THIS NEW army's tactics BECAME KNOWN AS SQUADRISMO. Flying detachments of Black Shirts, aided by the military supplies, guns, and transportation of the regularly constituted authorities, concentrated secretly, rode to given destinations and wrecked the Socialist and labor movement in villages or towns by destroying its newspapers, cooperative stores, headquarters and meeting-halls. Frequently they killed.
In America the first mention of Fascismo occurs on the 18th of October, 1920, when "armed radicals in black shirts" were reported attacking the offices of the newspaper Il Lavoratore in Trieste with bombs, hand grenades, and bludgeons; it was an item worthy of publication because it affected the lives of two American citizens. Twenty shots were fired at Joseph Emerson Haven, the American consul who had his office in the newspaper building, and Lincoln Eyre, the representative of the New York World.
Consul Haven sent an indignant report to the State Department, while even more indignant Mr. Eyre cabled that "this outrage is one of a long series committed by these bandits, these nationalist hoodlums, Fascisti as they call themselves, the word meaning 'nearly leaders' (sic) or perhaps with greater precision 'gangsters' who pretend to be inspired with patriotic devotion to Italian ideals. This sentiment translates itself in their strangely warped minds into systematic oppression by the most brutal and cowardly means, of all who venture to disagree with them. Militaristic nationalism is their creed and d'Annunzio (sic) is their prophet."
In November occurred the first large-scale military action of the newly armed illegal forces of the monarchy — the sack of Bologna — when the Socialist town council was driven out, the Chamber of Labor wrecked, the trades unions and cooperatives burned to the ground, the newspaper presses smashed and workingmen found on the premises beaten or murdered.
Between January and May, 1921, the Fascist squads destroyed 120 labor union headquarters and invaded 243 Socialist centers, killing 202 workingmen and wounding 1,144. In 1921 and 1922 they burned 500 labor centers and cooperatives and forcibly dissolved 900 Socialist municipalities. In almost all instances the military, the national and the local representatives of law and order, were confederates of the Black Shirts. For 162 Fascisti arrested in the first six months of 1921 the authorities jailed 2,240 workingmen. Of this period of violence Prezzolini, who at the time was neutral, wrote:
"They [the Fascisti] could organize themselves in armed camps and kill right and left, with the certainty of impunity and with the complicity of the police. It is thus no overstatement to recognize that the Fascists fought with 99 chances out of 100 of gaining the victory."
This guerilla warfare was waged chiefly against the cooperative movement, the labor unions, the Social Democrats, and the Catholics. It was not a war against Bolshevism, because whatever remained of Bolshevism after the 1920 factory-occupation episode was unimportant. Despite a million repetitions made since 1925, the year public relations counsel were engaged to help float Italian loans, it is a historic fact that there was no Bolshevik danger in Italy, and final proof can be found in the Popolo d'Italia of June 2, 1921, when Mussolini himself wrote:
"The Italy of 1921 is fundamentally different from that of 1919. ... To say that the Bolshevik danger still exists in Italy is equivalent of trying to exchange, for reasons of self-interest, fear against the truth. Bolshevism is conquered. More than that, it has been disowned by the leaders and the people."
Trains, which had not been running on time, improved their schedules. Strikes, which had been daily occurrences, became less frequent. Wages went up a bit. The cost of living went down. Exports and imports showed some satisfactory figures, and slowly Italy began lifting itself out of its despair. The best proof in the world is the rate of exchange. The dollar which had gone from 18 to 23 in 1920 came back to 20.15 for the first half of 1922.
Throughout Europe a rumor of optimism was spreading. For the first time since the war there was a small restoration of good feeling. In Italy the end of 1920 marking the liquidation of the insurrection of Fiume was followed by the famous January, 1921, Socialist Party congress in Leghorn which drove out the Communists, emancipating itself from a program of retaliatory violence and earning the support of organized labor throughout the world. Italy felt it was now convalescent from the wounds of the war and after-war.
With Bolshevism officially exiled and actually dying, there was now no reason for the continuance of the Fascist movement. But the price of the surrender of Fiume had been the semi-official recognition of the Black Shirts as collaborators of the forces of the State. Fascisti now carried arms openly. Meanwhile the country had grown so quiet that a general election was fought bloodlessly. It gave Italy a new parliament constituted as follows:
Democrats: 195
Socialists: 126
Catholics: 91
Nationalists: 40
Fascists: 32
Communists: 18
For the Communists it marked a significant defeat. The Fascisti, who in 1919 had fared so badly, got some satisfaction out of their 32 delegates in 1921, and the Popolari, organized in 1919, with 91 members, became a national force to be reckoned with in any future struggle for the maintenance of the middle road. Most important of all is the great victory of the Democrats and the moderate Socialists. The election showed the world that Italy was getting well politically and would remain a peaceful democratic constitutional nation.
It was at this moment that Mussolini, as usual without a platform, but with many promises to draw the sympathy of the masses whose psychology he knew so well, began his republican movement. But it did not go far. Immediately he played still another trick from his inexhaustible sleeve. To the astonishment of his followers, on the 23rd of July, 1921, he announced a proposed truce between the Fascist Party and militia and all of its enemies, also close cooperation between himself and the Socialist and Catholic Parties, both of which represented the working-classes.
In August this truce was signed "for the realization of the return of normal conditions" and for the renunciation of violence. The simple yet amazing text of this document, which, if made in good faith and capable of being carried out without opposition to Mussolini, would have changed the course of Italian history, is given in full in the Appendix. The signatories pledged themselves to end "all menaces, all reprisals, all punishments, all vengeances, all personal violence"; they were to respect the political insignias and economic organizations and to submit all violations to a college of arbitration, and to cooperate for the restoration of peace in the nation.
The treaty was signed by Mussolini, De Vecchi, and Giuriati for the parliamentary Fascist group, by Cesare Rossi and three others for the Fasci di Combattimento, by the Socialist Party, the Socialist parliamentary group, the General Federation of Labor, and by Enrico de Nicola, president of the Chamber of Deputies.
It may be noted that the first man to sign for the "Fighting Fascisti" was Cesare Rossi, he who was later to become head of the Cheka, carry out all orders against opposition leaders, finally to be implicated in the assassination which almost destroyed Fascism, a blow unforeseen by the disciple of Machiavelli.
With the ink hardly dry on the peace pact, Mussolini, who had, it must be truly admitted, initiated the conference, went to his desk and wrote the following declaration of reaffirmation and defiance to his own followers:
"I will defend with all my forces this treaty of peace which to my view attains the importance of a historic event on account of its 'singularity' without precedent.
"For this purpose I will attempt to apply the old and very wise proverb, 'Whoever does not employ the rod hates his son.' Well! If Fascism is my son — that which everyone has always known — I swear with the rods of my oath, of my courage, of my passion, I will either correct him or I will make his life impossible."
Can anyone doubt the courage, the passion, with which these words are written? Are they the expression of an honest man or can they possibly be those of the deepest hypocrite and villain? History alone can tell. Certain it was that in the August of 1921 the nation believed whole-heartedly that Mussolini with an outburst of frankness and honesty and fearlessness had done a great thing, had accomplished more than parliament and the polemics of the party press. This was the real peace of the people!
August passed in tranquility. But there were signs of trouble. All the forces of reaction, of private property, the bankers, the proprietors of the factories which had once been seized, the ship companies, the hotel keepers, and certain large landowners, who had once seen the menacing specter of Bolshevism, now determined that Socialism, liberalism, democracy, despite their legality, their pacifism, their disorganization, and their weaknesses, must also be banished. These elements were the employers of Mussolini the condottiere. On the other hand there were liberals of the same propertied classes who expressed their support of the Black Shirt leader orally.
With tremendous enthusiasm Mussolini, who again saw himself as a popular figure, attempted to curb the forces he had originated or encouraged. He thundered against the "hot heads," the "irresponsibles," the "violent elements," and he withdrew the radical pledges he had made. But it was useless. The times were out of joint for that sort of leadership. Tuscany, Emilia, and his own beloved Romagna refused to ratify the peace treaty.
Within the Fascist Party the movement against its duce grew in the cities and in the country. One of the most noteworthy breaches of the treaty occurred at Modena September 24th. The Po Valley Fascisti, who had refused all attempts at pacification, not only kept their squadristi on a war footing, but used their newly acquired guns to terrorize the Socialist cooperatives, the Catholic clubs, the labor organizations. The prefect of police of Modena had adopted measures to insure public order. The Fascisti protested this action. They marched into the public square opposite the prefecture and began their orations. Everyone who passed was forced, with clubs, to take off his hat during the speaking. The prefect, hearing the orators urge their followers to invade the police station, called for extra police, who, however, refused to obey the order.
Several excited persons rushed the commissaire of police and his men, striking about with clubs. Soon the whole Fascist group in excitement turned against the police, who, believing themselves in danger, fired into the crowd. There were seven dead and twenty wounded.
In the same month the Fascisti organized the assassination of the Deputy Di Vagno and the anti-French demonstrations of Venice.
In Bologna the Fascisti sang anti-Mussolini songs. During a meeting of the local committee practically everyone attacked the leader and soon printed signs appeared on the streets: "Who has betrayed once will betray again." It was ominous.
Old friends, leaders, founders of Fascism, deserted. Strangely enough, the one who stood steadfast was Cesare Rossi. Mussolini, seeing his followers in arms against him, said again: "If Fascism does not follow me, no one obliges me to follow Fascism. I am duce, a leader, a word which does not especially please me but which pleases others. We are numerous: schism is fatal. Let it come. The peace pact will have the reaction of precipitating the cleaning out of the party."
Bologna then voted against Mussolini.
Mussolini resigned. [1]
For a moment a great change came over Fascism. In all the industrial towns now and wherever there were large estates, the owners of land and factories became more active, disregarded Mussolini, organized their own clubs, rented headquarters, subsidized new branches about which Mussolini himself knew nothing. Among the more than 100,000 army officers that peace had thrown out of work many found employment in this new business. Arms were bought by the manufacturers and landowners; when military supplies arrived, it was the duty of the officers to drill and train and finally to lead the Fascist squadristi who were receiving money, guns, and orders from their new masters.
Thus it came about that Mussolini, seeing his life work disintegrating, himself disappearing as a national figure, reconsidered his resignation, and at the congress of the Fascisti in Rome, November, 1921, made a complete volte face again.
The pacifist of August who had sworn to whip Fascism into shape as a peaceful legal weapon, was himself whipped by Fascism. At the congress of Rome, Mussolini accepted the incorrigibility of his "son" and became Fascism's follower, not leader. He declared publicly that the peace treaty was dead and buried. Suddenly he announced himself for violence as a holy crusade against the Socialists and liberals. He even included the Catholics and Democrats in his speech demanding reprisals, renewal of bloodshed, supremacy of the Fascisti, and for the first time in history shouts of "Down with parliament," and, "Long live the dictatorship," were heard, shouts which were to lead within a year to just the event they presaged.
Thus passed another great crisis in the life of the child of Destiny. He had meant to conquer, had been conquered, and knew how to rise again even if his new leadership was for a cause, a program, an idea entirely opposed to the one for which he had a few weeks earlier announced himself prepared to risk his position, perhaps his life. The honest and sincere man of August who swore with "the rods of his courage and his passion" became in November an instrument for ruthlessness, violence, bloodshed — the program which the proprietors of Fascism demanded and which he humbly accepted, suddenly trying to make himself appear their leader again by being more extremist than the rest.
Mussolini was conquered by Fascism because more powerful forces had taken possession of his movement. In 1920 he had placed his forces at the disposal of certain industrialists without realizing that in saving them he would make them his masters.
Shortly after Mussolini's lieutenant (and later ambassador to the Vatican) De Vecchi had burned the Rome offices of the Avanti, he, a Torinese, was taken up by Com. de Benedetti and Aw. Ugo Gidogni of the Lega Industriale of Turin. Benni and Gino Olivetti, the directors of the Confederazione Generale dell'Industria, and Director Mazzini of the Associazione fra Industriali Metallurgici Meccanici ed Affini who was later to succeed de Benedetti as chairman of the Lega Industriale, were not only collaborating with Mussolini but with more trusted lieutenants who had less radical minds. These associations, corresponding to the various manufacturers' associations in America and the Stahlverein and other organizations which subsidized the Nazi movement in Germany, not only supplied the money for the Black Shirts, but succeeded easily in organizing the rebellion against Mussolini.
Whether or not he was previously aware of all the facts, he learned, at the Rome congress which ended the schism, that he could no longer defy the financial forces of which he was merely the political and military spearhead.
He now was given orders to destroy the labor movement. As the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian and New York World wrote at the time, "the enemy was not, however, the Communists," because they were unimportant: the enemy was the federation of labor, social democracy, and the newly arisen Catholic party of workingmen and peasants who were led by a priest, Don Sturzo, and who were demanding agrarian reform, social justice, and a share in the wealth of the nation.
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Notes:
1. He wrote: "The nation turned to us when our movement appeared as a liberator from a tyranny; the nation will turn against us if our movement takes on the guise of a fresh tyranny. . . . The nation needs peace in order to recover, to restore itself, to fulfill its highest destinies. You do not understand, you do not wish to understand, that the country wishes to work without being disturbed. I would enter into an alliance at this moment with the devil himself, with Anti-Christ, if that would give this poor country five years of tranquillity, of restoration, of peace.
"From my point of view, the situation is absolutely clear: if Fascism will not follow me, no one can oblige me to follow Fascism. I understand and sympathize a little with those Fascisti who cannot get away from their own surroundings. ... I am a leader who leads, not a leader who follows. I go— now and above all— against the current and never abandon myself to it and I watch always, above all, for the changing winds to swell the sails of my destiny."