MONTALBANO (ed.), mediterranean-mobilities (2025)

Tunis in the Global Radical Web: Diasporas, Transnational Anarchism, and Labor Movements (1887–1912)

International Labor and Working Class History, 2023

The paper focuses on the Italian-speaking anarchists of the end of the nineteenth century and their involvement and legacy in trade union movements and strikes in Tunis during the first decade of the twentieth century. A perspective privileging the internationalist and trade-unionist activities, and their impact on that specific colonial context, avoids the dangers of a rigid ethnoscape and methodological nationalism. Even though most of the actors of this story were considered by the states as Italian nationals, their conflictual (at least for the anarchists) nationality helps us to understand the complexity of the national-cultural belonging of subversive migrants in the Imperial Mediterranean. The ideological struggle on the subversive legacy of Giuseppe Garibaldi at the end of the nineteenth century and the conflictual relations of the trade unions with consular authorities at the beginning of the twentieth century showed an Italian-speaking internationalism in the Southern Mediterranean shore, tightly connected with the European and the American areas. Based on understudied diplomatic, colonial, and police records, this research aims at analyzing the attempts of an international working-class movement in a hierarchical colonial situation also through Italian, French, and Tunisian sources.

African Anarchist Movements: Race, Class and Liberation

2018

In transnational historical labour movement studies, the African anarchist / syndicalist movement is as under-studied as those of Central or South-East Asia and the Caribbean. This is despite the fact that the movement arose in Egypt in the same phase, the late 1860s, as it did in locations as disparate as Uruguay, Spain, and Mexico. This monograph - the first ever continental historical analysis of African anarchist movements - starts by providing a comparative analysis of the rise of the phenomenon in late 19th / early 20th Century Egypt versus South Africa, then sketches its traces in other African countries, examines its role in the post-WWII national liberation struggles of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, then concludes by asking whether there is a distinctly "African anarchism" by drawing on organisational positions from South African libertarian socialists of the 1970s, to self-described anarchists in Senegal in the 1980s, from Nigeria and South Africa in the 1990s, from Morocco and South Africa in the 2000s, then Egypt in the Arab Spring of the 2010s.

Caught between Internationalism, Transnationalism and Immigration: A Brief Account of the History of Anarchism in Egypt until 1945

Anarchism first appeared in the Southern Mediterranean countries at the end of the nineteenth century with the immigration of European workers and political exiles. Despite the important role anarchists played in introducing radical and revolutionary political thought in Egypt, only historians Anthony Gorman and Ilham Khuri-Makdisi have paid attention to these narratives. The main goal of this article is twofold: on one hand, to analyse the reasons for the paucity of studies related to anarchism in Egypt, and, on the other hand, to delve into the history of anarchism in Egypt before and after the First World War to contribute to the writing of the history of postcolonial Egypt. This article explores two different anarchist experiences in Egypt. The first one is related to the Italian political exiles in Egypt who developed a strong anarchist movement in the country through the construction of trade unions, educational institutions and study groups. The second experience emerged in the interwar period due to the rise of Fascism and the disillusionment with parliamentary politics through the artistic and revolutionary project of al-Fann wa al-Hurriyya (Art and Liberty Group). Our goal is to demonstrate that before the arrival of Gammal Abdel Nasser, anarchism was a potent political culture and philosophy and an existing way of doing politics in the country. Tracing this hidden history is crucial to understanding the developments of non-party politics in the history of modern Egypt.

Alexandria, 1898: Nodes, Networks, and Scales in Nineteenth-Century Egypt and the Mediterranean

Comparative Studies in Society & History, 2017

In October 1898, the Italian vice-consul in Alexandria charged a group of Italians with participating in an anarchist plot to attack German Emperor Wilhelm II during his planned tour through Egypt and Palestine. This collective arrest produced unexpected outcomes, left a trail of multi-lingual documents, and illuminated specific forms of late nineteenth-century Mediterranean migration. Anarchists were among those who frequently crossed borders and they were well aware of and connected to what was happening elsewhere: they sent letters, circulated manifestos, raised and transported money, and helped fugitive comrades. They maintained nodes of subversion and moved along circuits of solidarity. Similarly, diplomats of Europe, Cairo, Istanbul, and local consular officials operated across borders and cooperated to hunt anarchists down. By following people who were on the move on boats, in post offices, and in taverns, I make a methodological and historiographical argument. First, I examine the Mediterranean as a space of flows and show how the Maghreb/Mashreq divide in Middle Eastern history has concealed webs and connections. Because anarchists and authorities acted on multiple fronts simultaneously, so must scholarship of this part of the world take account of several histories at once. Second, I look beyond the micro-macro binary to emphasize the interconnections and mutual implications of the micro, the macro, and everything in between. I highlight competing, intersecting, and even contradictory trajectories of some of these anarchist migrants’ belonging. As the affair of the bombs unfolded, all of these contradictions and scales of analysis became visible at once.

The Sea, Its People and their Ideas in the Long Nineteenth Century [introduction to M. Isabella and K. Zanou (eds), "Mediterranean Diasporas: Politics and Ideas in the long nineteenth century", Bloomsbury, 2016]

The Livornese Jewry in Tunis: Experiences of the Diasporic Community in the Unification of Italy and Beyond, 1830s-1939

The Livornese Jewry in Tunis: Experiences of the Diasporic Community in the Unification of Italy and Beyond, 1830s-1939, 2018

This study analyses the unique case of the Jewish Italian community in Tunis ('Grana'), during the 19th and 20th centuries, exploring its influence on the political and ideological changes in its country of origin (Tuscany and subsequently Italy), in three major periods: the unification of Italy, the imperialist race and the days of the Fascist regime, an era in which the political activity reached a peak among Italian Jews in Tunis. The Livornesi participated enthusiastically in the national movement, played a decisive role in the Franco-Italian imperial race, and were among the most determined opponents of fascism The Grana example highlights the interplay between diaspora exiles visa -vis national self-determination claims. Shedding light on its experiences regarding significant issues in the history of its country of origin-such as its establishment, its imperial and colonial trends and the struggle for its character-may significantly contribute to understanding the role of a diasporic community in the development of its nation-state. In addition, any reconsideration of the European powers rivalry in relation to North Africa, must take into account the involvement of this community in the complex Franco-Italian-Tunisian forces.

A Sacred Duty: Nationalist and Anti-Imperial Activisms in Buenos Aires, 1916-1930

Journal of Urban History, 2019

The Southern Atlantic city of Buenos Aires emerged a critical hub of radical political activism between 1916 and 1930 at a time when the influence of anarchist activists waned and organized labor often worked with the Radical Civic Union presidents. Whether based in or passing through this city, activists and exiles, partisans, and pretenders pursued various strategies to achieve revolutionary change, raise funds for causes, assure sovereignty, control the public narrative, and network with like-minded individuals and groups. These agitators created webs of associations throughout the Atlantic world in the process. These networks were vital in fashioning enduring transnational connections, strategies of resistance, shared discourses, and symbolic registers that framed how nationalist and anti-imperial interactions were understood. This article focuses on Irish republicans, Catalan nationalists, and Arab anti-colonialists and their interactions with Argentine agitators, sympathizers,...

The Making of Italians in Tunisia: A Biopolitical Colonial Project (1881-1911)

California Italian Studies, 2019

Emigrant Nation: The Making of Italy Abroad (selection)

2008

MIGRATIONS Aitana Guia

Chapter for a book on Modern Spanish History edited by José Álvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert.