Rinaldo Rigola

Rigola was born in Biella on 2 February 1868.^[1] He was a metal worker.^[2] He became a member of the Italian Workers' Party (POI) in 1886.^[1] He left the POI and joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) in 1893.^[2] In the PSI, Rigola was part of its reformist faction.^[2] He served as the municipal councilor in Biella in 1895 and as the director of the newspaper Corriere Biellese in 1896.^[1] That same year, he was forced to exile and settled in Switzerland where he stayed until 1900.^[1]

Shortly after his return to Italy, Rigola was elected a deputy, being the first Italian worker at the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy.^[1][3] He wrote about trade union topics in the newspaper Avanti and then directed a magazine entitled Vita workeria.^[1] In 1903, Rigola lost his sight completely as a result of an accident during his youth.^[1]

In 1906, Rigola became founding secretary general of the CGdL.^[1] He resigned from the post in 1918.^[1] In 1922, he cofounded the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU).^[1][2] Rigola launched a magazine entitled Il Lavoro in Biella in 1924.^[1] He also headed a cultural organization, the National Association for the Questions of Labour, which was associated with the magazine.^[4]

Rigola retired from public life in 1940. He died in Milan on 10 January 1954.^[1]

Rigola was a supporter of the guild socialism developed by G. D. H. Cole.^[4] He did not openly approve fascist corporatism.^[4] In 2012, a biography of Rigola was published, Rinaldo Rigola. Una biografia politica, by Paolo Mattera.^[5]