Costantino Lazzari

Costantino Lazzari was an Italian politician. He was one of the founders and main leaders of the Italian Socialist Party.

Biography

Constantino Lazzari was born in Cremona, Italy, on 1 January 1857. He was an artisan and since his adolescence, he was a member of the left-wing trade unions. In 1882, Lazzari founded the Italian Workers' Party.
In 1886, Lazzari commissioned Filippo Turati and Amintore Galli to compose Workers' Hymn, considered among the most significant historic songs of the Italian workers' movement.
In 1892, with Turati and Anna Kuliscioff, Lazzari founded the Italian Socialist Party at the Genoa Congress.
Lazzari was the leader of the revolutionary wing of the Socialist Party, known as Massimalisti. In 1912, he was elected Secretary of the Socialist Party and led the party in the 1913 general election, where the PSI gained 17.6% of votes, arriving second after the governing Liberal Union of Giovanni Giolitti. In 1919, Lazzari resigned as Secretary.
In 1922, he was expelled from the PSI, accused of being a close ally of the newly-established Communist Party, and for being in favour of the PSI joining the Communist International.
After the formation of the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, Lazzari was persecuted as a socialist and died in poverty in 1927.