Who are the Fascisti?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 9, 1 March 1923, Page 9

Who are the Fascisti?

'(By Thomas o'Hag an, in America.) We think of Italy, even to-day, in terms of the Roman Empire, if we do not think of it in terms of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Sometimes it is difficult, it is true, to establish the kinship of the practical Roman, the law-giving Roman, the colony-planting Roman of the days of the Caesars with the Italian of the Renaissance, with the Italian of the "tumultuous splendid yesterdays" of the city-States of Venice and Florence, ruled by despots and rocked by strife, yet producing an art and a literature never surpassed, perhaps, in any other age or country. But when we step down from the height of the Italian Renaissance of the Medici, the Italian Renaissance of a Raphael, a Michelangelo and a Da Vinci, the problem of * tracing this kinship, this lineage with the Italian of to■day becomes still more difficult.

What has remained, however, , as a constant factor, in a people whose ancestors planted the Roman eagle on the shores of three continents is. the element of strife and civil tumult which marked the Roman of the days of the ancient Empire and the Florentine of the days of the Republic, as it marks the Italian of the present-day regime. It should be noted here, however, that much of the civil strife that has troubled Italy, through the centuries, has been >an importation. As a- writer points out, it has been

the recurrent tragedy of Italy’s history that there have always been exterior forces interested in her disruption. Let us but put the finger of memory upon the page of history, and instantly an army of facts march to our support. Now France, now Germany, now Spain send their mercenaries into Italy, sometimes at the invitation of some Italian prince or despot, it is true. Is it not a fact that the poet Dante whom the Italians wrongly hail to-day as the great patriot and prophet of a united Italy, summoned Henry of Luxembourg as the anointed of God? And did not Savonarola hail Charles VIII. as the redeemer of Italy? And coming to our own days, we find that in the Great War the disaster of Caporetto, which occurred in the spring of 1918, was due to an intensive German propaganda which had its headquarters in Switzerland, the purpose of which was to inspire and subsidise a revolution that would take Italy out of the war. It is true that this propaganda was aided by responsibe Italians. But the sublime and hallowed spectacle of the Piave followed the disaster of Caporetto. This rally at the Piave was practically the seedling from which sprang and took form the Fascisti movement, the character and purpose of which Ave aim to discuss in this paper. The true origin, then, of this movement known as the Fascio or Fascino can he traced in its beginnings to loyalty to Italy. In the army on the Piave it counteracted disloyalty and dishonor; in the streets of Florence and other Italian cities it counteracted Communism and Bolshevism. It seized the tiger of disorder and anarchy by the throat and not only clipped its claws, but removed its menace from the highways of the nation.

In forming this organisation which exerts an influence to-day in Italy out of all proportion to its numbers, its promoters went back to ancient Rome for a title or name; for the designation Fascia is derived from the Latin fasces, which, when carried by the lictor, in Roman days, symbolised, authority and the execution of authority. When we say that Fascia had' its origin in the great victory won on the Piave, we do not desire the reader- to understand by this that thence the Fascio took their corporate form, but rather that it was the spirit that prevailed on the. Piave that led to the Fascio as an organisation. Following the armistice, Lenin sent his emissaries into Italy. The left wing of the Socialist party, and the Socialists who have been till recently the strongest party in Italy, espoused Communism ; and this, too, in face of the report of the Italian Socialist delegation sent to Russia in the spring of 1920, whose indictment of Bolshevist rule was neither palliative nor equivocal. As to the character and aims of the Fascisti groups throughout Italy, these may vary somewhat regionally; but, while loosely held together, they are all .united in one aim, the crushing out of Communism and Bolshevism. And in this the Fascisti have succeeded. So that whatever may be the future aims or work of this organisation, they have, at least, rendered Italy patriotic service during the past two critical years. The Fascisti groups at first consisted largely of young men of the upper middle classes, with a few of the nobility. The chief groups were composed of students, ex-officers, and demobilized Arditi. But the complexion of the members has considerably changed- during the past year. Now, there will be found amongst them a considerable number of workers and of the sons of peasants and small shopkeepers. Indeed, in some cases", groups of Socialists haxe joined them and here in Florence a band of railway workers have gone over to them. It may be that in the transition state, in which Italy now finds itself, these Fascisti will prove to be something more than a political or social phenomenon. Italy to-day is threatened with an industrial and agrarian upheaval. It is true that Italy has passed through what might be termed the revolution of September, 1920;; but its embers are still smouldering. One thing is quite certain: that a Soviets-Government such as exists in Russia can never bo established in Italy. As George TTerron says in his work. The Revival of Italy, Lenin would not last 24 hours in Italy. If we mistake not, the Fascisti have a great part to play in the Italy of today. They are young men of 'courage and, with few exceptions, motived by '"a genuine patriotism. If they will but look before after and choose the wise course! But they .must not meet violence with violence. If they would serve Italy ■ sanely they must, as Herroil says, stand as

strongly for social conciliation, for an inclusive civil freedom - as they have stood against the terrorisation of the nation by a single class.

Upon the Fascisti, too, rests a great responsibility. They have put down anarchy and won a great victory, but their greater victory is yet to be won. They must not be a party themselves to the terrorisation of even the Socialotherwise Italy may be lost. <*X> ■