Filippo Turati

Italian Socialist Party (PSI) Social Democrats 1857–1932 → Died in exile

Reformist founder of the Italian Socialist Party who led the Unitary Socialists and the anti-fascist exiles in Paris

Born in Canzo near Como, he studied law at Bologna and in 1886 wrote the words of the Workers' Hymn. With Anna Kulischov he led the founding of the Italian Socialist Party in 1892, speaking for the reformists who sought socialism through parliament, labour organisation and education. He warned that the revolutionary programme the party adopted in 1919 would end in disaster and urged alliances against Fascism, without success. Expelled in 1922, his group founded the Unitary Socialist Party, and after its secretary Matteotti was murdered he led the Aventine Secession. He escaped to France in 1926, became the soul of the non-Communist anti-fascist emigration and died in Paris in 1932.