strage di Portella della Ginestra (Portella della Ginestra massacro)

From May 1893, during the period of the Fasci Siciliani, the peasants of the neighbouring towns of Piana degli Albanesi, San Giuseppe Jato and San Cipirello used to gather at Portella della Ginestra for the Labour Day celebrations at the initiative of the physician and peasant leader Nicola Barbato, who used to speak to the crowd from a big rock that was later called "Barbato's Stone". The tradition was interrupted during the Fascist period and resumed after the fall of the Fascist regime.
The massacre took place twelve days after a surprise victory by the People's Block (Blocco del popolo) – a coalition of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) and the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano, PSI) – in the elections for the Constituent Assembly of the autonomous region of Sicily on 20–21 April 1947. The People's Block obtained 29.13 per cent of the vote, while the Christian Democrat Party got 20.52% and the Common Man's Front and Monarchist National Party came third and fourth.
With national elections set for October 1947, the leftist victory in Sicily created speculation that a coalition led by Palmiro Togliatti might bring Italy under communist rule. In Sicily, the leader of the Sicilian branch of the communists, Girolamo Li Causi, pledged to redistribute large land holdings, but to preserve any-sized 100 hectares (247 acres) or less.

On 1 May 1947, hundreds of mostly poor peasants gathered at Portella della Ginestra, three kilometres from the town of Piana degli Albanesi on the way to San Giuseppe Jato for the traditional international Labour Day parade. At 10:15, the Communist party secretary from Piana degli Albanesi began to address the crowd when gunfire broke out. It was later determined that machine guns had been fired from the surrounding hills, as well as by men on horseback. Eleven people were killed, including four children, Serafino Lascari (15), Giovanni Grifò (12), Giuseppe Di Maggio (13) and Vincenza La Fata (8). Twenty-seven people were wounded, including a little girl who had her jaw shot off.
The attack was attributed to the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano. His aim had been to punish local leftists for the recent election results. In an open letter, he took sole responsibility for the murders and claimed that he had only wanted his men to fire above the heads of the crowd; the deaths had been a mistake.
Until the massacre, Giuliano had been regarded by many as a modern-day Robin Hood who stole from (and even kidnapped) wealthy Sicilians to help the impoverished Sicilians. The shooting of children and peasants at Ginestra, however, outraged his former admirers, and a bounty of three million lire ($13,200 in 1947, $150,000 in 2019) was offered by the Italian government for Giuliano's capture.
The massacre created a national scandal. The Communist-controlled Italian General Confederation of Labour called a general strike in protest against the massacre. According to newspaper reports hints at the possibility of civil war were heard as Communist leaders harangued meetings of 6,000,000 workers who struck throughout Italy in protest against the May Day massacre in…

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Margherita Clesceri (37 years old)
Giorgio Cusenza (42)
Giovanni Megna (18)
Francesco Vicari (22)
Vito Allotta (19)
Serafino Lascari (15)
Filippo Di Salvo (48)
Giuseppe Di Maggio (13)
Castrense Intravaia (18)
Giovanni Grifò (12)
Vincenza La Fata (8)

Li Causi and Scelba would be the main opponents in the aftermath of the massacre and the successive killing of the suspected perpetrator, Giuliano, and the trial against Giuliano's lieutenant, Gaspare Pisciotta, and other remaining members of Giuliano's gang. While Scelba dismissed any political motive, Li Causi stressed the political nature of the massacre – and tried to uncover the truth. Li Causi claimed that the police inspector Ettore Messana – supposed to coordinate the persecution of the bandits – had been in league with Giuliano and denounced Scelba for allowing Messana to remain in office. Later documents would prove the accusation.
Li Causi suspected a campaign against the left and linked it with the crisis in the national government (under Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi), which would lead to the expulsion of the communists and socialist from government, as well as to prevent the left from entering the regional government. On 30 May 1947, Giuseppe Alessi, became the first president of the Sicilian region with the support of the centre-right and on the same day, De Gasperi announced his new centrist government, which had been in the national union governments since 1945.