Lunigiana revolt

Lunigiana revolt
Carabinieri stopped by a barricade of marble from the quarries near Carrara (Source: L'Illustrazione Popolare, February 4, 1894)

The Lunigiana revolt took place in January 1894, in the stone and marble quarries of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of Tuscany (Italy), in support of the Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Leagues) uprising on Sicily. After a state of siege had been proclaimed by the Crispi government, armed bands dispersed into the mountains pursued by troops. Hundreds of insurgents were arrested and tried by military tribunals.

According to a New York Times article of 1894, workers in the marble quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy. Many of them were ex-convicts or fugitives from justice. The work at the quarries was so tough that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed, regardless of their background.

The quarry workers, including the stone carvers, had radical beliefs that set them apart from others. Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers. Many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy. The district in which the quarries are situated was consequently the original hotbed of anarchism in Italy. In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked, “even the stones are anarchists.”

The revolt started when on January 13, 1894, with a demonstration against the government crackdown of the Fasci Siciliani a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration in 1891–1894 on Sicily, who had risen up against the ever-increasing taxes on the prices of basic commodities, such as bread, and for land reform. On January 3, 1894, Prime minister Francesco Crispi had declared a state of siege throughout Sicily. Army reservists were recalled and General Roberto Morra di Lavriano was dispatched with 40,000 troops. The old order was restored through the use of extreme force, including summary executions.