 Throughout his career in Sicily, Dolci used methods of peaceful protest, with one of his most famous hunger strike being in November 1955, when he fasted for a week in Partinico to draw attention to the misery and violence in the area and to promote the building of a dam over the Iato River, which roared down in the winter rains and dried up in the nine arid months, that could provide irrigation for the entire valley.One technique that he innovated was the "strike in reverse" (working without pay), which initiated unauthorized public works projects for the poor.This earned him his first notoriety in 1956, when he gathered some 150 unemployed men to mend a public road.