Fascism

On the 23 March 1919 after a series of Communist demonstrations, the almost forgotten Mussolini decided to attempt to revive his Fasci movement. A meeting was held in a hall in a Milan and was attended by some fifty malcontents. From this seemingly small and insignificant event the Fascio di Combattimento' (Combat Group) was born. Initially, it would seem that the Fasci were destined for failure with none of their candidates (including Mussolini) winning a single seat in the 1919 elections. How was it that a party with no clear programme, save a belief in action of some sort, became a ruling dictatorship little more than ten years later? By the end of 1919,

Mussolini possessed hardly more than 2% of the vote in Milan, less than 5000 votes against 170,000 for the Socialists. Was this a complete disaster? At the time it seemed so; the Socialists were so confident of their success that they staged a mock funeral in Milan stopping outside Mussolini's house to invite him to attend the burial of his party. Incredibly, by 1921 the membership of this previously tiny group was to rival the size of the Socialists. How was this achieved? It was certainly by no easy means; Mussolini's skill and luck played a vital role, but he was also helped by the seemingly blind incompetence of his opponents. Mussolini's path towards the top of Italian Government was hindered by many forms of opposition.

However, most of his opposition came from the Government and the rival

Socialist (PSI) party. Soon after the summer of 1920 the Fascists and their opposition inevitably clashed. The fact that Gioletti's government was faced with « million workers sitting in in factories showed that Italy was a far from stable country in 1920. Did an opportunity present itself for Mussolini to gain ground over the

Socialist opposition? If it did, Mussolini certainly did not take it.

He was still recovering from his party's humiliating election defeat.

Eventually the union leaders, evidently surprised by this sudden, spontaneous revolutionary outburst persuaded the workers to give in in return for higher wages. Although initially it would seem that the workers had won, the strikes had sown the seeds of fear amongst

Italy's Socialist opposition. The overall effect of this was that many of the opponents of Socialism joined Mussolini's Fascist' party.

The Socialist party by...

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...ht home the importance of opportunism and action as opposed to inactivity and fixed ideologies.

As S. Lee argues, Mussolini was strongly inclined to intuitive behaviour and projected himself as a flexible pragmatist. This allowed him to make full use of the chaotic conditions in Italy, and considerably increased the Fascist party's fortunes. However, we must also consider that to a certain extent, the opposition's continued failures and misjudgments almost pushed Mussolini into power. We must also take account of the fact that Mussolini certainly had his fair share of luck - a prime example is the King's refusal to declare a state of emergency, which would have allowed the army to attack the Fascists. However, it was his ability to act out the role of the Italian people's dream leader that gave him the most success.

He played upon the post-war crisis, and made it appear that Fascism was the only way in which socialism would be smashed, and Italy's society and status would be rebuilt. To the Italian people, Mussolini was the great leader they had been desperately searching for - the leader who was going to make Italy a great power, and a respected force in the world.