I. The revolutionary period 1919—1921

The Italian people played an unenthusiastic part during the last war. They had been strongly impregnated with socialist and anarchist ideas and they saw in the war, not a struggle for democracy, but another imperialist conflict. The left-wing parties did not betray their internationalist ideals as openly as they did in other countries, A section of the Socialist party opposed the war throughout while the great majority gave it only lukewarm support. The anarchist movement refused to take part in the imperialist bloodbath and consistently opposed the war.

The ruling class, in order to obtain some support from the Italian people, had to bribe them with promises; they assured the workers that they would get better conditions after the war and that they would give the land to the peasants. But when peace came they showed no willingness to keep their promises. The country found itself extremely weakened. It had lost one million men in the war, and those who came back found no work to do. Meanwhile the cost of life had gone up tremendously. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, had done well out of the war and was more sure of itself and arrogant than ever; in particular the agrarians (the landed bourgeoisie) were resolved to do their utmost to prevent the peasants from gaining any concessions. In 1919 the whole country was seething with discontent. The workers and peasants, tired of waiting for the improvements promised them, began to take matters in their own hands. The bourgeois and nationalist elements were frustrated by the Allies’ denial of any share of the war booty to Italy. Just as in Germany the Versailles treaty was the stepping stone for the Nazis, in Italy it formed a basis for fascism.

Strikes, looting of shops, occupation of the land began in a sporadic and unorganized way. The general elections which took place on the 16th of November 1919 gave the Socialists 2,846,593 votes while the bourgeois parties received three and a half million votes. The new liberal government showed itself incompetent both to resolve the internal economic problem and to gain Italy territorial aggrandisement round the diplomatic tables. It was, however, resolved in one thing and that was to crush any workers’ revolt. It created a royal guard which mercilessly crushed all demonstrations and strikes.

But in spite of the government’s repression, the movement of strikes intensified itself. It was merely due to the economic situation and to the disproportionate increase in the cost of life. But already in April 1920 the General Strike of Turin showed that the workers wanted more than economic gains and that they aimed at controlling the industries which belonged to the people by right, because they had built them with their toil and because they were working them. The Turin workers set up factory councils and declared their intention to control the factories themselves. All over Italy strikes of sympathy took place and the railway workers refused to move the troops which the government wanted to send to suppress the revolt. The strike lasted ten days and was finally crushed by overwhelming forces of repression through its having been unable to obtain sufficient support from the rest of the Italian workers. Already we see in the Turin strike the wavering and uncertain attitude which the Socialist Party and the trade unions (General Confederation of Labor) were to play all through these years of revolt. Whenever the working-class showed the desire to overthrow capitalist oppression, they used all their power to prevent them from doing so. While the anarchists and syndicalists appealed to the Italian people to support the “Burin workers by striking and by all other means at their disposal, the socialists refused to support them by calling a general strike. The socialist organ Avanti, in its Milan edition, even expressed regret that the strike should have taken place.

Workers’ strikes and expropriation of the land by the workers, particularly in the South of the peninsula, continued. Unable to maintain order the Nitti government fell and was replaced by a new liberal government with Giolitti, an old sly politician at its head, and with the socialist Labriola as minister of labor. The people showed their opposition to the government by increased demonstrations. The most important took place at Ancona, a port on the Adriatic coast, where popular riots took place and a regiment destined to Albania refused to embark. In solidarity with the mutiny a general strike took place in the surrounding provinces and ended only when the government promised to abandon the protectorate of Albania.

On the 28th of August the occupation of the factories by the metal workers all over Italy began. The direct cause was the refusal of the industrialists to put into practice a collective contract of work which had been forced on them by the strikes of August-September 1919, and to raise wages in proportion to the cost of living. Afraid that the police would come to the help of the bourgeoisie and occupy the factories, the workers took possession of them themselves. In vain did the government, through its labor minister Labriola, attempt a reconciliation. The workers refused all compromise.

The workers showed that the aim of the strikes was not merely to obtain an increase in wages. In many parts they armed themselves to defend the factories they had seized, they formed workers’ councils to assure the proper running of industry, and the Federation of Cooperatives paid the wages. The moment seemed ripe to deal a final blow to the capitalist class and establish workers’ control all over Italy. The enthusiasm and militancy of the masses was at its height. After a year of local strikes and conflicts the people had in an united effort manifested their resolution to get rid of the old regime. But both the socialists and communist leadership were afraid of revolution. The most extraordinary pretexts were put forward. Italy had no coal, no iron, nor enough wheat to suffice to itself, a revolution would be bound to fail. Even Lenin thought that the revolution would be premature and told Angelica Balabanoff, the old socialist militant, that Italy could not make a revolution because she lacked coal and raw materials!

The Socialist Party and the reformist trade unions instead of following the masses and helping them to strike down the capitalist system lost themselves in futile controversies and only offered the workers empty resolutions. On the 4th and 5th of September the General Confederation of Labor and the Socialist Party (who were affiliated in the same way as they are in this country) met and decided to intensify the struggle, but then did nothing. A week later they met again and adopted the solution advocated by the trade union secretary: to get out of the factories and attack the bourgeoisie in its central organ: the state.

This fine piece of socialist sophistry had the most terrible consequences for the Italian working class. It marked the beginning of a reign of reaction which led straight to fascism.

On the 15th September 1920, delegates from the workers and industrialists met, under the presidency of the prime minister, Giolitti, at Turin. He proposed the formation of a commission of six members representing the Confederation of Industry and six members representing the General Confederation of Labor, which would establish a sort of control on the industry. No compromise was reached at first because of the intransigent attitude of the capitalists. But when the negotiations were resumed in Rome a compromise was arrived at. This scheme was a clever move on the part of the astute premier. The factories were evacuated, the workers lost all their power and the projected law was forgotten in some pigeonhole. But while the Italian workers felt betrayed, weakened and hopeless, the bourgeoisie prepared itself to prevent a similar experience from occurring again. the occupation of the factories which could have marked the downfall of the ruling class was on the contrary the signal for the capitalists to rally their forces. They began to look for a man who would give them a strong government capable to crush any attempt of revolt on the part of the workers.

The fascists understood that the moment to act had come. On the 21st of November 1920 they launched their first attack against working-class organizations. From Bologna the fascist offensive spread to the Po valley. In the meantime the government reorganized the police, and the royal guard was recruited amongst the youth and well trained. The forces of reaction came closer together; capitalists, royalists, clericals, army men joined hands.

The Socialist Party did not or would not see the fascist danger. It merely concerned itself with internal discussions, being attacked and split by the activities of the Communists who were still in the party at the time. It was then the most important and strongly organized party in Italy. It counted almost a quarter of a million members and the General Confederation of Labor counted 2 millions. It had 156 members in Parliament and 2,162 communes [i.e., municipalities] were administered by socialists.

The Communist Party was formed after the Congress of Leghorn on the 15th through 20th January 1921 when the Socialist Party refused to accept the 21 conditions imposed by Moscow. Its main aim was not to fight reaction but to attack the socialists who, like Serrati, had refused to become the servile tools of the Kremlin. The C.P. was formed of many dishonest elements who had accepted the disreputable role of breaking up long established parties and slandering old working-class leaders in order to obtain the favors and money which Moscow bestowed upon its faithful servants. The Communists had plenty of reasons to criticize reformist socialist leaders like Serrati but they did not choose to carry on the controversy on theoretical or tactical grounds. With their now Well-known methods, they tried to discredit them, by attempting to blacken their private lives, they used slander and blackmail, provocateurs and spies. this only weakened and demoralized the working class so that the growth of Communists in Italy was an important factor in the rise of fascism. The Russian revolution had inspired the Italian workers. At the example of their Russian comrades they had formed workers’ councils, they had declared a general strike to protest against intervention in Russia. But Lenin and the Communist International destroyed the inspiration the Russian revolution had given the Italian workers. Seeing that they could not control the Italian working-class movements the Communist International set about disorganizing and smashing them. When Lenin died Errico Malatesta wrote in the anarchist daily Umanità Nova: “Lenin is dead, long live Liberty!” He was expressing the judgment of history.

The anarchist movement had always had a strong influence on the Italian masses. Its federalist character appealed to a country which had been only recently united and where the central government was weak and unpopular. Its recognition of the important role which the peasants should play in a revolution won it the support of the countryside. The influence which Bakunin exerted was felt long after his death. The Italian section of the International always refused to accept Marx’s dictatorship. The socialist movement which was formed by the former anarchist Andrea Costa was for a long time influenced by the anti-parliamentarianism of the anarchists and was, under their influence, much more ready to take part in direct action than its German or British counterparts.

The anarchists had also a strong influence amongst the Bourses du Travail which grouped all the trades locally and often remained independent of the trade Union Confederation (TUC). In 1912 anarchist-syndicalists formed their own union. [1] It was very active in 1914 during the June revolt which was called the Red Week. At Ancona on the 7th of June in a conflict with the police three workers had been killed. Ancona, a republican and anarchist town where Malatesta, then in Italy, exerted a strong influence, immediately declared a General Strike. From there it spread all over Italy, revolts took place at Ancona, in Romagna, Florence and Naples, the army fraternized with the people, town halls were occupied by revolutionaries. The syndicalists led the revolt but the General Confederation of Labor gave the order to its members to resume work.

Of the activity of the [Italian] Syndicalist Union, Armando Borghi [2] who was its secretary from 1919 writes (in a letter):

“During 4 years from 1919 to 1922 our action was one of a vanguard not only of theory but of action. We often tried and we sometimes succeeded in putting the leaders of the [General] Confederation of Labor in front of accomplished facts, of serious revolutionary movements. But we did not succeed in breaking the tutelage in which the reformist leaders held the masses.”

And he adds:

“I still think that a revolution in Italy at that time was necessary like a natural birth and that the abortion which resulted was a catastrophe. France, Spain, etc. would have altered their course and the whole of Europe would have seen things very different from Mussolini.”

The Syndicalist Union was at the head of all the strikes and movements of revolt, as also was the Anarchist Union. They did not carry on in a sectarian way. When the working-class was struggling for the defence of its own interests it joined socialists and trade-unionists in the fight, trying to carry it as far as it was possible.

While the members of the Socialist Party left it, discouraged by its reformist attitude, the membership of the Syndicalist Union grew rapidly and reached more than half a million.

At the beginning of 1921 the cleavage between the working-class and the bourgeoisie had reached its climax. On one side stood the working-class organizations counting millions of members bound to reformist leaders and a revolutionary syndicalist-anarchist minority unable to draw behind itself the masses. On the other side the liberal and Catholic parties resolved to defend by all means at their disposal the interests of the capitalist class. Mussolini became their tool; with a handful of fascists, the protection of the police and the complicity of the government he was able in a few years to disband the working-class organizations and conquer power.