The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists. The raids and arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with 6,000 people arrested across 36 cities. Though 556 foreign citizens were deported, including a number of prominent leftist leaders, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor, which had authority for deportations and objected to Palmer's methods.
Propaganda of the deed is specific political direct action meant to be exemplary to others and serve as a catalyst for revolution.
The Wall Street bombing was an act of terrorism on Wall Street at 12:01 pm on Thursday, September 16, 1920. The blast killed thirty people immediately, and another ten died later of wounds sustained in the blast. There were 143 seriously injured, and the total number of injured was in the hundreds.
The first Red Scare was a period during the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of far-left movements, including Bolshevism and anarchism, due to real and imagined events; real events included the Russian 1917 October Revolution and anarchist bombings in the U.S. At its height in 1919–1920, concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and the alleged spread of socialism, communism, and anarchism in the American labor movement fueled a general sense of concern.
Luigi Galleani was an Italian insurrectionary anarchist best known for his advocacy of "propaganda of the deed", a strategy of political assassinations and violent attacks.
The Preparedness Day Bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California, United States, on July 22, 1916, of a parade organised by local supporters of the Preparedness Movement which advocated American entry into World War I. During the parade a suitcase bomb was detonated, killing 10 and wounding 40 in the worst terrorist attack in San Francisco's history.
Cronaca Sovversiva was an Italian-language, United States-based anarchist newspaper associated with Luigi Galleani from 1903 to 1920. It is one of the country's most significant anarchist periodicals.
Webster Thayer was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
A series of bombings were carried out or attempted by Galleanists from April through June 1919. The targets included anti-immigration politicians, anti-anarchist officials, and prominent businessmen, as well as a journalist and a church. Almost all of the bombs were sent by mail. The bombings were one of the major factors contributing to the First Red Scare. Two people were killed, including one of the bombers, and two injured.
Mario Buda (1883–1963) was an Italian anarchist active among the militant American Galleanists in the late 1910s and best known for being the likely perpetrator of the 1920 Wall Street bombing, which killed 40 people and injured hundreds. Historians implicate Buda in multiple bombings, though the documentary evidence is insufficient to prove his responsibility.
The United States Immigration Act of 1918 was enacted on October 16, 1918. It is also known as the Dillingham-Hardwick Act. It was intended to correct what President Woodrow Wilson's administration considered to be deficiencies in previous laws, in order to enable the government to deport undesirable aliens, specifically anarchists, communists, labor organizers, and similar activists.
Andrea Salsedo was an Italian anarchist whose death caused controversy as it was caused by a suspicious fall from the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation (BOI) offices on 15 Park Row in New York City. Depending on the source, his death was either a suicide or a homicide committed by detaining officers; nevertheless, the case was widely debated both for its unclear nature and for its consequences on the Bureau and was one of the premises of the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political program and periodic congresses. Instead, insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization and small affinity group based organization. Insurrectionary anarchists put value in attack, permanent class conflict and a refusal to negotiate or compromise with class enemies.
The Milwaukee Police Department bombing was a November 24, 1917, bomb attack that killed nine members of local law enforcement and a civilian in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The perpetrators were never caught but are suspected to be an anarchist terrorist cell operating in the United States in the early 20th century. The target was initially an evangelical church in the Third Ward and only killed the police officers when the bomb was taken to the police station by a concerned civilian. The bombing remained the most fatal single event in national law enforcement history for over 80 years until the September 11 attacks.
La Salute è in voi! was an early 1900s bomb-making handbook associated with the Galleanisti, followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, particularly in the United States. Translated as "Health Is in You!" or "Salvation Is within You!", its anonymous authors advocated for impoverished workers to overcome their despair and commit to individual, revolutionary acts. The Italian-language handbook offered plain directions to give non-technical amateurs the means to build explosives. Though this technical content was already available in encyclopedias, applied chemistry books, and industrial sources, La Salute è in voi wrapped this content within a political manifesto. Its contents included a glossary, basic chemistry training, and safety procedures. Its authors were likely Galleani and his friend Ettore Molinari, a chemist and anarchist.
Galleanisti are followers or supporters of the insurrectionary anarchist Luigi Galleani, who operated most notably in the United States following his immigration to the country. The vast majority of Galleanisti or Galleanists were similarly poor and working class Italian immigrants or Italian Americans, and especially Italian anarchists and Italian immigrants or Italian-Americans involved in the labor movement of the time. Galleanists remain the primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920 in the United States.
Gabriella (Ella) Segata Antolini (1899–1984) was an Italian–American anarchist activist.
The Bay View Incident occurred on September 9, 1917, when police clashed with Italian anarchists in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A group of Italian anarchists gathered to disrupt a rally held by Reverend Augusto Giuliani, who was the pastor of a local Italian evangelical church. A conflict erupted during the rally and gunfire was exchanged between police and anarchists. Two anarchists were killed and two policemen wounded. Eleven local Italians were later arrested and charged with attempted murder. Two months later, a bomb was found outside of Reverend Giuliani's church, allegedly planted by Galleanists as retaliation for the incident at the rally. It was taken to the local police station by one of Giuliani's parishioners where it detonated, killing nine policemen and one bystander. No one was convicted for the bombing, but the incident precipitated a larger campaign of Galleanist attacks across the United States. The November trial of the eleven Bay View anarchists arrested for September's shooting incident was influenced by sentiment related to the bombing.
Raffaele Schiavina was an Italian anarchist newspaper editor and writer also known by the pseudonyms Max Sartin, and Bruno. From 1928 to 1970 he edited and wrote for the US-based Italian-language anarchist newspaper L’Adunata dei Refrattari.
The Youngstown dynamite plot was a foiled attempt by Galleanist anarchists to move a case of dynamite by train from Steubenville, Ohio, to Chicago, from January 17–18, 1918. The 18-year-old Gabriella "Ella" Antolini Segata, part of the Italian Galleanist circle, was caught by a suspicious train porter. The dynamite was potentially en route to Milwaukee, where anarchists had been squaring off with police in a series of counter-retaliatory attacks stemming from the September 1917 Bay View incident. Antolini Segata was imprisoned for 18 months and the case was a big break for the Bureau of Investigation agent Rayme Weston Finch, who would come to lead investigations against the Galleanists.
