Birth of Fascism:
Benito Mussolini’s Early Life:
- Former socialist + editor of socialist newspaper ‘Avanti!’
- Later became disenchanted with socialism, becoming pro war in WW1 as he believed it would create perfect conditions for socialist revolution
- He was expelled from the PSI in November 1914
- He began to write ‘Il Popolo d’Italia’ after expulsion, arguing that Italy needed a regime to end the struggle between social classes and to provide dynamic leadership.
- He argued ‘Il Popolo’ was the ‘newspaper of combatants and producers’, which means soldiers, farmers and factory workers.
- He contrasted these groups with parasitic groups in the Italian economy: businessmen who profited from the wartime contracts and socialists who opposed the war + liberal politicians.
Creation of Fascist Movement + 1919 Programme:
- By 1919, Mussolini wanted to put his ideas into action.
- In March 1919, he organised a meeting in Milan, only 100 attended. They were a wide range of political groups, like nationalists, anarchists, republicans, radical poets and painters. They had little in common but all hated the Liberal state and contempt for the class struggle rhetoric of the socialists.
- Mussolini proclaimed a new movement of ‘Fasci di Combattimento’ (combat groups).
- They formed an early party programme, demanding for an expansionist Italy, a new national assembly, proclamation of the Italian Republic (abolish the monarchy), abolition of the nobility, suppression of all major companies (industrial + financial), control + taxation of private wealth, confiscation of unproductive income (rent), workers having a significant share in the businesses they worked in.
- Other than expansionism, these demands were very leftist/socialist.
- The term ‘Fascio’ was used by right wing groups to stand for strength and unity. Mussolini prioritised action over political theory, but the group’s actions remained unclear.
- In 1922, Mussolini tried to develop fascism into a coherent doctrine to add more depth to the movement. This was never fully achieved.
- The ‘Fasci di Combattimento’s’ manifesto called for; an 8 hour working day, the confiscation of church property, control of the banks + stock exchanges, and the restoration of Italy’s national strength and prestige.
- The policies were aimed to attract different social classes in Italy. All disillusioned groups could find something to agree on.
- Mussolini also emphasised negatives to gain political support; the growing threat of socialism, the weakness of the Italian political system + democracy, the failure to maintain law and order, the Treaty of Versailles and ‘mutilated victory’.
Fascism:
- Mussolini never produced a central text clarifying Fascist ideology.
- There is no clear agreement amongst historians on what fascism is, other than it aspired for a totalitarian system.
- It repudiated peace.
- It believed that warfare is essential and beneficial to strengthen society, arguing it dismantled class divisions and unified the people. Mussolini believed he saw this in the trenches in WW1 amongst the soldiers.
- It was the complete opposite of socialism + marxism
- It was opposed to democratic ideology both ideologically and practically
Early Failure:
- The early movement lacked cohesion and organisation to form a disciplined, political party
- Mussolini’s prominence in the movement was not from his self-proclaimed position as ‘leader of Fascism’ but from his aggressive journalism in ‘Il Popolo d’Italia’.
- The November 1919 elections showed the movement’s failure.
- Mussolini received 5,000 out of 270,000 votes cast in Milan.
- Fascism performed dismally across all of Italy.
- They did not achieve a single seat and had only around 4,000 loyal supporters across all of Italy.
- The movement appeared doomed.
- However, Mussolini was saved by the government’s inability to convince conservative Italians that it could deal with the socialist threat. Within a year, from December 1919, the fascists became a powerful political force.