The Società di Mutuo Soccorso di Aggius comes from an existing company called Società Operaia Fratellanza e Lavoro. Its existence is documented by the census conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce from the unification of Italy until the early decades of the ‘900.
In 1904, the date where you can find it for the first time, the company was only one year old and was made of 58 members, a respectable number for a small Sardinian village. The mutual aid societies were widespread in Gallura: in the nearby Tempio Pausania there were two of them and Ozieri had got three societies.
The company broke up around 1906, apparently because of a dispute between local families, to create, after a few years, the new Società di Mutuo Soccorso di Aggius.
On December 3 , 1913 the first statute of the new company was signed by Francesco Muntoni and 40 other founding members and from the 1 January, 1914 the Società di Mutuo Soccorso began its activity which continues till today.
Social purposes consisted in the mutual assistance, workers’ moral, intellectual and economic enrichment, for defending the interests of the working class and protecting the rights of individual members.
The undated manuscript statute, almost certainly the original of 1913, is one of the most valuable documents, recently found and reassembled to create our “rediscovered Archive.” This is the same status printed in 1929 from the printers G. Tortu of Tempio Pausania.
Since the end of 1938, the members of the Società di Mutuo Soccorso came together and decided that the musical band was to be born within the company itself and its elements would become members in all respects.
The Società di Mutuo Soccorso di Aggius is a member of the Coordination of the Mutual Aid Societies of Sardinia and a member of the Italian Federation of Voluntary Integrative Mutuality. It takes part in all regional, national and international activities.
The Company’s aims have changed. They can be summarized as follows:
– The aims and objectives enshrined in the Statute;
– The preservation of historical and cultural heritage;
– The creation of an archive together with the Centre for the Research and Study of the Sardinian Mutual Aid Societies;
– a seat suitable to current needs, where it is possible to host the documents saved by the years and the neglect, besides meeting for social purposes;
– The birth of a regional documents centre.
Info and contacts
Società di Mutuo Soccorso
Via Gallura, 8 – 07020 Aggius (OT)
Presidente: Martino Spezzigu
Tel.: +39 347 6426867 E-mail: giacomomarspe@tiscali.it
