Peppino Marotto, Poet, Activist, Gramscian

The revolutionary communist poet Peppino Marotto was killed last Saturday, December 29, in the town of Orgosolo (province of Nuoro, Sardinia). Marotto, 82, was killed by a still-unknown assailant with six shots while he was going to buy a newspaper. Marotto was perhaps best known for his poems, often put to music, in honor of another Sardinian, Antonio Gramsci. It is through Gramsci scholars, particularly groups like the International Gramsci Society, that much of Marotto's work circulates.  

Already leftist academic circles have begun to eulogize his life and commitment to radical political and social change. For instance, the newly-founded TERRA GRAMSCI, organized in part by historian Eric Hobsbawm and artist Maria Lai, will act in his memory. TERRA GRAMSCI is an international effort to keep Gramsci’s work alive in relation to and beyond his native Sardinia. As the organizers explain, the project “nasce allo scopo di mantenere viva la memoria e la presenza della personalità, dell'opera e dell'immagine di Antonio Gramsci in Sardegna, con un'attenzione particolare nei territori del Centro dell'Isola, in contrappunto con la conoscenza e la diffusione del pensiero di Gramsci nel 'mondo grande terribile complicato'."  Here's hoping for a more peaceful 2008 in Sardinia and beyond.