Emilio Sereni

Born Aug. 13, 1907, in Rome; died Mar. 20, 1977. Italian labor leader; Marxist scholar. Member of the Italian Communist Party (ICP) since 1928. Sereni spent the period from 1930 to 1935 in a Fascist prison. In 1936 he was elected to the Central Committee of the ICP; that same year he emigrated to France. Returning to Italy in 1943, he was twice arrested and was confined in a concentration camp, from which he escaped. In 1944, Sereni became the head of the Committee of National Liberation of Lombardy and a member of the National Liberation Committee of Northern Italy. In 1946 and 1947 he served as minister of postwar assistance and later as minister of public works.

In January 1946, Sereni became a member of the Central Committee of the ICP. From 1946 to March 1975 he was also a member of the ICP’s governing body. Between 1948 and 1971, Sereni was a senator. From 1949 to 1955 he was general secretary of the National Committee of Supporters of Peace, and in 1950 he was elected a member of the World Peace Council. Between 1955 and March 1975 he served as chairman of the Italian National Alliance of Peasants. In 1966, Sereni became director of Critica Marxista, the theoretical organ of the ICP. His main works are devoted to agrarian relations in Italy.