For conditions in Italy after the war were very bad, and the country was more exhausted than any other Allied country. The economic system seemed to be breaking down, and the advocates of socialism as well as communism were increasing. There was, of course, the Russian Bolshevik example before them. On the one side there were the factory-workers, who were suffering from the economic conditions, on the other there were the large numbers of soldiers who had been demobilized and who were often without any job. Disorders grew, and the middle-class leaders tried to organize these soldiers to oppose the growing power of the workers. In the summer of 1920 a crisis developed. The great Metal Workers’ Union, with a membership of half a million workers, demanded higher wages. This demand was rejected, and thereupon the workers decided to strike in a novel way—“striking on the job” this was called. This meant that the workers went to their factories, but instead of working did nothing, and indeed obstructed work. This was the syndicalist programme which had been advocated by French labour long ago. The factory-owners replied to this obstructionist strike by having a lockout—that is, closing their factories. The workers thereupon took possession of the factories and tried to work them on socialist lines.
This action of the workers was definitely revolutionary, and if persisted in was bound to lead to a social revolution or to failure. No middle position was possible for long. The Socialist Party was very strong in Italy then. Apart from its control of the trade unions, it controlled 3000 municipalities, and sent 150 members, that is about one-third of the total number, to Parliament. A powerful and well-established party owning property and holding many positions in the State is seldom revolutionary. Even so, this party, including its moderates, approved of the workers’ action in taking possession of the factories. Having done so, it did nothing else. It did not want to go back, but it did not dare to go ahead; it chose the middle path of least resistance and, like all doubters and people who hesitate and cannot make up their minds at the right time, they suffered time to go ahead without them, and were crushed in the process. Because of the hesitation of the labour leaders and radical parties, the workers’ occupation of the factories fizzled out.
This encouraged the owning classes greatly. They had measured the strength of the workers and their leaders and found it less than they had expected, and now they planned a revenge to crush the labour movement and the Socialist Party. They turned especially to certain volunteer groups that had been formed in 1919, out of the demobilized soldiers, by Benito Mussolini. Fasci di combattimenti, “fighting groups,” they were called, and their chief function was to attack, whenever an opportunity arose, socialists and radicals and their institutions. Thus they would destroy the printing press of a socialist newspaper, or attack a municipality or co-operative association under socialist or radical control. The big industrialists and the upper bourgeoisie generally, began to patronize and finance these “fighting groups”, in their fight against labour and socialism. Even the government was indulgent towards them, as it wanted to break the power of the Socialist Party.
Who was this Benito Mussolini who had organized these fighting groups or Fasci di combattimenti, or fascists, as we might call them for short? He was a young man then (he is just fifty now, having been born in 1883) who had had a varied and exciting career. His father was a blacksmith who was a socialist, and Benito therefore grew up with a socialist background. In his youth he became a fiery agitator, and was expelled from several Swiss cantons for his revolutionary propaganda.
Italy and the Mediterranean
He attacked the moderate socialist leaders violently for their moderation. He openly approved of the use of bombs and other methods of terrorism against the State. During the Italian war with Turkey, most of the socialist leaders supported the war. Not so Mussolini, who opposed it; and for certain acts of violence he was even imprisoned for some months. He attacked the moderate socialist leaders bitterly, for their support of the war, and got them expelled from the Socialist Party. He became the editor of the socialist daily paper, the Avanti of Milan, and from day to day he advised workers to meet violence with violence. This incitement to violence was strongly objected to by the moderate Marxist leaders.
Then came the World War. For some months Mussolini was opposed to the war and advocated Italy’s neutrality. He then, rather suddenly, changed his views, or his expression of them, and declared in favour of Italy joining the Allies. He left the socialist paper, and began editing a new paper which preached this new policy. He was expelled from the Socialist Party. Later he volunteered as a common soldier, served at the Italian front, and was wounded.
After the war Mussolini stopped calling himself a socialist. He was at a loose end, disliked by his old party and having no influence with the working classes. He began to denounce pacifism and socialism and, at the same time, even the bourgeois State. He denounced every kind of State and, calling himself an “individualist”, praised anarchy. This was what he wrote. What he did was to found Fascismo or fascism, in March 1919, and enrol the out-of-work soldiers in his fighting squads. Violence was the creed of these groups and, as the government seldom interfered, they grew in daring and aggression. Sometimes, in the cities, the working classes had a regular fight with them and drove them out. But the socialist leaders opposed this fighting spirit of the workers, and counselled them to meet the fascist terror peacefully with patient resignation. They hoped that fascism would thus exhaust itself. Instead of this the fascist groups gained in strength, helped as they were by funds from the rich people and the refusal to interfere of the government, while the masses lost all the spirit of resistance that they had possessed. There was not even an attempt to meet fascist violence by the labour weapon, the strike.
The fascists under Mussolini’s leadership managed to combine two contradictory appeals. First and foremost they were the enemies of socialism and communism, and thus they gained the support of the propertied classes. But Mussolini was an old socialist agitator and revolutionary, and he was full of popular anti-capitalist slogans which were appreciated by many of the poorest classes. He had also learnt much of the technique of agitation from those experts in this business, the communists. Fascism thus became a strange mixture and could be interpreted in different ways. Essentially a capitalist movement, it shouted many slogans which were dangerous for capitalism. And thus it drew into its fold a motley crowd. The middle classes were its backbone, especially the unemployed of the lower middle class. Unemployed and unskilled workers who were not organized in labour unions began to drift into it as it grew in power. For nothing succeeds like success. The fascists violently forced the shopkeepers to keep down prices, and thus gained the goodwill of the poor also. Many adventurers of course flocked to the fascist standards. In spite of all this, fascism remained a minority movement.
And so, while the socialist leaders doubted and hesitated and quarrelled among themselves and there were divisions and splits in their party, fascist power grew. The regular army was very friendly to fascism, and Mussolini had won over the army generals to his side. It was a remarkable feat for Mussolini to win to his side and hold together such diverse and conflicting elements, and to make each group within his ranks imagine that fascism was especially meant for it. The rich fascist looked upon him as the defender of his property, and considered his anti-capitalist speeches and slogans as empty phrases meant to delude the masses. The poor fascist believed that the real thing in fascism was this very anti-capitalism, and that the rest was just intended to humour the rich people. So Mussolini tried to play one off against the other, and spoke in favour of the rich one day, and in favour of the poor the next day, but essentially he was the champion of the propertied classes, who were financing him, and who were out to destroy the power of labour and socialism, which had threatened them for so long.
At last, in October 1922, the fascist bands, directed by regular army generals, marched on Rome. The Prime Minister, who had so far tolerated fascist activities, now declared martial law. But i
t was too late, and the King himself was now on Mussolini’s side. He (the King) vetoed the martial law decree, accepted his Prime Minister’s resignation, and invited Mussolini to become the next Prime Minister and form his ministry. The fascist army reached Rome on October 30, 1922, and on the same day Mussolini arrived by train from Milan to become the Prime Minister.
Fascism had triumphed and Mussolini was in control. But what did he stand for? What was his programme and policy? Great movements are almost invariably built up round a clear-cut ideology which grows up round certain fixed principles and has definite objectives and programmes. Fascism had the unique distinction of having no fixed principles, no ideology, no philosophy behind it, unless the mere opposition to socialism, communism, and Liberalism might be considered to be a philosophy. In 1920, a year after the fascist groups were formed, Mussolini declared about the fascists: “not being tied down to any fixed principles, they proceed unceasingly towards one goal, the future well-being of the Italian people.”
That, of course, is no distinctive policy, for every person can say that he is prepared to stand by the well-being of his people. In 1922, just a month before the march on Rome, Mussolini said : “Our programme is very simple, we want to rule Italy.”
Mussolini has made this clearer still in an article he has written on the origin of fascism in an Italian encyclopaedia. He says in it that he had no definite plans for the future when he embarked on his march on Rome. He was impelled to set out on his adventure by the dominant urge to act in a political crisis, the result of his past socialist training.
Fascism and communism, though violently opposed to each other, have some activities in common. But so far as principles and ideology are concerned there can be no greater contrast than between these two. For fascism, we have seen, has no basic principles; it starts off from a blank. Communism or Marxism, on the other hand, is an intricate economic theory and interpretation of history, which requires the hardest mental discipline.
Although fascism had no principles or ideals, it had a definite technique of violence and terrorism, and it had a certain outlook on the past which helps us a little to understand it. Its symbol was an old imperial Roman symbol which used to be carried in front of the Roman Emperors and magistrates. This was a bundle of rods (fasces they were called, hence Fascismo) with an axe at the centre. The fascist organization is also based on the old Roman model, even the names used being the old ones. The fascist salute, called the fascista, is the old Roman salutation with the raised and outstretched arm. Thus the fascists looked back to imperial Rome for inspiration; they had the imperialist outlook. Their motto was: “No discussion—only obedience”, a motto suited to an army perhaps, but certainly not to a democracy. Their leader, Mussolini, was il Duce, the dictator. As their uniform they adopted a black shirt, and they were thus known as the “Black-shirts”.
As the only positive programme of the fascists was to gain power, they had achieved this when Mussolini became Prime Minister. He then devoted himself to consolidating his position by crushing his opponents. An extraordinary orgy of violence and terrorism took place. Violence is a common enough phenomenon in history, but usually it is considered a painful necessity and it is excused and explained. Fascism, however, did not believe in any such apologetic attitude towards violence. They accepted it and praised it openly, and they practised it even though there was no resistance to them. The opposition members in Parliament were terrorized by beatings, and a new electoral law, quite changing the constitution, was forced through. In this way a great majority was obtained in favour of Mussolini.
It was strange that when they were actually in power and in command of the police and the State machine, the fascists should still continue their illegal violence. Yet they did so, and of course they had a free field, as the State police would not interfere. There were murders and torture and beatings and destruction of property, and especially there was a new method widely practised by these fascists. This was to give enormous doses of castor oil to anyone who dared to oppose them.
In 1924 Europe was shocked by the murder of Giacomo Matteoti, a leading socialist who was a member of Parliament. He spoke in Parliament and criticized fascist methods during the election that had just been held. Within a few days he was murdered. The murderers were tried for form’s sake, but they got off practically without punishment. A moderate leader of the liberals, Amendola, died as a result of a beating. A liberal ex-Prime Minister, Nitti, just managed to escape from Italy, but his house was destroyed. These are just a few instances which attracted world attention, but the violence was continuous and widespread. This violence was apart from and in addition to legal methods of suppression, and yet it was not just emotional mob violence. It was disciplined violence undertaken deliberately against all opponents, not only socialists and communists but peaceful and very moderate Liberals also. Mussolini’s order was that life should be rendered difficult “or impossible” for his opponents. It was faithfully carried out. No other party was to exist, no other organization or institution. Everything must be fascist. And all the jobs must go to the fascists.
Mussolini became the all-powerful dictator of Italy. He was not only the Prime Minister, but at the same time he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Interior, the Colonies, War, Marine, Air, and Labour! He was practically the whole Cabinet. The poor King retired into the background and was seldom heard of. Parliament was gradually pushed aside and became a pale shadow of itself. The Fascist Grand Council dominated the stage, and Mussolini dominated the Fascist Grand Council.
Mussolini’s early speeches on foreign affairs created a great deal of surprise and consternation in Europe. They were extraordinary speeches—bombastic, full of threats, and wholly unlike the diplomatic utterances of statesmen. He always seemed to be spoiling for a fight. He talked of Italy’s imperial destiny, of Italian aeroplanes darkening the sky with their numbers, and he openly threatened his neighbour France on several occasions. France was, of course, far more powerful than Italy, but no one wanted to fight, and so much that Mussolini said was tolerated. The League of Nations became a special target for Mussolini’s satire and contempt, although Italy was a member of it, and on one occasion he defied it in the most aggressive way. Yet the League and the other Powers put up with this.
Many outward changes have taken place in Italy, and a tourist is favourably impressed by the appearance of order and punctuality everywhere. Rome, the imperial city, is being beautified, and many ambitious schemes for betterment have been undertaken. Visions of a new Roman Empire float before Mussolini.
In 1929 the old quarrel between the Pope and the Italian Government was ended by an agreement between Mussolini and the Pope’s representative. Ever since the Italian kingdom made Rome its capital in 1871, the Pope had refused to recognize it or to give up his claim to the sovereignty of Rome. The Popes, therefore, as soon as they were elected, retired into their enormous palace of the Vatican in Rome, which includes St. Peter’s, and never came out of it on Italian territory. They made themselves voluntary prisoners. By the agreement of 1929 this little Vatican area in Rome was recognized as an independent and sovereign State. The Pope is the absolute monarch of this State, and the total number of citizens is about 500! The State has its own courts, coinage, postage stamps, and public services, and it has the most expensive little railway in the world. The Pope is no longer a self-made prisoner; he sometimes comes out of the Vatican. This treaty with the Pope made Mussolini popular with the Catholics. The illegal phase of fascist violence lasted intensively for a year or so, and then to some extent until 1926. In 1926 “exceptional laws” were passed to deal with political opponents which gave great powers to the State and made illegal action unnecessary. They were something like the ordinances and the laws based on these ordinances which we have had in such abundance in India. Under these “exceptional laws” people continue to be punished, sent to prison, and deported in large numbers. According to official figures, between November 1926 and Octobe
r 1932 as many as 10,044 persons were brought before the special tribunals. Three penal islands were set apart for the deportees—Ponza, Ventolene, and Tremiti—and conditions were very bad there.
Repression and arrests on a large scale have continued, and it is clear from these that a secret and revolutionary opposition exists in the country in spite of all the attempts to crush it. Financial burdens increase, and the economic condition of the country continues to deteriorate.
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Democracy and Dictatorships
June 22, 1933
Benito Mussolini’s example of setting himself up as a dictator in Italy seemed to be a catching one in Europe. “There is a vacant throne,” he had said, “in every country in Europe waiting for a capable man to fill it.” Dictatorships arose in many countries, and parliaments were either dissolved or forcibly made to fall in with the dictator’s wishes. A notable instance was that of Spain.
Spain was not involved in the World War. She made money out of it by selling goods to the fighting nations. But she had her own troubles, and she was industrially a very backward country. The days of her greatness in Europe, when the wealth of the Americas and the East poured into her ports, were long past, and she hardly counted as an important Power in Europe. There was a feeble parliament, called the Cortes, and the Roman Church was strong. As had happened in other industrially backward countries in Europe, syndicalism and anarchism spread, rather than the solid Marxism and moderate socialism of Germany and England. In 1917, when the Bolsheviks in Russia were struggling for power, the workers and radicals of Spain tried to establish a democratic republic by having a general strike. This strike and the whole movement were crushed by the King’s government and the army, and as a result the army became all-powerful in the country. The King, relying on the army, also became a little more independent and autocratic.
Glimpses of World History Page 121
