The Villalba Attack
On September 16, 1944, Li Causi and the local socialist leader Michele Pantaleone, as leaders of the Blocco del popolo (Popular Front) in Sicily, went to speak to the landless labourers at an election rally in Villalba, challenging the Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini in his own personal fiefdom. In the morning tensions rose when Christian Democrat mayor Beniamino Farina – a relative of Vizzini as well as his successor as mayor – angered local communists by ordering all hammer-and-sickle signs erased from buildings along the road on which Li Causi would travel into town. When his supporters protested, they were intimidated by separatists and thugs.
The rally began in late afternoon. Vizzini had agreed to permit the meeting and assured them there would be no trouble as long as local issues, land problems, the large estates, or the Mafia were not addressed. Both speakers who preceded Li Causi, among whom Pantaleone, followed Vizzini’s commands. Li Causi did not. He denounced the unjust exploitation by the Mafia, and when Li Causi started to talk about how the peasants were being deceived by 'a powerful leaseholder' – a thinly disguised reference to Vizzini – the Mafia boss hurled: It’s a lie. Pandemonium broke out. The rally ended in a shoot-out which left 14 people wounded including Li Causi and Pantaleone.
Always the Communist ready to educate the proletariat, Li Causi hurled at one of the peasant attackers: "Why are you shooting, who are you shooting at? Can’t you see that you're shooting at yourself?" (Don Calò and his bodyguard were accused of attempted manslaughter. The trial dragged on until 1958, but by 1946 the evidence had already disappeared. Vizzini was never convicted because by the time of the verdict he was already dead.
Read more about this topic: Girolamo Li Causi
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