DANILO DOLCI: A Gandhi in Sicily

Non-violence in Italy

- Ram Ponnu*

The illness of violence cannot be cured by greater violence. - Danilo Dolci

Danilo Dolci

Danilo Dolci, an Italian nonviolent social activist who dedicated his life to addressing the social injustice suffered by Sicilian peasants and workers after World War II is best known for his opposition to poverty, social exclusion and the Mafia on Sicily. He is an influential theorist of nonviolent reform, extending Gandhi's Sarvodaya theory and campaigns in Italy. Since the mid-1950s he has attracted attention as one of the world's leading social reformers and nonviolent activists. A labour organiser, Dolci lived and worked in rural western Sicily for more than four decades, employing nonviolent methods to campaign for jobs and the transfer of water rights from the Mafia to farmers' collectives.¹ He became known as the "Gandhi of Sicily" His theories came from Gandhi who inspired him to follow the path of non-violence.

Early Life

Danilo Dolci was born at Sesana (later a part of Yugoslavia) near Trieste, Northern Italy on June 28, 1924, son of a devout Slovene mother and a sceptical Italian father who was a train station master. Dolci is not Sicilian and is barely Italian. “His Italian father had German and Italian parents; his Slav mother had parents who were German and Slav. It makes him half German, one-quarter Slav and one-quarter Italian.”² He spent his childhood in a series of places, where his father worked for the Italian State Railways. His parents thought there was nothing wrong with beating their children as punishment. The beatings he received in his early days, often occurring even when he had done nothing wrong, would play a significant role in Dolci's hatred of violence as an adult. His father had worked in Sicily in the youth and told his family of the poverty and suffering there - a place to be avoided if possible.³

Dolci studied architecture and town planning in the University of Rome first, then in Milan for four years, but did not take a degree, stopping short a few weeks before graduation. While he was studying in Milan, he had begun publishing poetry, and later published works on the science of construction and the theory of reinforced concrete.⁴ He had trained as an engineer. Experiencing a discrepancy between Bach in the concert hall and misery on the street, he joined a Christian commune in Tuscany; instead of taking a degree, he took care of war orphans and cleaned latrines.⁵

He began his intellectual life reading the classics, including the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, Confucius and the Tao te Ching. He had a spiritual awakening experience which led him to ask if his life goal was to build luxury apartments for those who were already well-off. He replied "no" and recalled his father's accounts of poverty in Sicily.⁶

'Conscientious objector'

As a youth, Dolci saw Europe enter into World War II, and detested even the idea of war. He worried his family by tearing down any Nazi posters he came across. Danilo tried to escape from Nazi authorities who suspected him of tearing down the posters. He was conscripted but refused combatant training, and he was caught while trying to reach Rome and ended up in jail for a short time. Even though he realised that he could be drafted into Mussolini's Fascist army at any time. According to Danilo, "I had never heard the phrase 'conscientious objector', and I had no idea there were such persons in the world, but I felt strongly that it was wrong to kill people and I was determined never to do so."⁷.

Don Zeno Saltini

Inspired by the work of Don Zeno Saltini, a Catholic priest and the founder of the Nomadelfia movement who had opened an orphanage for 3000 abandoned children, after World War II, Dolci gave up his middle-class life to work with the poor and unfortunate. Don Zeno was running Nomadelphia, a Christian commune in Tuscany caring for war orphans. Dolci abandoned his family's middle-class values and learned to see that the people of Nomadelphia were just as beautiful and pleasant as members of the upper classes even if they did not lead lives filled with luxuries and privileges. Dolci worked alongside everyone else, cleaning latrines and hoeing gardens. Don Zeno was so impressed with Danilo's work that he had him start another commune in Tuscany called Ceffarello. While working at Ceffarello, the army, though no longer under fascist control, finally caught up with Dolci.⁸ He performed his compulsory army service in 1951.

During this period, Danilo became aware of the workings of the Christian Democrats. Don Zeno was harassed by the Minister of Police who felt he was a Communist. The government wanted to put the orphans into asylums and close down both Nomadelphia and Ceffarello. Even the Vatican turned against Don Zeno, calling him the "mad priest."⁹ Danilo had to watch as government forces took many of the commune's children. He then had to gather up all his energy to help build a new Nomadelphia. By 1952, he was ready to work elsewhere.

In Trappeto

Dolci was a devout Catholic and decided that instead of launching a professional career, he would do something practical about the poor in Italy. He went back to Sicily's bleak, bandit-ridden "Triangle of Hunger," where he had lived as a boy. Dolci first came to Sicily because of its ancient beauty, in particular its Greek buildings, spending time studying the ruins. In February 1952 he moved to rural western Sicily and stayed for the rest of his life, throwing away a professional future. There, in the fishing village of Trappeto, with his meagre savings and a few small contributions from outside, he put up a collection of shacks and shanties which he called "the Hamlet of God" to provide shelter for the area's neediest cases. He married an impoverished widow with five children; together, they adopted five more children.¹⁰

He settled in Trappeto on the west coast of Sicily– a slum area of Partinico, a town of about 25,000 a few miles to the east of Trappeto and also not far from Palermo province of Palermo – in an area notorious for banditry and poverty. There he learned the local dialect in order to communicate with the people he intended to serve. From their small house with none of the usual conveniences, he launched his campaign against the misery that surrounded him. Murder and violence, like ignorance and poverty, are the foundations of life in Sicily, a life that is entirely different from that of the rest of Italy.¹¹

Extensive Survey

Dolci began here a more extensive survey of living conditions. Concentrating on the most impoverished families, Dolci wrote, 'We found that out of 900 families in one avenue alone, the Via della Madonna, 400 were in desperate need: 161 fathers of the 400 families were in prison, outlaws or ex-convicts; or they had been murdered. Still, we found among them not one sociopath criminal. On the contrary, we met Gods Children, suffering sometimes atrociously, in hopeless plights.' These 161 men, often with the help of their children, earned 400-500 lire (a few shillings) per day as cattle herders. However, this meagre income was possible only half, or at most two-thirds, of the year. Their yielding to the temptation of surviving with their families by any and every means during the remainder of the year has been punished by the authorities in the following manner: 14 men killed, two given life imprisonment, and a total of 714 years in prison for the rest! Seventeen women have been sentenced to a total of 83 years in prison, and 43 years of house arrest or community service'.¹² The survey revealed that men became bandits because they had no money for food and medicines and started committing kidnappings and robberies. They sold all of their possessions to buy food, and they were forced to break the law. Because of poverty, there were countless robberies.

Dolci claimed this was “at the bottom of the banditry” in the area, made worse because the people were so hungry. He recorded how Sicilians were tortured with waterboarding, electric shocks, beatings, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, burning with cigarettes, suffocation and summary execution. Also, the police would rob ordinary people's houses. Once corrupt officers knew there was food or resources at a particular location, they were likely to continue until it was all gone.¹³

Times were so hard that the poor even stole from each other. Because the police were not respected and could make matters worse, much crime was not reported. “The people lost all self-control” and “the hungry became bandits.” Generally, he said, local people thought it was wrong to deny a person the right to risk their lives for their family as they were expected to do so in the armed forces for their country.¹⁴ As Danilo said, "Coming from the North, I knew I was totally ignorant. Looking all around me, I saw no streets, just mud and dust... I started working with masons and peasants, who kindly, gently, taught me their trades. That way, my spectacles were no longer a barrier. Every day, all day, as the handle of hoe or shovel burned the blisters deeper, I learned more than any book could teach me about these people's struggle to exist..."¹⁵

Fasting

In October, nine months after his arrival, a child died of starvation in the impoverished town. Upon hearing the news, Dolci was planning on fasting in protest of the poor conditions in Trappeto; Dolci wrote a short letter to the regional authorities demanding emergency funds for an irrigation project for Trappeto. In this letter, he declared the terms of his hunger strike: he would not eat any food until the money to help the impoverished town arrived. He arranged with his friends that if he died, they would take his place until the government responded to their demands. Dolci fasted on the cot where the child had died, and many Trappeto citizens visited him. The outraged citizens continually told him that they did not want him to die for them, but Dolci continued his strike.

Five days into his strike, a representative from the Sicilian government and a member of the Christian Democratic Party drove to Trappeto to urge him to stop his fast, but could not offer him assurances that the government would improve the town. On the seventh night of the fast, Dolci's pulse weakened, and he suffered a stroke, which left his right arm and leg half-paralyzed. The doctor claimed that his heart was giving out and that if he did not eat soon, he would surely die.

On eight day, a monsignor, two Christian Democrats, a baroness, and the personal envoy of the Sicilian Regional President drove to Trappeto to offer Dolci and the citizens an offer to end his hunger strike. The government offered to help get the old and the young off of the streets, which they failed to follow through with. However, they also offered the town 1.5 million lire (about $3,000) immediately to help cover costs for irrigation, which the government did provide. Dolci conferred with the citizens, and since they were more than satisfied, he took the offer and ended his strike that afternoon. In the subsequent two years, the authorities spent 100 million lire in relief for Trappeto. The government provided Trappeto with a pharmacy, paved streets and a sewerage system. Dolci was regarded as a hero in the town and became known as “Gandhi of Sicily”.¹⁶

Following the example of Gandhi, Dolci first set out to listen to the life experiences of the people around him. Generally, there was no access to running water and only a few broken pieces of furniture, including a rag-covered bed or two. Even if severe illnesses, there was no available treatment. On rare occasions ludicrously small welfare payments were granted to the unemployed, but even more rarely were they paid on any regular basis. Nearly all the adults were illiterate. A later study of 350 Trappeto males, all of whom had served prison time, showed that each had spent, on the average, one year in school and over nine years in prison!¹⁷

Education

A profound study of unemployment in this depressed region was undertaken. Daily excursions to the seaside, in good weather, were arranged for the younger children and efforts were begun to make sure they all attended school until the age of thirteen. There is today also the hope that an adult evening school and a public library can be opened, for there is neither in Partinico. Distribution of goods to those in most considerable distress is continuing.¹⁸

Hunger Strike

Dolci started using hunger strikes, sit-down protests and non-violent demonstrations as methods to force the regional and national government to make improvements in the poverty-stricken areas of the island. Eventually, he became known as the "Gandhi of Sicily", as a French journalist had dubbed him.

On Sunday, January 29 1956, Danilo Dolci planned to stage a collective hunger strike on the seashore near Trappeto; it would include about 1,000 unemployed, and labour union representatives. This was to be followed on 3 February by the voluntary repairing of the main country road (trazzera), which — like such roads usually are — was made impassable by mud. This method, dubbed a 'reverse strike', involves excellent sacrifice and is a public service for the whole community.

The so-called protectors of law and order planned to stage an ambush to deal with the threatened hunger strike and a public service project. After dispersing the fasting 'brigands', as they called them, they warned the several hundred voluntary workers under Dolci's leadership to give up their 'destructive work on a public area.' Of course, Dolci refused the order in the name of 'the right to work' and the citizen's responsibility to 'make this right effective', citing Article Four of the Italian Constitution. He and some of his followers were brutally beaten and promptly arrested, while the police dispersed the rest using their rifle butts as clubs. The gloomy prison of Ucciardone in Palermo which once housed Salvatore Giuliano's bandits less than ten years before became the uncomfortable winter shelter of Danilo Dolci, worthy Italian follower of Gandhi.¹⁹

Dolci organised the peasants in groups and with them fought with nonviolent actions against the government who did not do enough in order to change the tragic situation of people living in poor and violent conditions. Dolci and the peasants had much success, they won a lot of civic battles and got new schools, new streets, a dam to irrigate the farms, new living conditions for the population.²⁰

Throughout his career, Dolci used fasting to force the government to make improvements. One of his most famous fasts occurred in November 1955, when he fasted for a week in Partinico to "draw attention to the misery and violence in the area and to promote the building of a dam over the Jato River that could provide irrigation for the entire valley." In the 1970s he rebelled against the state monopoly on broadcasting and set up his own radio station in Partinico in the face of stiff resistance from the police.²¹

Danilo's method of peaceful protest has proven successful in gaining the government's attention, but it has not always kept supporters at his side. Many left because they felt that he had not followed through with his protests by making sure that the government followed through with its promises. Others left because they thought his protests were mainly to gain self-serving publicity.

Roads and Water

In October 1955, Dolci proposed a new strategy, urging the authorities to start essential public works, foremost of which was a dam to irrigate 20,000 more acres of land. In 1956, Dolci and his local friends launched a "reverse strike" by repairing a long-neglected road. Their justification for this was Article 4 of the Italian Constitution, which affirms that "all citizens have the right to work and to promote conditions which render this right effective." The day before this "strike-in-reverse" the 700 participants fasted in preparation. Dolci and 22 others were arrested and sentenced to four months in prison. The trial, however, drew international attention to Dolci and his ideas and efforts.²²

In 1958, after he dispatched 150 unemployed men to repair a dirt road outside Partinico, he was arrested, convicted on trumped-up charges and sentenced to eight months in jail. A year earlier, Moscow had awarded him the $30,000 Lenin Peace Prize. Dolci accepted, but in a personal statement of independence affirmed he was not a Communist but would accept money from whatever source.²³

Danilo Dolci sacrificed much to try to improve living conditions in Sicily. He left the middle class to live in substandard conditions and put his life at risk to make improvements. Dolci used the hatred of violence that he learned as a child and the hatred of poverty that he learned after World War II to motivate his work. He knew that he could not wholly change Sicily, but he believed that he could at least make small improvements.

In 1967, he bravely accused prominent members of the government with collusion with the Mafia, and as a result, he spent another two years in jail for libel. His trial was publicised all over the world and increased public awareness of his work to break the yoke of organised crime in Sicily and to improve a lot of the ordinary people. He became known throughout the world as the "Sicilian Gandhi" because of his efforts to create change non-violently and was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.²⁴

Into the 1970s, he was the single most important force for improvement in horrendous social conditions rooted in centuries of exploitation by ruthless landlords, dishonest government officials, corrupt police and, worst of all, the omnipresent black hand of the Mafia. These were the elements that had shaped the very fabric of Sicilian society --a world then more "closed" than it is today. It has become stylish --almost trendy-- for politicians and journalists to speak out against the Mafia, with movies, fashion, books and even "Mafia tours" spawned by a newly-profitable "Mafia industry," but in the 1950s and 1960s that was far from the case. On one occasion, for example, the offices of a newspaper were bombed in retaliation for publishing the word "Mafia."²⁵

Dolci was a great writer. He wrote over 50 books, some of them translated into more than ten different languages. His books are remarkable accounts of the society he surveys, and their accuracy and insight have helped to give a realistic basis to any schemes for improvement. Among Dolci's books, ''Report From Palermo,'' about the Mafia, appeared in the United States in 1959, and his classic ''Waste'' was a great success several years later. ''Sicilian Lives,'' a record of conversations with a cross-section of Sicilians, appeared in 1981. Dolci, his family and followers, faced the hostility of the church, the government, landowners and the mafia. He charted his work in a book – The Outlaws of Partinico. To Feed the Hungry, Poverty in Sicily, The World is One Creature (Wellspring Book), The man who plays alone and Creature of Creatures: Selected Poems are a few of his other noted books.

Meeting with Cesar Chavez

On October 7, 1969, an extraordinary meeting took place in New York between the most prominent leaders of the nonviolent land reform and resistance movement, Danilo Dolci and Cesar Chavez. Both Dolci and Chavez felt strongly that nonviolent reform, especially land reform, could not go forward on one level at a time; it was an organic whole, an organism that grew out of an entire situation. Multiple approaches protected a reform movement from manipulation, or as Dolci had written in the same article in Help quoted from above, “If a movement is not ambitious enough in scope, it may quickly founder in sectarianism and manipulation.” Both spoke of the necessity of patience and perseverance. Dolci pointed out that Gandhi worked for decades to secure Indian independence. He had been working in Sicily for “only 15 years”; the grape boycott was four years old. Both men are 45. Was time on their side? Both have the overriding conviction that nonviolence and peace are not mere propagandising or local agitation, but entail entire social reform. One can only remember Dolci smiling playfully at the enormity of his own task. Nonviolence and peace issues must be coupled to a reform movement that begins with the land. Chavez in Delano, Dolci in Partinico are providing the pattern for a new wave of social reform that is neither communist nor capitalist but is Christian and Gandhian nonviolence. As Dolci said, “We may affect the quality of the future by the way we choose to solve our problems. Really new development cannot just happen; it is achieved by the conscious commitment of individuals.” Furthermore, as Chavez said, “We must turn our minds to the power of the land.”²⁶

Awards

In 1958 Dolci was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize, despite being an explicit non-Communist. Rome's La Giustizia, the organ of the Social Democrats, promptly appealed to non-Communist Dolci to reject an award which "comes from the executioners of the workers in Hungary." Dolci did not even hesitate. "I shall always accept, from anywhere, gifts that help my mission of good works," he said. He announced that the $25,000 prize money would be handed over to a committee to establish what he called "a research institute for full employment."²⁷ He was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which in 1947 received the Nobel Peace Prize along He won the Lenin price for peace in 1957, and the Gandhi price in 1989. He was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and 1982. Friends Service Council, now called Quaker Peace and Social Witness, on behalf of all Quakers worldwide. He was also a recipient of the 1989 Jamnalal Bajaj International Award of the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation of India.

Dolci died on December 30, 1997, from heart failure. He was survived by the five children he had with his first wife, Vincenzina, and by two children from his second marriage. According to the obituary in The Independent: "If the world now knows anything about the dark, secretive world of the Sicilian Mafia in the first turbulent years after the Second World War, it is largely thanks to Danilo Dolci." The man who in his youth studied architecture became an architect of social change.²⁸

To conclude, Dolci dedicated his life to promoting grassroots social and economic development in Sicily and to nonviolence as a means of social reform. He adopted a series of nonviolent tactics to achieve at feeding and housing the poor people. His nonviolent struggle resulted in the building of a dam, the opening of a medical clinic and the creation of a new school for Sicilian youth. He has effectively challenged the violence, poverty and fatalism that have ruled western Sicily for three centuries, and became known throughout the world as the "Sicilian Gandhi" because of his efforts to create change non-violently.

References:

1. John Tagliabue, Danilo Dolci, Vivid Voice of Sicily's Poor, Dies at 73, The New York Times, Dec. 31, 1997
2. Joseph Geraci, Danilo Dolci: The Gandhi of Sicily - www.satyagrahafoundation.org
3. Danilo Dolci, Development and Opposition to the Oppression of the Mafia World Citizen www.recim.org
4. Philip Evans, A Gandhi in Sicily: Danilo Dolci, Esquire Classic, September 1, 1959
5. BOOKS OF THE TIMES, The New York Times, Dec. 31, 1981
6. Rene Wadlow, Danilo Dolci: Development and Opposition to the Oppression of the Mafia, 2019-06-28
7. Jerre Mangione, A Passion for Sicilians: The World Around Danilo Dolci, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick,1985, p.137
8. Jaclyn Welch, Danilo Dolci, www.centrostudialeph.it
9. Ibid
10. Dolci v. Far Niente, TIME, Feb. 20, 1956
11. Philip Evans, A Gandhi in Sicily: Danilo Dolci, Esquire Classic, September 1 1959
12. Giovanni Pioli, Danilo Dolci's Nonviolent Revolution in Sicily', 17 May 2015, satyagrahafondation.org
13. Ibid
14. Jaclyn Welch, Danilo Dolci: the Gandhi of Sicily dies at 73, STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS, Online Edition: March, 1998 Vol. IX, No. VII
15. Kathleen Nott, Danilo Dolci: Non-Violence in Italy, Commentary, February 1961
16. Nicole Vanchieri, 'Danilo Dolci hunger strikes for irrigation project in Sicily, 1952', Global Nonviolent Action Database, 24/04/2011
17. Giovanni Pioli, 'Danilo Dolci's Nonviolent Revolution in Sicily', 17 May 2015, satyagrahafondation.org
18. Ibid
19. Ibid
20. About us | CSC Danilo Dolci, en.danilodolci.org
21. Andrew Gumbel, Obituary: Danilo Dolci, The Independent, 1 January 1998
22. Rene Wadlow, Danilo Dolci: Development and Opposition to the Oppression of the Mafia, 2019-06-28
23. Danilo Dolci Papers, 1947-1987, Collection: DG 105, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, USA
24. Vincenzo Salerno, Danilo Dolci - Best of Sicily Magazine, www.bestofsicily.com
25. Joseph Geraci, Danilo Dolci & Cesar Chavez: Nonviolent Land Reform', 22 March 2013, http://www.satyagrahafoundation.org
26. 'Italy: From the Slums', Time, Jan. 13, 1958
27. Vincenzo Salerno, loc.cit.
28. Joseph A. Amato, 'Danilo Dolci a Poetic Modernizer', Worldview, Vol. 16, Issue 12, December 1973, pp. 28-34

* Principal (Retd.), Kamarajar Govts. Arts College, Surandai, Tirunelveli Dist., Tamil Nadu. Email: eraponnu@gmail.com