He was an eye-witness of the Portella della Ginestra massacre , when 11 people were killed and 27 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on May 1 , 1947 , by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano and his band . That May morning he was supposed to speak at Portella , but due to a defect of his motorcycle he arrived late . " Before my eyes this horrific tragedy happened , " Renda recalls . Immediately after the massacre , the peasants of Piana wanted their own justice , threatening to kill the mafiosi of their county . " I convinced them , ” Renda remembered , " that that would have been the provocation needed to outlaw the Communists . " In 1951 he was elected member of the Sicilian Regional Assembly for the People ’s Block ( '' Blocco del popolo '' ) – a coalition of the PCI and the Italian Socialist Party ( '' Partito Socialista Italiano '' , PSI ) for the district of Agrigento , and was reelected in PCI for five consecutive legislatures . He resigned in November 1967 to run for the Italian Senate . Elected senator in the 5th legislature ( 1968 – 1972 ) , he was a member of the Committee on regional issues
Portella della Ginestra massacre
Portella della Ginestra massacre
Francesco Renda