Joseph Giganti was born in 1904 and spent his childhood in southern Illinois where his father worked as a coal miner. In 1920, the family moved to Chicago, where Giganti was apprenticed to a barber.

In the 1920s, Giganti joined the Communist party and advocated strongly for the release of Sacco and Vanzetti. He became the Midwest coordinator of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, organizing street demonstrations and pamphlet distribution. He also participated in the defense organization for Tom Mooney, achieving success in 1939.

After being expelled from the Communist party on charges of being a “Trotskyite.” While at the time, Giganti knew nothing about Trotsky, he soon joined the local group of Trotskyists after spending some time reading and researching Trotsky.

In the 1930s, Giganti became involved with Maximiliano Olay, a prominent Spanish born anarchist. Giganti worked closely with Olay on translations and publication of literature from Spain’s revolutionary organizations. At some point in the 1930s, Giganti married a woman named Rose.

In 1951, he received his PhD at the University of Rome despite never having attended high school. He taught labor economics and economic history at DePaul and Roosevelt Universities until his retirement in 1981.

Giganti was also pivotal to the reorganization of the Charles H. Kerr Company, a radical publishing house, in the 1970s. Elected as chairman of the board of directors in 1973, Giganti worked to release new and classic titles alike, bringing the company back to its previous standing as one of the fastest growing and oldest radical publishing houses in the United States.

Joseph Giganti died in 1986.