Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism

"Science," the Greek word for knowledge, when appended to the word "political," creates what seems like an oxymoron. For who could claim to know politics? More complicated than any game, most people who play it become addicts and die without understanding what they were addicted to. The rest of us suffer under their malpractice as our "leaders." A truer case of the blind leading the blind could not be found. Plumb the depths of confusion here.

Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Wed Jan 14, 2015 11:53 pm

APPENDIX 9: The Labor Charter

Art. I. The Italian nation is an organism, having aims, life, and means of action superior to those of the single or grouped individuals who compose it. It is a moral, political and economic unity which is completely realized in the Fascist State.

Art. 2. Labor in all forms, intellectual, technical and manual, is a social duty. In this sense, and in this sense only, is it protected by the State. From the national point of view all production is a unit; its objects are unitary and can be defined as the wellbeing of the producers and the development of national strength.

Art. 3. Trade or syndicate organization is free. But only the syndicate regularly recognized and placed under the control of the State has the legal right to represent the entire group of employers or of workers for which it is constituted, to guard their interests before the state or other organized economic groups, to draw up collective labor contracts, obligatory on all those belonging to the same group, to impose contributions (taxes) on them and exercise delegated functions of public interest relating to them.

Art. 4. In collective labor contracts, the solidarity of the various factors of production finds its concrete expression in the reconciliation of the opposing interests of employers and workers, and in their subordination to the superior interests of production.

Art. 5. The labor court is the organ through which the State intervenes to solve labor controversies, whether they deal with the observance of contracts or other existing standards, or with the determination of new labor conditions.

Art. 6. Legally organized trade organizations assure legal equality between employers and workers, maintain the discipline of production and labor, and promote its perfection. A corporation constitutes the organization of one field of production and represents its interests as a whole. Since the interests of production are national interests, the corporations are recognized by law as state organizations by virtue of this representation.

Art. 7. The Corporate State considers private initiative in the field of production the most efficacious and most useful instrument in the interest of the nation. Private organization of production being a function of national interest, the organization of the enterprise is responsible to the State for the direction of its production. Reciprocity of the rights and duties is derived from the collaboration of the productive forces. The technician, office employee and worker is an active collaborator in the economic undertaking, the direction of which is the right of the employer, who has the responsibility for it.

Art. 8. Trade associations of employers are obliged to promote in every way the increase and perfection of products and a reduction in costs. The representatives of those who exercise a liberal profession or an art, and the associations of public employees, join in the guardianship of the interests of art, science and letters, in the perfection of production and in the attainment of temporal aims of the corporate system.

Art. 9. The intervention of the State in economic production takes place only when private initiative is lacking or is insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. Such intervention may assume the form of outside control, encouragement or direct management.

Art. 10. Labor disputes which involve groups can have no resort to the Labor Court until the corporation has exhausted its efforts for reconciliation. When individuals are involved in relation to the interpretation of collective contracts, the workers associations are empowered to attempt settlement. . . .

Art. 11. The trade associations are obliged to regulate by means of collective contracts the labor relations between the employers and employees. . . . Every collective labor contract, under penalty of nullification, must contain precise statements ... of the amount and manner of payment of wages, and the hours of labor.

Art. 12. The syndicate operation, the corporations' mediation and the labor court decisions shall guarantee the relation between wages and normal living costs. . . .

Art. 13. Losses due to crises in business and the fluctuations in exchange must be equally divided between the two elements (capital and labor). . . .

Art. 14. Wages should be paid as best suited to the needs of employee and the undertaking. When payment is by piece-work . . . suitable weekly or fortnightly accountings must be furnished. Night work . . . must be paid at higher rates than day work. . . .

Art. 15. Employees have the right of a weekly rest day, Sunday. . . . Collective contracts . . . shall ensure respect for civil and religious holidays. Employees must scrupulously and earnestly observe working hours.

Art. 16. After a year's uninterrupted service in a concern doing continuous work, the employee has the right to an annual holiday with pay.

Art. 17. In companies functioning the year round the employee has the right in case of discharge through no fault of his own to compensation based on the years of service. Likewise, in case of death.

Art. 18. The transfer of a firm into new hands shall not affect the labor contracts. . . . Illness of an employee does not cancel his contract. Call to service in the army or navy or Fascist militia shall not cause the dismissal of an employee.

Art. 19. Infractions of discipline, and acts disturbing the normal functioning of a concern shall he punished by fine, suspension, or immediate discharge without compensation. . . .

Art. 20. Newly hired employees shall have a period of trial in which the right to cancel the contract is reciprocal and payment only for actual time of work.

Art. 21. Collective labor contracts extends its benefits to workers at home. . . .

Art. 22. The State shall ascertain and control employment and unemployment since these are the indices of production and labor.

Art. 23. Labor exchanges (employment bureaus) shall be controlled by the Corporations. Employers shall be required to engage workers through these exchanges, with freedom of choice among names inscribed except that other things being equal, preference must be given to members of the Fascist Party and of Fascist syndicates in order of seniority of registration.

Art. 24. Professional trades associations must practice selective action among members for the purpose of increasing technical skill and moral value.

Art. 25. The corporations must see that the laws are observed governing safety, preventing accidents, sanitation.

Art. 26. Insurance is an excellent example of the spirit of collaboration between classes. Employers and employees contribute to the cost proportionately. . . .

Art 27. The Fascist State proposes to bring about:

1. Improvement in accident insurance.

2. Improvement in extension of maternity assurance.

3. Compulsory insurance against occupational diseases and tuberculosis, first step towards compulsory insurance against all disease.

4. Improvement in unemployment insurance.

5. Adoption of special marriage endowment for young workers.

Art. 28. It is the duty of the employees associations to protect members administratively and legally in problems arising in connection with accidents or other form of social insurance. . . .

Art. 29. The associations must provide relief for workers they represent whether they be members or non-members. . . .

Art. 30. Education and training, especially technical training, shall be one of the chief duties of the professional trade associations towards members and non-members. They shall support the Dopolavoro (recreational institution) and other national educational enterprises.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Wed Jan 14, 2015 11:54 pm

APPENDIX 10: The Fascist Decalogue

I. Know thou that the Fascist, and especially the militiaman, should not believe in perpetual peace.

II. Days spent in prison are always merited.

III. One serves his fatherland even by standing guard at a gasoline tank.

IV. A companion must be a brother, first because he lives with you, and second because he thinks like you.

V. A rifle, the munitions belt, etc., are not intrusted you to be worn at your ease, but to be preserved for war.

VI. Never say "the government will pay," because it is you who pays and the government is that for which you wished and for which you put on the uniform.

VII. Discipline is the sun of the armies; without it there are no soldiers, only confusion and defeat.

VIII. Mussolini is always right.

IX. The volunteer profits by no extenuating circumstances if he disobeys.

X. One thing must be dear to you above all — the life of the Duce.

The Fascist Ten Commandments [1]

1 . God and country first: all other affections come after love for these.

2. He who is not ready to sacrifice body and soul to Italy and to serve Mussolini without question is unworthy to wear the black shirt, symbol of Fascism.

3. Use all your intelligence to understand the orders you receive and all your enthusiasm to obey them and carry them out.

4. Discipline is not only a virtue for a soldier in the ranks. It should be a daily and hourly habit.

5. A bad son and a lazy scholar cannot be good Fascists.

6. Employ your time and talents so that work becomes a pleasure and pleasure becomes work.

7. Learn to suffer without grumbling, to be generous without expecting a reward.

8. Carry out good actions to their end; do not leave them only half accomplished.

9. Be daring and courageous in moments of difficulty and desperation.

10. Thank God every day that he has made you an Italian Fascist.

The Apocryphal Fascist Catechism

Five years in the penal islands is the usual punishment for political activity against Fascism. For smaller offenses, one to three years. Thus, one year in prison is the penalty for everyone found possessing the following satire which is being secretly circulated by the many thousands in Italy. It is called the "Catechismo fascista," the ten questions and answers being:

1. Who has created you?

Mussolini created me.

2. Who is Mussolini?

He is the eternal father.

3. Where is Mussolini?

Mussolini is in heaven, on the earth, in every part, and he resides in the Viminale.

4. Does Mussolini know everything?

Mussolini knows everything. He is omniscient.

5. Can Mussolini do everything?

He can do everything. He is omnipotent.

6. For what purpose did Mussolini create you?

Mussolini has created me to fight the Bolsheviki.

7. What are the verities revealed by Mussolini?

They are comprised in the Credo.

8. Do you know the Fascist Credo?

May I be damned if I don't.

9. Recite it.

"I believe in Mussolini, the almighty father, creator of Fascism and the Black Shirts, conceived post-bellum, born of Karl Marx and Gabriele d'Annunzio, came into this world under the Red Flag, was crucified, died and was buried, descended into hell, but on the third day was resurrected with a blackjack (manganello) in his right hand and a bottle of castor oil in his left. He conquered Rome and now sits on the Viminale to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the holy ghost Michele Bianchi, in the holy church of the seat of Fascism, and in the remission of the blackjack on the heads of the Bolsheviki, in the resurrection of the ax in the heads of the Socialists. I believe in the eternal life of Fascism. Amen."

10. Recite the Fascist paternoster.

"Our Mussolini who is on the Viminale, thy Will be done in the Montecitorio as in the Quirinal. Give us this day our daily squadristi and remit us our blackjacks as we remit them on the heads of our enemies. So be it.

"Blessed be the squadristi because theirs is the kingdom of Montecitorio. Blessed be the Fascisti, because theirs is the kingdom of the manganello. Blessed be those who accept Fascism because theirs is the kingdom of castor oil. Blessed be those who do not mingle in politics because they will never see the hospitals."

The Balilla Credo [2]

Question: What does it mean to be a Fascist?

Answer: It means that the commandments, precepts, and sacraments of Italy must be observed.

Q. What is its creed?

A. It is the creed given by the Apostles of Italy and of Fascism.

Q. Of how many articles does it consist?

A. Of twelve articles, as follows:

1. I believe in Rome Eternal, mother of my fatherland

2. And in Italy, her firstborn,

3. Who was born of her virgin womb by the grace of God;

4. Who suffered under the barbarian invader, was crucified, slain and buried;

5. Who descended into the sepulcher, and rose again from the dead in the nineteenth century;

6. Who ascended to Heaven in her glory in 1918 and in 1922 (by the March on Rome);

7. Who is seated at the right hand of Mother Rome;

8. Who will come thence to judge the quick and the dead.

9. I believe in the genius of Mussolini;

10. In our Holy Father Fascism and in the communion of martyrs;

11. In the conversion of the Italians; and

12. In the resurrection of the Empire. Amen!

_______________

Notes:

1. Issued by Giovanni Giuriati, Secretary of the Fascist Party, October, 1931.

2. Denounced in 1926 as sacrilegious by the Bishop of Brescia, with the approval of the Vatican.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:03 am

APPENDIX 11: Fascist Finances

THE PUBLIC DEBT (in millions of lire)

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DEBTS : MUNICIPAL AND LOCAL BODIES

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The 93 principal communes Dec. 31, 1925: 3,066,000,000
The 93 principal communes Dec. 31, 1927: 5,481,000,000

BANKRUPTCIES

(From Annuario Statistico Italiano 1930, p. 572, and the Bollettino Mensile di Statistica, May, 1930, p. 499)

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The Pre-War Decade and the Fascist Decade (In percentages of increase or decrease)

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(Note: 1913 was a year of crisis comparable to 1929)

THE FASCIST CRISIS

On October 9, 1927, two years before the collapse in Wall Street, Mussolini, addressing parliament, said: "Let us speak frankly, without pious euphemism. There is a crisis. The crisis is grave." Objective economists date the Fascist crisis from 1926; it became intense following the stabilization of the lira. The following official statistics prove these statements:

Image

Image

_______________

Notes:

4. Official.

5. Mortara, Prospective economiche.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:03 am

APPENDIX 12: Fascism: Its Theory and Philosophy

BY MUSSOLINI

(Written for the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia)

Like all sound political concepts, Fascism is both practice and thought, action in which one doctrine is inherent, and a doctrine which, rising from a given system of historical forces, remains bound with it, and works from the inside of this system. There is no concept of the State that is not fundamentally a concept of life: philosophy or intuition, a system of ideas that moves within a logical construction, or is gathered in a vision or in a faith, whatever it is, it is always, at least virtually always, an organic conception of the world.

Thus Fascism would not be understood in many of its practical attitudes, as a party organization, as a system of education, as discipline, if it were not looked at in the light of its general way of conceiving life. It is a spiritual way. The world, for Fascism, is not this material world that appears superficially, in which man is an individual separated from all others, and is governed by a natural law which instinctively leads him to live a life of egoistic and momentary pleasure. The man of Fascism is an individual who is the nation and the motherland, a moral law which brings together individuals and generations in a tradition and a mission, which suppresses the instinct for the closed life in a short round of pleasure, so as to initiate as a duty a superior life free from the limits of time and space: a life in which the individual, through self-abnegation, the sacrifice of his own interests, death itself, realizes that totally spiritual existence in which is the worth of man.

Fascism demands the man active, and engaged in action with all his energies : it demands him vigorously conscious of difficulties, and ready to face them. It conceives of life as a struggle, and that it is up to man to conquer for himself that which is really worthy of him, creating first of all within himself the instrument (physical, moral, intellectual) with which to build himself up. Thus with the individual, thus with the nation, thus with humanity. Hence the high value of culture in all its forms (art, religion, science) and the tremendous importance of education. Hence also the essential value of work, with which man overcomes nature and creates the human world (economic, political, moral and intellectual).

This positive conception of life is evidently an ethical conception. Life, then, as conceived by the Fascist, is serious, austere, religious: poised in a world supported by the moral and responsible forces of the spirit. The Fascist disdains the comfortable life. Fascism is a religious conception, in which the man is viewed in his inherent relationship with a superior law, with an objective will that transcends the particular individual and elevates him to the position of a conscious member of a spiritual society. Those who, in the religious policy of the Fascist regime, have stopped at considerations of mere opportunism, have not understood that Fascism, in addition to being a system of government, is also and first of all a system of thought.

Fascism is an historical conception, in which man is not what he is if he is not functioning fully in the spiritual faith to which he adheres, in the family and social group, in the nation and in that history in which all nations participate. Hence the great value of tradition in the memories, the language, the customs, and the standards of social life. Outside of history, man is nothing. For this reason Fascism is opposed to all individualistic abstractions on materialistic bases of the 18th Century type; and it is opposed to all Jacobin Utopias and innovations. It does not believe real happiness to be possible on earth, as it was in the desire of the economic literature of the Settecento, and therefore rejects all conceptions by which, at a certain period in history, there will be a definitive apotheosis of the human race. This means putting oneself outside of history and life, which is a continuous flux and reflux.

Politically, Fascism is a realistic doctrine; practically, it aspires to solve only the problems which are posed historically by themselves and which by themselves find or suggest their own solutions. To act among men, as in nature, one must enter into the process of reality and avail oneself of the forces at the moment.

Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception is for the State; and it is for the individual (insofar as he coincides with the State) the universal conscience and will of man in his historic existence.

Fascism is against classic liberalism, which rose from the need to react against absolutism, and which has exhausted its historical function since the State was transformed in its own popular conscience and will.

Liberalism denied the State in the interest of the particular individual; Fascism re-affirms the State as the true reality of the individual. And if liberty must be the attribute of the real man, and not of that abstract puppet about which individualistic liberalism thought, Fascism is for liberty. It stands for the liberty which can be a serious matter, the liberty of the State, and of the individual in the State.

For the Fascist, everything is within the State, and nothing human or spiritual exists, and much less has worth, outside of the State. It is in this sense that Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State, synthesized and united by every value and worth, interprets, develops and strengthens the whole life of the people.

Neither individuals outside of the State, nor groups (political parties, associations, syndicates, classes) . For this reason Fascism is against socialism, which hardens the historic class struggle and ignores the unity of State which casts the classes in a single economic and moral reality; and, analogously, it is against class syndicalism. But within the orbit of the regulating State, the real needs from which originate socialist and syndicalist movements, are recognized by Fascism and made to count in the corporative system of interests, conciliated within the unity of the State.

Individuals are classed according to the categories of their interests; they are syndicates according to their differentiated but co-interested economic activities ; but they are first of all and above all the State. The latter is not a number, like a sum of individuals forming the majority of a people. For that reason Fascism is against the democracy that equalizes a people to its greater number, lowering it to the level of the majority; yet Fascism itself is the purest form of democracy. The people is conceived as it should be, qualitatively, as the most potent idea because it is more moral, more coherent, truer, an idea which in the people is realized as the conscience and will of the few, even o£ One, and, as an ideal, tends to be realized in the conscience and will of all : of all those who from nature and history, ethnically, find reason to form a nation, bound in the same direction of development and spiritual formation, like a single conscience and will. Not race nor region geographically individualized, but progeny historically perpetuating themselves, multitudes unified by one idea: a will to existence and power, knowledge of self, personality.

This superior personality is, however, a nation only insofar as it is a State. It is not the nation that engenders the State, according to the obsolete naturalistic concept which served as the basis for the publicists of the national States in the 19th Century. On the other hand, the nation is created by the State, which gives the people, conscious of their own moral unity, a will, and therefore an effective existence. The right of a nation to independence derives not from a situation of fact more or less unconscious and inert, but from an active consciousness, from a political will of the moment tending to lay down its own law. The State, in fact, like universal ethical will, is the creator of law.

The nation as State is an ethical reality that exists and lives insofar only as it develops itself. Its halting is its death. Therefore the State not only is the authority that governs and gives form to laws and values to the spiritual life of the individual will but it is also the power that makes its will mean something abroad, making it recognized and respected, or rather, demonstrating with fact its universality in all the necessary determinations of its development. It is thus organization and expansion, at least virtually so. Thus it can be compared with the nature of the human will, which in its development does not recognize barriers, and which realizes itself by testing its own infinity.

The Fascist State, the most potent and highest form of the personality, is a force, but a spiritual one, which sums up all the forms of man's moral and intellectual life. It cannot therefore be limited to simple governmental functions of order and protection, as liberalism used to desire. Fascism is not a simple mechanism which limits the sphere of supposed individual liberty. It is an interior form and norm and a discipline of the whole person; it permeates the will like the intelligence. Its principle, a central inspiration of the human personality living in the civic community, descends deeply and lodges in the heart of the man of action as well as the thinker, of the artist as well as the scientist : it is the soul of the soul.

Fascism, then, is not only a giver of laws and a founder of institutions, but an educator and promoter of spiritual life. It demands to remake not the forms of human life, but the contents: man, character, faith. And to this end it demands a discipline and authority which descends within the spirit and there dominates unchallenged. Hence its sign is the Lictor "fascio," the symbol of unity, strength, and justice.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:03 am

APPENDIX 13: Il Duce Tells Fascist Journalists Duty Is to Serve Regime; calls Italian press freest in the world and tells editors to avoid publication of crimes and deal with national problems

by Benito Mussolini

Premier Mussolini expressed his conception of the Fascist journalist's duty in the following speech delivered before the editors of seventy Italian newspapers who met in Rome on Oct. 10, 1928, for the first time in six years.

Comrades and Gentlemen: This important meeting of the journalists of the regime takes place only at the end of the sixth year thereof. You understand it could not have taken place before because it is only since January, 1925, and more particularly during the past two years that the problem of the Fascist press has been faced and almost entirely settled. In a regime which embraces everything, as any regime arising from a triumphant revolution should, the press is an element of that regime, a force at the service of that regime.

In a unitarian regime the press cannot be extraneous from the whole. This is why the whole Italian press is Fascist and should feel proud to militate compactly under the emblem of the lictor's rods. Starting with this undeniable fact, we immediately have a compass to guide the practical activity of Fascist journalism. We avoid that which is harmful to the regime and do that which helps it. Above all, and we may say it of Italy exclusively and apart from other countries, journalism, rather than a profession, or trade, becomes a mission of great delicacy and importance, because nowadays it is journalism which circulates among the masses. After the school has instructed the rising generations, it is journalism which carries on the task of information and formation.

Therefore, it is not absurd that, since we must continue the formative education of the multitude, journalists should be morally and technically trained. It is evident that journalists are not made in schools any more than poets. Nevertheless, nobody can deny the usefulness of schools.

This first meeting of the journalists of the regime is meant to be an honor and recognition. Those old accusations that Fascist tyranny suffocates the freedom of the press are now entirely discredited. The Fascist press is the freest in the whole world. Elsewhere newspapers are under orders from plutocratic groups, from parties, from individuals; elsewhere they have been reduced to the melancholy state of exchanging exciting news, the perpetual reading whereof saturates the public mind with a kind of stupefaction, with signs of atony and imbecility; elsewhere journals are grouped in the hands of a very few individuals who consider newspapers as true and personal industry like that of iron or leather.

Italian journalism is free because it serves but one cause and regime; it is free because within the laws of the regime it can and does exercise functions of control, criticism, propulsion. I most absolutely deny that the Italian press is the realm of boredom and uniformity. All who read foreign journals of all countries in the world know how gray, uniform, stereotyped, even to details, is their press. I affirm that Italian Fascist journalism must always and in greater measure differ clearly from that of other countries so as not only to build for the flag which it defends but also be a resolute, visible, very radical antithesis to the press of other lands.

This difference does not exclude another one equally important. Let me use a musical simile. I consider Italian Fascist journalism as an orchestra. The — la — is common to all instruments. This — la — is not given out by the Government through its press bureaus under some sort of inspiration and suggestion made according to daily contingencies; this — la — is given by Fascist journalism itself. It knows how to serve the regime. It does not wait the word of command every day. It has it in its conscience.

Once given the — la — there remains diversity of instruments and it is precisely their diversity which prevents cacophony and brings instead full, divine harmony. There is, besides, the diversity of the musicians' temperament, a necessary diversity because this imponderable but vital element makes execution ever more perfect. Each journal should become a well defined, that is, individualized instrument recognizable in the great orchestra. In a modern orchestra stringed instruments do not exclude wind instruments of unusual shape. There can be Fascist journals of serious aspect with perhaps an official tinge, and journals for assault, warlike, headstrong. There can be journals partial to certain problems; those which are big enough to be national, others which must be content as excellent regional or provincial journals.

For instance, it is absurd for a provincial newspaper to soak its readers with whole pages on world foreign policy. Their difference must be bound up with true and proper division of labor based upon Fascist journalism's common sense rather than upon instructions from above.

The national, regional, provincial press serves the regime by reporting its daily task, creating, maintaining an atmosphere and approval of its work.

It is a great adventure to live in this first extraordinary quarter century, a great adventure for you to be able to follow Fascist revolution in its progressive stages. Destiny has been particularly kind to you, permitting you to be journalists during a war and revolution, both rare, memorable events in the history of nations.

Now, do all those who think they serve the regime, serve it effectively, usefully? Not always. Those do not serve it who abandon themselves to laudatory adjectives, singing some obligatory rhyme for conventional purposes about every act and fact, even of small import, or every man even of modest stature. You must deflate and keep your distance. Six years of Fascist revolution are greater than any words, especially than many words. Nouns make adjectives superfluous.

Nor do those who give excessive space to crimes, featuring them for copy, serve the regime, nor those who neglect their journal's make-up, who should take great pains over headlines and text, especially headlines. I read, for instance, of rewards given to the reporter who spends his time between prison and hospital for the headline "Genius and Madness," as though genius inevitably dwelt in madhouses. Accidents during work become terrifying catastrophes. You feel bound to report that some young professor shoots his wife, as if it interested anybody but the janitor and their nearest relations. For the thousandth time you rehash the mystery of Rudolph at Mayerling and reprint to boredom the story of Baker, the self-styled Black Venus. All this is uneducative journalism of old regimes.

The new regime that is Fascist journalism must get off the rocks of this mentality and set out in search of and write about all other varied grand aspects, problems of individual and national life. Copy about crime must be left to police reports, except in those exceptional cases where great social, human or political Interest prevails.

Those do not serve the regime who fail to keep their dignity before foreigners who are enjoying Italian hospitality, even when they express their opinion about the regime or Mussolini. I repeat that the highest marks assigned to me, with or without praise by any of these illustrious personages, leave me entirely indifferent.

Exalt big men, all those who render service to their motherland and humanity, not those vain ones who like to see themselves pictured in the act of saluting the unknown warrior. Nor do those serve the regime who lack discretion, especially in matters of foreign policy or finance; who are inexact; who go in for Barzinism late in the day; who cover themselves with incense or, in the heat of argument, stoop to defamatory remarks and cannibalism. Nor do those who indulge in the luxury of generic censoriousness and irresponsible moralizing, who look at all and nobody when precise facts and names are needed to correct evils betimes; nor those who fail to check facts and judgment passed upon people in their articles, thereby serving their adversaries with evidence against them.

This list of how to serve, or not to serve, the regime could be prolonged, but you already understand me and how to serve the regime.

I wish to stress that, apart from strictly political questions or those fundamentally embedded in the revolution, criticism can, with limitations, be exercised for all other questions. Before monetary reform was introduced I allowed polemics between those favoring and those against revaluation, not only in academic chairs but in reviews and dailies. In part, science, philosophy, a man's Fascist membership ticket must not give him privileges or immunity. Just as it should be permissible to say that Mussolini as a violin player is a very modest amateur, so it should be permissible to criticise objectively art, prose, poetry or the theatre without any veto. Here party discipline is not at stake nor does revolution come into play. When a man asks to be judged as poet, playwright, painter, novelist, he has no right to fall back on his party membership when judgment is unfavorable.

Jones or Smith may be a brave Fascist but a deficient poet. You must never give the public the alternative of being anti-Fascist because it hisses, or cowardly because it applauds all literary abortions, all bad poetry, all pictures which are daubs. The membership card gives no talent to those who lack it. I have not said all I could, but I think I have said the essentials. Above all this, your task will grow ever more important, nationally and internationally. Nationally because among other things the Italian people will within a few months' time be summoned to a plebiscite whereby it will record its effective consent to the regime in the eyes of the whole world. You must prepare this great manifestation and you have in your journals a means of doing so worthily.

In international spheres we are not marching toward easy times. The more Italy grows in political, economic, moral stature the more durable Fascist Italy becomes and the greater will be those inevitable reactions in anti-Fascist spheres which seem offended at having a new word of command in political and social camps. For this our press was vigilant, ready, equipped modernly with men who know how to argue with adversaries beyond our frontiers, who above all, are moved not by material but by ideal aims.

I hope that when I again convoke you I shall be able to see that you have always more decidedly, proudly served the cause of revolution. With this hope, accept my cordial greeting, in which there is a little reminiscence and homesickness.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:04 am

APPENDIX 14: The Foreign Policies of Fascism

Speech by Premier Mussolini

"Do you remember my speeches last May at Leghorn, Florence, and Milan? I will comment on them long after the event now that the tumult of others' comment appears to have abated. With these speeches I intended to tear the mask from the face of hypocritical Europe, which stammers of peace at Geneva but prepares for war everywhere.

"Naturally, those whose mask was torn off tried to invert the situation by representing Italy as the only wolf amid a bleating flock of peaceful lambs. But that trick is puerile. Italy arms relatively because others arm. She will disarm when all disarm.

"I repeat that as long as there are cannon they will always be more beautiful than beautiful, but often false, words. When words will be sufficient to regulate relations between peoples then I will say that words are divine.

"Let it be clear, however, that we are arming ourselves spiritually and materially in order to defend ourselves, not in order to attack. Fascist Italy will never take the initiative of war.

"As for Italy's policy on the Danube and in the East, it is dictated by reasons of life. We are trying to utilize the last square inch of our territory. What we are doing is gigantic. But soon our territory will be saturated by our growing population. We wish this and we are proud of this, because life produces life.

"By the year 1950 Italy will be the only country of young people in Europe, while the rest of Europe will be wrinkled and decrepit. People will come from over the frontier to see the phenomenon of this blooming Spring of the Italian people.

"Only toward the East can our pacific expansion occur. This explains our friendships and our alliances. The dilemma propounded at Florence still holds good. It goes hard with our enemies already, but we are marching side by side with our friends.

"Our foreign policy is sincere, without evasion or mental reservations. A written agreement is sacred for us whatever may happen. Nor do we know of any other means whereby a people can increase its prestige and the confidence others have in it.

"The longer our regime lasts the more the anti-Fascist coalition has recourse to expedients dictated by desperation. The struggle between the two worlds can permit no compromises. The new cycle which begins with the ninth year of the Fascist regime places the alternative in even greater relief — either we or they, cither their ideas or ours, either our State or theirs!

"The new cycle must be of greater harshness, not of greater indulgence. Whoever has interpreted it differently has fallen into a grave error of interpretation. This explains why the struggle has now become world-wide and why Fascismo has become the subject of debate in all countries, here feared, there hated, elsewhere ardently desired.

"The phrase that Fascismo is not an article for exportation is not mine. It is too banal. It was adopted for the readers of newspapers who in order to understand anything need to have it translated into terms of commercial jargon. In any case it must now be amended.

"Today I affirm that the idea, doctrine and spirit of Fascismo are universal. It is Italian in its particular institutions, but it is universal in spirit; nor could it be otherwise, for spirit is universal by its very nature. It is therefore possible to foresee a Fascist Europe which will model its institutions on Fascist doctrine and practice, a Europe which will solve in the Fascist way the problems of the modern State of the twentieth century, a State very different from the States which existed before 1789, or which were formed afterward.

"Today even as yesterday the prestige of nations is determined absolutely by their military glories and armed power.

"Fascism is an army on the march. Its well-being, therefore, must be guaranteed by methods of safety. The Masons, who are sleeping, may reawaken. By eliminating them we can be sure that they will sleep forever."

"Italy is an immense legion which marches under the Fascist symbols toward a greater future. Nobody can stop her. Nobody will stop her."

(Rome, Oct. 27, 1930, Palazzo Venezia, 8th anniversary eve celebration. )
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:04 am

APPENDIX 15: Capitalism and the Corporate State

by Benito Mussolini

(November, 1933)

Is this crisis which has afflicted us for four years a crisis in the system or of the system? This is a serious question. I answer: The crisis has so deeply penetrated the system that it has become a crisis of the system. It is no longer an ailment; it is a constitutional disease.

Today we are able to say that the method of capitalistic production is vanquished, and with it the theory of economic liberalism which has illustrated and excused it. I want to outline in a general way the history of capitalism in the last century, which may be called the capitalistic century. But first of all, what is capitalism?

Capitalism is ... a method of industrial production. To employ the most comprehensive definition: Capitalism is a method of mass production for mass consumption, financed en masse by the emission of private, national and international capital. Capitalism is therefore industrial and has not had in the field of agriculture any manifestation of great bearing.

I would mark in the history of capitalism three periods: the dynamic period, the static period and the period of decline.

The dynamic period was that from 1830 to 1870. It coincided with the introduction of weaving by machinery and with the appearance of the locomotive. Manufacturing, the typical manifestation of industrial capitalism, expanded. This was the epoch of great expansion and hence of the law of free competition; the struggle of all against all had full play.

In this period there were crises, but they were cyclical crises, neither long nor universal. Capitalism still had such vitality and such power of recovery that it could brilliantly prevail.

There were also wars. They cannot be compared with the World War. They were brief. Even the War of 1870, with its tragic days at Sedan, took no more than a couple of seasons.

During the forty years of the dynamic period the State was watching; it was remote, and the theorists of liberalism could say: "You, the State, have a single duty. It is to see to it that your administration does not in the least turn toward the economic sector. The better you govern the less you will occupy yourself with the problems of the economic realm." We find, therefore, that economy in all its forms was limited only by the penal and commercial codes.

But after 1870, this epoch underwent a change. There was no longer the struggle for life, free competition, the selection of the strongest. There became manifest the first symptoms of the fatigue and the devolution of the capitalistic method. There began to be agreements, syndicates, corporations, trusts. One may say that there was not a sector of economic life in the countries of Europe and America where these forces which characterize capitalism did not appear.

What was the result? The end of free competition. Restricted as to its borders, capitalistic enterprise found that, rather than fight, it was better to concede, to ally, to unite by dividing the markets and sharing the profits. The very law of demand and supply was now no longer a dogma, because through the combines and the trusts it was possible to control demand and supply.

Finally, this capitalistic economy, unified, "trustified," turned toward the State. What inspired it to do so? Tariff protection.

Liberalism, which is nothing but a wider form of the doctrine of economic liberalism, received a death blow. The nation which, from the first, raised almost insurmountable trade barriers was the United States, but today even England has renounced all that seemed traditional in her political, economic and moral life, and has surrendered herself to a constantly increasing protectionism.

After the World War, and because of it, capitalistic enterprise be- came inflated. Enterprises grew in size from millions to billions. Seen from a distance, this vertical sweep of things appeared as something monstrous, babel-like. Once, the spirit had dominated the material; now it was the material which bent and joined the spirit. Whatever had been physiological was now pathological; all became abnormal.

At this stage, super-capitalism draws its inspiration and its justification from this Utopian theory: the theory of unlimited consumers. The ideal of super-capitalism would be the standardization of the human race from the cradle to the coffin. Super-capitalism would have all men born of the same length, so that all cradles could be standardized; it would have babies divert themselves with the same playthings, men clothed according to the same pattern, all reading the same book and having the same taste for the movies — in other words, it would have everybody desiring a single utilitarian machine. This is in the logic of things, because only in this way can super-capitalism do what it wishes.

When does capitalistic enterprise cease to be an economic factor? When its size compels it to be a social factor. And that, precisely, is the moment when capitalistic enterprise, finding itself in difficulty, throws itself into the very arms of the State; It is the moment when the intervention of the State begins, rendering itself ever more necessary.

We are at this point : that, if in all the nations of Europe the State were to go to sleep for twenty-four hours, such an interval would be sufficient to cause a disaster. Now, there is no economic field in which the State is not called upon to intervene. Were we to surrender — just as a matter of hypothesis — to this capitalism of the eleventh hour, we should arrive at State capitalism, which is nothing but State socialism inverted.

This is the crisis of the capitalist system, taken in its universal significance. . . .

Last evening I presented an order in which I defined the new corporation system as we understand it and wish to make it.

I should like to fix your attention on what was called the object: the well-being of the Italian people. It is necessary that, at a certain time, these institutions, which we have created, be judged and measured directly by the masses as instruments through which these masses may improve their standard of living. Some day the worker, the tiller of the soil, will say to himself and to others : "If today I am better off practically, I owe it to the institutions which the Fascist revolution has created."

We want the Italian workers, those who are interested in their status as Italians, as workers, as Fascists, to feel that we have not created institutions solely to give form to our doctrinal schemes, but in order, at a certain moment, to give positive, concrete, practical and tangible results.

Our State is not an absolute State. Still less is it an absolutory State, remote from men and armed only with inflexible laws, as laws ought to be. Our State is one organic, human State which wishes to adhere to the realities of life. . . .

Today we bury economic liberalism. The corporation plays on the economic terrain just as the Grand Council and the militia play on the political terrain. Corporationism is disciplined economy, and from that comes control, because one cannot imagine a discipline without a director.

Corporationism is above socialism and above liberalism. A new synthesis is created. It is a symptomatic fact that the decadence of capitalism coincides with the decadence of socialism. All the Socialist parties of Europe are in fragments.

Evidently the two phenomena — I will not say conditions — present a point of view which is strictly logical: there is between them a historical parallel. Corporative economy arises at the historic moment when both the militant phenomena, capitalism and socialism, have already given all that they could give. From one and from the other we inherit what they have of vitality.

We have rejected the theory of the economic man, the Liberal theory, and we are, at the same time, emancipated from what we have heard said about work being a business. The economic man does not exist; the integral man, who is political, who is economic, who is religious, who is holy, who is combative, does exist.

Today we take again a decisive step on the road of the revolution.

Let us ask a final question: Can corporationism be applied to other countries? We are obliged to ask this question because it will be asked in all countries where people are studying and trying to understand us. There is no doubt that, given the general crisis of capitalism, corporative solutions can be applied anywhere. But in order to make corporationism full and complete, integral, revolutionary, certain conditions are required.

There must be a single party through which, aside from economic discipline, enters into action also political discipline, which shall serve as a chain to bind the opposing factions together, and a common faith.

But this is not enough. There must be the supremacy of the State, so that the State may absorb, transform and embody all the energy, all the interests, all the hopes of a people.

Still, not enough. The third and last and the most important condition is that there must be lived a period of the highest ideal tension.

We are now living in this period of high, ideal tension. It is because step by step we give force and consistency to all our acts; we translate in part all our doctrine. How can we deny that this, our Fascista, is a period of exalted, ideal tension?

No one can deny it. This is the time in which arms are crowned with victory. Institutions are remade, the land is redeemed, cities are founded.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:09 am

APPENDIX 16: Volte-face Caesar

If consistency in these pragmatic realistic days can still be regarded as a jewel, then our present Caesar should well crown himself with the largest and finest diadems of India and the Rand. For, mirahile dictu, the man who has belonged to every party and to many creeds, who has changed his coat and his face, his religion and his policies more often than any statesman of our time if not in history, is by this very virtue, the consistency of living a lifetime of almost annual inconsistencies, entitled to the jeweled honors.

It was Talleyrand who changed his parties often but never his opinions — at least we have his word for that — but it is our present Duce who has changed his opinions and never his party. For his party has never been the Socialist or Communist or Anarchist or Clerical or Republican or Fascist; it has been his own. He was true to one party — and that was himself, said Mr. Lowell of another older politician, and in our case the party has no officially registered name, but is the driving ego and the oft-announced inscrutable will of the demigod. Fascism is Mussolini; Mussolini is Fascism, cry the followers and worshipers, and that explains everything.

It is also Lowell who claims that the foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions ; and herewith follow many opinions and also certain unchangeable facts. (The letter A or a number refers to the Duce's Autobiography. Documentation for all the other quotations is on hand.)

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War and Peace

"Fascism believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of permanent peace. . . . War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to face it."— Written for the new Italian Encyclopedia.

"Three cheers for war! May I be permitted to raise this cry? Three cheers for Italy's war, noble and beautiful above all, with its 500,000 dead who are our surest wealth. And three cheers for war in general."

"I repeat that so long as there are cannon they will always be more beautiful than beautiful and often false words."

War and Peace

"Italy will never take the initiative of starting a war. Italy needs peace." — Christmas 1931 broadcast to the United States.

"We are arming ourselves spiritually and materially in order to defend ourselves, not in order to attack. Fascist Italy will never take the initiative of war."

"I should like to contradict the many rumors spread abroad about Fascism and the danger it is supposed to represent for the peace of the world. Such accusations are groundless. Neither I nor my government nor the Italian people desire to bring about a war." — Christmas broadcast.

"Mine is a policy of peace." (A)


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The League of Nations

"A congress of laymen, fantastics, impotents, and by these very facts dangerous."

"Fascism does not believe in the principles which inspire the pretended League of Nations. In that League the nations are not on an equal footing; it is a sort of Holy Alliance of the plutocratic nations, made to give the French-Anglo-Saxon group, despite their diverse interests, the exploitation of the largest part of the world." — October 1919, at Fascist Congress, Florence.

"The League of Nations — a sort of monstrous idealistic-plutocratic abortion. . . ."

"The League of Nations declared itself incompetent to solve the [bombardment of Corfu] incident." — Autobiography, p. 25.

The League of Nations

Mussolini in 1919 spoke in favor of Wilson and the League. Cf. first edition of Discorsi, pp. 53 and 147.

"We must stay in the League of Nations for the reason that others are in it, others who might be glad if we were to withdraw and who would arrange their affairs and protect their interests without us and possibly at our expense."

"We shall remain in the League of Nations especially as today the League is very sick and we must not abandon it." — Fascist anniversary discourse, October 1932.

The League immediately declared its competence; Mussolini threatened to withdraw.


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Finance and Economics

(The budget deficit of six billions) "had come down to me as a legacy from the errors and weaknesses of those who had preceded me." (261)

"I would never approve of subjecting inheritance to a taxation which had almost assumed a Socialistic character of expropriation." (263)

"In December, 1927, at a meeting of the council of ministers, I was able to announce . . . the lire on a gold basis, on a ratio which technicians and profound experts in financial questions have judged sound." (271)

"I had not only led the Black Shirts and political forces, but I had solved a complex and difficult problem of national finance." (271)

"Today (1928) we have a balanced budget." (271)

"The provinces and communes have balanced their budgets." (272)

"We needed a strong capitalist tradition." (147)

October, 1926, Mussolini officially announced the successful Littorio bond issue of five billion lire as oversubscribed.

Finance and Economics

Preceding premiers had cut the deficit of 25 billions to six and prepared a balanced budget for 1922-23, according to the official report of the first Fascist Finance Minister.

"Confiscation of the super-profits of war; heavy taxation on inheritance; partial expropriation of capital." — Original Fascist program and editorial, Popolo, April 20, 1921.

Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon, friend of Finance Minister Volpi, and numerous experts advised Mussolini against the ratio.

The loss through this artificial stabilization was 3,500,000,000 lire according to neutral economists; the stupidity of the gesture has now been recognized even by Rome correspondents.

(This is not true; see text.)

Fascist Senator Ricci, May 30, 1930, announced the increase in deficit from 1926 to 1928 as 50 per cent for the 17 largest communes.

"I do not intend to defend capitalism or capitalists." — Address to first meeting of Fascist! (quoted by Sarfatti).

January, 1927, Ex-Finance Minister De Stefani in speech incidentally mentioned the Littorio bond issue as reaching 2,500,000,000 lire.


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Religion

"My deep religious beliefs." (16)

"A Catholic, like myself." (31)

"I asked the assistance of God." (185)

Religion

"There is no God." — Mussolini's first published work. "Religion is an absurdity . . . immoral ... a malady." -- Speech in Lausanne.


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The Press

"Italian journalism is free." — Signed article in N. Y. World.

"You express an error if you suppose that I have suppressed the liberty of the press. All newspapers are free. . . ." — Mass interview with the press, January, 1927.

The Press

"All the journals of the Opposition have been suppressed." — Chamber of Deputies declaration. May 26, 1927, referring to events of November, 1926.


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General

"To me money is detestable." (38)

"Money has no lure for me." (205)

And four more similar references.

"I have always had against me our Masonry ... this leprosy." (158)

"Fiume, most Italian of cities." (76)

"Fascism will never throw itself at the feet of the king." — Popolo d'Italia.

"Our formula is this: everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."

"It is false that the danger menacing our country, Bolshevism . . . had disappeared. . . . Bolshevik activity was most intense (in 1921)." — Signed article, written for the United Press.

"The death punishment? But that is a joke. Gentlemen . . . capital punishment cannot be the reprisal of a Government." (229)

"An underhand manoeuvre by some short-weight grandchildren of Garibaldi." (234)

"He [Zaniboni, would-be assassin] . . . having an Austrian rifle with fine sights, the fellow could not miss his aim." (237)

General

Congratulating Mussolini on being the first to pay the new income taxes, the official Fascist press announced the amount as 200,000 lire, indicating an income of 500,000 lire, or a capital of 10,000,000.

In 1922 Freemasonry helped

subsidize Fascism and cooperated with it until the Matteotti assassination in 1924.

Grossisch, d'Annunzio's president of Fiume, admitted expelling 5,000 before the plebiscite which Italy won by two hundred or so.

"From today, intrusted with the confidence of His Majesty the King. . . ." — Proclamation by Mussolini after kissing the King's hand and taking office.

"Down with the State, the State of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. . . . There remains for me nothing but the consoling religion of Anarchism." — Popolo d'Italia, April 6, 1920.

"Bolshevism is conquered." — Popolo, July 2, 1921.

Over the objection of the King, Mussolini restored the death penalty following one of the attempts at assassination.

Ricciotti Garibaldi, grandchild, arrested in France, confessed being a Fascist spy in the service of the Duce.

"A Fascist agent worked with Zaniboni for months and chose the day. Being on the wrong side of the building, Zaniboni could not have seen, much less shot, Mussolini." — William Bolitho, New York World.


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Assassination of Matteotti

"I did not have a moment of doubt or discouragement." (223)

"I never lost my calm nor my sense of balance and justice. . . . I ordered the guilty to be arrested. I wanted justice to follow its unwavering course. Now I have fulfilled my task as a just man."

"It has been said that I have founded a Cheka. Where? When? In what way? Nobody is able to say. ... An Italian Cheka never has had the shadow of existence." (227)

Assassination of Matteotti

"The Matteotti affair caused him such terrible suffering that for a while his life seemed wrecked." — Sarfatti.

"The sequestration of Matteotti belongs morally to Fascism." — Speech, January, 1925. Most of the murderers were freed and restored to positions in the Fascist party; Filippelli went to jail in 1931 for swindling.

"On September 1, 1922, Cesare Rossi, the political secretary, announced the formation of the Corpo di Pohzia Fascisti in Milan to 'purify' the Fascist ranks by eliminating all half-hearted elements." — Beals.

"The mother idea of the Cheka was Mussolini's." — Rossi memorandum.

In 1931 the Fascist government officially announced that its Cheka— the O.V.R.A.— had been extended for a second period of five years.


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The World War

"I had been the most tenacious believer in the war." (A)

"Germany began to influence Italian public opinion with methods of propaganda that irritated the sensitiveness of our race. They enraged me." (A)

"The tragic rape of Belgium." (A)

"I created the Fascisti — a group of daring youths who believed that intervention could be forced. ... I was their leader." (A)

The World War

For almost three months every editorial signed by Mussolini in Avanti denounced the war. One was headlined, "Absolute neutrality."

Addressing Milan Socialists in August, 1914, Mussolini asked support for Germany, saying Socialism was strongest there and would triumph after the war. He also said, "Why become excited over the fate of a little nation? It is right that the small go down and that German Imperialism wins."

This is absolutely untrue. The original Fascio of Intervention was founded by enemies of Mussolini and were frequently attacked by him in July to September, 1914. He joined them in October or later that year.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:11 am

Chronology

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1883
July 29: Mussolini born at Dovia, commune of Predappio, province of Forli.
1901
Obtains teacher's license; first post at Gualtieri, in Reggio Emilia.
1902
Jan. 3: Went to Switzerland in search of work and to escape military service.
July: Arrested at Lausanne for vagabondage.
1903
Sept.: Expelled from Berne. Went to Geneva. Called for military service.
1904
March 6: Debate with Tagliatela: "God does not exist."
April: Declared deserter at Forli.
Arrested in Geneva for falsifying passport; expelled.
Dec. 31: Presented himself at Forli for military service in the 10th Bersaglieri regiment.
1906
Nov. 27: Schoolmaster at Tolmezzo.
1908
Feb. 25: Schoolmaster at Oneglia.
July 22: Sentenced at Predappio to 8 months imprisonment and 200-lire fine for "armed revolt."
Sept. 10: Sentenced by the municipal judge of Mendola to 100-lire fine for revolutionary expression.
1909
March: Went to Trento, Austria, to work on the Avvenire; secretary of the Socialist Party local.
Sept.: Expelled from Austria for revolutionary writing.
Oct.: Became leading Socialist at Forli.
Nov. 10: Arrested and imprisoned ten days for radicalism.
1910
Jan. 2: Published La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle).
April 14: Paid secretary of Forli Socialist local.
Sept. 17: Represented local at Florence Socialist congress.
1911
Sept. 25: Organized armed uprising against Tripoli war.
Sept. 28: Sentenced to five months' imprisonment.
1912
March 14: Approved the attempted assassination of the King.
July: Socialist Congress at Reggio Emilia; Mussolini becomes nationally known; becomes director of Socialist Party.
Dec. 1: Editor of Avanti; extreme radical Socialist.
1913
Publishes John Huss, with preface attacking Catholic Church.
Oct.: Defeated candidate for the electoral college.
1914
April: Ancona congress; proposes expulsion of Freemasons from Socialist Party.
June 7: Mussolini "patron saint" of the Red Week, revolutionary attempt to seize and occupy the factories.
Aug. 4: Socialist Party declares for Italian neutrality.
Sept. 9: Mussolini denounces Belgian sentimentality.
Oct. 13: Prezzolini in La Voce notes Mussolini has changed his anti-interventionist policy.
Oct. 25: Socialist Party accuses Mussolini of treason. Deputy Treves accuses Mussolini of selling out to France.
Nov. 15: Mussolini issues the Popolo d'Italia with funds supplied by the French propaganda department.
Nov. 23: Mussolini expelled from the Socialist Party "for moral and political betrayal."
1915
April 19: Arrested in Rome for organizing interventionists.
April 29: Wounded by Treves in duel.
May 15: Italy declares war on Austro-Hungary.
Sept. 1: Mussolini called to the colors.
Dec. 9: Taken to hospital, suffering from gastro-enteritis.
1916
March 10: Fights duel with General Count Spingardi.
1917
Feb. 23: Taken to hospital for removal of shell splinters.
Aug.: "I took my place as a fighter in my newspaper office."
Oct.: Italy defeated at Caporetto.
Nov.: Organization of Fasci di Resistenza.
1918
Oct.: Victory of Vittorio Veneto.
Nov.: Armistice.
1919
Jan.: Organization of Partito Popolare (Catholic Party).
March 23: Mussolini, Marinetti, Cesare Rossi and others found the Fascio Italiani di Combattimento in accordance with the suggestions of d'Annunzio.
March 24: "We are for a Republic; we are absolutely against dictatorship."
Sept. 12: D'Annunzio occupies Fiume.
Mussolini defeated for Chamber of Deputies.
Nov. 10: "We will accept no dictatorship."
1920
April 20: Fascist program includes confiscation of war profits; confiscation of lands, etc.
Sept. 1-19: Occupation of the factories by workmen; approved by Mussolini.
Dec. 22-26: Allies bombard d'Annunzio.
Dec. 29: D'Annunzio quits Fiume.
Dec. 31: Mussolini writes "Bolshevism has been dyked."
1921
Jan.: Socialist Congress at Livorno expells Communists.
May 15: Mussolini elected Fascist deputy.
Aug. 3: Makes peace pact with labor and Socialists.
Nov.: Partito Nazionale Fascista formed.
1922
Aug. 3: Fascist armed mobilization and violence destroys attempt at general strike protesting Fascist violence.
Oct. 24: Fascist congress at Naples.
Oct. 27: Mussolini returns to Milan.
Oct. 27-29: Mussolini barricades his office while Fascisti "march" on Rome.
Oct. 29: King calls Mussolini to premiership.
Oct. 30: Mussolini arrives in Rome via Pullman train; reviews victorious Fascisti with King.
Nov. 16: Mussolini demands dictatorial powers.
Nov. 19: Abolishes commission exposing war profiteers (Decree No. 487).
Dec.: Massacre of workingmen in Turin.
1923
Feb.: Creation of Fascist militia.
Aug. 23: Murder of Father Minzoni.
Aug. 27: Five members of Italian delegation assassinated on Albanian side of Albano-Greek border.
Aug. 31: Mussolini occupies Corfu; massacre of children in American orphanage.
Sept. 3: Mussolini refuses League of Nations intervention.
1924
Jan.: Treaty with Yugoslavia.
March: Democrats and Socialists quit government.
April 4: Fascisti win elections through terrorism; Brianza sacked.
June 11: Assassination of Matteotti.
Aug.: Abolition of free press.
1925
June: Augusteo speech: "Violence is profoundly moral."
Nov. 4: Attempted assassination by Zaniboni; abolition of Freemasonry.
1926
April 7: Attempted assassination by Miss Gibson.
Aug. 30: Podesta system; municipal elections abolished.
Sept. 11: Attempted assassination by Lucetti.
Oct. 31: Bullet fired at Mussolini; Zamboni, Fascist youth in uniform, lynched by Mussolini's entourage.
Nov. 4: General Ricciotti Garibaldi and Colonel Macia arrested in France; Garibaldi confesses receiving large sums as Fascist agent provocateur.
1927
Jan. 5: Mussolini announces "end of epoch of reprisals, devastations, and violence. Squadrismo must disappear."
Jan. 24: Pope dissolves Catholic Boy Scouts and protests Fascist monopolization of youth.
April 21: Fascist Labor Charter abolishes strikes.
July 2: Mont Blanc christened Monte Mussolini by Fascisti.
Oct. 22: Manhood suffrage abolished by decree.
Oct. 27: Decree justifying crimes committed for nationalistic purposes.
Dec. 21: Stabilization of lira on gold basis announced.
1928
Jan. 23: Fascist arms for Hungary and Hitler found at St. Gothard.
March 30: Mussolini abolishes Catholic Boy Scouts and other non-Fascist youth organizations.
Fascism celebrates first anniversary of Corporate State.
April 14: Mussolini tells peasants price outlay not equaled by crop in "Battle of the Grain."
June 2: Mussolini expelled from National Press Club, Washington, in resolution charging suppression of the press and denial of personal liberty.
Sept. 21: Fascism made permanent government; Grand Council, not King, to appoint future premiers.
1929
Feb. 11: Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri sign Vatican peace treaty.
March 24: Italy votes Fascist majority; opposition parties not permitted to name candidates.
April 10: Corporate State announced in force.
June 7: Pope becomes ruler of Vatican State.
1930
June: Mussolini tours North Italy, making militaristic speeches against France.
July 23: Writes article favoring revision Versailles Treaty in favor of Germany and Hungary.
Oct.: New Fascist criminal code abolishes jury system.
Nov. 20: Military training for youth extended.
Dec.: In Christmas broadcast Mussolini says, "Italy will never take the initiative of starting a war. Italy needs peace."
1931
Jan. 26: Major-General Butler, U. S. Marines, tells Contemporary Club, Philadelphia, Mussolini ran over child; Ambassador de Martino protests.
Feb.: International Committee for Political Prisoners, Civil Liberties Union, Ligue des Droits d'Hommes, Oxford and Cambridge professors protest arrest of intellectuals in Italy.
March 6: Grand Council extends O. V. R. A. (Fascist Cheka) for another five years.
April 27: Zamora, President Spanish Republic, cables anti-Fascist organizations offering Spain as refuge.
June 29: To avoid censorship, Pope smuggles encyclical to Paris denouncing Fascist "irreverencies, indecencies, destruction, confiscation, and vandalism . . ."; declares Fascism and Catholicism incompatible.
1932
June 30: Mussolini announces Fascism has support of entire population; secret tribunal announces results February, 1927, to date: 9 sentenced to death, 257 to 6,076 years' imprisonment; 1,391 to 4,040 years; 584 awaiting trial; total arrests and tried, 12,000 — for political offenses.
Aug.: Marriage and birth rate reach lowest point.
Oct.: Domenico Bovone and his mistress charged with plotting assassination of Mussolini. Angelo Sbardellotto accused of attempting assassination, admits plot as revenge for execution of Michele Schirru, recently executed for similar offense. Bovone and Sbardellotto executed.
1933
Jan.: Preliminary budget report, 1933-1934, shows deficit 2,900,000,000 lire; with losses in movement of capital, deficit of 3,088,000,000 lire foreseen, or double deficit current year.
Feb. 11: Italian army planes sold Hungary in violation of treaty.
Sept. 19: Mussolini announces for German rearmament.
1934
March: Mussolini announces "a plan, not for five years or ten years, but for sixty years ... at which time Italy will have the primacy of the world. . . . Our future lies in Asia and Africa. . . ."
June: Corporative State voted.
Italians kill ten Greeks in Rhodes uprising.
1935
Encounter at Ual-Ual ; Mussolini refuses arbitration by League of Nations, and moves troops to Ethiopia for war of conquest.
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Re: Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fasc

Postby admin » Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:21 am

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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