Morandi, Rodolfo

Born 1902, in Milan; died there July 26, 1955. Prominent figure in the Italian labor movement; a leader of the Italian Socialist Party (ISP) who supported joint action with the Communists.

Educated as a lawyer, Morandi from 1934 was one of the leaders of the underground socialist organization in Milan. In 1937 he was sentenced by a Fascist tribunal to ten years’ imprisonment; he was freed in July 1943. An active participant in the Resistance Movement, he was chairman of the Committee for the National Liberation of Northern Italy and one of the organizers of the antifascist liberation uprising in Turin in April 1945.

In 1946–47, Morandi was minister of industry and trade. In 1945–46 he was general secretary and from 1949 deputy general secretary of the Italian Socialist Party. He became a senator in 1948. Morandi was the author of works devoted mainly to economic history and theoretical problems of the labor movement.