Contents:
– 1945, When The Sicilian People Declared "War On War" by Pippo Gurrieri
– No To The Draft! : Maria Occhipinti and the Ragusa revolt of January 1945 by Meno Occhipinti
– Interview by Letizia Giarratana, Pippo Gurrieri, Meno Occhipinti
– The Benedictines by Maria Occhipinti [extract]
– Interview With Franco Leggio, Sicilian Anarchist And One Of The Ringleaders In The Ragusa Uprising Of January 1945 by Stefano Fabbri
– The Ragusa Massacre In 1921
– The Ancestry of Anarchist Antifascism in and around Ragusa
– The Life of An Anarchist: Franco Leggio by Pippo Gurrieri

Edited by Paul Sharkey and Anna Key. Kate Sharpley Library, 2008. ISBN 13:9781873605592 Anarchist sources, 9. 24 p.

Ragusa, Sicily, 1945. Mussolini’s fascist regime had fallen apart, with many of his backers turning ’democratic’ and hoping to prevent a revolution with the help of the allied armies and Communist Party. After five years of war, their attempts to create a new Italian army are met with evasion and resistance.
Maria Occhipinti began the Ragusa anti-draft revolt of January, 1945 by laying down in front of an army truck carrying arrested draftees, who then escaped. A four-day insurrection followed, with the rich dispossessed, until the Italian army was able to retake the city.
Maria Occhipinti served nearly two years’ prison for her part in the revolt. Afterwards, she travelled endlessly, seeking her own freedom – and a free world. Here we present texts on the 1945 revolt, anti-fascism in Ragusa and the lives of both Maria Occhipinti and fellow Ragusan anarchist rebel Franco Leggio.

As well as the revolt and its aftermath (including an extract from Occhipinti’s story of being imprisoned afterwards) it includes writings by and about some of its leading figures, Maria Occhipinti and Franco Leggio. Find out about a time when "Stop the War" meant "Start the Revolution".