{{Short description|20th-century American labor leader}} thumb|right|Joseph Catalanotti '''Joseph Catalanotti''' (born '''Giuseppe Catalanotti'''; 1887–1946) was an Italian-American labor leader who co-founded the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America union, served as one of its vice presidents, and also served as president of the Free Italy American Labor Council.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti> {{cite news | title = J. Catalanotting, 59, a Figure in Labor | newspaper = New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1946/07/16/archives/j-catalanotti-59-a-figure-in-labor-associate-of-sidney-hillman-in.html | page = 23 | date = 16 July 1946 | access-date = 21 May 2022}}</ref><ref name=TIMEobitCatalanotti> {{cite news | title = Milestones, Jul. 29, 1946 | magazine = Time | url = https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,776986,00.html | page = | date = 16 July 1946 | access-date = 21 May 2022}}</ref>
==Background== Joseph Catalanotti was born around 1887 in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy. He had at least one sibling, a sister.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/>
He apprenticed as a tailor in his home town before immigrating to America as a young man.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/>
==Career== In 1913, Catalanotti took part in a large New York clothing strike and in 1914 helped form the ACWA. He rose from local business agent to trade manager to co-manager of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Joint Board (representing 40,000 New York clothing workers) in 1932. By 1943, he was an ACWA executive vice president.<ref name=NYT19430827> {{cite news | title = Antonini Opponents Form a Rival Unit; Free Italy American Labor Council is Organized | newspaper = New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1946/07/16/archives/j-catalanotti-59-a-figure-in-labor-associate-of-sidney-hillman-in.html | page = 7 | date = 27 August 1943 | access-date = 21 May 2022}}</ref> His last task was to head the memorial committee for the main ACWA founder, Sidney Hillman, who had died of a heart attack only days earlier in July 1946.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/><ref name=TIMEobitCatalanotti/>
On August 26, 1926, Catalanotti was a signatory with others in the North American AntiFascist Alliance of an "August Manifesto" against Fascism. Other signatories included: Luigi Antonini of the American Labor Party, Rose Schneiderman of the National Textile Workers Union, David Dubinsky of the ILGWU, Louis Waldman of the Socialist Party of America, and Sidney Hillman and Jacob Potofsky of the ACWA.<ref> {{cite book | first = Pellegrino | last = Nazzaro | title = Fascist and Anti-Fascist Propaganda in America: The Dispatches of Italian Ambassador Gelasio Caetani | publisher = Cambria Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Ll4XqBbVtcUC& | page = | date = 2008 | access-date = 21 May 2022}}</ref>
In 1943, Catalanotti left the Italian-American Labor Council to become president of the Free Italy American Labor Council (FIALC), which represented some 300,000<ref name=Hearing1945> {{cite web | title = Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representative, on Recognition of Italy as an Ally | publisher = USGPO | url = https://files.shsmo.org/manuscripts/saint-louis/S0741.pdf | pages = 26–27 FIALC members), 92–93 (Catalanotti n National Committee for Recognition of Italy) | date = 1945 | access-date = 21 May 2022}}</ref> Italian-American trade union members.<ref name=NYT19430827/> In December 1945, he traveled to Italy on behalf of the FIALC and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO—of which the ACWA was a co-founding union) to assess how to rebuild Italy and then helped raise $500,000 among ACWA members for that cause.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/> (The FIALC lasted until 1948.<ref> {{cite web | title = Preliminary Inventory S0741 (SA2592, SA2808, SA2829, SA3844): Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union Records | publisher = State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center - St. Louis | url = https://files.shsmo.org/manuscripts/saint-louis/S0741.pdf | page = 9 | date = 2008 | access-date = 21 May 2022}}</ref>) Catalanotti was also a member of a war-time group called the National Committee for the Recognition of Italy.<ref name=Hearing1945/>
==Personal life and death== Catalanotti married Elizabeth and had two children.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/>
Joseph Catalanotti died age 59 at his Brooklyn home of a heart attack.<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/><ref name=TIMEobitCatalanotti/>
==Legacy== On the night of Catalanotti's death, the ACWA's new president, Jacob Potofsky, said that he would be "long remembered for his energy and idealism, his great love of humanity, and his leadership in the fight against fascism, both here and in his native land." New York State CIO president Louis Hollander, who had served on the Joint Board with Catalanotti, said he had "earned the respect and gratitude of all workers for his ceaseless efforts on behalf of a better America and a better world."<ref name=NYTobitCatalanotti/>
==See also== * Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America * Sidney Hillman (ACWA president * Jacob Potofsky (ACWA president after Hillman) * Leo Krzycki (ACWA EVP and Polish American Labor Council president)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/matthews_aspace_ref2462_l4l Free Italy American Labor Council, 1945] {{DEFAULTSORT:Catalnotti, Joseph}}
Category:1887 births Category:1946 deaths
Category:Italian emigrants to the United States
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