Galleanisti

Galleanists
Galleanisti
LeaderLuigi Galleani
Dates of operation1914 (1914)–1920 (1920)
CountryUnited States
IdeologyInsurrectionary anarchism
Political positionAnarchism
Notable attacksPreparedness Day bombing
1919 United States anarchist bombings
Wall Street bombing

Galleanisti (Italian for Galleanists) 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, especially anarchists and those involved in the labor movement. Galleanists remain the primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920 in the United States.

Galleani and his group promoted radical anarchism by speeches, newsletters, labor agitation, political protests, secret meetings, and, above all, direct action, often referred to as propaganda of the deed. Many used bombs and other violent means to promote their political position, practices that Galleani actively encouraged but in which he apparently did not participate, except for writing the bomb-making manual La Salute è in voi!.

The early 1900s bomb-making manual, La Salute è in voi, associated with the Galleanists, whose anonymous authors were suspected to be Luigi Galleani and chemist Ettore Molinari. The cover featured a woodcut of French anarchist Ravachol, in front of a guillotine, by Charles Maurin (1893).