“I believe in Rome, the Eternal, and the mother of my country… I believe in the genius of Mussolini…and in the resurrection of the Empire.”
Despite Mussolini’s best efforts, the education system was still not as successful as he had hoped it would be. A vast majority of pupils left school at the age of eleven in order to avoid the full programme of indoctrination, even those that experienced a complete fascist education and continued on to university may not have been completely convinced by fascist ideas.
Mussolini believed that in order for his fascist ideas to completely saturate Italian society he would need to completely end the conflict between to church and the state. The treaty and concordat that comprised the Lateran Agreement was officially what ended this conflict. The Pope agreed to recognise the Italian state and its possession of Rome and the old Papal states and in return, the state had to recognise the Pope’s control over the Vatican City which is part of Rome but independent from the Italian state. The Pope also received financial compensation of £30 million for surrendering to his claim to Rome. Mussolini had given up on attempting to remove the influence of the church and decided happily to deal with it, the Lateran Agreement signalled this. The church would now throw its support behind Mussolini and the Duce. However, there were still tensions between the two and this became apparent in 1931 when the government attempted to suppress the church sponsored Catholic Action youth group. This body provided a rival to fascism’s own youth organisations. The compromise that was reached was that Catholic Action could continue as long as it was purely religious activities, however, the church remained determined to preserve its influence over the youth and made it clear that the fascists must not attempt to suppress Catholic schools or interfere with the Catholic University of Milan or the Federation of Catholic University students.
Foreign born Jews in August 1938 were banned from state schools and in the following month the ban was extended to Italian born Jews. They were also banned from teaching in state school and separate schools were set up for Jewish students and teachers. Jews were also not permitted to own large companies or large land estates and were excluded from National Fascist Party and professional and cultural organisations and clubs. In November 1938 laws were enforced that prevented Jews from marrying non-Jews. As a result of these Anti-Semitic policies Italian Jews severely suffered, and they lost the majority of their liberty and standard of living. There was the constant fear that they would adopt the murderous views of the Nazi’s. Despite this there were a few exemptions for some Italian Jews that served in the First World War or who served in the fascist regime in some capacity. A decree was passed in November 1943 which ordered the confiscation of Jewish property and the rounding up of all Jews, over 7500 Jews were sent to Nazi death camps in Eastern Europe with only 600 that survived. Despite this many Italian government and fascist officials made little effort to enforce the laws, and the church opposed the Anti-Semitic policies. Even Mussolini’s son protected their Jewish friends from harassment.
In 1927 there was the Battle for Births and this was designed to increase the population from 40 million to 60 million by 1950. Mussolini specified that the ideal amount of children should be twelve per family. There was financial inducement given to married men that had at least six children where they would be exempt from all taxation. Mothers would also be awarded prizes for producing a large sum of children. Penalties were introduced for those who were reluctant to become parents. Motherhood quickly became associated primarily with the act of making babies rather than the traditional, maternal values like love, guidance, and care. Women became like machines. Procreation basically came to define their social role and the authorities were determined to implement these newly defined roles for women by suppressing illegitimate sexuality, like prostitution, from public consumption.
In 1925-26 there were huge changes in the controls and regulations of the Industrial relations in Italy. The corporate state was part of these changes. It was a system of labour relations and corporative organisations. The Fascist government gradually established a system that it claimed would protect the interests of workers and employers. The Vidoni Pact in 1925 weakened the original unions and Mussolini thought that if original trade unions were not doing as well as members wanted they would look elsewhere for support.
The Battle for Grain in 1925 was where Mussolini to reduce Italy's balance of payments deficit caused mainly by the large cost of food imports. Grain accounted for nearly 50% of Italy's food imports at the time so he though if Italy was self sufficient in grain it would reduce the deficit. However, Cereal growth did not increase dramatically but by 1939 they were producing 75% of the cereal they needed. High tariffs placed on imported goods to encourage Italy to home grow. Reduction in the amount of vines, olives and citrus fruits produced in Italy. This all resulted in the deterioration in the Italian people’s diets.
The Battle of the Marshes was where vast areas of land were reclaimed and new towns and villages were constructed on the area previously known as the Pontine Marshes. It was hoped the land reclamation would also provide land for cereal growth. The site was situated only 50km outside Rome, it was therefore a perfect propaganda opportunity for Mussolini and the Fascists. This resulted in the Pontine Marshes near Rome becoming drained, New towns Latina and Sabaudia were created as show pieces. Fewer than 10,000 people benefited from the land reclamation.
IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) was established. This was a government agency set up in 1933 to help industry. It took over industrial shares previously held by banks and those of other companies in trouble. Although originally meant to be temporary it became permanent in 1937 and extended powers to take over private firms. By 1939 the IRI controlled 75% of pig iron, 90% of ships and ship building, 45% of steel and 20% of industry. However, from 1935 many of Mussolini's economic policies were closely linked with his foreign and war policies.
Mussolini had brought stability to a certain extent to Italy, and was personally popular for the majority of the 21 years that he was in power, however, he did not bring about any for of revolution and did not really achieve any of his real goals for the fascist party. The majority of the ideas he had for Italy had more failures then successes, perhaps his only real achievement in the domestic sphere was his concordat with the Catholic Church. Mussolini had hoped to transform the Italian Character and the Italian society into a fascist mould, however, he was disappointed.