Teresa Meroni

Portrait of Teresa Meroni in the late 1920s

Teresa Meroni (5 June 1885 – 17 October 1951), also called as Teresina, was an Italian worker, trade unionist, and socialist.^[1] She led one of Italy's labour movements and defended workers' rights.^[2]

Biography

Born as Teresa Milano Meroni on 5 June 1885 in Milan, Italy, Teresa Meroni came from a family of modest means, which prevented her from having an access to good education.^[3] In 1905, she joined the Socialist Party, which was founded in Genoa in 1892, to protect workers' rights. She was active in mobilizing women workers to join Socialist Party.^[4]

She married Giovan Battista Tettamanti, a noted trade union leader and communist activist. They later moved to Val di Bisenzio, exactly at Vaiano.^[5] Tettamanti, who was leading the Vaianese Wool League, left it following Italy's entry into war. Meroni later took the leadership of Vaianese Wool League.^[2] She is known for leading a march of 1500 women employed in the factories of Val di Bisenzio.

In 1932, she was arrested “for communist activity… and deported to an island confinement colony”.^[6][7]

She died on 17 October 1951 in Como.

References

1. Perretta, Giusto (1998). L'antifascismo nel Comasco: 1919-1943. Como: Istituto comasco per la storia del movimento di liberazione. p. 194. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
2. Affortunati, Alessandro (2000). Vaiano e la sua casa del popolo: il movimento operaio nella Valle del Bisenzio. Prato, Italy: Pentalinea. p. 33. ISBN 978-8-886-85512-9. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
3. Gabrielli, Patrizia (1999). Fenicotteri in volo: donne comuniste nel ventennio fascista. Rome: Carocci. p. 123. ISBN 978-8-843-01245-9. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
4. Noce, Tiziana (2004). Nella città degli uomini: donne e pratica della politica a Livorno fra guerra e ricostruzione. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore. p. 97. ISBN 978-8-849-80843-8. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
5. Coltro, Gabriele (2018). Il tesoro del Duce. La storia dei valori sequestrati a Dongo alla colonna Mussolini e finiti al Partito Comunista. Florence, Italy: goWare. p. NA. ISBN 978-8-867-97994-3. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
6. Ebner, Michael R. (2011). Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-521-76213-7. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
7. Gabrielli, Patrizia (2000). Mondi di carta: lettere, autobiografie, memorie. Toronto: Protagon. p. 120. ISBN 978-8-880-24058-7. Retrieved 22 February 2023.