Lorenzo Panepinto (Santo Stefano Quisquina, January 4, 1865 - Santo Stefano Quisquina, May 16, 1911) was an Italian politician and teacher. He was the founder of the Fascio dei lavoratori (Workers League) in his hometown Santo Stefano Quisquina, editor of the newspaper La Plebe and member of the Comitato della Federazione Regionale Socialista. He was killed by the Sicilian Mafia.
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Born in Santo Stefano Quisquina in the Province of Agrigento, he became a primary school teacher and an artist. His great passion was painting and the other was politics.[1] In 1889 he was elected city councilor in the democratic-republican group inspired by Giuseppe Mazzini, challenging the traditional powers.[1]
The latter reacted vehemently by dissolving the council and replace it with a Royal Commissioner. Nevertheless, the move failed to prevent a second defeat of the conservatives in the elections of August 1890. The government of the Antonio di Rudini again dissolved the council and appointed a commissioner. Panepinto resigned in protest and dedicated himself to teaching and painting.[1]
He married and moved to Naples. Returning to Sicily in 1893, he noted the state of turmoil caused by the movement of the Fasci Siciliani.[1] He set up the Fascio in Santo Stefano Quisquina, which was dissolved after only a few months by the Government of Francesco Crispi, which repressed the movement in January 1894. In the same year joined the Italian Socialist Party.[1] In an act of political reprisal, he was dismissed from his post of elementary school teacher by the municipality. Not discouraged, he continued to study pedagogy and educational methodologies and published two didactic volumes in 1897.[1]
In the early 20th century, with the resumption of agricultural strikes, Panepinto joined other peasant leaders like Bernardino Verro from Corleone and Nicola Alongi from Prizzi with whom he designed a change of strategy of political struggle, aiming to organise peasants in collective leaseholds through cooperatives and agricultural banks, to reduce dependence on the leaseholders (gabelloto) of the large rural estates. In 1907 he moved to the United States, but returned to Sicily just one year later.[1][2]
On May 16, 1911, he was assassinated in Santo Stefano Quisquina, just before the entrance of his house, with two gunshots to the chest. At the funeral, over 4,000 people followed the open coffin in procession.[2] His killers were identified among the gabelloti with links to the Mafia, but the material killer was released by the Court of Catania in April 1914. No one has ever been convicted for the crime.[2]
In October 1920, the socialists of Santo Stefano Quisquina managed to conquer the city hall again, electing as mayor Giuseppe Cammarata, Panepinto’s friend and collaborator, who continued the battle.[2]
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