Fascism – Wikipedia

The fascism It is a far -right political movement built in Italy in 1919 by the politician, journalist and later dictator, Benito Mussolini. Some of the doctrines and practices developed and adopted by Italian fascism have spread later, even if with different characteristics, in Europe and in other states of the world.

It was characterized as a nationalist, authoritarian, autocratic, racist, anti -communist and totalitarian movement; The ideology underlying this movement was interpreted at the same time as revolutionary ^[first] and reactionary; ^[2] In particular, fascism self -defined, ^[3] as well as was considered by various polytologists and scholars, as an alternative to liberal capitalism, proposing a third way. ^{[4] [5]} On an ideological level it was a populist, ^[6] collectivist, ^{[7] [8] [9] [ten]} statist, ^{[11] [twelfth] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]} proponent of the social function of private property and the division of society into classes ^[18] and the refusal of liberalism and representative democracy.

He found his precursors, in the years preceding the First World War, in the artistic movement of Futurism (whose inspirer, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, then joined the Mussolini movement), in the Decadentism of D’Annunzio and in numerous other nationalist intellectuals who found themselves in the magazine The kingdom (Giuseppe Prezzolini, Luigi Federzoni, Giovanni Papini), many of whom were subsequently militonated in the fascist ranks. The contribution of thoughts of the non -Marxist left was also important, such as revolutionary unionism, inspired by the ideas of Georges Sorel.

A decisive push to the birth of fascism also came from the components, produced by the First World War, Haedicism and Reducism. The historical criticism of some scholars such as Piero Calamandrei or Paolo Alatri, however he hesitates to attribute an ideological basis to the character fascist movement, especially between 1920 and 1924, by various operational philosophies, with sudden and opportunistic changes in political setting such as to deny themselves the existence of a unitary doctrine of the first movement and then of the party. ^{[ without source ]} After the end of the Second World War, a series of currents have developed that refer to ideology, defined as neo -fascism; However, the prevalent nature of the movement is still the subject of debate. It is also necessary to distinguish between “fascism-moving” (bearer of the most revolutionary and socializing thrusts) and “fascism-regime” (representative of more reactionary elements). The apology of fascism, to date, in the Italian legal system is a crime.

The term “fascism” derives from the fighting bundles founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, ^[19] etymological origin from the word beam (In the Latin language: bundle ). The reference was to the beams used by the ancient liters as a symbol of legitimate power, and then passed to popular and revolutionary movements as a symbol of union of citizens (for this reason, the bundle is still present in the American and French national and French symbols and panoplies ). The ax present in the bundle symbolized the supreme power of the right of life and death , right of life or death, exercised only by the highest Roman magistrates, while the rods were a symbol of the ordinary sanctioning power, and materially used by the liters to inflict the penalty (non -capital) of the beating (harassment).

The reference to the bundles must also be read as an example of the charm that the myth of Rome exercised on fascism, which in fact attempted a restoration of the ancient Roman imperial glories and justified its expansionist policy in the light of a civilized mission of the Italian people, heir From Rome.

History of Fascism in Italy [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The economic crisis of the first post -war period, the growing unemployment and inflation, the demobilization of the army that returned to civil life millions of people, social conflicts and strikes in the factories of the North, the advance of the socialist party that has become the first party In the 1919 elections, the conditions for a serious weakening of state structures and for growing fear by the agricultural and industrial classes of a communist revolution in Italy on the model of the October revolution of 1917 created the period in 1919-1922. The period Between the two world wars it was characterized by strong social tensions, above all regarding the reintegration of the veterans of the First World War and in particular in the so -called red two -year period, which in Italy was characterized by a series of workers and peasant struggles that had their culmination and the their conclusion with the occupation of the factories, especially in the center-north of the country.

Benito Mussolini, former manager of the socialist party converted to the ideas of nationalism, managed to merged ideas, aspirations, frustrations of the veterans of the Great War, in a political movement that at the beginning had a clear socialist and revolutionary inspiration, and which immediately distinguished himself for the violence of the methods used against opponents. On March 23, 1919, about three hundred people gathered in Milan, especially socialists, trade unionists, anarchists, ex-Combattents and in particular Arditi, futurist intellectuals, who founded the Italian fighting bundles. ^[20] The intent was essentially aimed at enhancing the victory over Austria-Hungary and the claim of the rights of the ex-Combattents. The first fascism contrasted the veterans, sent to the front, to the industrialists who had enriched themselves with the war industry (defined as “sachetscans” ^[21] ). After the first national congress in 1919, they presented themselves to the political elections, but without obtaining any seat. In the subsequent elections of 1921 35 deputies were elected.

The violence during the period of the red two-year period perpetrated by Arditi, futurists and fascists in an offensive against unions and socialist inspiration parties caused numerous victims (about three thousand in the two-year period 1921-22, according to the Gaetano Salvemini estimates ^[22] ) in particular three hundred deaths between the fascists and fifteenth century among the socialists ^[23] in the substantial indifference of the police forces; Violence grew considerably in the years 1920-22 until the march on Rome in 1922. Always Salvemini argued that the riots and intentions of “doing as in Russia” by the maximalist socialists created a tension situation:

“Together with the” anti -Breshevism “of industrialists and landowners, there was that of shopkeepers and traders. Many of them had opposed the war, and in 1919 they had sympathized with the protests of the “Bolsheviks” against the managers of the war. But as soon as this “Bolshevism” began to impose Calmieri, plunder shops, break the showcases, they also became “anti -Bresheviichi”. ”

( Gaetano Salvemini, the origins of fascism in Italy [24] )

In the face of the incapacity of the fascist squadrismo and after the march on Rome, King Vittorio Emanuele III, preferring to avoid further bloodshed and probably meditating to be able to exploit and control the events, ignored the suggestions of Luigi Facta, president of the Council of Ministers In office, which asked him to sign the decree that proclaimed the state of siege, and decided instead of conferring the position of prime minister to Mussolini himself who thus led a coalition government made up of nationalists, liberal and popular. After the crime Matteotti, the regime assumed dictatorial connotations and the progressive identification of the party with the state was implemented; The government action favored industrial and agrarian classes with privatizations, liberalization of rents, dismantling of the unions. Thanks to the Acerbo law, a proportional electoral law with a majority of the majority prize, in the 1924 elections, the “fascist list” obtained extraordinary success, favored by huge fraud, violence, intimidation and reprisals against opponents.

The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti, who had denounced the fraud in parliament and asked for the cancellation of the elections, seemed to open the possibility of a government crisis as the belief that the principals were at the top of the executive spread; The episode showed that the “normalization” of the squadrismo announced by Mussolini had failed and that a legal opposition was not possible. The opposition parties reacted by abandoning the Parliament, hoping that the king would intervene but these, glimpsed a liberated monarchical sovereignty of the parliamentary counterweight, abstained from any initiative. Subsequently, Benito Mussolini’s speech of January 3, 1925, with whom the political responsibility of the crime Matteotti and other squadrist violence took place, in fact he proclaimed the dictatorship, suppressing any residual political and expression freedom and completing the absolute identification of the party Fascist national team with the state. He then followed the constitutionalization of the Grand Council of Fascism, in 1928. ^[25] While assuming some characteristics of the dictatorial regimes, fascism remained formally subordinate to the Savoy monarchy and faithful to the statute of the Kingdom. From 1925 until the mid-1930s fascism experienced only an underground and conspiracy opposition, led by anarchist, communist, socialist, demo-liberal, liberal, liberal socialists, many of whom paid their opposition to the regime with the life, exile, imprisonment or confinement.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Mussolini was waiting for events and initially declared Italy not belligerent. When, impressed by the easy and rapid victories of Germany and by the imminent collapse of France, he convinced himself to the victory of the axis, he announced in a speech in Rome on 10 June 1940 the entry into the war of Italy against France and the ‘England, ^[26] while giving order to the commands to maintain a defensive demeanor towards France. ^[27] The unpreparedness of the army and the inability of the commanders led to terrible defeats on all fronts, as in the Greece countryside in 1940 and the rapid loss of Italian Eastern Africa (1941). After a series of alternate events in late 1941 and 1942, the retreat of Russia, as well as the defeats in Libya and Tunisia (1943), caused a detachment between regime and people and the collapse of the military apparatuses that opened the doors to the invasion of the Sicily.

On July 25, 1943 on the initiative of some hierarchs (large, Bottai and Ciano) and with the support of the king, an agenda was presented to the Grand Council of Fascism with which the king was asked to resume power; This led to the arrest of Mussolini and suddenly the collapse of the regime, which dissolved between the jubilation of part of the Italian population, tired of the regime and the war. The war experience led to the fall of the government of Mussolini and his arrest and the appointment of General Badoglio as prime minister. With the invasion of the allies, the country was divided into two, occupied by the forces of the axis in the north and the allies in the South. This division allowed a temporary rebirth of fascism in the northern regions, where the Italian Social Republic was organized, recognized only by the countries of the axis. In the last twenty months of existence, fascism was involved in the civil war with the partisan formations that flanked the ally advance, as well as by the activated collaboration with the German policy of deportation, concentration and extermination of the Jews and other minorities. ^[28] At the end of April 1945 with the collapse of the front and the popular insurrection proclaimed for day 25 by the National Liberation Committee, the RSI was swept away. Its leadership elements, including Mussolini, were captured by the partisans and shot between 28 and 29 April 1945. With the death of Benito Mussolini the fascist experience ended.

History of fascism in Europe [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

When in Italy the fascist party came to power, in the rest of Europe (including France and the United Kingdom) and of the world he did not look at it with hearing, especially for his commitment as an embankment to Soviet Bolshevism and the subversion. Later, during the period of maximum consent of the regime, between 1925 and 1935, the improvement of Italy’s image in the world even brought different personalities of democratic thought (including Winston Churchill ^[29] e il mahatma gandhi) ^[30] To express sympathy for Mussolini and his regime. On the other hand, the fascist experience did not fail to provoke in Europe (and not only) fascist and pro -fascist movements of emulation, mostly ideological and image.

In the majority of these cases, in fact, the similarity with Italian fascism is only epidermal, linked to certain stylistic features (Roman greeting, dark color of the shirts, manifestations of mass etc.), to the cult of the head and violence, and to a ferocious anti -communism. In other cases, “twinnings” also occurred with real social, philosophical and politics doctrine. The most famous of the para-fascist movements was the NSDAP (Nationalsialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or the German National Socialist Party) by Adolf Hitler. In the rest of Europe, there were many fascist and pro -fascist movements that developed and, especially in Eastern Europe, they also climbed to power.

General characteristics [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Of union-body inspiration, militant, ^{[thirty first]} Socialist revisionist ^[32] e organicist, ^[33] Fascism reached power in 1922, after the great war with the march on Rome ^[34] and was formed in dictatorship in 1925. Fascism describes himself as a third alternative way to liberal capitalism and Marxist communism, based on an interclassist, corporate and totalitarian vision of the state, contrary to mass democracy. Radically and violently opposed to communism ^[35] In fact, fascism also refuses the principles of liberal democracy, while recognizing private property. It also appears as a traditionalist and spiritualist movement in some components, in others it shows a clear positivistic ancestry. ^[36] As well as Mussolini, the idealist philosopher Giovanni Gentile contributed to the elaboration of the fascist doctrine.

The fundamental theoretical texts of fascism are essentially two: the Manifesto of fascist intellectuals It is The doctrine of fascism . Gentile published on April 21, 1925 the Manifesto of fascist intellectuals to the intellectuals of all nations and, together with Mussolini, the writing The doctrine of fascism (1933). On May 1, 1925, the philosopher Benedetto Croce, initially in favor of fascism, published the manifesto of the anti -fascist intellectuals who had many other intellectuals among the signatories. The “fascism” voice of the Italian encyclopedia, written by Mussolini with Gioacchino Volpe, is also important. Fascism is also present the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche, through the theoretical and practical interpretation given by D’Annunzio, Georges Sorel and Marinetti’s Futurism. Nietzsche was the only philosopher that Mussolini really studied, from which in his youth he was enchanted and from whose doctrine of the superman he drew the meaning to be given to the fascist revolution. ^[37]

A fundamental contribution to the birth of fascism was given by the movement of squadrismo, i.e. the organization of paramilitary teams with which a systematic demolition of party offices (socialists, popular, communists) and newspapers, cooperatives, people of the people e The progressive employment – with legalitarian and illegal means – of key positions in municipal administrations. Furthermore, Giovanni Giolitti himself held a benevolent attitude towards the fascist movement aimed at using him in contrasting the left ^[38] as it was then intent on “constitutionalizing” it after reaching power. In doing so, it was believed to be exhausted its potential since, since the left opponents have failed, fascism would consequently have lost the supports, even financial, of those who feared the “red threat” ^[39] .

According to fascist ideology, a nation would be a community that requires strong management, collective identity and the will and ability to exercise violence to keep vital. ^{[40] [41]} For fascist ideology, culture is created by the national collective society, giving rise to a refusal of individualism; ^[40] Fascism also denies the autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups that are not considered part of the fascist nation and which refuse to be assimilated: this in all the historical realizations of fascism has been applied to ethnic or religious minorities, in particular the Jewish one . ^[42] Fascist ideology supports the idea of ​​a single party state ^[43] and forbids any opposition to the party itself. ^[44]

He was born mainly as a reaction to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the trade union struggles, workers and laborers, culminated in the red two -year period ^[45] , but at the same time in partial controversy with the liberal-democratic society exit from the experience of the First World War, ^{[forty six]} By combining ideological aspects of the far right (nationalism, militarism, expansionism) with those of the far left (primacy of work, social and generational revolution, revolutionary sorelian unionism), inserting original and non -original ideal elements, such as the aristocracy of workers and fighters , the concord between classes (organicism), ^[47] The primacy of man’s duties on the rights (mediated by the thought of Giuseppe Mazzini ^[48] ), and the hierarchical principle, absorbed by fascism by the experience of the voluntary assault departments of the Arditi Division of the Great War, which led him to the height of blind and ready to obedience. Here is the definition of fascism given, in 1921, by the one who was the creator and the head, Benito Mussolini:

«Fascism is a great mobilization of material and moral forces. What is proposed? We say it without false modesties: govern the nation. With which program? With the program necessary to ensure the moral and material greatness of the Italian people. Let’s talk frank: it doesn’t matter if our concrete program is not antithetical and is rather convergent with that of the socialists, for everything related to the technical, administrative and political reorganization of our country. We shake moral and traditional values ​​that socialism neglects or despises, but above all the fascist spirit shuns from everything that is arbitrary mortgage on the mysterious future. ”

( Benito Mussolini, 19 August 1921 – Diary of the will )

The journalist, politician and anti -fascist Piero Gobetti in 1922, traced the fascism to the tendency to self -acting typical of Italian culture, which in his opinion shuns from the comparison of ideas and instead prefers the discipline of the strong state:

«Fascism was something more; It was the autobiography of the nation. A nation that believes in the collaboration of the classes; which renounces for laziness for political struggle, it is a nation that is worth little [49] »

Among the countless subsequent interpretations of fascism, the following of Lelio Basso (1961) are reported:

«Fascism was a more complex phenomenon, in which they merged and met different components, each of which naturally had its roots in the previous history of Italy for which it is absurd to speak of fascism as a parenthesis that abruptly interrupts the course of our history, but it cannot be said that it is simply the logical landing point of this previous course. If fascism undoubtedly finds its origins in our Risorgimento past, if the components (…) have come to mature through time so that it can be said that they constitute uninterrupted strands, however, what determined their encounter in a new synthesis was the war World and the post -war crisis that, virulenting the pre -existing germs, made those that had then been the chronic diseases of our body in acute form. There are therefore in fascism elements of continuity and elements of novelty and rupture compared to the previous history: the elements of continuity are precisely those chronic diseases, those traditional imbalances that in part have their roots in the past centuries and in part are a brought of the Risorgimento process, that is, how Italy came to be a unitary and modern state, while the element of novelty is the virulentation that survived with the war and the post -war period which, putting in crisis the precarious previous balances, makes all the contradictions burst And the Italian situation precipitates to the rupture point, determining a new synthesis, a new balance, a new phenomenon that has been called fascism. [50] »

The recent one (2002) by the historian Emilio Gentile was instead the following:

“A modern anti -liberal revolutionary anti -liferxist revolutionary political phenomenon organized in a militia party with a totalitarian conception of politics and state with an activist and anti -lines ideology, with mythical, virilistic and anti -donistic foundation, sacredly as a secular religion, which affirms the absolute primacy of the Nation, understood as an ethnically homogeneous organic community, hierarchically organized in a corporate state, with a belliginal vocation to the politics of magnitude, power and conquest aimed at creating a new order and a new civilization. [51] »

Finally, it is important to underline how Fascism was always considered by its members a revolutionary movement ^{[ without source ]} , transgressive and rebellious (emblematic in this sense the motto “I don’t care”) in radical contrast with the liberalism of pre-fascist Italy. Despite having at the beginning protected the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie, Mussolini rejected any hypothesis of collusion with it. Emblematic of this was the so -called socialization program of the economy, attempted during the experience of the Italian Social Republic.

Internal policy and activity in Italy [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Over the two decades of government, called twenty years Fascism will also try to impose their anthropological vision to the Italian people through educational, cultural, eugenic policies and finally through racist and anti -Semitic legislation. In foreign policy, the regime will first promote a bland revision of the peace treaties of 1919 to simultaneously ensure greater strength for Italy and stability in Europe, but following the rise of Nazism in Germany in the mid -thirties, the regime was completed A spiral of such choices that in his last five years fascism ended up binding himself more and more to the Nazi regime, with which he will end up involved in the Second World War. Following the crisis of 1924-25, the fascist regime – until then to the government in a statutory way – will undergo an authoritarian turning point that will lead to the abolition of democratic freedoms and the realization of an authoritarian dictatorship. The relatively wide power of the Mussolinian regime, obtained through the detective suppression of the political-partic opposition, will allow fascism to impress radical changes to the country, its society, its culture and its economic structure.

The war experience will be disastrous for the regime and for the country. The defeats on the fronts of Africa and Russia with the consequent allied invasion of the Italian southern regions led to the fall of the Government of Mussolini and his arrest and the appointment of General Badoglio as prime minister: on a single day twenty years of regime were swept away And therefore to a division of the peninsula into two sections, occupied respectively by the forces of the axis in the North and allies in the South. This division allowed a temporary rebirth of fascism in the northern regions, where it organized a factual state (Italian social republic, RSI) recognized only by the countries of the axis. In the last twenty months of existence, fascism was involved in the civil war with the partisan formations that flanked the ally advance. At the end of April 1945 with the collapse of the front and the popular insurrection proclaimed for day 25 by the National Liberation Committee, the RSI was swept away. Its leadership elements – including Mussolini – captured by the partisans, were shot between 28 and 29 April 1945. With the death of Benito Mussolini, the fascist experience can be considered concluded.

The historian Federico Chabod ^[52] It highlights the fundamental causes of the ascent of fascism: the complex and conflictual political situation with the benevolent attitude of Giolitti towards the fascists and contrasts internal to the socialist party divided between reformism and maximalism as well as the contrasts between Catholics and socialists; the myth of the mutilated victory born at the end of the First World War; the inflation of the currency; the increase in taxes and prices; The widespread unemployment that obviously also concerned the former fighters; the problem of industrial conversion from war industry to peace industry; the economic ruin of the medium and small-bourgeois classes; The easy war enrichments; The great landowners and the industrialists who feared the advent of an Italian Bolshevism and saw the occupation of the lands and factories dismay, the strikes, the workers’ signs, and were therefore ready to support the fascist teams to protect their interests . The chabod wrote verbatim: ^[53] “All this determined a profound upheaval that affected all interests and offenders all feelings. Interest affected: small bourgeois that fall into the economic narrowness, large land owners who begin to fear the advent of Italian Bolshevism and see the occupation of the Terre, the strikes, the workers, the occupation of the factories. Offended feelings: the love of homeland denied by socialists and communists, the disappointment of peace treaties, the myth of the mutilated victory, the vain awaited of the masses of peace e of justice, disorder and anarchy every day growing, fear and nightmare of the social revolution. ”

In these circumstances fascism, which advocated the need for a strong and totalitarian state, the need for order and respect for property, the fight against Bolshevism, appeared as a concrete possibility of salvation to the bourgeoisie, both from an economic point of view both from the ideological one. “Agricultural and industrial, reacting to the proletarian movement, they supported fascism; if the one did not want to hear about lands to the peasants and the taxable of the work hand, the others did not accept worker control over the factories. Their financial support for Fascism is out of the question “. ^[54] The chabod also highlights the error made by Giolitti: “Giolitti’s fundamental error was of evaluation: he judged fascism based on the old formulas of the political and parliamentary struggle, still believed to be able to mild him, to use it, to entrust him with the part of helper, except to get rid of it later “. ^[55] The teams, which, according to Mussolini, came to collect 300,000 members, ^[56] They provided the nerbo of the subversive force with which, on October 28, 1922, fascism marched over Rome convincing the sovereign Vittorio Emanuele III to deliver the reins of the government.

With the Rome Congress of 9 November 1921, fascism was transformed from a party movement. Following the march on Rome of 28 October 1922, King Vittorio Emanuele III commissioned Benito Mussolini to form a new government. Mussolini presented himself to the rooms with a coalition government made up of liberal, Catholic exponents and some moderate exponents from the fascist party, and obtained trust on 30 October 1922. The political program had undergone a series of adjustments with the aim of Promote the hindrances with conservative and reactionary forces, which began to finance the movement almost immediately. ^[57]

With the arrival in power, Mussolini embarked on a reorganization policy of the state coffers, liberalizations and reductions in public spending. The school behind the impulse of the philosopher Giovanni Gentile was reformed. On the other hand, he followed a series of claims of combatting associations, and fascist unions, guaranteeing pensions and allowances for veterans and mutilated and making the eight -hour working day for the workers mandatory. In foreign policy, Italy accepted the pacts signed in Locarno with Yugoslavia, but had the protection of Italian minorities in Dalmatia and the autonomy of Rijeka (which in 1924 was joined to Italy). Finally, there was also the revision – in favor of Italy – of the borders of the colonies (the border of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and extended the Fezzan to some strategic oases, and Somalia was annexed to the overseas). ^[58]

However, the presence of an outrageist wing in the PNF, represented by extremist elements such as Italo Balbo and Roberto Farinacci, prevented the “normalization” of the action teams, which continued to rage in the country often outside any control. ^{[ without source ]} Numerous anti -fascists, the most important of which, Giacomo Matteotti, who accused Mussolini of having won thanks to electoral fraud, was assassinated on 10 June 1924 during his kidnapping by a band of squadristi headed by Amerigo in Parliament, Dumini.

The so -called “Matteotti crisis” that followed the Mussolini government in front of a crossroads: continue to govern in a legalitarian way, at least respecting the statute in form, or imprint an authoritarian turning point. Mussolini, pressed by ras of squadrismo, opted for the second choice. Fascism therefore became dictatorship. ^[59] The subsequent passages with which the Mussolini government turns into dictatorship are as follows (to learn more, see also very fascist laws):

• January 3, 1925 – Speech of the “Ceka” (the so -called “means of a state of state” of January 3. ^[60] ) Mussolini rejects the accusation of being the principal of the murder of Matteotti but claims the “historical and moral political responsibility” of the events and the climate of violence of those months ^{[sixty one]} . It announces extraordinary measures against the secession of the Aventine and threatens to use the militia against the aggressions of the opposition to members of the bundles and military. The following day the interior minister Federzoni also makes telegrams to all the prefects to proceed with the “closure of all the circles and suspicions from a political point of view”, “the dissolution of all the” subversive “organizations,”, “Supervision of communists and” anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -anti
• 2 October 1925 – Palace of Palazzo Vidoni (perfected with the Rocco law of 3 April 1926) which reduces the unions to two, one for workers and the other for the mastery (both fascists), abolishes the right of strike (for the workers) and serrata (for the master) and traces the disputes between workers and employers to the arbitration of the state and the corporations.
• December 24, 1925 – All powers are entrusted to Mussolini: the head of the government is declared no longer responsible in front of Parliament, but only against the sovereign.
• October 31, 1926 – Mussolini undergoes an attack by Anteo Zamboni following which the freedom of the press for anti -fascism, the parties and the anti -fascist organizations and declared the deputies of the secession of the Aventine are abolished.

Economic policy [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Repression and relations with Cosa Nostra [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

During fascism, the fight against the mafia was entrusted to Cesare Mori, remembered as the “iron prefect”, sent to the island in May 1924, where he led a harsh repression of the criminal activities of Cosa Nostra in Sicily. In this period the boss Vito Cascio Ferro was arrested. After some striking arrests of Capimafia, the top of Cosa Nostra felt no more safe and chose two ways to save themselves: a part emigrated to the USA, entering the Cosa Nostra US, while another remained aside. The “iron prefect” also involved prominent PNF personalities such as Alfredo Cucco, who was expelled from the party. In 1928 Mori was appointed Senator and in 1929 placed at rest.

The mafia will give signs of life before the allied landing of July 1943. In 1932, in the center of Canicattì, three murders took place, others in Partinico associated fires, damage in mafia style; And criminal events of which the press does not speak, to which the regime responds with “some sentence to shooting and with a new wave of sending to confinement”. ^[62] Some mafia were members of the PNF, aware and with the favor of Benito Mussolini. Prince Lanza of Scalea was one of the candidates on the PNF lists for the administrative of Palermo while in Gangi the Baron Antonio Li Destri, ^[63] Pure candidate of the PNF, he was the protector of bandits and criminals.

Repression and relations with the Camorra [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

His hand stops against crime at the beginning had served fascism to establish itself. Hundreds of criminals, small and large, were sent to the confinement. The goal was twofold: to arrest the uncomfortable Camorristi, to the pacts with the police, and give public opinion demonstration of a firm hand against crime, binding the softest offenders even more to the regime ^[60] .

Mussolini underestimated the Camorra phenomenon, so much so that he granted the grace to many of the Camorras sentenced to Viterbo. Many offenders became squadristi entering the fascist teams and had silence in exchange for their past ^{[sixty four]} .
Another violent Guappo, Marco Buonocuore, shot an anti -fascist worker and obtained good public positions. The enrollment in the fascist party was however facilitated, without taking into account the criminal record ^[60] .

The fascist doctrine [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Although fascism was born as a philosophically purely idealist political movement, ^[65] anti-ideological ^[66] and pragmatic, ^{[sixty seven]} Historically it has been extrinted in a series of positions, from time to time supported by a large and bombastic propaganda, apparently contradictory – if not inconsistent – among them. For this reason, in analyzing the fascism phenomenon it is necessary to split the “ideal” fascism from the “real” one exactly as it is done for Marxism, considering that the modus operandi of historical fascism was dictated by circumstances as much as by ideology and philosophy , and that in different circumstances the same ideology has been changed and bent by the original philosophy of the movement. ^[68]

In the essay The doctrine of fascism Published in 1932 a systematic exposure of fascist thought was made. In the doctrine of fascism the movement is perceived as a nationalist, whose final goal is “a larger Italy”. ^[69] According to fascist thinkers and Mussolini himself, this goal is part of a vision of conflicting history, in which more or less nationally companies meet, they contribute to each other and – if necessary – clash. And – by Darwinian necessity – only the compact nations survive within them survive, from which the need to find a Hegelian synthesis of the class struggle and the needs of the state descends, through the obligation for each citizen (lender of the work o capitalist) to compete for a national concord in the name of production (industrial, agricultural, war, etc., source of wealth for the entire national community and power for the state).

At the origin of the movement there is the Mussolinian idea of ​​birth, in the trenches of the Great War and in the factories of war production, of a new aristocracy of the fighters ( trincerocracy ) and of the workers who realize, in fact, “the synthesis of the class-class antithesis”.

«You obscure dalmine workers, you opened the horizon. It is the work that speaks in you, not the idiotic dogma or the intolerant, even if red church, is the work that has consecrated its right to be no longer effort, misery or despair in the trenches, because it must become joy, pride, creation , conquest of free men in the free and great homeland beyond the borders ”

( Benito Mussolini, Dalmine speech , March 20, 1919, in “All speeches – year 1919” )

Concordia internal to the country is supported with organicist arguments and with the metaphysical affirmation that the nation is more than the sum of the individuals who live in it, but “an organism comprising the indefinite series of the generations of which the individuals are transened elements”. For which, the living are engaged by an obligation of gratitude towards the generations that preceded them and by an obligation to leave a better country to the generations that will follow. Fundamental cornerstone of fascist philosophy is the absolute pre -eminence of the state and through this of the fascist party (which was considered at the service), in every aspect of political and social life. In this sense, fascism stands as a Neohegelian political movement advocating the ethical state. Organicism and ethical state have the proclamation of totalitarianism as a logical conclusion, in the IV Congress of the PNF (1925) by voice of Mussolini himself. The totalitarian state Avoca to itself all prerogatives and rights and pervades in a “totalitarian” way, in fact, the existences of its citizens. The fascist conception of man provides for the denial of the so -called Homo Oeconomicus, a vision that fascist ideologists support common liberalism and Marxism, to propose a different vision.

Fascism is philosophically debtor of two opposite and different currents of nineteenth -century thought: on the one hand there is a current that could be defined as “leftist”, who demanded inspired by characters such as Sorel, Proudhon, Corridoni and Futurists, who advocated the Revolution, the unionism fighting, the rise of violence as an irrational but decisive solution to the problems and the aportias of liberal logic and democracy. ^[70]

On the other hand, it reappears in currents of ultra -care thoughts, which date back to the nineteenth century, in general characterized by the criticism against materialism and the idea of ​​progress of the bourgeois capitalist societies, considered destructive of the deepest values ​​of European civilization. These schools of thought tend to recall a romantic idea, of a mythical pre -modern, harmonious and orderly society, in which the different classes of society, each in its area, collaborate for the common good ^[71] . From this he promises the criticism of liberal democracy and the mass society “which dismisses man” (the number against quality), until they reach thinkers who at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century considered the function exhausted of Western civilization (in particular Oswald Spengler, author of the famous essay The sunset of the West ). Finally, no less important, especially in Mussolini, is the influence of Nietzsche’s thought, which – although supremely impolitic – continuously permeates the Modus thinking of the head of fascism. ^[72]

The fundamental points [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Although fascism proclaimed itself anti-ideological, an ideology of fascism was developed in the 1920s and subsequently drawn up in an article written by Giovanni Gentile ^{[seventy three]} During his assignment as Minister of Education and then signed by Mussolini, who, however, was only partially applied. In particular, it was never rigidly codified, although the “vulgarizations” and the “catechisms” abounded throughout the twenty years, which had more than other propaganda function towards the minute people. In practice, however, in the manager and intellectual elite of the regime he struggled harshly on the various addresses to be given to Italian politics, and fascism often oscillated between very different and contradictory positions. ^[74]

Among the ideological aspects of fascism that must be mentioned, there are the following:

• The cult of Rome – Fascism proposes itself as an ideal renewal of the glories of ancient Rome, and sees in it a sort of myth of foundation of the Italian nation;
• The exaltation of the autarchy in economics and nationalism, even linguistic: in fact, during the fascist period there was a policy of forced Italianization, and the linguistic minorities were persecuted;
• The cult of youth – Fascism considered itself primarily a generational revolution. Mussolini was the youngest prime minister of united Italy and through futurism fascism absorbed the myth of youth;
• The cult of violence – born from the daring and futurists and by the revolutionary unionism of Sorel, fascism makes his and enhances the cult of violence;
• The “principle of the garment” – this also mediated by the Arditi, provides for a hierarchical and pyramidal conception of the world. The obedience, also blind, irrational and total, is therefore enhanced; ^[75]
• Corporatism, understood as an union-organicist and interclassist overcoming of socialism and liberalism.

In particular, the latter ascertained became increasingly important in fascism starting from the great crisis of 1929, so much so that it can be considered more a genetic aspect of fascism than simply ideological.

The dictatorship [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Basically fascism refuses democracy; It does not consider itself a temporary need, but a political system in its own effect in all respects: the “third way” as opposed to the reactionary right as to the Marxist left.

«Nobody will want to gabellers for” revolutionary “the complex of social phenomena that take place before our eyes. It is not a revolution that is implemented, but it is the race to the abyss, to chaos, to complete social dissolution. I am reactionary and revolutionary, depending on the circumstances. I would do better to say – if you allow me this chemical term – that I am a reagent. If the wagon rushes, I think I do well if I try to stop it; If the people run towards an abyss, I am not reactionary if I stop it, even with violence. But I am certainly revolutionary when I go against any overcomed conservative stiffness or against any libertarian abuse. The worst reactionary at this moment are, for fascism and history, those who say revolutionary, while the fascists, cretinously accused of “reactionaries”, are actually those who will avoid Italy the terrible phase of an authentic reaction. Anyone in Italy has the courage to face the degenerations of the subversion and not, the danger of being branded as a reactionary runs; But since these degenerations exist and since the courage to face them we have shown it by also sowing the squares of Italy with our deaths, we have the unscrupulous ease of smiling if they call us reactionaries. I am not afraid of words. If tomorrow it was necessary, I would proclaim the prince of reactionaries. For me, all these right -wing, left, conservative, aristocracy or democracy terminologies are vacant school terminologies. They are used to distinguish us sometimes or to confuse us, often ”

( Benito Mussolini, from the speech held in the Senate on 27 November 1922 [76] )

Fascism argues that the “self -proclaims” democracies are actually actually plutocratic regimes, a sort of Masonic dictatorships based on the manipulation of popular will.

«Fascism is a method, not an end; an autocracy on the path of democracy ”

( Benito Mussolini, by the interview granted to the invitation of the Sunday Pictorial in London on 12 November 1926 [77] )

This consideration comes from an aspect of the origin of fascism, which is summarized in the famous speech by Benito Mussolini in the phrase:

“We allow ourselves to be aristocratic and democratic, conservative and progressive, reactionary and revolutionaries, legalists and illegalists, depending on the circumstances of time, place and environment.”

According to its founder, fascism should have represented a form of government above the divergent opinions of the parties.

In its final phase, fascism then refused the elections on the model of the liberal democratic regimes of the time (defining them Paper ludi ) devising the organic democracy , which had a partial experimentation then in Francoist Spain and Portugal.

Thus assume both the laws that have proceeded to eliminate (or “fascisting”) the liberal freedoms such as those of association, press, expression etc., and the so -called “very fascist” laws, that is:

• Law 24 December 1925: executive power goes completely into the hands of Mussolini who no longer has to respond to Parliament but remains responsible only towards the king;
• Law 31 January 1926: the right to issue legal rules is given to executive power;
• Law of 5 November 1926: the “special court” is created (and, among other things, the death penalty restored);
• Law of 9 December 1928: the Grand Council of Fascism becomes, as a hierarchical summit of the party, organ of the state, superimposed on the powers and institutions designated by the Statute;
• Consolidated text of the public security laws of 6 May 1926: the police confinement is restored, addressed in particular to political opponents.

These laws – otherwise typical of any authoritarianism – considered in the organic context of the development of fascism, allow to further deepen the totalitarian characters of fascism, that is:

• An official ideology marked by an absolutist philosophy that provides for the identification of the individual with the state and subordination of the individual to the state in all aspects of life (and for this reason repression is legitimized towards any opposition);
• A political system aimed at exploiting and developing the characters of the mass society, dominated by a single party whose leaders identify with the maximum charges of the legislative and executive;
• The widespread organization of the police forces for the purpose of controlling the private life of citizens and of repression of dissent in all its form (and, resulting from this, a wide discretion of these forces in stopping, imprisoning, interrogating any citizen from them Considered suspicion of political deviance as well as clear collusion between the police and judiciary in the legal and penitentiary treatment of exponents, true or alleged such, of the opposition).

Another totalitarian aspect of the regime is found in the “totalitarian” will to force every citizen in the context of a collective body (the so -called “collective harmonic”); The individual is thus inserted forcedly, regardless of his will, within party structures which deal with “integrating” him and framing him “from the cradle to the tomb” in educational, paramilitary, political, cultural, union, corporate formations and welfare.

Alongside the party organizations, fascism also intended to dominate the means of mass communication, having intuited Mussolini that the capillary control of the press, radio and cinema was “the strongest weapon” to facilitate the fascist transmutation of Italian society; There was therefore a rigorous control of the circulation of information both through the state monopoly of the mass media (newspapers, news and radio), and through the control and use of preventive censorship on other mass media (theater, Cinema, light music, comics) culminating in 1939 with the extension of the preventive censorship visa also for musical works.

Further totalitarian character of the regime was the constant use of violence and repression – as well as the constant reference to hatred, contempt and denigration – towards parties and anti -fascist or anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -anti -foam movements (communists, neutralists, bolsheviks, pacifists, democrats) ^[78] , aimed at imposing the fascist idea on those of his enemies (from the beginning), as well as (since 1938) to the Jews, through the approval of the racial segregation measures. In light of these elements, fascism intended as a “totalitarian” form of state is characterized by the presence of a single party that pervades society in all its aspects, through an incisive and targeted propaganda aimed at imposing the will of the single party a each individual, and through the use of the police and voluntary militia for national security ^[79] to discourage any act contrary to the regime, as well as with the identification of an “enemy” to be noticed to the people (communists, anti -fascist, democratic, pacifist parties, and from 1938 also Jews).

The fascist era [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The will of fascism to affect history also manifested itself with the establishment of the so -called he was fascist , that is, a particular numbering of the years that referred to the day of the march on Rome. The first year of the fascist era was considered from 29 October 1922 to 28 October 1923. The calendar in use remained the Gregorian one, while only the years were indicated in a different way. Generally, a double numbering was adopted: in Arabic figures the year according to the Christian era and in Roman numerals that according to the fascist era.

The indication of the introduction of the fascist era results from a circular of 25 December 1926 issued by Benito Mussolini as head of the government. ^[80] However, the origin is traced back to a request submitted on November 26, 1926 by Pietro Fedele, Minister of Education. ^[81]

The year was considered starting from October 29 of each year (day following the march on Rome) ^{[82] [83]} to end on October 28 of the following year.

The dating system was interrupted from 26 July 1943 with the fall of the Mussolini government; He was taken up by the Italian Social Republic between 15 September 1943 and 28 April 1945. ^[84]

Practical implementation [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Few firm points of fascist ideology were always respected, changing contingent politics from time to time, through a pragmatic vision when not cynical: among them, the principle of “a larger Italy”; the principle of the “primacy of the Duce”; The principle of “duties of man”. All the rest, from economic policy (from time to time liberalist in his first period, statist after the crisis of 1929, finally built -in socializing ^[85] During the republican period) to the foreign one (with the oscillating alliances, the anti -communism accompanied by the recognition of the USSR), to the military one (militarism for the masses, accompanied by a progressive reduction of expenses for the armed forces ^{[eighty six]} ), it was determined from time to time by the Mussolinian directives.

Fascism in fact lived above all of Mussolini’s will and merely followed some principles of general indicated by him from time to time. In addition, this led to feeding the cult of personality, using mass media to transmit an ideal of strong, decisive and resolute man: a phenomenon that took the name of “Mussolinism”.

«Mussolinism is […] a much more serious result of fascism itself because it has confirmed the courtesan dress in the people, the scarce sense of their responsibility, the habit of waiting from the Duce, from the tamer, from the deus ex machina one’s own salvation.”

( Piero Gobetti, “The liberal revolution” )

The fascist culture [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The manifesto of fascist intellectuals, published on March 30, 1925 was the first ideological document of the part of Italian culture that adhered to the fascist regime and the attempt to indicate the political-cultural bases of fascist ideology. Italian literature during fascism was also influenced by the regime.

The National Institute of Fascist Culture (EMP) was founded in December 1925 and in charge of the spread and development of fascist ideals and Italian culture. He was direct dependencies of the party secretary and was subjected to Mussolini’s high supervision.

Also in 1925, the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia was born by Giovanni Treccani and Calogero Tumminelli, with scientific director the philosopher Giovanni Gentile. His main works were the Italian encyclopedia from Gentile and in 1940 the politics of politics, directed by the philosopher of the language Antonino Pagliaro, since 1929. In 1926 the royal academy of Italy was founded with the task of “promoting and coordinating the Italian intellectual movement in the field of sciences, letters and arts”. He kicked off in 1929. After the Manifesto of fascist intellectuals of ’25, Mussolini and Gentile signed the voice fascism of the Italian Encyclopedia, called a “pragmatist hundred” by Federzoni. ^{[eighty seven]}

The Sandro Italico Mussolini fascist school of fascist mystical, founded in 1930 in Milan by Niccolò Giani and Arnaldo Mussolini, proposed in particular to be the political training center of the future leaders of fascism. The key principles on which teaching was based were voluntarist activism, the faith in Italy from which it was considered derive from Benito Mussolini and in fascism, anti-rationalism, a certain combination of religion and politics, the controversy with liberal-democracy and socialism, the cult of “Romanity”.

The liters of the Sport , from the Culture and art he was born in Work They were cultural, artistic and sporting events intended for the best guf university students, held in Italy between 1932 and 1940 ^[88] . They were organized by the National Secretariat of the Fascist National Party.

Racism and anti -Semitism [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

At the end of the 1930s, fascism began to elaborate a series of racist and anti -Semitic theories, partly in imitation of what was happening in parallel in Germany.
In autumn 1938, within the framework of a great racist action already some time before, the Mussolini government changed the “anti -Jewish legislation on assets and work”, that is, the spoliation of the movable and immovable property of the Jews residing in Italy. ^[89] Following a ferocious print campaign (partly secretly paid by German agents commissioned by Goebbels) ^[90] In subsequent stages of the discriminatory laws against the Jews and the non -Indo -European populations of the colonies ^[91] . In the latter he aimed at the realization of a sort of separate development (Apartheid) of the genre practiced in that period already in some British colonies and in the States of the South of the United States. Later the discriminatory measures ^[92] They also extended to Italian and Libyan citizens of Israelite religion, with a progressive removal of the majority of them from Italian public life as well as with internment in various fascist concentration camps.

A was also promulgated Manifesto of the breed , in the drafting of which in addition to names of the Academy of Italy there was also the hand of Mussolini. In 1938 Benito Mussolini exposed his thoughts about the racial issue in this way:

«This racist principle introduced for the first time in the history of the Italian people is of an incalculable importance, because here too we were faced with a complex of inferiority. Here too we had convinced ourselves that we were not a people, but a mixture of races so there was reason to say, in the United States: “There are two breeds in Italy: that of the Po Valley, and the southern one.” These discrimination were made in the certificates, in the certificates, etc. We must mind that we are not Camiti, that we are not semiti, that we are not Mongols. And then, if we are none of these breeds, we are evidently Ariani and we came from the Alps, from the North. So we are Mediterranean Aryans, pure. (…). ”

( Benito Mussolini, “All speeches – year 1938” )

Mussolini, regarding the onset of a Jewish question for fascism, then continued:

«The general problem arises in these lines: that the Jew is the most racial people in the universe. It is wonderful how they keep pure over the centuries, since religion coincides with the race and race with religion (…) there is no doubt that world Judaism was against fascism; There is no doubt that during the sanctions all the maneuvers were traced by the Jews; There is no doubt that in 1924 the anti -fascist posters were dotted with names of Jews (…) and to all those who have a sweet heart – too sweet – and they are moved it is necessary to ask: “Gentlemen, what would have been the fate of 70,000 Christians in a tribe of 44 million Jews? ”

( Benito Mussolini, “All speeches – year 1938” )

Fascist racism took various forms, in an attempt to stand out from the Nazi one ^[93] , and the belief of the biological racism be that of spiritual racism , ^{[ninety four]} Instead, generally absent in Nazi racisms and in those of other countries. An important contribution to fascist anti -Semitism also came from certain Catholic environments, although the Vatican has never approved, nor officially supported anti -Semitic measures. No document would instead prove official and direct pressures by the German side ^[95] during the genesis of racial measures.

Unlike the other racisms of his time, the fascist one is only tangent to the eugenic policies conducted by the regime, which were basically racist in Nazi Germany and instead absent in colonial and post-wick racisms respectively British and US. In fact, although the measures for the defense of the breed they foresee the apartheid of the Jews and non-Index Europeans compared to Italians Ariani , all commissions and eugenic initiatives (gymnastics, colonies for childhood, sanitors, maternity and childhood work etc.) proposed and imposed by the regime continued to apply also to the subjects of Libyan citizenship and those of the AOI, at least up to 1942. ^[96]

The relationship with Nazism [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

National Socialism presents itself, especially from the ideological point of view, as a particular form of “fascist socialism”. In fact, however, the “socialist” aspect of the German regime was basically a propaganda stunt. The most widespread interpretation is that Nazism was also a form of fascism; The German regime was openly inspired by Mussolini and shared with Italian fascism economic, political and social approach, as well as aggressive foreign policy and the ideological features characteristic of fascism that has taken place.

This vision is rejected by some historians who see two distinct phenomena in the Italian and German dictatorships. For example Stanis Ruinas maintains that Nazism was born as a twin ideology to Italian fascism, and it remains only until 29-30 June 1934, when with the “night of the long knives” the current “right” headed by Hitler eliminates the current “left” head to Ernst Röhm. From that moment Nazism implicitly embraces capitalism and prefigures itself as a purely right ideology, abandoning any revolutionary hypothesis and therefore remaining “socialist” only in the name.

According to Ruinas, from that moment the comparison between fascism and Nazism is therefore only fictitious and artificially maintained by Nazism for propaganda reasons for public image. This analysis is based on the observation that in Italian fascism the “left” component continued to exist, although rather marginalized for many years, and indeed in the RSI would have returned majority. ^[97]

According to other analyzes, however, the transition from the so-called “fascism-moving” (with sometimes socialist slogans) to “fascism-regime” (with more clearly conservative traits) was a similar process, although less bloody and drastic, to what happened later In Germany in more convulsive form during the night of the long knives. The sociological explanation of this “fracture” in both fascisms is due to the particular role (and characterizing of fascism compared to generic right dictatorships) which has the mobilization of the middle classes, ruined by the economic crisis in Germany or frustrated by the end of the war and from the outbreak of social struggles in Italy; The mobilization of these social groups is made possible especially by the revolutionary and movementist phraseology proper to both squadrism and of the knows, but subsequently becomes an obstacle to the consolidation of the dictatorship and therefore requires the elimination or marginalization of that wing at a later time . With the RSI, the need to mobilize large masses again in the civil war pushed Mussolini to recover elements of the squadrismo of the origins that had been in the shade in previous years.

The idea of empire (Neoghyelinism) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The continuous return to an idea of ​​Romanity brought as a logical consequence the affirmation of neo-tricken philosophical theories, that is, advocate the reconstitution of a sacred Roman empire or a Roman empire that would be reunited to some extent with a mystical ancestral tradition, e In the end he proposed the overcoming of fascism in a form of new spiritual and supernational imperialism, of an essentially anti -Christian character.

Julius Evola, a perennialist philosopher and close to the Roman neopaganism of certain neo -fascist environments of the second post -war period, which however remained somewhat isolated in the context of the cultural and philosophical debate of the fascist regime, dominated by nationalist logic and by the nationalist and by nationalist and by strong Catholic currents that little space intended to leave to the so -called imperialism pay advocated by the philosopher.
This idea later found bank and new topics in some National Socialist environments and spread above all in the post -war period among the neo -fascist movements, esoteric and traditionalist neonazians, remaining mostly out of the majority far right that will be represented by the Italian social movement.

According to Julius Evola’s theory, fascism would be configured as one of the many historical manifestations of the wider concept of tradition, that is, a society based on hierarchy values, militarism and mysticism. In this perspective, the most disparate historical experiences would become forms of fascism: from Sparta and Rome to the Celtic, Nordic and Germanic societies, to the Holy Roman Empire ^[98] .

Il ruralism [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The rural man was exalted as the ideal form of masculinity by the fascist government. It is traditional, and it is anti-modern. Ardengo Soffici describes this ideal obvious masculinity in the rural areas of Italy:

«[C] On their sobriety, with the strength of their naked arms, tanned by the sun, and the ferocious resistance to work and penalty, they represented […] a solemn lesson of virility [99] »

In antithesis to the bourgeoisie, this figure was iconic in the suggestion that the fascist government indicates that his way of being, when in the society of the early twentieth century the cult of masculinity began to come to come to come. It is important to remember that fascist ruralism explicitly requires the restoration of a traditional, pre-modern and rigidly hierarchical moral order. In other words, the fascist regime has used the figure of ruralism as a means through which he attempted to transform modernism into traditionalism. In this regard, the peasant youth who tried to leave the village and move to the city was painted as made of individuals putting the fate of the nation at risk through their behavior:

«The various stages of the disease process and death are precisely demonstrated, and bear a name that summarizes them all: urbanism and metropolitanism, as the author explains …. the metropolis grows, attracting people from the countryside, which, however, not As soon as they are urbanized, they become – like the pre -existing population – sterile. The fields return to desert, but when abandoned and burnt regions spread, the metropolis is captured in the throat: neither its activity, nor its industries, nor its stone and reinforced concrete oceans can restore the balance that is now irremediably broken: it is a catastrophe [100] »

Modernism, a phenomenon that includes the transfer of young people from villages to cities, is seen in negative light by the fascist government, because it creates an Italian masculinity sub-tipo which is more skilled in living within a metropolitan area, assuming less responsibility towards the community. In other words, Italian youth is no longer active in cultivating agricultural land, but, instead, it is disinterested in the community and therefore of itself, making the whole Italian country less fertile. Metaphorically, this means that they stop cultivating their hegemonic masculinity globally, and physically, they stop contributing to the state, because those who move in the city usually have fewer children and marry with a lower frequency. In addition, the sure environment of the metropolis prevents the “new Italian” from enjoying his contact with nature, and prevented him from contemplating the moral challenges deeply, none of which is proof, as a result of the artificial, “Materialist” metropolitan atmosphere that is without dangers and adversity.

Fascism in the RSI [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The profile of the personalities of fascism re -founded in the Republican Fascist Party at the Congress of Verona distinguished itself from that of the twenty years for the protagonism of numerous characters of the squadristi environments, gradually marginalized by Mussolini after the march on Rome. The old squadristi, who for long years had often been relegated to second -storey positions, returned to the limelight, taking the initiative since the announcement of the armistice and before the proclamation of the Italian Social Republic on September 27, 1943.

Another characteristic of republican fascism was the importance assumed by the voluntary components, which were coaguled from before the foundation of the Republic and then constituted a significant trait ^[101] , in their military and civil formations. This effort is linked to the recovery of the “movementist” tradition of first fascism. Nonetheless, the RSI had to resort to numerous tenders in order to mobilize a few hundred thousand Italians. Only with the reiteration of the calls – which included the threat of passing the Renitents for weapons – was able to enlist a total number calculated by seven -hundred thousand men ^[102] , of which, always according to the same fascist sources, a number oscillating around the two hundred thousand volunteers ^[103] , mostly young (even minors). The majority of the population maintained an attitude of indifference and coldness (the so -called “gray area” ^[104] ) or hostility (the “unarmed resistance” in the factories with hundreds of thousands of strikers and continuous sabotage of the war effort, in the countryside, in the German internment fields (with the refusal of the Italians internects to join the armed forces of the RSI ^[105] ) towards reborn fascism, at the same time allowing the development and sustenance of the anti -fascist armed struggle.

During the 600 days of duration of the Social Republic, starting from the Verona Charter, the debates internal to Fascism were essentially oriented on:

• criticism of the past regime, to its compromises with the monarchy, the church and the establishment industrial ^[106] , considered obstacles that had prevented the complete realization of the “fascist revolution”;
• The socialization of companies, which became both a propaganda “return to the origins” of fascism as a revancist way to hit the high-bourgeois social classes, considered by the defeatist, anti-fascist squadrosian fascism if not in the open-league with the enemy;
• the new institutional guise to be given to the State, whether to accept the introduction of democratic elements in the constitution of the state and whether to allow a pluripartytic or single -leveling regime; ^[107]
• the new shape to be given to the armed forces, entirely voluntary or maintaining continuity with the old monarchical army of conscripts, as well as on their apoliticality or on the need to give them a political role; ^[108]
• The problem of the “after” so much in perspective of a victory of the axis (still considered possible thanks to the “secret weapons” whose Reich was thought of) and when the defeat became certain.

Among the psychological and political components that mossed the RSI and republican fascism, some can be highlighted as they emerge from the memorials:

• the desire to preserve the continuity of the fascist regime and its war placement alongside Germany;
• The desire for revenge against those elements deemed to be ridiculous for old fascism: “The enemies of within and outside” who had prevented the completion of the “revolution”, had sabotaged the war effort making intelligence with the enemy, and had betrayed Mussolini, identified with Freemasonry, the Jews, the plutocracy, the monarchy, etc.;
• The I want to be dissolved , dictated by the desire to seek “the beautiful death” and conclude with it a political and human experience sentenced to defeat. ^[109]
• The desire to make a service to the Italian nation in its moment considered darker (redeeming the honor, according to the fascists compromised by the armistice of 8 September). On the part of some, a justification for the RSI was sought in an attempt – evidently failed, given the results – to “soften” the Germanic occupation ^[110] and to keep the state apparatus standing to allow the survival of the people during the war. ^[111]

Conceptual meaning [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In the Italian historiographic field, the term “fascism” is mainly used in reference to the government regime and ideology promoted and implemented by Benito Mussolini between 23 March 1919 and 28 April 1945. This position is also supported by numerous training historians non-award-American.

Some historians consider the use of the “fascist” term in reference to National Socialist Germany and authoritarian regimes formed in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, considered derivations of the Nazi case rather than the fascist one (if we except for the Portugal of António de Oliveira Salazar, the Greece of Ioannis Metaxas and the so -called Austro -fascism, which however present more than anything else superficial similarities with Italian fascism) or cases in themselves (as for Spain of Francisco Franco, whose movement and regime are defined as franchism to distinguish them from fascism and Nazism).

In this sense, the term “Nazi -fascism” is also considered incorrect by those who support the specificity of Italian fascism, because it would not allow us to grasp the differences that have had between the two movements. These scholars contest the use of the same term in reference to post-war authoritarian regimes, use which, moreover, is carried out inconsistently and, sometimes, with a function of mere insult (the term “fascist” is used, in this improper meaning, With the astoriographic meaning of “inhuman, cruel, oppressive”): in this way “fascist” has been used just to indicate regimens as a Augustus Pinochet in Chile (without a real ideological basis), as well as the opposite ideological signal regimes ( such as the Chinese and Russian communist one) or American democracy.

The Marxist and Socialist point of view [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

On the left, the term “fascist” is sometimes used to indicate any right -wing authoritarian regime, especially those allied of the axis during the Second World War, such as the Japanese militarist regime or the Spanish franchism, or more often their followers. For a few years, Stalin and the International III defined the Social Democrats as “Socialfascist” (an abandoned position in 1935).

From the point of view of many Marxist interpretative schools, however, the actual fascism is that of Italy and Germany: a “Reactional Reactional Regime” according to the definition of Palmiro Togliatti, also accepted by international Trotskism and somehow nearby to the gramscian definition of “passive revolution”. In this sense, no significant distinctions are made between the Hitlerian regime and that of Mussolini, which are instead made compared to dictatorships without a mass mobilization base (such as the Portuguese one of Salazar or the Chilean of Pinochet). The Spanish case is ambiguous, because even if there was a strong fascist movement on the franchist side, Franco was not part of it and indeed he worked so that they came “reabsorbed” in a generic “national movement” the forces that were most openly inspired by Hitler or Mussolini (like the Spanish phalanx).

In general, the term is still used in the Marxist or post-Marxist cultural area as a derogatory epithet towards the right and in general of political opponents. A recent case was that of the Venezuelan president Chávez, who described the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar as “a fascist”. ^[112]

Within the vast historical criticism of fascism, it is possible to identify various interpretations, including:

• that of Mussolini (written with Gioacchino Volpe), who in the Italian encyclopedia under the relative item wrote “Fascism was and is action” ;
• that liberal by Benedetto Croce, which considers fascism as a “parenthesis” of Italian history, a “moral disease” following the Great War;
• that democratic-radical ^[113] by Gaetano Salvemini and the action party, which considers fascism as a logical, inevitable product of the ancient evils of Italy;
• that of Marxist tradition , which considers fascism as a product of the capitalist society and the reaction of the large bourgeoisie against the proletariat through the mobilization of small-bourgeois and sub-ruling masses (the “Reactional mass regime” described by the Italian communists in clandestinity);
• That of Renzo De Felice and his school, who intends to review the traditional historical judgment on fascism, proposing a very complex and articulated analysis that underlines, among other things, the consent achieved by the fascist regime, especially between 1929 and 1936 , in Italian society.

Totalitarian interpretation [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Fascism called itself a “totalitarian” political system. In the fascist conception of the state, the individual has freedom and enjoys rights only when he is fully inserted within the hierarchically ordered social body of the state (the so -called Ethical state ).

In the subsequent analyzes of historians (starting from the 1951 Hannah Arendt study) two interpretative lines have developed regarding the character of the fascist regime: a promoted initially by Hannah Arendt and later developed by several authors, including Renzo De Felice, which He considers him as purely “authoritarian”, and one who considers him “totalitarian” (but without any appreciation accepting) and who has one of the greatest supporters in the student of De Felilio Emilio Gentile. This interpretation is above all to be referred to the concept, promoted by Emilio Gentile, of:

«Totalitarianism intended as a method; Method of conquest and monopolistic management of power by a single party, in order to radically transform human nature through the state and politics, and through the imposition of an fundamentalistic conception of the world. ”

( Emilio Gentile )

It’s still:

«Totalitarianism – free from mass extermination – is a political technique that can be applied continuously in a mass society. […] A technique that aims to standardize the individual and the masses in a unique thought, using information control. ”

( Emilio Gentile )

In addition, this totalitarianism is defined by some authors as a “statist totalitarianism” ^[114] Because, according to the words of Giovanni Gentile “for the fascist everything is in the state and nothing […] has value outside the state” ^[115] .

Authoritarian interpretation [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

This interpretation is largely based on the idea, proposed by Hannah Arendt, to consider terror as “the true essence” of the totalitarian form of government; In this sense, the fascist regime cannot be considered “purely” totalitarian as it was lacking, unlike other regimes such as the Nazi and the Stalinist one, a “mass extermination” and a constant use of “mass terror” (which It was perpetrated through the mechanism of action called squadrismo).

He also missed a complete control of communication and information ^[116] .

Furthermore, always according to this interpretation, the authoritarian state has foreseeable limits to the exercise of power, that is, it is possible to “live peaceful” and not to incur the revenge of the state if you follow some rules of conduct, and do not work for militancy and propaganda politics ^[117] , while in the totalitarian state the limits to the exercise of power are poorly defined and uncertain.

Finally, in support of this thesis there is also the fact that fascism (unlike Nazism and Soviet communism) was obliged to live with (often also finding a common agreement ^[118] ) with the powers of the monarchy and the Holy See, who, despite a progressive erosion of their prerogatives, maintained their autonomy (often more formal than substantial). ^[119]

The problem of imperfect totalitarianism [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Intermediate position between the two previously mentioned, the concept of “imperfect totalitarianism”, coined by the historian Giovanni Sabbatucci, recognizes in fascism a clear matrix and a totalitarian will, however made inane by the presence of other powers (church and monarchy), from its excessive gradualism and from Mussolinian politics to always leave some “relief valve” to aphascist or non -“Orthodox” fascists (such as the case of Nicola Bombacci). ^[120]

The following attributes characteristic of the Nazi case are absent or only embryonic in fascist totalitarianism:

• the supremacy of the party with respect to the state;
• the mass extermination camps ( Extermination camp );
• An exterminationist ideology against “race” enemies.

While compared to the Soviet dictatorship there is a substantial difference in terms of extension and effectiveness of the repression of dissent.

Summary

«Not to mention the military dictatorships of the last two decades in Greece, Chile, Argentina, who have also been so often and are defined as fascists. Today, in a scientific headquarters, almost no one has more doubts that these regimes should not be counted among the fascist ones, but considered classic conservative and authoritarian regimes ”

( Renzo De Felice [121] )

Attributes of fascist totalitarianism:

• monopoly of the media;
• presence of an organic ideology, propagated with the means of mass communication, to which the individual is required to adhere mainly;
• presence of a single party, bearer of this ideology, who exerts absolute authority under the guidance of a head and a small number of people;
• reduction of all antagonistic force; ^[122]
• systematic appeal to the mobilization of the masses, through the party, the use of press, radio, cinema and large scenographic events;
• control and repression of all oppositions (in particular the communist one);
• presence of a secret political police (Ovra) that controls the actual “fascistization” of individuals;
• sacralization of politics and head;
• program of construction of a “new man”;
• affirmation of political leadership in the economic field.

Despite the prohibition of reconstitution of the dissolved national fascist party, established by the Republican Constitution (XII transitional provision), fascist movements survived even after the war.
In particular, the Italian social movement of Pino Romualdi and Giorgio Almirante, who was accused on several occasions of reconstitution of the dissolved fascist party. Senator Giorgio Pisanò in 1989 founded and guides the internal current to the MSI called Fascism and freedom . ^[123] In July 1991 Fascism and freedom He leaves the party led by Gianfranco Fini. ^[123] Giorgio Pisanò guides the fringe of the irreducible comrades towards a new Mussolinian political project; Thus he founded and becomes national secretary of the Fascism and Freedom Movement (MFL). Subsequently, on 11 December 1993 the Central Committee “Missino” will approve the new Italian social movement-national alliance With the abstention of 10 managers linked to the ex-segregate and fighter of RSI Pino Rauti. In 1994 Italian social movement-national alliance he dissolved the internal ties with the exponents of the MSI More nostalgic, transforming itself into the National Alliance (AN) during the Fiuggi Congress. It was the moment in which the group of managers close to Pino Rauti, he detached himself from AN , assisting together with the members of the MFL by Giorgio Pisanò in the conservation project of the historic party, founding the tricolor flame as a new political subject. A few months later the leader and secretary of MFL However, he leaves the political life, thanks to the aggravation of his state of health that will lead him to the disappearance (17 October 1997). The Fascism and freedom movement minority within the new subject, not finding space comes out after a short experience. In 2001 the MFL It undergoes the split of some managers who base New National Order . Relatively recently, on May 7, 2004, Pino Rauti the promoter and founder of the Tricolor flame , after some personal events, he also left this movement to found the social idea movement (MIS).

In 2009 the MFL It distinguishes and defends its ideological purposes in the most socialist positions of the original revolutionary fascism and of the Italian Social Republic, opting for a clear contrast and break towards all the other neo -fascist forces that are recognized in the Italian right and/or in any case attributable to the so -called Area , named Fascism and Freedom Movement – National Socialist Party ^{[124] [125]} .

At the same time Alessandra Mussolini, grandson of the dictator, left an in controversy with his president Gianfranco Fini, who had distanced himself from the positions related to fascism and the figure of Mussolini ^[126] . Mussolini thus founded his own party (as, social action) that promoted the alliance called social alternative that united as two other neo -fascist and nationalist movements: Forza Nuova, led by Roberto Fiore, and national social front, founded by Adriano Tilgher.

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