[1] Born in the province of Siena, the young Sabatini was an early member of the Communist Party of Italy, and militarily resisted the initial rise of Fascism in the ranks of the Arditi del Popolo.
[citation needed] Having worked in Rome's Snia tram factory, Sabatini joined the Scintilla group in 1940, in the attempt to re-create the Communist Party after its long repression under Benito Mussolini's rule.
[citation needed] Joining the dissident MCd'I/Bandiera Rossa upon its creation in August 1943, Sabatini advocated a strategy for the partisan struggle, and criticised the moderation of official Communist Party leaders: in the tramworker's view 'Lenin turned war into revolution.
[2] He quickly became a popular commander of the MCd'I's 'Second Zone', which included his home district of Torpignattara, organising numerous armed actions against Occupation forces as well as distributing food among the population.
This statement came to prominence in Italian media in 2008, as 'post-Fascist' mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno visited the Monument in an effort to burnish his democratic credentials, in what was widely characterised as a cynical attempt to use Resistance commemorations for political gain.