Rinaldo Rigola (2 February 1868 – 10 January 1954) was an Italian socialist politician who served as the founding secretary general of the General Confederation of Labour in 1906.
Rinaldo Rigola | |
---|---|
Secretary General of the General Confederation of Labour | |
In office 1906–1918 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 2 February 1868 Biella, Kingdom of Italy |
Died | 10 January 1954 Milan, Italy | (aged 85)
Political party | |
Occupation | Metal worker |
Rigola was born in Biella 2 February 1868.[1] He was a metal worker.[2] He became a member of the Italian Workers' Party in 1886.[1] He left the party and joined the Italian Socialist Party in 1893.[2] In the party Rigola was part of its reformist faction.[2] He served as the municipal councilor in Biella in 1895 and as the director of the newspaper Corriere Biellese in 1896.[1] The same year he was forced to exile and settled in Switzerland where he stayed until 1900.[1] Shortly after his return to Italy he was elected a deputy being the first Italian worker at the Parliament.[1][3] He wrote about trade union topics in the newspaper Avanti and then directed a magazine entitled Vita workeria.[1]
In 1903 Rigola lost his sight completely as a result of an accident during his youth.[1] In 1906 he became founding secretary general of the General Confederation of Labour.[1] Rigola resigned from the post in 1918.[1] In 1922 he cofounded the Unitary Socialist Party.[1][2] Rigola launched a magazine entitled Il Lavoro in Biella in 1924.[1] He also headed a cultural organization, the National Association for the Questions of Labour, which was associated with the magazine.[4] He retired from public life in 1940 and died in Milan on 10 January 1954.[1]
Rigola was a supporter of the guild socialism developed by G.D.H. Cole.[4] He did not openly approve the Fascist corporatism.[4] In 2012 a biography of Rigola was published, Rinaldo Rigola. Una biografia politica, by Paolo Mattera.[5]