His political activities started as a leader of the peasant movement on Sicily, first in the Confederterra, later on as the regional secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (Cgil).

[1] In March 1950, La Torre was arrested in Bisacquino while leading the fight of peasants for land reform through occupations of large estates.

La Torre, together with judge Cesare Terranova, wrote a minority report, which pointed to links between the Mafia and prominent politicians in particular of the Christian Democrat party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana).

[3] According to the minority report: La Torre also proposed far-reaching legislation to fight the Mafia, but these did not advance at the time since they came at a politically inopportune moment.

He also became part of the popular movement against the deployment of Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) by the United States at Comiso Air Base,[7] just like the journalist Giuseppe Fava.

The missiles were stationed in June 1983 but were dismantled after the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed by the former Soviet Union and the United States on 8 December 1987.

[8] On 30 April 1982, La Torre and his driver Rosario Di Salvo were shot in a hail of bullets near the Communist Party's headquarters in Palermo.

La Torre's law was approved only after Dalla Chiesa was also murdered on 3 September 1982, on the orders of Mafia boss Salvatore Riina of the Corleonesi.

Mafia-type organized crime was now defined as having additional specific properties: an associative bond with a level of intimidating capacity to cause subjection and omertà.