Alfio Bernabei
THE SUMMER BEFORE TOMORROW
End of August 1922, two months before the march on Rome. It is in Wales that the opportunity arises to embarrass Mussolini and fascism in front of the whole world. The first ship with a crew made up entirely of fascists is arriving at the port of Cardiff. It is decided to boycott it. The protest begins in a café run by Italians and frequented by anarchists, communists and republicans. The events take a dramatic turn when the boycott of dockworkers produces an escalation in which national trade unions, government departments, and Downing Street are involved, until reaching a tragic and bitter conclusion. A little-known story that could have changed the fate of Italy while it was still taking its first steps towards the abyss of fascism.
Alfio Bernabei
Journalist, he worked for the BBC and Channel 4. His articles have appeared in various Italian and British newspapers, including L'Espresso, Panorama, History Today, Searchlight, and was between 1985 and the 2000 correspondent from London for "l'Unità". He dealt with the issue of the internment of Italians in the United Kingdom and the tragedy of the Arandora Star in his book “Italian exiles and emigrants in the United Kingdom 1920-1940” (Mursia, 1997) and in the documentary “Dangerous Characters” for Channel 4. His last essay on 1922 was published in the book “Fascism and anti-fascism in Great Britain” (Pacini Editore, 2021). He is the author of plays, performed both in Italy and abroad, in particular in London and Edinburgh. In recent years he has mounted exhibitions on the Italian community in the UK in London (Charing Cross Library, Westminster), Manchester and Dundee.
The Trial of Mussolini by Michael Foot directed by Alfio Bernabei, rehearsed reading, Theatro Technis, London, 2007
Dangerous Characters - The Arandora Star tragedy, directed by Alfio Bernabei