The Blasted Heath

This last weekend I attended a meeting of the International of Anarchist Federations held in the Tuscan town of Carrara, long a stronghold of anarchism. The anarchist Alberto Meschi did some first class work among the marble quarry workers as well as the miners in the region and after a bitter struggle a 6 hour day (including the long hike to the quarries) was won for quarry workers and miners. Ever since then anarchism has maintained its deep roots in the area. The marble workers have maintained an allegiance to anarchism. When the fascists attempted to hold a public meeting in Carrara in the last decade, the marble workers poured down from the quarries and blocked all roads and railtracks into Carrara with their trucks, stopping the meeting taking place. The Carrara area was pretty much a no-go area for the fascists even under the fascist/Nazi regimes, and large numbers of anarchist partisans operated in the surrounding Apuan Alps.The printshop of the Italian Anarchist Federation(FAI), printing the weekly Umanita Nova is there, as well as a bookshop/discussion circle named after the Carrarese anarchist Gogliardo Fiaschi, who fought with the post-war Spanish resistance and then spent many years in Spanish jails before secretly being transferred to an Italian one! ( a campaign eventually secured his release) In the main square a building that looks like the town hall houses the meeting rooms of the local group of the Italian Federation. This includes a huge hall decorated with Renaissance style frescos. Outside the red and black flag flies above a large sign announcing the FAI offices.This building was wrested from the hands of the fascists in 1945 and has remained in anarchist hands. It was in Carrara that the FAI was founded in 1945 and part of the meeting included the 60th birthday celebrations.
Part of the weekend included a visit to the cemetery to visit the graves of Meschi, Fiaschi, Giuseppe Pinelli, the anarchist railwayworker thrown from a poice station window ( as in "Accidental Death of an Anarchist) and Lucetti and Valtorrano, who attempted to kill Mussolini.
The successful meeting was attended by French, Spanish , German, Bielorussian, Brasilian and Argentian comrades as well as the Italian and British delegates. Czech and Slovak and Russian comrades sent their apologies.
The weekend ended with a meeting attended by hundreds to celebrate the 60th anniversary and addressed by the foreign delegates, including yours truly.. All in all an inspiring and encouraging weekend.