20.2: Fascism in Italy

The Italian Fascist Party was an invention of Italian army veterans. During the war, Italy had joined with England and France against Germany and Austria in hopes of seizing territory from Austria. But, they were given very little land after the war. Thus, to many other Italians, the war had been especially pointless.

During 1919 and 1920, Italy faced incredible social turmoil. A huge strike struck the country, and many poor Italians seized land from the semi-feudal landlords who still dominated rural society. In addition, there was general concern among the traditional conservatives, the church, business leaders, and middle classes that Italy would undergo a communist revolution such as Russia. In fact, there was a powerful communist movement within the nation.

The Fascists organized into paramilitary units of thugs known as the Blackshirts (for their party-issued uniforms) and engaged in open street fighting against communists, breaking up strikes, attacking communist leaders, destroying communist newspaper offices, and intimidating voters from communist-leaning neighborhoods and communities. They were often tacitly aided by the police, who rounded up communists while ignoring Fascist lawbreaking as long as it was directed against the communists. Likewise, business leaders started funding the Fascists as a kind of guarantee against further gains by communists. Fascist politicians ran for office in the Italian parliament while their gangs of thugs terrorized the opposition.

In 1922, the weak-willed King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III appointed Benito Mussolini as prime minister, a staunch fascist who set out to destroy Italian democracy. From 1922 to 1926, Mussolini and the Fascists manipulated the Italian parliament, intimidated political opponents or actually had them murdered, and succeeded in eliminating party politics and a free press. In the process, the Fascist Party became the only legal party in Italy, and the police apparatus expanded dramatically. Mussolini's official title was Il Duce: "The Leader," and his authority over every political decision was absolute. The Fascist motto was “believe, obey, fight,” a distant parody of the French liberal motto (from the French Revolution) “liberty, equality, fraternity.”

Figure 20.3.1: Mussolini (in the center) and Fascist Blackshirts during the March on Rome in 1922.

Officially, Italian Fascism promised to end the class conflict that lay at the heart of socialist ideology by favoring what it called “corporatism” over mere capitalism. Corporatism was supposed to be a unified decision-making system in which workers and business owners would serve on joint committees to control work. In fact, the owners derived all of the benefits; trade unions were banned, and the plight of workers degenerated without representation.

What Italian Fascism did do for the Italian people was essentially ideological and, in a sense, emotional: it directed youth movements and recreational clubs and sought the involvement of all Italians. It glorified the idea of the Italian people. In turn, Fascist propaganda tried to inculcate Italian pride and Fascist identity among Italian citizens, while Fascist-led police forces targeted would-be dissidents, sentencing thousands to prison terms or internal exile in closed prison villages.

Convinced of his own genius, Mussolini often foolish decisions, especially when it came to building up and training the Italian military. Surrounded by corrupt sycophants, he was continually lied to about Italy's military strength and prosperity to keep him happy. When World War II began in 1939, the Italian forces were revealed to be poorly trained, equipped, and led.