Teresa Meroni
Italian worker, trade unionist and socialist (1885 –1951)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Teresa Meroni (5 June 1885 – 17 October 1951), also called as Teresina, was an Italian worker, trade unionist, and socialist.[1] She led one of Italy's labour movements and defended workers' rights.[2]
Biography
Born as Teresa Milano Meroni on 5 June 1885 in Milan, Italy, Teresa Meroni came from a family of modest means, which prevented her from having access to a good education.[3] In 1905, she joined the Socialist Party, which was founded in Genoa in 1892, to protect workers' rights. She was active in mobilizing women workers to join the Socialist Party.[4]
She married Giovan Battista Tettamanti, a noted trade union leader and communist activist. They later moved to Val di Bisenzio, exactly at Vaiano.[5] Tettamanti, who was leading the Vaianese Wool League, left it following Italy's entry into the war. Meroni later took the leadership of the Vaianese Wool League.[2] She is known for leading a march of 1500 women employed in the factories of Val di Bisenzio.
In 1932, she was arrested “for communist activity… and deported to an island confinement colony”.[6][7]
She died on 17 October 1951 in Como.