Luigi Antonini
Encyclopedia
Luigi Antonini was a United States
labor leader
. Antonini was the first VP of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
, and organizer of the Italian-American Labor Council (IALC). Antonini emerged as one of the most outstanding labor leaders of the first half of the 20th Century.
in the province of Avellino
, Italy in 1883 to a father who was a Milanese school teacher and a mother who was the daughter of the local nobility and a poet. When his father, with the entire family, moved back to native Lombardy
, Luigi, his brothers and his sister lost their mother when still at a tender age. Luigi had his education at the high school in Tortona
, Piedmont
. He served in the Italian army, in the 11th Infantry and was an expert fencer
.
. He joined and became active in the newly formed International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
(ILGWU) where he became a great orator and one of the most dynamic and active leaders of working class. He emerged as a speaker in the famous waistmakers’ general strike of 1913. In 1916, he became editor of the Italian language labor periodical L'Operaia, which promoted unionization and significantly increasing Italian speaking membership in Local 89 of the ILGWU.
It is mainly to his credit that in 1919 the Italian Dress and Waistmakers’ Union, Local 89 was founded. Local 89, with, its 25,000 members, was the largest Local in the ILGWU, whose membership grew to about 450,000 ladies’ garment workers. This Italian local became one of the largest in the organization enabling Antonini to become a ILGWU vice president.
s on issues that went beyond labor and into politics. In 1935, he represented the American Labor Movement in Brussels
, Belgium
, and in 1939 he attended the Pan-American Congress for Democracy in Montevideo
, Uruguay
. He was a founder of the American Labor Party
(ALP) in 1936, and was elected State Chairman of the American Labor Party in New York State.
During the Second World War, Antonini's labor union was unflinchingly in support of the United States war effort and vociferous in his condemnation of Fascism
. During this time he served as a member of the Appeal Board of the Selective Service System in Westchester County, New York
. He was key in the rebuilding of Italy in the postwar period and was instrumental in founding a vocational school in Sicily named after President Roosevelt. He was Presidential Elector of Franklin D. Roosevelt for the third term. He was among the founders of the Liberal Party
when the American Labor Party fell under communist control.
In 1941, a few days after Pearl Harbor, he was the main founder of the Italian-American Labor Council which under his chairmanship performed services to help America win the war and the Italian people to regain their freedom from fascist dictatorship. He was chosen by the American Federation of Labor
(AFL) to go to Italy in 1944 as a member of the Anglo-American Trade Union Committee to advise the Italian workers how to rebuild bona fide labor unions.
Right after the Second World War he led the drive to collect among various labor unions hundreds of thousands of dollars for Italian relief as well as thousands and thousands of garments, medicine, food, etc. During his many visits to Italy he was in contact with the leaders of the Italian Government, such as Presidents
De Nicola
, Einaudi
, Gronchi
, and many leaders of the Parliament. He was the spokesman for the Italian-American Committee for a Just Peace to Italy when he went to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946, following a tour in Latin-America: to enlist the support of those people for the same purpose.
One of the largest vocational schools in Europe for orphan
s, the Roosevelt Institute in Palermo
, Italy, was conceived and helped made a reality by him. He was a delegate of the American Federation of Labor at the World Congress of Milan
, in 1951, of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
. In the fall of 1956, he led or successful good will tour in Italy and in Israel. On this occasion the Haifa Stadium
was named after him. He was Chairman of the AFL-CIO Committee of Greater New York. Decorated by the Italian Republic with the Star of Solidarity Second and First Class, “Commendatore” and as “Grand Ufficiale” of that Republic. Decorated with a gold medal by the city of Trieste. Decorated with a gold medal by Sicily. Decorated as “Cavaliere Grand Ufficiale” of the Republic of San Marino. Made honorary citizen of Molinella, a famous city in Italy which best symbolizes resistance to fascism and to communism.
in 1943 became the first recipient of the IALC's Four Freedoms Award.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
labor leader
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
. Antonini was the first VP of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
, and organizer of the Italian-American Labor Council (IALC). Antonini emerged as one of the most outstanding labor leaders of the first half of the 20th Century.
Early life
Antonini was born in Volturara IrpinaVolturara Irpina
Volturara Irpina is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. It is located in the Monti Picentini area, at the feet of the Terminio.Economy is based on the production of chestnut....
in the province of Avellino
Province of Avellino
The Province of Avellino is a province in the Campania region of Italy. The area is typified by many small towns and villages scattered across the province; in fact only two towns have a population over 20,000; its capital city Avellino and Ariano Irpino....
, Italy in 1883 to a father who was a Milanese school teacher and a mother who was the daughter of the local nobility and a poet. When his father, with the entire family, moved back to native Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, Luigi, his brothers and his sister lost their mother when still at a tender age. Luigi had his education at the high school in Tortona
Tortona
Tortona is a comune of Piemonte, in the Province of Alessandria, Italy. Tortona is sited on the right bank of the Scrivia between the plain of Marengo and the foothills of the Ligurian Apennines.-History:...
, Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
. He served in the Italian army, in the 11th Infantry and was an expert fencer
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
.
Labor unions
Antonini settled in New York in 1908 where he worked held various jobs before entering the garment industryTextile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...
. He joined and became active in the newly formed International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
(ILGWU) where he became a great orator and one of the most dynamic and active leaders of working class. He emerged as a speaker in the famous waistmakers’ general strike of 1913. In 1916, he became editor of the Italian language labor periodical L'Operaia, which promoted unionization and significantly increasing Italian speaking membership in Local 89 of the ILGWU.
It is mainly to his credit that in 1919 the Italian Dress and Waistmakers’ Union, Local 89 was founded. Local 89, with, its 25,000 members, was the largest Local in the ILGWU, whose membership grew to about 450,000 ladies’ garment workers. This Italian local became one of the largest in the organization enabling Antonini to become a ILGWU vice president.
Political ambassador
By the 1920s, he became increasingly a spokesman for Italian AmericanItalian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
s on issues that went beyond labor and into politics. In 1935, he represented the American Labor Movement in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and in 1939 he attended the Pan-American Congress for Democracy in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. He was a founder of the American Labor Party
American Labor Party
The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party who had established themselves as the Social Democratic...
(ALP) in 1936, and was elected State Chairman of the American Labor Party in New York State.
During the Second World War, Antonini's labor union was unflinchingly in support of the United States war effort and vociferous in his condemnation of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. During this time he served as a member of the Appeal Board of the Selective Service System in Westchester County, New York
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
. He was key in the rebuilding of Italy in the postwar period and was instrumental in founding a vocational school in Sicily named after President Roosevelt. He was Presidential Elector of Franklin D. Roosevelt for the third term. He was among the founders of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of New York
The Liberal Party of New York is a minor American political party that has been active only in the state of New York. Its platform supports a standard set of social liberal policies: it supports right to abortion, increased spending on education, and universal health care.As of 2007, the Liberal...
when the American Labor Party fell under communist control.
In 1941, a few days after Pearl Harbor, he was the main founder of the Italian-American Labor Council which under his chairmanship performed services to help America win the war and the Italian people to regain their freedom from fascist dictatorship. He was chosen by the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL) to go to Italy in 1944 as a member of the Anglo-American Trade Union Committee to advise the Italian workers how to rebuild bona fide labor unions.
Right after the Second World War he led the drive to collect among various labor unions hundreds of thousands of dollars for Italian relief as well as thousands and thousands of garments, medicine, food, etc. During his many visits to Italy he was in contact with the leaders of the Italian Government, such as Presidents
President of the Italian Republic
The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and, as such, is intended to represent national unity and guarantee that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The president's term of office lasts for seven years....
De Nicola
Enrico De Nicola
Enrico Roberto De Nicola was an Italian jurist, journalist, politician, and the first provisional Head of State of the newborn republic of Italy from 1946 to 1948.-Biography:...
, Einaudi
Luigi Einaudi
Luigi Einaudi , Cavaliere di Gran Croce decorato di Gran Cordone OMRI was an Italian politician and economist. He served as the second President of the Italian Republic between 1948 and 1955.-Early life:...
, Gronchi
Giovanni Gronchi
Giovanni Gronchi was a Christian Democratic Italian politician who became the third President of the Italian Republic in 1955, after Luigi Einaudi...
, and many leaders of the Parliament. He was the spokesman for the Italian-American Committee for a Just Peace to Italy when he went to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946, following a tour in Latin-America: to enlist the support of those people for the same purpose.
One of the largest vocational schools in Europe for orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
s, the Roosevelt Institute in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Italy, was conceived and helped made a reality by him. He was a delegate of the American Federation of Labor at the World Congress of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, in 1951, of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions , and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when it merged with the World Confederation of Labour to form the...
. In the fall of 1956, he led or successful good will tour in Italy and in Israel. On this occasion the Haifa Stadium
Haifa Stadium
Sammy Ofer Stadium, also known as Haifa International Stadium, is a 30,000-seat planned multi-purpose stadium in Haifa, Israel, that began construction in late 2009. It is hoped to be completed by 2013, to be used mostly for football matches and host the home matches of Hapoel Haifa and Maccabi...
was named after him. He was Chairman of the AFL-CIO Committee of Greater New York. Decorated by the Italian Republic with the Star of Solidarity Second and First Class, “Commendatore” and as “Grand Ufficiale” of that Republic. Decorated with a gold medal by the city of Trieste. Decorated with a gold medal by Sicily. Decorated as “Cavaliere Grand Ufficiale” of the Republic of San Marino. Made honorary citizen of Molinella, a famous city in Italy which best symbolizes resistance to fascism and to communism.
Four Freedoms Award
Antonini implemented The Italian American Labor Council's Four Freedoms Award. This citation was created to honor meritorious services rendered to the cause of liberty among the people throughout the world. Honorees included Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. United States Attorney General Francis BiddleFrancis Biddle
Francis Beverley Biddle was an American lawyer and judge who was Attorney General of the United States during World War II and who served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg trials....
in 1943 became the first recipient of the IALC's Four Freedoms Award.