The rise of Italian Fascism: 1919-22

The attack on Avanti!

In april 1919, the PSI held a large demonstration in Milan which led to clashes with some 200-300 Fasci di Cambattimento members, who then destroyed the offices of Avanti!

Four people died (including 3 Socialists) and 39 were wounded

Mussolini played no part in this act of aggression but he later praised the fascists for the attack and accepted 'all moral responsibility' for their conduct

The government did not prosecute any of the fascists involved in the assault

Mussolini concluded that the authorities were prepared to condone anti-socialist violence because they feared left-wing revolution 

The Novemeber 1919 election

Neither the Fasci's programme nor its early use of force translated into votes, however

At the November 1919 general election, fascist candidates failed to win a single parliamentary seat. Collectively, the 17 fascist candidates (including Mussolini) in Milan obtained only 4657 of the 270,000 votes cast there, less than 2% of the total. Once the results were known, Mussolini's socialist opponents staged a mock funeral to 'bury' their former colleague and Avanti! gloated over his 'political corpse'

After this electoral setback, national membership of the Fasci fell to about 4000. Yet, within 12 months, the government's failure to persuade mainstream Italian society that it could neutralise the perceived socialist threat had transformed the fascists' political fortunes . Mussolini responded to the election result by moving cautiously to the Right

At the second Fascist National Congress in May 1920, he announced that the movement opposed the 'anti-Italian' PSI but not the proletariat (working class), endorsed employer-worker collaboration and called for better relations with the Vatican. The new fascist programme also abandoned earlier pledges to abolish the Senate and confiscate 'excessive' war profits

The occupation of the factories, September 1920

• wideley discredited because of the Fiume episode, Nitti eventually resigned in June 1920
• Giolitti - successor - unstable coalition government - the real problems lay outside parliament
• September 1920 - wage dispute in the engineering industry quickly escalated into a mass 'factory occupation' in the northern cities involving some 400,000 workers
• Mussolini carefully kept his options open, welcoming the workers' attempt to secure better economic conditions but also warning against any 'Bolshevik' assault on power 
• angry industrialists pressed the authoritise to discipline workers
• Giolitti refused to use force, fearing this would lead to widespread violence & bloodshed
• his view - occupation would soon collapse on its own
• employers were further incensed when the prime minister urfed them to grant concessions
• after it emerged that some occupied factories were making weapons, many conservative Italians were convinved that left-wing revolution was iminent
• occupation petered out within a month - employers & conservatives never forgave Giolitti for taking no diect action
• regional elections in November 1920, which left the socialists in control of 26 of Italy's 69 provences, raised fears that the left would now increase local taxes for non-manual workers
• small traders also resented the growth of socialist-backed-co-operative shops

Growing rural discontent

• agrarian strikes and land occupations left landowners and rural employers bitterly disillusioned with the government too
• by April 1920, about 27,000 hectares of farmland had been seized - mainly by socialist peasant leagues - and handed over to workers' co-operatives
• in Catholic areas, PPI unions did much the same thing
• the authorities did not intervene, partly because peasant war veterans were legally entitled to uncultivated agricultural land
• up to one-third of hay, grain and grape output in 1920 was lost due to rural strikes and arson attacks
• Socialist trade unions began to monopolise agricultural jobs in Emilia, the Po Valley, Umbria and Tuscany
• many unions were also demanding better wages and greater job security for farm labourers
• the estates of anti-union landowners were often targeted and their farm managers assaulted
• when the November 1920 local elections produced socialist victories in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, and a strong PPI performance in Venetia, Lombardy and Piedmont, tensions in rural Italy came to a head

Squadrismo: the impact of fascist political violence 

• Organised squads - squadrist - transformed the Fasci into a large-scale movement
• towards the end of 1920, the rural Right in northern and cecntral Italy began to fight back against the socialists and the PPI
• it was this reaction that gave the squadristi and fascism mass support
• feeling abandoned by the government, landowners and middle-class conservatices turned to local fascist groups to avert social revolution
• these fascist squads were modelled on military units and each one was led by a ras, usually a former officer
• at the start, the squads contained mostly ex-army officers and middle-class students byt they quickly attracted new recruits
• hostile to left-wing demands for improved wages and land nationalism, small farmers, farm managers and shrecroppers joined in large numbers
• Mussolini declared that the Blackshirts had 'launched a guerrilla war' against the socialists 

Squadrismo: the impact of fascist political force (2)

• over the next few months, fascist squads launched a wave of violent raids across Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany
• funded by landowners and supplied by the military, armed squadristi attacked socialists and trade unionists
• victims often forced to drink castor oil
• local labour movement headquarters were wrecked and socialist and PPI councils were driven from office
• the squads also acted as rural strike-breakers
• furthermore, fascists persuaded landowners to make leases or small plots available to peasants and some agricultural workers joined Fasci-run syndicates and co-operatives
• in the first 5 months of 1921, fascist socialist clashes left 207 people dead and 819 injured
• by the spring of that year, the Left had been crushed in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany and these regions became squad strongholds
• having assumed control of Ferrara in a few weeks, Italo Balbo - the local ras - was able to organise a mass rally of 20,000 fascists when Mussolini made a speech there in April 1921 

Squadrismo: the impact of fascist political force (3)

• damaging internal divisions compounded the socialists' problems
• in January 1921, the revolutionary wing of the PSI, led by prominent left-wingers such as Palmiro Togliatti and Antonio Gramsci, broke away fo form the Italian Communist Party (PCI)
• the radical socialists took this action because the PSI party executive refused to carry out Comintern instructions to abandon elections and concentrate on revolution
• nine months later, the PSI eventually complied with the Comintern's directives and expelled a number of moderate socialists
• those who were forced out - formed the Socialist Union Party (PSU)
• there were now four left-wing parties in Italian politics 

• Mussolini realised that squadrismo's rapid rise in central Italy represented a golden opportunity
• fascists squads had emerged largely as a spontaneous response to local conditions under the leadership of local ras, such as Italo Balbo, Roberty Farinacci and Dino Grandi, who jealously guarded their independence
• for this reason, Mussolini had no real control over the squads - many ras regarded him as self-serving and untrustworthy
• Mussolini, however, was determined to head this burgeoining movement: squadrimo damaged his opponents, diverted attention from Fiume and could enhance his political standing - became the squad's self-appointed national spokesman
• promoted their cause in his newspaper, The Italian People, and went on speaking tours to boost squad morale
• provided new ras with funds and pro-fascist military contacts
• without his overall leadership, Mussolini argued, the various regional fascist movements would lack coherence and quarrel amongst themselves
• for their part, the ras could see some advantages in Mussolini assuming this 'national' role
• he was a skilled orator and journalist, with a newspaper at his disposal
• he was well connected too
• they also included that the Milan-based Mussolini could not challenge them in their strongholds

• Squadrismo turned the Fasci di Combattimerto into a mass movement but it was the Giolitti-Mussolini pact which opened up the corridors of power to the fascists
• secret discussions between the two men began in the autumn of 1920
• Giolitti calculated that, by bringing the Fasci into his coalition, he would neutralise the potential fascist threat, gain an anti-socialist ally and further isolate D'Annunzio
• his strategy was to 'tame' fascism by absorbing it into his coalition and to use the movement to weaken his political opponents
• he dismissed the fascists as 'fireworks' who would 'make a great deal of noise but only leave smoke behind'
• it was to be a costly misjudgement
• for Mussolini, collaboration with Giolitti offered an anti-Left alliance and the prospect of fascist deputies in Parliament 
• these negotiations culminated in a formal agreement to stand together as 'National Block' in the May 1921 general election

• in the run up to the election, Giolitti's official directives to punish all acts of violence were widely ignored
• many within the police, the judiciary, the military and the provincial middle class were pro-fascist
• prefects were also often sympathetic and even those who were not frequently concluded that official intervention would only intensify the violence
• under these circumstance, attacks and disturbances escalated
• between early April and mid-May, 105 people were killed and 431 injured
• in late April, Mussolini vainly attempted to rein in the Blackshirts by warning them that 'if fascist loses its "sense of limit" it will lose its victory'
• at the election, the National Block obtained 275 seats overall, which enabled Giolitti to remain prime minister
• the Fascist di Cambattimenti fielded 75 candidates and 35 of these, including Mussolini, were elected
• the 1921 result was a significant setback for the prime minister because almost half of the deputies returned - 123 Socialists, 15 Communists and 107 PPI - were anti-Giolitti
• immediately after the election, Mussolini withdew the fascists from the National Block
• the pact had served its purpose in giving him a parliamentary seat, greater authority and a respectable image

• Giolitti formed a  coalition administration without the fascist deputies but resigned in June 1921 - PPI refused to support the government
• once elected, Mussolini rarely attended the Chamber and the fascist deputies consciously flouted its 'gentlemanly' traditions
• they occupied seats on the extreme Right and forcibly ejected a Communist MP for his alleged 'desertion' during the First World War
• June 1921 - Musoslini delivered his first speech in the Chamber
• his address condemned socialism and democracy but also attempted to build bridges with the Vatican by acknowledging that 'the Latin and imperial tradition of Rome is today represented by Catholicism'
• Mussolini's subsequent public statements endorsed Church schools and attacked freemasonry and divorce
• he knew that the fascists could not exercise power if they faced widespread Catholic opposition - 95% of the population claimed to be Catholic!

• new prime minister - Ivanoe Bonomi - sponsored peace talks between the rival political groups in order to end the violence
• Mussolini participated - felt the squads' 'physical force' tactics were becoming counterproductive
• August 1921 - Mussolini, parliamentary PSI & socialist trade union - General Confederation of Labour signed the Pact of Pacification, but neither the PPI nor the PCI endorsed the agreement
• the pact put Mussolini and the ras on a collision course 

• Mussolini maintained that this initiative had averted a grave crisis and warned that 'If fascism does not follow me, no-one can force me to follow fascism'
• his position was clear: the movement could not make progress without a credible national leader
• the provincial fascist leaders, however, rejected the pact
• Farinacci resigned from the fascist central committee, rather than compromise with 'Bolsheviks'
• Grandi, Balbo and other ras feared the agreement would destroy their local power bases by ending squadrismo and undermine the fascist syndicates
• landowners argued that the pact would revive rural socialism just as the harvest period approached
• July 1921 - meeting of 400 Tuscan Fasci in Florence voted against the agreement
• a month later - 600 Fasci gathered at Bologna and decided to offer D'Annunzio the leadership

• faced with such opposition, Mussolini resigned from the fascist executive in August, but two things worked in his favour:
• first, the executive supported both the pact and his leadership
• second, D'Anunnzio declined the leadership on the grounds that fascism had become too reactionary
• nevertheless, the ras remained defiant and:
• in September, Blabo and Grandi organised a 'march on Ravenna' by 3000 fascists
• futhermore, violence continued in rural areas, mainly instigated by PCI members and the squadristi
• the Pact of Pacification had failed, but Mussolini managed to hang on as leader of the fascist movement 

• to preserve his leadership and the unity of the movement, Mussolini now reversed his position
• he blamed the Left and the government for the ongoing violence and praised squadrismo
• Mussolini struck a deal with Grandi and Balbo too: under its terms, he agreed to renounce the Pact of Pacification on condition that the movement became a party
• he calcluated that a party structure, with its formal hierarchy, discipline and regulations, would give him more control over provincial fascism
• at the third Facist National Congeress in November 1932, Mussolini's carefully staged public reconciliation with Grandi defused the issue of the pact and reaffirmed his leadership
• the Congress approved the move to a party footing and the Fasci di Combattimenti became the National Fascist Party (PNF)
• crucially, the PNF'S 'New Programme' - which was adopted at the same gathering - placed the squadristi under the command of the party leadership not the provincial leaders

• the Congress marked an important triumph for the PNF leader beacuse, as the historin Richard Bosworth notes, 'in most senses Mussolini had won a final victory over the ras'
• a week later, Mussolini formally withdrew the PNF from the pact
• Bonomi reacted by issuing directives to disband all armed organisations, including the squads
• Mussolini, though, had already given an order which turned all PNF members into squadristi on the assumption that the government wouldn't dare suppress squadrismo if it meant banning the PNF
• as Mussolini suspected, Bonomi was afraid to act
• by December, the PNF had 1333 Fasci and over 218,000 members
• small wonder than that Mussolini called 1921 the 'year of fascism'

The New Programme, which was adopted at the third Fascist National Congress, revealed how far fascist policies had moved to the right since 1919. Its main provisions included:

• an unspecified political structure to secure Italy's greatness
• new corportations to encourage national unity and increase production
• the state to preserve political and judicial order
• the Church could 'exercise its spiritual mission'; confiscation of religious property was dropped
• national interests took precedence over individual freedoms
• compulsory military service
• progressive not punitive taxation
• privatisation of nationalsised firms
• right to own private property guaranteed
• schools to train Italy's future governing elite and soldiers
• Italy to become 'the upholder of Latin civilisation in the Mediterranean'

This programme had a wide appeal but clearly implied that the state could, and would, override individual rights. Moreover, nothing was said about the defence of democratice government and basic freedoms

• the early Fasci movement that emerged in 1919, with its revolutionary and republican image - regarded as a 'left-wing' organiation but was unable to compete with the PSI
• it attracted, at best, only a few thousand members
• these so-called 'fascists of the first hour', typically syndicalists, ex-officers and students, wanted to play an acitve role in re-establishing Italy as a great power
• as fascism moved to the right in 1920-21, many original members departed because they were unhappy with the movement's growing links with conservative interests
• nevertheless, this political shift mobilised important social groups and turned Mussolini's organisation into a mass movement
• in reality, this more broadly based fascism was a series of local movements which responded to different regional conditions but also shared a common political outlook - partriotism, anti-socialism and recognising the need for strong leadership

• from 1920 - small farmers in parts of Romagna, Lombardy and Venetia joined the fascists in large numbers
• having secured landholdings, the rural petty boutgeoisie saw the advance of socialism as a direct threat to their way of life
• in response, they turned to fascism for protection
• many small farmers and peasants particularly loathed the trade union-run socialist labour leagues which rigidly controlled agricultural employment
• they joined the fascist squads in the belief that, once the labour leagues had been destroyed, jobs, leases and smallholdings would be more widely available
• the agrari reacted against the activities of the labour leagues, the election of left-wing councils and the impact of the government's agricultural policies by backing the fascists too
• they funded the fascist squads' campaign of violence against socialist and PPI influence in the countryside in order to defend their own economic and political interests 

• another important source of fascist support from 1920 was the urban petty bourgeoisie, a class which included shopkeepers, artisans, small business owners and merchants, teachers and junior civil servants
• much of the lower-middle class blamed the Liberal state for the damaging impact of inflation, poor post-war jobs prospects and the failure to stem the growth of socialism
• many ex-servicemen from the petty bourgeoisie also felt the government had not recognised their contribution to Italy's victory in the First World War
• consequently, the fascists, as a nationalist movement opposed to left-wing revolution and the Liberal state, recruited large numbers from the disaffected lower-middle class
• fascism also received support and financial contributions from industrialists who feared the rise of left-wing militancy in the factories and criticised liberal governments for failing to take a hard line against the workers 

• students and youth flocked to the movement and many of them joined the squads
• by 1921, about 13% of the country's students belonged to the PNF
• for these young Italians, fascism contrasted sharply with the dull routine of their daily lives by offering colour, action and excitement
• they also joined to register their resentment of 'unpatriotic' workers and to protest against the difficulty of finding employment after the war
• the fascists attracted working-class support as well
• some Italian workers were attracted by the more radical parts of the fascist programme such as an eight hour day, employee representatives in management, land for the peasants and fair wages and prices
• others opted for fascism because they detested socilist intimidation of non-unionised labour
• moreover, once the fascists had taken control of areas previously dominated by socialist and PPI unions, many working-class Italians made the pragmatic decision to join the fascists syndicates to ensure they could get a job 

The fascist challenge to the Liberal state

• early 1922 - Balbo & General Gandolfo reorganised the squads into a national militia-style force
• at the same time, the fascist syndicates were grouped together in a National Confederation of Syndical Corporations
• led by Edmondo Rossoni - National Confederation - almost 500,000 members by mid-1922
• publically, Mussolini endorsed the National Confederation but in private he was concerned about the syndicates, since they were often run by the local ras and might discourage funding from sympathetic industrialists
• the Bonomi government collapsed in February 1922 & Luigi Facta, an unimpressive liberal compromise candidate, became prime minister
• his appointment merely underlined the fact that the parlimentary regime could neither deliver stable government nor impose law and order
• fascists quickly tested the new government - forcibly ejected local authorities at Fiume
• when Facta took no action, the PNF carried out similar illegal squad 'expeditions' across northern and central Italy during the spring and summer of 1922
• they starkly revealed just how little authority the Liberal state possessed

The fascist challenge to the Liberal state

• May - September - PNF - control of  Po delta - drove out elected socialist councils in the region
• June 1922 - a fascist occupation of Bologna forced the government to remove the prefect - the local state official - from the city
• Mussolini provided finances and favourable press coverage for these fascist takeovers
• by autumn - PNF ran most of upper half of Italy, dominating local government, levying unofficial taxes and controlling the job market through its syndicates
• Left-wing protest played into Mussolini's hands too - 31st July 1922 - coalition of moderate socialist trade unions, republicans & radicals - 24-hour general strike to protest against Fascist brutality and apparent government indifference to squad violence
• few workers participated & fascist-led volunteers quickly defeated stoppages that did occur
• Mussolini used the strike as an effective propaganda weapon, claiming the PNF had restored order and prevented left-wing revolution - many conservative Italians agreed
• the failed stoppage virutally ended organised left-wing anti-fascist protest
• buoyed by their success, the fascists seized control of the Milan and Genoa councils, and ransacked the Milan offices of Avanti!
• it was now widely assumed that the PNF would have to be offered a role in government

Throughout this period, Mussolini skilfully persued a dual policy to obtain power which involved playing up the threat of violence and offering assurances to improtant groups

The threat of violence

• by targetting the socialists and exposing the Liberal state's lack of authority, he hoped to play up the left-wing threat, persuade the middle classes that only the PNF could maintain order, and pressure the political establishment with the prospect of a fascist coup
• such a strategy called for a delicate balancing act
• Mussolini knew that direct action by the PNF had to be extensive enough to keep the spectre of 'red revolution' alive and satisfy the squads who wanted a fascist seizure of power
• however, he was also well aware that excessive fascist force would alienate potential supporters and might lead to an armed response by the state
• his ability to exploit this tactic without splitting his own movement or antagonising conservative Italians was a testimony to his political skill

Offering assurances: negotiating with liberals

• Mussolini secretly negotiated with key liberal politicians (e.g. Orlando, Giolitti) to assure them the PNF would act constitutionally and accept the parliamentary system 
• posed as the responsible leader who could work with the political establishment and discipline the violent party hotheads
• second strand of the policy - designed to allay suspicion, divide political opponents & keep the conventional route to power open
• worked for two reasons:
• leading liberal politicians seemed more concerned about outmanoeuvring each other than offering a common front against fascism - all eager to include the PNF to strengthen their own claims to government
• by mid 1922 - clear that the PNF would have a significant role in the next coalition government
• these meetings were designed to conceal Mussolini's real ambition to become prime minister
• also motivated by his desire to prevent another Giolitti ministry because Italy's elder statesman might use force against the PNF (as he had against D'Annunzio at Fiume) 
• Mussolini observed tersely: 'If Gioliti returns to power, we're F*****.)

Planning to take power

• 16th October - Mussolini met PNF militia leaders & other senior Fascists to plan a 'March on Rome'
• decision enabled Mussolini to retain control over the radical fascsists and put further pressure on the Italian establishment
• four quadrumvirs - Balbo, Cesare De Vecchi, Emilio De Bono and Michele Binchi - also appointed to organise and command the march 
• discussions about timing postponed until the PNF congress at Naples - scheduled for 24th October
• Mussolini knew he had to act quickly because, Armistice Day (4th November), the capital would be full of parading soldiers loyal to the Crown
• but Mussolini continued secret negotiations with the liberal factions to form part of a legally constituted government
• once at Naples, the fascist leadership decided to seize the northern and central cities not already under PNF control from midnight on 27th Occtober - then move against Rome following day 

• on that night - PNF squads took over provincial town halls, telephone exchanges, post ofices and railway stations
• 30,000 Blackbshirts began assembling at 3 towns outside Rome in readiness for the march on the capital
• early hours of 28th October - Facta government finally acted and persuded the king to introduce martial law so that the police and the army could counter the Blackshirt threat
• 20,000 lightly armed fascists now faced the prospect of military defeat by the 28,000-strong Rome garrison - well trained, better equipped & ably led by General Pugliese
• 9am that morning - Victor Emmanuel III changed his mind - refused to sign the martial law declaraction
• his rejection of this unanimous cabinet recommendation breached constitutional concention
• also brought Mussolini and the PNF to power

• Victor Emmanuel III change of mind due to several factors:
• resented the incompetence of the parliamentary regime & doubted Facta's ability to handle the crisis
• several generals questioned the army's willingness to fire in the fascists - many PNF members were former soldiers and officers
• if the king's military orders were disobeyed - would have to abdicate
• Victor Emmanuel III also received inaccurate information - questioned the army's ability to defend Rome against the assembled Blackshirt forces
• another powerful motive was the monarch's desire to avoid a civil war - particularly with his pr-fascist cousin, the Duke of Aosta, waiting to replace him 

• denied martial law, the Facta administration resigned
• King then invited Salandra to form a government - but came to nothing
• without martial law & unable to secure PNF involvement, Salandra abandonded his attempt to create a coalition government
• Mussolini refused to participate - knew he could become prime minister
• in order to thwart his rival Giolitti, Salandra advised Victor Emmanuel to send the PNF leader, who had returned to Milan 
• 29th October - King reulctantly did so and Mussolini made the overnight railway journey to Rome
• waiting for his train in Milan, Mussolini commented 'i want to leave on time. From now on everything must work perfectly' 
• his remark led to the joke that at least fascism made trains run on time
• 30th October - Victor Emmanuel appointed the PNF leader prime minister in the usual constitutional manner and accepted his cabinet nominations (only 4 of these were fascists)

• within 24 hours, the fascist marchers entered the capital - once Pugliese had been ordered to let them through
• then physically attacked political opponents and ran riot in working-class districts
• subsequently, Missolini's regime recast October 1922 as a herioc myth where, following a bloody civil war, some 300,000 Blackshirts had issued an ultimatum to the king and seized power at the cost of the 3000 fascist 'martyrs'
• many fascists at the time genuinely believed they had carried out a revolution, but in truth the 'March on Rome' had been an act of political blackmail which removed the need for a real insurrection

• Mussolini used constitutional and revolutionary methods to become prime minister

Outwardly at least, he achieved office by the traditional route

• he was appointed by the king, and his patriotic stance during the First World War and the 'Bolshevik' threat of 1921 - 22 had garnered support from conservative Italians

Simultaneously, Mussolini also rode the revolutionary wave to power

• The Italian People gave him a press platform to become the national spokesman for, and the principal political beneficiary of, anti-Versailles opinion and squadrismo

In the end, the establishment accepted Mussolini to avoid a damaging domestic conflict

• they anticipated that, as prime minister, he would abide by the constitution, curb the radical fascists and provide a temporary solution for Italy's difficulties