Agostino Novella

Born Sept. 28, 1905, in Genoa; died Sept. 15, 1974, in Rome. Official in the Italian and international labor movements.

A metalworker, Novella was secretary of the Genoese Federation of Socialist Youth in 1923. That same year he became a member of the Italian Federation of Communist Youth (IFCY), and in 1924 of the Italian Communist Party (ICP). From 1924 to 1926 he was secretary of the IFCY Liguria Regional Committee, a member of the IFCY Central Committee, and deputy secretary of the metal-workers’ union in Genoa. In 1927 a Fascist court sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment. In 1931 and 1932 he was secretary of the IFCY Central Committee.

In 1932, Novella emigrated to France and became a member of the Central Committee of the ICP. He served as secretary of the IFCY Central Committee from 1934 to 1938. In 1935 he was also a delegate to the Seventh Congress of the Comintern and the Sixth Congress of the Communist Youth International. From 1940 to 1943 he was a member of the foreign bureau of the Central Committee of the ICP, and in 1943 he became a member of the party leadership. Novella participated in the Italian Resistance movement. Between 1944 and 1949 he was, consecutively, secretary of the Communist federation in Rome and Genoa and of the party regional committees in Lombardy and Liguria. Between 1947 and 1949 he was a member of the party Secretariat. From 1949 to 1955 he was secretary, and from 1957 to 1970, general secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labor. He was a member of the General Council of the World Federation of Trade Unions from 1957 to 1970, a member of the federation’s Executive Committee from 1958 to 1970, and president of the federation from 1959 to 1961. In 1966 he became a member of the ICP Politburo. Novella was a parliamentary deputy from 1948 to 1970.