Mauro Scoccimarro

Born Oct. 30, 1895, in Udine; died Jan. 2, 1972, in Rome. Figure in the Italian workers’ movement.

An economist by education, Scoccimarro joined the Socialist Party in 1917. In 1921 he helped found the Italian Communist Party (ICP), and in 1922 he became one of the editors of Ordine Nuovo (New Order). In 1923 he was elected to the Central Committee and the Secretariat of the ICP, and in 1924 and 1925 he worked on the Executive Committee of the Comintern.

Upon returning to Italy, Scoccimarro was arrested. He was imprisoned from 1926 to 1937, whereupon he was exiled. Liberated after the fall of the fascist regime in 1943, Scoccimarro joined the leadership of the ICP. During the fascist German occupation of Italy from 1943 to 1945, he was one of the organizers of the partisan movement. He was an ICP representative on the Committee of National Liberation. In 1944 and 1945, Scoccimarro was deputy state commissar in charge of removing Fascists from the state apparatus and minister of occupied Italy. From 1945 to 1947 he was finance minister, and from 1958 to 1972 he was a senator. Scoccimarro became a member of the leadership of the ICP in 1956; from 1956 to 1969 he was chairman of the Central Control Commission of the ICP.