Serafino Romualdi
Serafino Romualdi was an Italian socialist exile who emigrated to the United States following the fascist seizure of power.[1]
He became a member of staff in David Dubinsky's International Ladies' Garment Workers Union in New York.[2]
In 1942, he was sent to South America by the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to organise a congress of anti-fascist exiles in Uruguay. On his return, he was recommended to the OSS by Adolf Berle.[2]
In 1943, he returned to the US to work in the labour division of the coordinators office, headed by John Herling.[3]
Romualdi joined the OSS in May 1944.[3] In July that year, he was sent to Italy as a Major in the OSS working with Max Corvo and Vincent Scamporino.[2]
Based at the apartment of his brother-in-law, the Italian socialist leader Giuseppe Lupis, attempted to strengthen the socialists against the communists, a policy for which his authority from the OSS was doubtful. He passed funds from the Italian-American Labour Council to socialist trade unionists who were willing to split from the communist-led labour federation.[4]
In October 1944, Scamporino sent Romualdi to the Franco-Swiss border, supposedly to deliver arms, but in reality on a mission, "planned outside normal channels" to smuggle the socialist writer Ignazio Silone into Italy to combat communist influence.[4]
Affiliations
- International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
- Free Italy Committee
- Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
- Italian-American Committee for Democratic Education
- Committee for the Political Defense of the Continent
- Office of Strategic Services
- American Federation of Labor
- Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT)
- AFL-CIO
- American Institute for Free Labor Development - Executive Director
External Resources
- Guide to the Serafino Romualdi Papers, 1936-1967, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
- Harry Kelber, AFL-CIO’s Dark Past (4), U.S. Labor Reps. Conspired to Overthrow Elected Governments in Latin America, The Labor Educator, 29 November 2004.
Notes
- ↑ Richard Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency, Globe Pequot, 2006, p.10.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Richard Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency, Globe Pequot, 2006, p.97.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Guide to the Serafino Romualdi Papers, 1936-1967, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Richard Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency, Globe Pequot, 2006, p.98.
