Francesco Fantin

Francesco Giovanni Fantin (20 January 1901 - 16 November 1942) was an Italian anti-fascist activist who emigrated to Australia in 1924 and found work in Queensland as a cane cutter. He remained politically active as an anti-fascist organiser and fundraiser but was killed after being detained and sent to an internment camp in 1942.

Life Fantin was born in San Vito di Leguzzano near Venice, Italy on 20 January 1901. He was one of five children born to Giovanni (Battista) Fantin, a textile worker, and his conservative Catholic wife Catarina, née Manea. The number of assailants was unclear but ultimately a killer, Giovanni Bruno Casotti (aged 27), a known fascist, was tried in Adelaide and convicted of manslaughter. Informally, he was also accused of murder by communists who considered Fantin an ally, and an enemy of the fascist regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. Casotti received a two-year sentence after pleading guilty It was first performed in 1983 by Adelaide-based theatre company, Doppio Teatro in Adelaide and at Loveday. Performances were also later staged in Canberra in 1991.