Fascism in Power: Summary

Summary of fascism in power: the main events, protagonists and interpretations of the political movement founded by Benito Mussolini.

Fascism in Power: Summary

The birth of fascism must be placed in the tense climate of the post-war period.Fascism was born as a movement in March 1919 with the Fasci di Combattimento founded by Mussolini in Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan.

Mussolini had been expelled from the Socialist Party in 1914 for his interventionist position; he had then approached nationalism. At the foundation of the Fasci we find former socialists, republicans, revolutionary syndicalists, futurists.

The Fasci were born as an “anti-party”, with a program (the San Sepolcro program) that was substantially left-wing, republican, anti-clerical, apparently ultra-democratic:

women’s right to vote ;
abolition of royal election of the senate;
eight-hour work day.

All the members of the Fasci carried forward the myth of regenerative strength and violence to improve Italy. The first public action of the Fasci was the burning of the Milan headquarters of Avanti! in April 1919.

Squadrismo: Agrarian Fascism, Violence and Unpunished Squadrismo

In the 1919 elections the fascists presented themselves as a party but did not obtain any seats. The fascist movement was therefore considered marginal in the political life of the country.

In 1920 they decided to abandon their initial “leftism”, converting to the right and siding with the big entrepreneurs, and it was in this way that they obtained notable support from the bourgeoisie .

It was towards the autumn of 1920 that the fascist action squads began to launch attacks against exponents and headquarters of the socialist movement, with the systematic use of violence.

This decisive step did not take place in the cities, but in the countryside. It was the landowners, the agrarians (with the Agrarian Party), who used the “black shirts ” (fascist action squads) to crush the “red” peasant movement by financing them, supporting them politically and personally directing their actions.

The fascist squads were mainly composed of young exponents of the large landed property (petty bourgeois) who destroyed people’s houses, clubs, cooperatives etc. They took trade union and political militants from their homes, killing them or beating them.

The violence had two faces, making use of Castor oil (a purge). Representatives of the fascist action squads took the opposition exponents, took them to the countryside blindfolded and made them drink a liter of Castor oil.

In doing so, they took away the dignity of man; it was not only physical violence, but above all psychological. Such violence had above all a strong symbolic content: it aimed to intimidate and shame the political opponent.

At the same time, this violence aimed to attract, to make new proselytes. The fascist action squads also included former veterans and students who did not recognize themselves in the State and, not having participated in the war, to experience the exaltation of the war, they were transported by the fascist action squads.

The squad violence increased in intensity during 1921/1922. The attitude of the police and the judiciary, in repressing these actions, was hesitant and often conniving.

The squadrist violence generally found tolerance and complicity from many local authorities : the fascists were able to react without having to clash with the forces of law and order.

It was therefore an act of violence that went unpunished, given the notable indifference of the police and the state.

Liberals look to the right

From November 1918 (end of the war) to 1922 (first Mussolini government) the following governments followed one another: Orlando, Nitti, Giolitti , Bonomi, Facta.

This political instability was synonymous with a serious crisis of an old liberal ruling class, which no longer had a majority in government .

The 1919 elections had represented a major turning point because the Socialist Party and the Popular Party together held the majority in the Chamber but an agreement between Liberals and Socialists was unthinkable.

The liberal ruling class hypothesized an electoral alliance that would include nationalists and fascists.

The 1921 elections

In the political elections of May 15, 1921, the fascists ran on the national block lists with the liberals and other centrist groups. The fascists obtained 31 seats. This made the parliament even more fragmented.

This made Bonomi’s new government very weak, and increased the political weight of the fascists who in the meantime were masters of the squares.

Mussolini skilfully inserted himself into this situation, aware of the consensus he received from the agrarians and from growing business sectors.

Violence and Legality: The Birth of the Fascist Party

Mussolini’s program was to transform the fascist movement into a political force , keeping under control the “intransigent” fascism of the local squadristi leaders (the ras) who were against any evolution of the fascist revolution in a legalistic sense and any moderation of violence.

In 1921 Mussolini managed to transform the old movement into the National Fascist Party (one of whose principles was targeted violence), which provided him with a more solid instrument of action, represented in parliament and well-rooted in the territory.

Violence had to be controlled, so as not to frighten the allies. The program of the fascist party was very far from that of 1919, it included:

a strong state;
limitation of the power of parliament;
exaltation of the nation and competition between nations (Love for the homeland – Nationalism);
return to private industry of essential state-run services (railways and telephones);
ban on strikes in essential public services.

It was a program with a decidedly conservative and nationalist imprint, and reassured the agrarian, industrial and commercial bourgeoisie.

The Socialist Splits and the Defeat of Italian Socialism

Mussolini increasingly consolidated the position of fascism within the political system , mixing violence and legality, without ever having appreciable reactions from the state and the socialist party (which was weakened by further divisions).

The first of these occurred at the Livorno congress (1921) of the Socialist Party : a group of leaders of the left wing of the party (the communists) distanced themselves from it, arguing that communism was a suitable method to recreate the national line, giving life to a new political formation, the Communist Party of Italy and wanting to join the Third International.
A second split occurred in October 1922 between reformists and maximalists . The maximalists did not support the Facta government, they argued that a revolution had brought about the socialist state they aspired to. The reformists supported the weak Facta government, giving birth to a new political formation: the United Socialist Party, which had Matteotti as its first secretary.

The Socialist Party was now divided into three sections, a defeat for the Italian socialist movement .

A sign of the socialist defeat was the so-called legalitarian strike : a general strike proclaimed in defense of political and trade union freedoms, which failed, giving the fascists the pretext for a devastating reprisal against workers’ organizations.

Deep divergences were also maturing within the Popular Party between the different “souls” of Italian political Catholicism.

The advance of fascism deepened this fracture, as the conservative right increasingly oriented itself towards an alliance with Mussolini in an anti-socialist and anti-communist function.

The March on Rome and the First Mussolini Government

In 1922 Mussolini judged the time was ripe for a forceful action. While on the one hand he was negotiating with the liberal exponents (Giolitti and Salandra) the formation of a new government that would replace Facta and that would include fascist ministers, on the other he was preparing a concentration of armed squadristi in the capital.

In August Mussolini had strengthened the military apparatus of fascism by reorganizing the squads into a fascist “militia.”

The so-called March on Rome began in the last days of October with the occupation of public buildings in various Italian cities and on 28 October 1922 the fascists entered the capital , without resistance from the police or the army.

Mussolini awaited the unfolding of events from Milan. On October 28, Victor Emmanuel III refused to sign the decree of the siege stage submitted to him by Facta, and resigned.

The sovereign bowed to the threat of the fascists (to avoid a civil war) and summoned Mussolini to Rome; on 30 October Mussolini received from Vittorio Emanuele III the task of forming a new ministry.

The first Mussolini government included five fascist exponents and other liberal, popular, independent pro-fascist and nationalist ministers.

On November 16, 1922, he presented his government to Parliament with a speech that has become famous as the “ Bivouac Speech .” At the vote, 306 were in favor, 116 against.

The March on Rome and the formation of the first Mussolini government marked the collapse of liberal and democratic institutions: for the first time a politician had been given a government mandate by threat of arms.

The king had handed over the state to Mussolini. The non-fascist parties, voting in favor, had accepted the end of the liberal state. Within a few years, fascism would have erased every form of democratic legality and political and trade union freedom.

Mussolini will be considered a great politician, within Italy because he tried to solve Italy’s problems, outside because he represented the safe figure to oppose the socialist movement.

The Transition to Dictatorship and New Fascist Institutions

The period from October 1922 to January 1925 is considered a transitional phase towards the true fascist regime . Fascism was seen by many as nothing more than a conservative force capable of successfully opposing the danger of a socialist affirmation, in reality fascism was a political form tending to totalitarian, different from traditional authoritarian regimes.

Nobody had understood that fascism was becoming a totalitarian form : the State takes care of every aspect of the individual’s life.

A fundamental aspect of totalitarianism is the figure of the leader who must be so charismatic as to involve the masses so that they worship him, almost like a demigod, both physically (the cult of the body is fundamental) and in his actions.

The chief was to be the example for the Italian male. A totalitarian state to be such needs a considerable police force, especially secret (OVRA), to eliminate any opposition within the state. Italian totalitarianism was however less rooted than the German one.

They were formed:

the Grand Council of Fascism (1922): a body which included the highest exponents of the party and the fascist members of the government, it exercised strong influence on the government, it was the only body which could advise Mussolini in his choices.
The Volunteer Militia for National Security (1923): a sort of army under the orders of the head of government, with a structure similar to the fascist action squads.
The National Confederation of Trade Union Corporations brought together the fascist unions and would become the only union to operate in the country.

The Majority Electoral Law of 1923

The stability of Mussolini’s government was threatened by the socialist, communist, popular and liberal democratic oppositions that could theoretically have put the government in crisis at any time. In the popular party, there was open conflict between:

Sturzo component : he judged fascism to be incompatible with the ideals of popular Catholicism;
moderate clerical component , which supported Mussolini.

Mussolini managed to gain consensus among the most conservative groups of the Catholic world and in Vatican circles, also thanks to some provisions contained in the 1923 school reform law signed by Minister Gentile . This reform included:

the obligation of the Catholic religion in public schools;
public and private schools were made equal through the establishment of the state exam with an external commission;
substantial division between the classical high school and all other schools: until 1969/1970 the classical high school gave access to all university faculties;
It is important to say that school will have a strong influence in favor of fascism so that from an early age children will grow up with the idea that fascism was the only possible state.

The ascension to the papal throne of the new Pope Pius XI and the violent campaign of the fascist press induced Don Sturzo to resign as secretary of the Popular Party.

In 1923, a new majoritarian electoral law (with majority bonus) called the “ Acerbo law ” was approved : the list that obtained the majority of votes (over 25%) would be assigned two thirds of the seats.

The victory of the “Listone”

The fascist party presented itself at the elections within a national list ( Listone ), composed of 356 candidates including fascists, nationalists, liberals, Catholics (clerico-moderates).

The Listone obtained great success in the 1924 elections , with 65% of the votes . Fraud and intimidation of every kind, carried out by the fascists, accompanied the voting.

From the Matteotti Murder to the Speech of January 3, 1925

On 10 June 1924 Matteotti , who had denounced electoral fraud and violence in a strong speech to the new chamber , was kidnapped and killed by a fascist squad (it seems that Matteotti was also about to denounce the corruption involving some parliamentarians).

The discovery of Matteotti’s body profoundly shook public opinion, opening a serious political crisis ; for the first time, Mussolini’s power seemed to be wavering .

The parliamentary opposition decided in protest not to participate in the parliamentary work, not recognizing themselves in the new parliament dominated by the fascists (it was the so-called Aventine secession ). This was a choice of high moral significance but politically weak also because King Vittorio Emanuele III did not dismiss Mussolini who was able to gradually regain control of the situation.

The epilogue was the famous speech in Parliament on 3 January 1925, with which he assumed political responsibility for the Matteotti crime.

How has Fascism been interpreted?

Reaction phenomenon :

Croce, defined fascism as a parenthesis in the development of liberal Italy and a moral illness, a temporary obfuscation caused by the First World War . He saw fascism as a reaction to socialism, to the fear of a proletarian revolution, and to the widespread belief that the Italian state was not fit to lead Italy. Although his thinking was in contrast with fascism, he was not persecuted for fear of alienating the popular masses among whom Croce was widely followed.
Gobetti, argues that the liberal class, not being able to solve the Italian problems, nor to understand the importance of the masses in the political scene, has provoked the unleashing of fascism. Gobetti will be killed by the fascist action squads by beatings.
Marxist approach, argues that the bourgeois class supported fascism only because of a hypothetical conflict between the bourgeoisie and the working class.

Revolution :

De Felice, does not criticize fascism. He argues that fascism was born from the bourgeois middle classes by taking up those ideals carried forward in the First World War. He divides fascism into: fascism movement and fascism regime. He argues that it is not a movement born as a reaction but as a revolution to change the ideals of the time. This speech is in line with the thought of Mussolini who wanted to create a new type of Italian. Without the bourgeoisie fascism would not have won.
Accountants, he believes that the Risorgimento was a failed revolution, and sees fascism as immature capitalism.
Canderolo, argues that fascism served to keep the society that emerged from the war in the fight, strengthened by the regimentation of the masses (organizing the masses like a regiment subjected to discipline) and by police repression.
Quazza, argues that without the support of the big agrarian bourgeoisie, the monarchy, the high offices of the state, the judiciary and the army (with whom it had more or less explicitly agreed), fascism would not have won. The Fascist Regime does not change from the fascist movement, the same names and the same lists are always part of politics.
Gentilesees fascism as a mass movement based on a mystical vision of politics (seen as sacred), on a concept of regenerative violence. According to Gentile, fascism is an expression of the various forms of irrationalism present in the culture of the early twentieth century.