Alba Galeotti (born Giuseppina Genisio; Galleoti)
Born 1867, Canischio, Italy. Housewife; laborer. Migrated to US circa 1902. April 1902 married coal miner Killo Gotti in Lafayette, Missouri. She adopted the common anarchist name Alba (“Dawn”), and named her children Idea (i.e. “L’Idea” of anarchism) and Ravachol (after the French anarchist of the same name). By 1908 she was contributing funds and writings to the Italian-American anarchist newspapers Cronaca Sovversiva and La Questione Sociale. Also in contact with anarchists in Italy, including Aldino Felicani (future treasurer of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee), and raised funs for the antimilitarist anarchist newspaper Rompete le file! (Break Ranks!) in Milan. Separated from Gotti (who died in 1913); in 1909 married anarchist coal miner Guglielmo Galeotti (“William Galleoti”). Lived in various mining towns in Kansas and Illinois. Named their children Ferrer (after martyred Spanish anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer) and Germinal (after Émile Zola’s radical novel about French coal miners, Germinal). Unconfirmed reports claim she was deported as an anarchist in 1916 but returned illegally to the US. Arrested 1920 with Guglielmo Galeotti; she escaped custody while he was deported. 1921 she collected money for the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee. Arrested 1923 in Schulter, Oklahoma. Ill and fasting when detained, she refused to eat for 33 days and was declared “insane” and force-fed. Deported January 10, 1924. Her youngest two children were left in the care of their sister, Ida (Idea) Gotti, now age 21 and a teacher.
Died 1940 in Turin.
See also: Ancestry.com; Cronaca Sovversiva, May 31, 1913; Financial Report of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee (1925); Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945; Caroline Waldron Merithew, “Anarchist Motherhood: Toward the Making of a Revolutionary Proletariat in Illinois Coal Towns,” in Women, Gender, and Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the World; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1 and 2, 1924; Henryetta Standard (Henryetta OK), January 3 and January 7, 1924
Guglielmo Galeotti (aka William Galleoti)
Born 1871, Santa Sofia, Italy. Miner. Anarchist by late 1880s. Considered by Italian authorities to be “extremely dangerous” and “one of the most actives subversives of S. Sofia, capable of fomenting disorder.” Arrested and imprisoned repeatedly between 1888 and 1902. 1898 fled to Switzerland, but deported in 1901 and arrested on (unfounded) suspicion of being an accomplice to the assassination of King Umberto I. Briefly emigrated to Trieste, but expelled. Migrated to US 1902. Lived in various mining towns in Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Illinois; leading figure in Kansas anarchist Gruppo 11 Novembre. 1909 married fellow anarchist and deportee Alba Genisio, with whom he had two children named Ferrer (after martyred Spanish anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer) and Germinal (after Émile Zola’s radical novel about French coal miners, Germinal). 1911 left with other members of the Gruppo 11 Novembre to join forces of the anarchist Partido Liberal Mexicano in the Mexican Revolution, but quickly disillusioned with the PLM and returned to US. Deported February 19, 1920.
Under surveillance in Italy, but in 1935 reported to have “left politics” and “oriented himself towards the regime for which he now shows sympathy.”
CPC busta 2236
See also: Ancestry.com; Michele Presutto, La rivoluzione dietro l’angolo: Gli anarchici italiani e la Rivoluzione messicana, 1910-1914; Henryetta Daily Stanard (Henryetta OK), January 1, 1924
Luigi Galleani
Born 1861, Vercelli, Italy. Editor. Became anarchist while studying law at the University of Turin; left before finishing degree. Fled police to France in 1880; migrated to Switzerland where worked for anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus on his La Nouvelle Géographie universelle. Arrested and expelled; returned to France; deported to Italy. 1894 arrested for anarchist activities and served five years in prison and internal exile. While confined to island of Pantelleria met his wife, Maria. Escaped Pantellaria in 1900 and fled to Egypt, then England. Migrated to US in 1901 with an invitation to edit the anarchist newspaper La Questione Sociale in Paterson, New Jersey. Leader of 1902 general strike of silk workers in Paterson, where indicted for inciting riot and fled to Canada, then Barre, Vermont, where founded newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva. Moved paper to Lynn, Massachusetts; Galleani became the leading Italian anarchist proponent of violent acts of insurrection and revolt. Deported June 1919, leaving wife and six children in the US (only his daughter Cossyra would later rejoin him in Italy).
Immediately arrested upon arrival in Italy, but released a day later after maritime workers’ union threatened to strike on his behalf. Relaunched Cronaca Sovversiva in Turin in 1920. Involved in armed resistance movement and evaded warrant for his arrest for two years; turned himself in 1922 and sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for sedition. Maintained contact with comrades in US and fellow deportees, but suffered increasingly from diabetes. 1926 arrested again and sentenced to two years in prison, followed by two years of internal exile. Allowed to return to mainland, but under surveillance until his death in 1931.
INS file 54235/33; CPC busta 2241
See also: Ugo Fedeli, Luigi Galleani: quarant’anni di lotte rivoluzionarie (1891 –1931); Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background; Roberto Gremmo, “La ‘Cronaca Sovversiva’ di Galleani, le ‘bande armate’ di Raffaele Schiavina e la bomba del giovane anarchico Musso,” Storia ribelle 18 (2005): 1657-67; Antonio Senta, Luigi Galleani: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America
Alexander Gallod (Alex; Golod)
Born 1888, Grodno region, Russia (present-day Belarus). Polish. Migrated to US 1914. Machinist. Wife in Russia. Joined the Socialist Party, then “a very active member of the United Communist Party” in Camden, New Jersey, and Phildelphia. Arrested Philadelphia, January 7, 1920. Deported to Russia, February 26, 1921.
INS file 54811/973
Laureano García
Born Spain. In the United States, became miner. Anarchist and IWW member. Arrested in Jerome, Arizona, February 1919, and deported.
1931 still donating funds to Cultura Proletaria from Spain (see issue of April 18, 1931).
Regelio García (Roglio)
Born 1894, Quibicano, Cuba. Cigar maker. Migrated to US 1903; became anarchist circa 1917. Member of Los Corsarios Group which published anarchist paper El Corsario. One of 14 members arrested in New York, February 1919, by Secret Service on baseless allegations of plotting to assassinate President Wilson. All charges dropped, but several members, including García, held for deportation as anarchists. When asked why he had failed to apply for naturalization in the US, he replied, “I do not even believe in my own country.” US-born wife, Blanca Fernandez, and 9-month-old child. Deported April 1919.
INS file 54616/79
Isso Gartner (aka Imre Geery or Geerry)
Born 1895, Kassa, Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia). Jewish. Jeweler. Migrated to US 1911. A socialist in Hungary, he joined the Socialist Party of America in Baltimore; did not align with either side in 1919 split between Left and Right. Conscientious objector and opposed WWI draft. Attempted to unionize Baltimore jewelry workers in International Jewelry Workers Union (AFL), then arrested May 1918 for allegedly “stealing a number of gold rings” from a former employer and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Subsequently Interned at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, as an “enemy alien.” Suffered from “tuberculosis of the hip and is on crutches.” Deported May 1920 upon release of internees on basis “That he believes in the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States” (a patently unsubstantiated charge).
INS file 54709/38
See also: Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1918; Jewelers’ Circular-Weekly, July 10, 1918
Jack Gaveel (J. G. Gaveel; aka Jackotonsky, Jacknowsky, Jakov Zukatansky)
Born 1889, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Migrated to England 1905; returned to Netherlands 1910 and migrated to Canada that same year. Joined IWW 1913 in Canada. 1914 secretary of IWW Local no. 339, Edmonton, Canada. Migrated to US 1915. 1917 included in federal indictment of IWW leaders, but dropped before case went to trial. IWW delegate in Los Angeles, where “active in organizing the Austrian and Croatian fishermen.” Arrested April 1921 and sentenced to 1-4 years under California’s criminal syndicalism law. In San Quentin, refused to work in prison jute mill, declaring: “I have never scabbed on my class outside of prison, and I won’t do it inside.” Sent to solitary confinement, sparking sympathy strike of thirteen other imprisoned IWW members. Deported to The Netherlands 1924.
1925 in Hamburg, Germany, where supported IWW affiliation with the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU). Living in Amsterdam in 1926. After WWII worked for Stichting Pelita, a foundation dedicated to aiding Indos (mixed-race Dutch-Indonesians) from the former Dutch East Indies in The Netherlands. In 1951, receiving IWW literature from US and supporting the Dutch anarchist movement. 1960 (at age 71) wrote to the Industrial Worker and recalled he could still sing most of the songs from the union’s Little Red Song Book; also wrote: “I wish I were in America. I’d join you in the fight then.”
FBI file BS 186701-240
See also: Industrial Worker, June 11, 1921 and August 5, 1922; San Francisco Examiner, August 2, 1922; Daily Worker, February 23, 1925; Daily Worker (special magazine supplement), February 28, 1925; http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/rapportencentraleinlichtingendienst/data/IndexResultaten/IndexVensterResultaat?persoon=Gaveel%2C+J.G.; Jack Gaveel Correspondence, Industrial Workers of the World Collection, Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
Fred Gazeyog (Gazeyek, Gazeycg)
Born 1895, Grodno, Russia (present-day Belarus). Laborer. Migrated to the US 1911. Employee at B. F. Goodrich. Joined Union of Russian Workers in Akron in 1916; became secretary of that branch. Arrested during first Palmer Raids, November 1919. Deported on the Buford.
INS file 54709/535