Parodi, Giovanni

Born Aug. 4, 1889, in Acqui, the Piedmont; died Dec. 16, 1962, in Turin. Leader in the Italian labor movement.

Parodi joined the Socialist Party in 1909. In 1919, while working as a machinist and gauge-maker at the central Fiat plant in Turin, he was one of the first organizers of the Turin factory and plant councils. Parodi helped found the Italian Communist Party (ICP) in 1921 and was elected to its Central Committee; he headed the Turin section of the party. After the Fascist seizure of power in 1922 he emigrated. In 1927, Parodi returned to Italy but was arrested. After ten years of imprisonment and banishment, he escaped to France in 1937. In 1939, Parodi was arrested and interned by the French police. When he returned to Italy in 1943, he was arrested by the Nazis and was cruelly tortured. In 1944 he escaped from prison.

Parodi headed the Genoa organization of the ICP and was a member of the insurgents’ triumvirate in Liguria during the anti-Fascist liberation uprising of April 1945. In 1945 he was elected a member of the steering committee of the Italian General Confederation of Labor and general secretary of the federation of metalworkers. From 1946 to 1951, Parodi was a member of the Central Committee of the ICP, and from 1951 to 1962 a member of the party’s Central Control Commission.