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Severino Di Giovanni, Argentine anarchist leader and Galleanist




The late 1800s and early 1900s saw a number of assassinations and terrorist attacks perpetrated by anarchists performing what they called "propaganda of the deed." This highly controversial application of Bakuninist political theory to terroristic tactics - propaganda of the deed wasn't limited to violent action - was resisted by many notable anarchists, including Errico Malatesta and Peter Kropotkin. Despite this, the idea of "using violent action to resist the violence of the state and inspire the great mass of the people to revolution" was particularly attractive at a time when the tensions between the classes were mounting rapidly in the industrialized world.

Italian immigrant to Argentina and anarchist Severino Di Giovanni was an enthusiastic proponent of terror tactics in the war against capital. The main leader of the Galleanisti (followers of the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani) in Argentina, he clashed with both the authorities and the anarcho-syndicalist partisans of Diego Abad de Santillán who rejected the use of terrorism. His supporters bombed the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, a few hours after Sacco and Vanzetti were condemned to death, in revenge for the unfair verdict. On November 26, 1927, Di Giovanni and others bombed a Combinados tobacco shop. On December 24, 1927, Di Giovanni blew up the headquarters of the Citibank and the Bank of Boston in Buenos Aires in protest of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Perhaps the greatest chance for Di Giovanni to change the course of history came in December 1928, when he and others failed in an attempt to bomb the train that held the President-elect Herbert Hoover. Hoover was visiting the Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen in an attempt to solidify friendships with other American nations. Police discovered the plot and arrested several of the conspirators before the attack could be made.

So, what happens if Di Giovanni and the Galleanisti successfully kill President-Elect Herbert Hoover? Does this mean a wave of police crackdowns on all leftism in Argentina's future? Does Di Giovanni manage to escape the long arm of the law yet again after such an audacious attack? What would a Charles Curtis presidency (interestingly, he would be the first Native American president, since he was an enrolled member of the Kaw Nation thanks to his mother) look like, with the Depression looming just around the corner?
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