Date of birth: 11 March 1907
Place of birth: Capoliveri, Isola d’Elba
Arrived in Australia: November 1924
Occupation: Men’s Hairdresser
Six was the age to start school. When I finished primary school I was pretty old, I was about twelve years old. I wanted to continue and my grandfather was ambitious to make me somebody, so I went to secondary school. When I was fourteen years old and in secondary school, Fascism took power and I was expelled. They used to call me a rebel, see, because I was against Fascism because it was a repressive regime. Being a member of the Democratic Youth of Italy, we decided on Democracy not Fascism, not oppression. I was persecuted until the age of 16 in 1924 when I came to Australia.
This is fourth grade. The school teacher’s name was Saenati. We were all pals you know. When I went back to Italy there were only a few left.
One of them was a member of the Fascist movement when I left [Italy], and when I went back he said to me, ‘You wanna shake hands with me?’ ‘I wouldn’t shake hands with you.” He said, ‘Why/’ I said ‘Because you’ve been a criminal. I don’t shake hands with criminals!’
My father was an active anarchist [so] naturally [he was] against Fascism. Even in Australia until he died, he was an active member of the Matteotti Club.
[When fascism came to power] many people ran away, especially those who were very faithful to their ideal. My father was able to go out to Belgium. He had a good friend there. Then they came to Australia, and [my father] landed in Geelong. Those days it was much easier than today, because if you deserted from the ship, after you were here twelve months, they can recognize your residence in Australia. I had an uncle who was an officer in the navy, and he done a lot of work for me and my mother to go from Italy. It took nearly twelve months, before my mother and I received the passport to leave Italy.
I came out to Australia with the boat called ‘King of Italy’, Re d’Italia.
We lived in Richmond and then Fitzroy. My father done everything, he did quarry work, concrete work and these two friends of his, from the north of Italy, said, ‘Charlie will you come there [to the Matteotti Club}?’ ‘All right, I’ll join you.’ And that’s how he became involved with Matteotti Club and then I also became involved naturally.
I was naturalized in 1931. When the war broke out, I wasn’t an Italian, I was an Australian.
During the war we, the naturalized migrants, have identification cards like the Australians. the migrant who was not naturalized, after six o’clock [at night] couldn’t go, for instance, Nicholson Street divides Fitzroy and Carlton, and they can’t go over the other side of the road because they were enemy alien.
I remember one night, I was coming home about twelve o’clock at night and I can see a police car following me slowly, and so I stopped and they stopped and they said to me, ‘You know you can’t circulate here at night time, it’s nearly twelve o’clock, you can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because you’re an alien.’ I had my cards and they said to me, ‘Oh I’m sorry, very sorry, you got the right to go anywhere’.
This is the May Day march, in 1943. When Mussolini went into Abyssinia, we built a movement called ‘Movement Against War and Fascism’, then later on, the name was transferred to ‘Italia Libera’, and after the war we give it the name of ‘Casa d’Italia’.
We were all mixed – Republicans, Communist, Anarchist, so long as they were anti-fascist. We work very well despite the difference of idea, because we knew that the fight against Fascism was very important.
To fight Fascism, [Italia Libera] collected money and send them to the Red Relief in France, and then they sent the money, you know clandestinamente (1) into Italy to be distributed [among the families where] the head of the family had gotten to France or Belgium but the family stayed in Italy. Mussolini give [these people] nothing, not one penny, and they were in serious condition. The women and children were suffering from tuberculosis through malnutrition. Therefore the members of the ‘Casa d’Italia’ used to contribute five shillings a week, then we sent them to the headquarters in France and they give it to the Red Cross, to give to these families which got no assistance.
When the war finished we get news from Italy that there were hundreds of thousands of people, children living naked under covers and many was gonna start to become delinquent, so we collect material from the people, you know clothing, they need medicine and bandages too. We collected 70 tonnes of clothing. It took us about six months, going round every Saturday and Sunday. This shop was given by another friend, in the market and that’s where we’re working, we’d work until 2, 3 in the morning and at 7 o’clock that morning we’d get up and go to work.
I was the president of the Relief to Italy.
I’m poor, I’ve been honest all my life. I’ve got nothing but always I give to the movement, I don’t take from the movement. I help humanity.
I was a hairdresser, I finished my apprenticeship in Johnson Street, Collingwood. I didn’t get the apprenticeship in schook, I did it as a tradesman you see. Within about two years I finished it.
I did my apprenticeship with an Australian. I was very fast learning English. In 3 – 4 months, I had good enough English to make myself understood. Then I got a job, and eventually did better and better, until I became full time tradesman. I had three shops of my own. One in Lonsdale Street, opposite the hospital there. I had another one near Her Majesty’s Theatre and another, the last one, was in Heidelberg. I retired from there at the age of 66.
When Whitlam was in power in ’72 – ’75, we asked him for money to open the Brunswick Community Health Centre. The Centre is not for the Italian community alone, it’s for the whole people of Brunswick. There aren’t a lot of Australians because they have got it in their head that it is ethnic, no, is not ethnic. The Australian receive the same treatment as everybody else. Our president is an Australian, many members of the committee are Australians. [there are] two Italians, myself and a chap called Mariani, he’s from Abruzzi and he’s the vice president of the committee. I couldn’t be vice president myself, because already, I was vice president of the Progress Association and president of the Pensioner Group. So too many presidency. I was Treasurer for two years.
*This interview was conducted in English
1 Secretly
Source: ‘1985. Brunswick City Council. For a better life we came’. Collected and edited by the Brunswick Oral History Project. Copies available for lending and sale at Moreland City Libraries (Brunswick) ph 9389 8600. Images taken after 1955 are available in the print publication. Original images available in exhibition boxes in storage at Brunswick Library.