Ugo Coccia Explained

Office:Secretary General of the Italian Socialist Party
Term Start:31 December 1926
Term End:15 January 1928
Successor:Olindo Vernocchi
Predecessor:Angelica Balabanoff
Term Start1:30 July 1930
Term End1:23 December 1932
Successor1:Pietro Nenni
Predecessor1:Secretariat Committee
Birth Date:11 August 1895
Birth Place:Rieti, Kingdom of Italy
Death Place:Hyères, France
Party:Italian Socialist Party
Occupation:Journalist
Nationality:Italian

Ugo Coccia (11 August 1895 – 23 December 1932) was an Italian socialist journalist and politician who served as the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) for two terms from 1926 to 1928 and from 1930 to 1932. He died in exile in Hyères, France.

Biography

Coccia was born in Rieti on 11 August 1895. He started his socialist activities from young age. He was the editor of the Avanti! newspaper until 1928 when Angelica Balabanoff assumed the post.[1] [2]

Coccia left Italy in 1926 when a strict law which ended the legal existence of the oppositional movements were put into force by the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini.[1] Coccia continued his activities in Switzerland and France.[1] He became the secretary of the PSI on 31 December 1926 succeeding Olindo Vernocchi in the post.[3] Coccia's tenure ended on 15 January 1928 when Angelica Balabanoff was elected to the post. Coccia was elected secretary of the secretary of the PSI-IOS (Socialist Workers' International) at the unity congress held in Paris on 30 July 1930, replacing Pietro Nenni in the post.[4] A secretariat committee composed of Oddino Morgari, Giuseppe Saragat and Angelo Tasca assumed the post on 2 September 1939.[5]

Coccia died in Hyères, France, on 23 December 1932, while serving as the secretary of the PSI-IOS, from heart disease resulting from a rheumatic disease which he contracted in the trenches during World War II.[5]

His son, Franco Coccia (1929–2017), was also a politician.[6]

Legacy

A conference in memory of Coccia was organized by the Filippo Turati Foundation and the Pietro Nenni Foundation in his hometown, Rieti, on 12 March 1999. The papers presented at the conference were published as a book entitled Ugo Coccia e la generazione degli esuli (Italian: Ugo Coccia and the generation of exiles) in 2001.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: it. Biografia. Ugo Coccia. storiaxxisecolo.it. 4 May 2024.
  2. News: A proposito di noi. Nell'archivio del Senato anche l'Avanti! clandestino. Avanti!. 29 June 2020. it. 4 May 2024.
  3. Nicole Hardy Robinson. Out of Italy: Italian Women Exiled under Fascism Reimagine Home and the Italian Identity. PhD . University of California, Los Angeles. 31. 2016.
  4. News: Fabrizio Montanari. History. Riunificazione socialista. 24 Emilia. 27 January 2024 . 4 May 2024. it.
  5. Web site: it. Segretari politici del PSI. socialismoitaliano1892.it. 4 May 2024.
  6. News: Rieti, è scomparso il politico e avvocato reatino Franco Coccia . Il Messaggero. 24 November 2017. it. 4 May 2024.
  7. Web site: Ugo Coccia e la generazione degli esuli. sissco.it. 6 October 2019. it. 4 May 2024. Piero S. Graglia.