The legacy of Benito Mussolini

On the saturday of 28th of April, 1945, Mussolini, alongside a couple of people Fascist or not, martyred.

Their bodies were taken to Piazzale Loreto for the angry crowd to mutilate and deface, committing 2 warcrimes at the same time.¹

However, today is not the day to discuss the morality of their murder, but to discuss Benito Mussolini and his relation to Fascism. Benito Mussolini started his career as a Socialist, influenced by the Anarchist-Bakunist father of his, he would be an influential Socialist up until World-War One where he took a controversial position alongside soon-to-be Fascists such as Alceste de Ambris,² he would drop the Socialist title and adopt Fascism, leading numerous Fascist parties.

THE BIENNO ROSSO AND THE CONQUEST OF POWER 

Immediately after the war, italy would fall into a deep crisis where unemployment, strikes and violence soared, the Fascist movment was influential in this crisis, Fascist squads would attack employers into submission and support Socialist strikes.³

However, Mussolini eventually drifted away from these revolutionary ideas, first dropping all the republicanism and second abandoning (most) of the ideas of Revolutionary Syndicalism, he would criticise Sorel's Syndicalism for being "apocalyptic and mystic" and praise the french CGT  (Labour organization) for being reformist and pragmatic,⁴ THEN he would outright reject the original revolutionary Fascist manifesto (which was praised by one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party)⁵ and declare that the future is "anti-socialist and anti-democracy."⁶  This opportunism would haunt Mussolini for the next decades to come, first since the Monarch was constitutionally above Mussolini, this  meant some political actions were way harder, another thing was the fact that the military was loyal to the King which played a part in Italy's bad performance during World-War Two. 

Besides that, during most of his rule, Mussolini as stated before abandoned most of the core tents of Syndicalism and early Fascism, he represented many of the aspects of the "optimist" in politics Sorel criticized in a letter to Daniel Halevy, quote:

“ The optimist in politics is an inconstant and even dangerous man, because he takes no account of the great difficulties presented by his projects; these projects seem to him to possess a force of their own, which tends to bring about their realisation all the more easily as they are, in his opinion, destined to produce the happiest result. He frequently thinks that small reforms in the political constitution, and, above all, in the personnel of the government, will be sufficient to direct social development in such a way as to mitigate those evils of the contemporary world which seem so harsh to the sensitive mind. As soon as his friends come into power, he declares that it is necessary to let things alone for a little, not to hurry too much, and to learn how to be content with whatever their own benevolent intentions prompt them to do. ” ⁷

They thought with this pace they could eventually reach Socialism or as they called it "Integral corporatism"⁸ and that they could "tame" the Bourgeoisie through Nationalism, disregarding the fact that the Bourgeoisie has no Nation or even God beside money and profit.

FASCIST ITALY

Mussolini's thesis was that Italy needed to develop her "productive capacities" to compete with the Imperialist liberal governments dominating the world, presumably inspired by a misreading of Marx and by Enrico Corradini and Sergio Pannunzio.⁹ However, no matter how sound these ideas might be, they were still pretty unpractical, the Italian Bourgeoisie will losing many of it's wealth still had relatively the same amount of power as they did before the Fascist power grab, some have even argued more.¹⁰

We've already mentioned the king who in 1943 famously betrayed Mussolini which made Mussolini recognize his mistakes.

The Italian Social Republic (RSI) would (although imperfectly) return to the early and pure Fascism, the "Red Pope" Nicola Bombacci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party spearheaded the Republic's Socialization program, the biggest achievement of this program was the Socialization of the legendary Italian company FIAT in the January of 1945.¹¹

CONCLUSION

Benito Mussolini is a complex man, he should not be looked at as a prophet or should his Italy be considered a blueprint for modern Fascism, for most of its existence it was simply a Nationalist Social Democracy, fortunately some mainstream 3rd Positionists figures such as Zeroschizo have be reiterating similar positions.¹²

BIBLOGRAPHY

> Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 27 July 1929. Retrieved on 28/4/2022 from the website of the International Committee of the Red Cross

> Mussolini, Benito & Bernardo, Barone. “Mussolini as Revealed in His Political Speeches.” Gutenberg.Org, LONDON and TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO., 28 Apr. 2022.

> Schneider, H., 1968. Making the fascist state. New York: Fertig.

> Brown, Tom. Trade Unionism or Syndicalism? Retrieved on 28/4/2022 from theanarchistlibrary.org

> Adler, F., 2009. Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to Fascism. Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press.

> Aganist the Cooperation between Social Classes by Alvaro Astray Retrieved on 28/4/2022 from the P3P-l blog

> Mussolini, Benito. Turn to the Right, Retrieved on 28/4/2022

> Berend, I., An economic history of twentieth-century Europe. Los Angeles: University of California.

> Sorel, G. & Jennings, Jeremy., 1999. Reflections on Violence. The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street: Cambridge University Press.

> Gregor, A., 1979. Italian fascism and developmental dictatorship. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

> F., Giugliano. “Industrial Policy and Productivity Growth in Fascist Italy.” Https://Ora.Ox.Ac.Uk/, University of Oxford, 2012, .

> Goldberg, Martin,. The TRUTH about Mussolini and Fascism, independent publishing, Retrieved on 28/4/2022 from zlib.org

> Red-Brown Fascism: An Explanation by Francisco de Lizardi Retrieved on 28/4/2022 from Zeroschizo's medium

CITATIONS & NOTES

(1) Art. 2 of the 1929 Geneva convention, quote:“They (prisoners of war) shall at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, from insults and from public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against them are forbidden.”

(2) p 9 of Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches

(3) p 16 of Making the Fascist state, p 11 Trade Unionism or Syndicalism? 

(4) p 132 of Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to fascism

(5) Palmiro Togalitti as quoted in Aganist the Cooperation between Social Classes by Alvaro Astray, quote: “ We communists adopt the fascist manifesto of 1919, platform of peace, liberty and defense of workers interests. Blackshirts and Africa veterans, we call on to you in order to join us in this program. We proclaim that we are ready to fight on your side, Fascists of the Old Guard and Fascist Youth, in order to realize the fascist platform of 1919 ”

(6) Turn to the Right by Benito Mussolini 

(7) Ugo Spirito described Integral Corporatism as the following: “ a hybrid form that would ultimately divest itself of residual capitalist elements to become an “integral corporativism” in which private property would no longer constitute loci of particular interest independent of, and conceivably opposed to, the interest of the state . . . Proprietary corporations would assume full responsibility for production, thereby putting an end once and for all to the historical conflict between private and public interest. ” quoted in An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe p 107

(8) p 10 of Reflections on Violence, letter to Daniel Halevy

(9) see "Syndicalism, Nationalism, and Economic Development”  in Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship 

(10) see industrial policy and productivity growth in fascist italy by ferdinando giugliano

(11) see The Myth of the RSI’s Political Failure, and “Puppet States” as part of The Truth about Mussolini and Fascism 

(12) see Aganist the Cooperation between Social Classes by Alvaro Astray and Red-Brown Fascism: An Explanation by Francisco de Lizardi