Overview
Filippo Turati
(1857—1932)
Quick Reference
(b. 25 Nov. 1857, d. 29 Mar. 1932).
Italian Socialist Born in Como, he studied at the University of Bologna and in 1883 published Il delitto e la questione sociale, in which he argued for a causal link between crime and social deprivation. In 1889 he co‐founded the Milanese Socialist Association, and in 1892 founded the Italian Socialist Party, which was committed to fight social injustice through gradual, democratic means. He was able to impress the party with his pragmatic course until 1900, but thereafter his position was significantly weakened by constant inter‐party struggles about whether to cooperate with or confront the government. He was against Italian entry into World War I, and found himself in a minority within his own party afterwards when he opposed the ideal of a Communist revolution. Expelled from the party for his anti‐Fascist efforts, he founded the Partito Socialista Unitario (Socialist Unity Party), of which his close political ally, Matteotti, became secretary. Following Mussolini's establishment of a Fascist dictatorship in response to Matteotti's murder, Turati fled to Paris, where he remained active in his fight against Fascism and contributed to the reunion of the two socialist parties in 1930.
