Consequently, at the end of the war, many Italians began to favour the future peace that the Socialists promised – (and proof of this seemed to be Russia where the Communists had pulled out of the war the year before).
Ø Even more Italians turned to socialism due to the debilitating economic problems that the war caused. Prices had quadrupled during the war and Italians blamed the Liberal government - the government had simply printed too much lire (Italian money) to pay for supplies and ammunition. Consequently, the lower classes suffered as their wages did not keep up with inflation – there were frequent food riots. The situation was made worse when demand for goods decreased after the war, leading to an increase in unemployment – by November 1919 over 2 million Italians were unemployed.
The result of this suffering was labour unrest (strikes and riots) on an unprecedented scale. During 1919 1 million Italians took part in strikes. The Liberal government appeared powerless as strikes and riots swept the cities and towns of north/central Italy during the biennio rosso (‘two red years’) of 1918-20. The situation then got worse when the soldiers returning home were plunged into this deteriorating situation – again they felt betrayed, unemployment a poor reward for their sacrifices.
Neither was the situation any better in the countryside. As farming in the north/centre had become more commercialised so some peasants, farm labourers and share-croppers were willing to join the socialist trade unions. This trend was unlike anything that happened elsewhere in Europe and can be explained by the influence of the Chambers of Labour in the countryside (these self-help organisations recruited peasants to the socialist cause). The strikes of the militant agricultural workers had a destabilizing affect on Italy: Farmers’ strikes in 1920 in Ferrara and Tuscany endangered food supplies and forced landowners to grant wage rises, security of tenure and over 50% of profits to the share-croppers. Returning peasant soldiers, with the support of the Catholics, seized common land.
The Liberals were becoming associated with instability, inefficiency and poor living standards. They were alienating large sections of the lower classes as Italy appeared to lurch from one crisis to the next. During the bienno rosso Italy seemed to be on the verge of a socialist revolution.
The Political ‘Right’ Reacts Against the ‘Socialist Threat’
However, acceptance of Liberal rule was being undermined from the ‘right’ as well as the ‘left’. The middle classes and other conservatives on the ‘right’ were terrified by what they perceived to be the ‘socialist threat’ to their privileges/livelihoods. Those on the ‘right’ reacted to this ‘socialist threat’ by becoming more extreme in their views as well. The middle classes and other conservatives increasingly began to think that a more authoritarian system of government would be needed to protect them against this ‘socialist threat’.
Those on the ‘right’ of politics increased in number and became more extreme in their views as they felt that the Liberals were too weak and indecisive to be able to protect their interests.
Instead of crushing the ‘socialist threat’ the Liberal governments appeared weak, offering concessions to workers in order to stop the strikes and riots. Since Giolitti there had been a tradition of government remaining neutral in industrial disputes and this continued after the war with Nitti’s government. Those on the ‘right’ could not understand the Liberal’s neutrality policy as they felt it only encouraged more socialist unrest.
The middle class (bourgeoisie) had been particularly badly affected by the war inflation as it reduced the value of their savings. These people, often self-employed (e.g. craftsmen, shopkeepers), had no trade unions to press for higher wages. Therefore, they were angry that the Liberal governments made concessions to the unions. For example, the Liberals alienated shopkeepers in June 1919 when they appeared to give-in to food rioters. The government requisitioned food supplies and set the low prices so the poor could afford it. However, the shopkeepers lost money and worried that a socialist precedent had been set for the future.
Some conservative workers also opposed socialism as they felt socialists monopolized (took over completely) job opportunities by forcing firms to only employ union members.
Although some soldiers became socialists many others saw the movement as a threat to all they had fought for. These nationalistic soldiers did not like the way socialists (who they regarded as ‘shirkers’ who had a safe war back in Italy) criticised them for fighting. Army Officers were especially angry at the prospect of Italy falling to the socialists - they felt that the socialists had sabotaged the war effort by not supporting it.
Like many other conservatives, these officers began to believe that a powerful Italy could only be created by introducing a new authoritarian system of government. This type of government would also, importantly, protect their interests, privileges and livelihoods.
A ‘Mutilated Victory’: How Nationalism also Acted Against the Liberals
The Liberal system was also being undermined by the growing belief amongst Italians that they had been betrayed by the peace deal. Again the Liberal government was appearing weak, unable to secure all that the Italian nationalists desired from the talks at Versailles. In truth the Italians did relatively well from the treaty but the opponents of Liberalism spread the belief of a ‘mutilated victory’ in order to undermine the Liberal politicians further. After 3 years of war Italians were receptive to the message of a mutilated victory – their struggle to become a great power appeared to have again been thwarted by the weaknesses of the Liberal politicians.
Nationalists were against what they saw as a weak Liberal system that failed to protect Italy’s interests. This negative type of nationalism was growing because:
o The Liberals were considered incompetent due to the inefficient way they directed the war effort (e.g. supplies and ammunition were inadequate). For example, they were blamed for the terrible defeat at Caporetto where 300,000 Italians were captured.
Now the Liberals seemed even weaker, unable to secure Dalmatia and the city of Fiume, areas for which nationalists craved. Italy had been promised Dalmatia if it joined and fought on the British/French side. Nationalists were, therefore, furious with the peace settlement. They felt cheated and blamed the weak leadership of Orlando (the Liberal Prime Minister at the Versailles peace talks).
Furthermore, and equally disappointing, Italy did not gain a share of Germany’s colonies in Africa. Again Italians felt cheated. Many Italians had made great sacrifices during the war and they had been looking forward to the fruits of victory – they felt betrayed.
o Soldiers, finding it difficult to get a job, saw the peace treaty as a further humiliation. In fact, many of the soldiers and officers were not finding it easy to adjust to civilian life. They believed they had won the war and had then been betrayed, their job of uniting Italy left unfinished. These soldiers missed the comradeship of the trenches and some formed themselves into squads to fulfil their desire for action and strong government. These squads were another divisive, destabilising factor.
Nationalists also had an example of what decisive action could achieve. The actions of Gabriele D’Annunzio in Fiume looked far more impressive than what the Liberals had achieved by negotiating at Versailles. The Liberals seemed to have achieved little but D’Annunzio appeared strong, taking Fiume in September 1919 with a band of 2000 armed men (some of the squads). Decisive action rather than weak talking, to many Italians, appeared to be much the most successful policy. Consequently, many more Italians began to doubt the Liberal system. D’Annunzio became a national hero and, in contrast, the Liberal government looked even weaker as it failed to act for over a year. This incident also shows the destabilising influence of the armed squads.
In short, the growing nationalism, brought about by the belief in a ‘mutilated victory’, was also undermining the Liberal system.
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Overall, society and politics had polarised so eroding the Liberal support base in the middle. This was Italy’s main problem before the war – it had become near impossible to govern.
Weaknesses in the Electoral System
The electoral system created even more instability (between June 1919 and October 1922 there were 4 different Prime ministers: Nitti, Giolitti, Bonomi and Facta). As it was a proportional representation system it became very difficult to form coalitions as no single party would come even close to getting a majority. This left competing party blocks in parliament. These blocks found it difficult to work with each other due to the divisions in society (e.g. the socialist PSI party would not work with the Catholic PPI party). As a consequence the country was not run effectively, the governments/prime ministers changing, and all the time the social/economic problems continuing.
Proportional representation can also be a weak election system as it can let small, extremist political parties gain a disproportional amount of power. This would soon become a problem.
Italy7
The Weaknesses Of The Liberal State Continued: 1919-1922
The post-war problems outlined in ‘Italy6’ simply got worse after 1919. It became impossible for the Liberals to rule as other groups increasingly dictated events. The Liberals were fast becoming an irrelevant force as they increasingly relied on the Fascists for support – not directly, but by tacitly approving the fascist action. Liberal coalition governments only lasted a few months as their support base had, by now, crumbled. Between October 1917 and October 1922 five Prime Ministers led five different government coalitions (Three of them between June 1920 and October 1922). Such was the chaos and Liberal unpopularity that, by September 1922, the Government seemed to have lost the will to govern. The reasons for this chaotic situation are outlined below.
Government 1919-1921: Unstable, short-lived coalitions that appeared weak, unable to maintain law and order or deal with the country’s problems
Although Fascism did badly at the elections of November 1919 the results were even more damaging for the Liberals. Liberals and their allies only won 180 seats compared to a revolutionary Socialist Party holding 156 seats and the Catholic Popular Party, the PPI (Popolari), with 100 seats. Perhaps the greatest weakness of Liberal Italy, therefore, was the inability of the PSI and PPI to work together to form stable government. The militant/revolutionary sections of the PSI were never able to work with the conservative right members of the PPI. This meant that the Liberals had to rely on an uneasy coalition with the Catholic deputies to form governments. But the PPI was a reluctant participant in government as it could not forget the anti-Catholic position of the Liberals during the unification process.
This difficult situation meant that a succession of leading Liberals tried, and then failed, to sustain coalition governments. Nitti’s government was discredited by the weak way it had handled D’Annunzio’s take-over of Fiume, and was disliked by both moderate socialists and conservatives. Socialists were angered by Nitti’s unwillingness to introduce reforms and conservatives were concerned that he did not crush socialist protest. Nitti was replaced by Giolitti as PPI support for the Liberals began to wane. However, his attempt at another trasformismo style government faired little better as the majority of socialists remained hostile to the Liberal system.
Outside Parliament 1919-1921: The Socialist movement remains militant/revolutionary and Conservatives feel abandoned by the Liberals. Events are increasingly dictated by anti-democratic forces
Outside Parliament events continued to weaken the position of the Liberals. Conservatives throughout society felt that socialism posed a threat to their livelihoods. The true extent of the ‘socialist threat’ has been exaggerated but what matters here is what conservatives thought. Their political enemies (socialists) and social inferiors (poorer people) seemed to be in the ascendancy and they increasingly felt abandoned by the Liberal governments.
The socialist strikes and protests of the bienno rosso (‘two red years’) continued and the Liberals’ appeared weak for not crushing them. The socialists now seemed a significant threat as membership of the General Confederation of Labour trade unions rose from 250,000 in 1918 to over 2 million in 1920 (Support for the catholic unions was also growing in the countryside). In September 1920 400,000 workers from the northern cities occupied their factories during a wage dispute. Giolitti again followed his neutrality principle, a policy that enraged industrialists when he urged them to make concessions to the strikers. Giolitti, along with the other Liberals, was seen as a coward by large sections of the conservative public.
Landowners in the north also felt that they were not being protected from the ‘socialist threat’. Agricultural strikes and land occupations were increasing, the Liberals, again, adopting a policy of neutrality. In the Po valley, Umbria and Tuscany socialist trade unions were beginning to control labour, demanding higher wages. In other areas such as Bologna no labourer could get a job if he were not a member of a socialist union or Chamber of Labour. If landowners resisted the trade unions’ demands, their business would be disrupted and socialist labourers might attack their farm managers or tenant farmers (who tended to be members of the Catholic leagues/unions rather than socialist unions). The sense of abandonment amongst landowners and their tenants/managers intensified in 1921 when the government allowed labourers to keep the unused land they had illegally occupied.
Socialists had gained political control of 26 of the country’s 69 provinces by late 1920 (mainly those located in north and central Italy). The urban middle classes feared that the Socialists would now raise local taxes against the better-off, property-owning classes. The Liberal government in Rome seemed too weak to resist the growth of socialist power. Shopkeepers were concerned about the potential competition from the spread of Socialist co-operative shops.
As conservatives increasingly felt abandoned by government they turned to others for support. Desperate measures, including the use of violence, appeared justified in the face of what appeared to be a socialist revolution. Frightened conservatives, including landowners and middle-class townsfolk, began to turn to local Fascist squads who shared their hatred of socialism. These Fascist squads (squadrismo) were often small but they proved adept at burning down socialist offices and beating up trade unionists. Initially, these fascist squads tended to consist of demobilised officers and soldiers, together with middle class students. But, as other groups felt increasingly abandoned, the squads attracted new followers. Many of the new recruits were small farmers, farm managers and share-croppers who were ambitious and anxious to buy their own land. Socialist talk of higher wage rates and collectivisation of land angered them. The violence continued through the winter and spring of 1921, leaving hundreds dead. The police tended to ignore the Fascist violence as they too felt threatened by socialism.
Italy 1921-1922: The end of the Liberal support base
Government became even more unstable (if that were possible!) after the election of May 1921. There were three governments between May 1921 and October 1922 as the results of the election further reduced the Liberal support base (Giolitti continued for a month to be replaced by Bonomi and then Facta). Consequently, they became even more reliant on the PPI. The unstable nature of this alliance is highlighted by the fact that Giolitti’s new government collapsed within a month when the PPI withdrew their support over the issue of tax. The PPI, traditionally suspicious of the Liberals, was not prepared to back Giolitti for the good of the country; it was more interested in protecting the Pope’s interests.
To make matters worse, the Liberals were divided amongst themselves, factions supporting major figures such as Giolitti, Salandra, Facta and Orlando. These figures actively disliked each other.
Overall, this situation meant that successive Liberal governments were fragile and unable to introduce the decisive measures needed to cope with the industrial disruption and the collapse of law and order.
This progressive collapse of law and order owed a great deal to fascist actions. The violence of the squadrismo had done little to deter Italians from voting for the Fascists. Such was the fear of socialism by 1921, and the lack of faith in the Liberals to crush the threat, the Fascist vote rose sharply. The Fascists secured 7% of the total vote and won so won 35 seats. Fascism had gained an air of respectability and a foothold in parliament.
As squadrismo violence increased so the authority of the government was undermined, their policies destabilised. The fascists even attacked a socialist deputy in the parliament! Throughout 1922 the squads became more active, street fighting taking place in most northern/central cities. Socialists were forced to drink castor oil (a laxative!) whilst Socialist town councils and trade union properties were attacked. In May the town council of Bologna was actually driven out of office. The Fascists had the upper hand on the streets, law and order deteriorating, the Liberal government becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Police continued to be reluctant to intervene as they had no love for the Socialists, many actually supporting and lending weapons to the Fascists.
By late summer 1922 public opinion in Italy had fully polarised, the Liberals left almost irrelevant in the middle, having already lost effective control in some provinces. But the fascists had the upper hand. When the Socialists called a general strike in August (in an attempt to force the government to act against the fascist violence) the fascists stepped in to maintain public services. The strike soon collapsed as it was poorly organised, only attracting partial support. Furthermore, even in those areas where the call to strike was obeyed the Fascists treated the strikers harshly, so limiting the impact of the strike. When the strike collapsed the socialists were left in disarray, the Fascists, on the other hand, even stronger.
Liberalism as a political movement was all but finished. Unstable, divided, short-lived governments unable to maintain law and order or to deal with the country’s economic problems provided proof of this. The country was in chaos. Liberalism was more irrelevant than ever as its support base had collapsed in favour of the PSI, PPI and now the Fascists – all parties that had little love for Liberal Italy. Even worse, the Fascist squadrismo increasingly dictated events in some provinces through violence.
Italy8
The Changing Focus of Fascism: Part 1 – Mussolini and Fascism to November 1919
Between the end of the war and the end of 1919 Mussolini was an insignificant figure in Italian politics. His nationalist, republican (Italy still had a King), democratic and radical social reform policies failed to win support from the electorate (voters). The Fascists did badly at the elections of November 1919 as they failed to win a single seat in the new parliament.
When dealing with this period in the growth of Fascism a historian must be careful to make a distinction between Fascism and Mussolini. Unlike Hitler and the Nazi Party, Mussolini was not Fascism – he was only part of it. Fascism was a widespread, incoherent movement with a number of figureheads (e.g. D’Annunzio was better known).
Mussolini and Fascism to November 1919
Invalided out of the army in 1917, Mussolini became editor of Il Popolo d’Italia (‘The People of Italy’) newspaper again. Throughout 1918 his paper sought to create a new political movement which would promote nationalism, republicanism and radical social reform. In July 1918 he ceased to claim that Il Popolo was socialist and instead stated that it was the ‘newspaper of combatants and producers’. By ‘combatants’ he meant the soldiers who had no wish to return to poverty once the war was over whilst the term ‘producers’ referred to farmers and factory workers. Mussolini’s Fascism was to be an alternative to socialism (PSI) on the left of politics whilst, at the same time, incorporating a fervent patriotic nationalism. Mussolini wanted to contrast his ideas with the actions of those, he claimed, undermined Italy – industrialists who had made vast profits from wartime contracts, socialist traitors (PSI) who had opposed the war and Liberal politicians.
By 1919 Mussolini decided that his words needed to be translated into action if his aims were to be achieved. Consequently, in March, he founded the Fascio di Combattimento (‘Combat Group’) in Milan. This localised group was created in the hope that it could recruit members to Mussolini’s particular set of fascist ideas. The 118 people who turned up at the first meeting represented a wide range of views, including ex-soldiers (black-shirted arditi later to become the squadrismo), nationalists, republicans, futurists (who believed war to be beautiful) and former socialists like Mussolini himself. They had little in common except a hatred of both the Liberal State and the class struggle aspect of socialism (they burnt the offices of the socialist newspaper Avanti in April!). These people believed that only through unity (and not the class struggle of socialism) could the Italian nation achieve greatness. The term Fascio was used as a reference to the bound rods of the Roman Republic and the idea of ‘national strength through unity’.
The Fascio di Combattimento drew up a flexible programme that contained:
Nationalistic demands for an expanded Italy
(e.g. the right to control Fiume and Dalmatia)
Demands for a Republic and true democracy
(e.g. an Italian Republic [i.e. no king], titles of nobility to be abolished, female voting and proportional representation)
Left-wing policies designed to provide an alternative to socialism
(e.g. an 8 hour day, a minimum wage, confiscation of war profits and unproductive income, government to control the arms industry, workers to have a share in managing businesses and their profits)
However, the Fascio di Combattimento lacked the cohesion to form a disciplined and effective political party. It was just one of a number of radical groups with slightly differing beliefs, D’Annunzio’s occupation of Fiume seen as the main challenge to the Liberal system. Mussolini was not a major political figure, he was just a leader of one fascist style group – the Fascio di Combattimento. What prominence Mussolini did have was due to his editorship of the Popolo newspaper.
Consequently, the Fascists performed badly everywhere in the elections of November 1919. They had failed to win a single seat in the new parliament. Mussolini only gained 5,000 votes out of 270,000 in Milan, the area of greatest Fascist support. By the end of the year there were perhaps only 4000 Fascist supporters left in the whole of Italy as radical ‘leftists’ returned to socialism!
Overall, it appeared that the fascist movement was doomed due to lack of support.