throughout the island, and was marked by violent social conflict, almost rising to the point of insurrection. The leaders of the movement were not able to keep the situation from getting out of control. The proprietors and landowners asked the government to intervene, and Prime Minister Francesco Crispi declared a state of emergency in January 1894, dissolving the organizations, arresting their leaders and restoring order through the use of extreme force. Some reforms followed, including workmen's compensation and pension schemes. The suppression of the strikes also led to an increase in emigration.