Coco, Francesco.

Biography

Coco, Francesco (Francisco), b. January 20, 1887 (February 10, 1876), Morano Calabro, Province of Cosenza; Italy, to the US 1926; Italian American; Married; Barber; CP of Italy 1921, Secretary National Italian Fraction; (NOK 1311 Balcom Avenue, NYC); Arrived in Spain on April 24, 1937; Served with the Garibaldis, Company Political Delegate; Returned to the US on September 19, 1938 aboard the De Grasse; Wife Rose Mary Sullo Coco; d. March 1956, buried in Columbia Gardens in Arlington, Virginia.
Source: RGASPI Fond 545, Opis 3, Delo 874, ll. 33-39; AICVAS; “Francesco Coco,” CPC busta 1389; “Medaglioni: Francesco Coco” L’Unità Operaia, September 4, 1937; The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 82; La Spagna Nel Nostro Cuore; Find-a-Grave#129586896.
Biographical Excertp Francesco Coco had first been a member of the Socialist party and then among the charter members of the Communist party in 1921. Soon after his arrival in the United States, he was a central figure in the 1926 Communist-led textile workers strike in Passaic, New Jersey, during which he was arrested and fined for resisting arrest. The following year he helped found the short-lived Italian-language weekly Lotta di Classe, which served as the organ of the pro-Communist wing in the needle trades. Together with Ubaldo Cazzoli (a.k.a. Giulio Fantini) of the restaurant workers union, Coco was appointed to the Italian National Bureau of the Communist party of the United States where he helped unionize Italian workers.