FASCIST ITALY

TROUBLED POSTWAR

• Industrial base improved, but economy disrupted

• Inflation

• Cost of living index soared (100 in 1913, 268 in 1919)

• Value of the Lira dropped (1913: 1L=19 US Cents / 1920: 5 US Cents)

• Budget totally out of balance

• Massive labor unrest: strikes, shop looting, socialist factory councils / days lost: 906.000 (1918) 14.1 Million (1919)

• Social unrest (land takeovers)

• Chaotic Parliament: hard to build coalitions (PSI: biggest party)

THE "RED BIENNIUM" ("Biennio Rosso", 1919-20)

PSI LIBERALS

REST(right-wing)

PPI

Giovanni Giolitti

Proportional representation

war profits tax

taxes on the rich

stocks & bonds registering

non-violence against massive strikes

L

REST

THE FASCIST REACTION

"Fasci di combattimento":war veterans,ex left-wing interventionists, disenchanted liberals and socialists

• early left-wing plan to appeal to the masses (fails on 1919 elections, shifts them to the right)

• lack of government action against fascist violence splits the PSI

THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT, 1919-20

PSI LIBERALS

REST(conservative)

1922

PPIOther

conservative parties

FASCISTS

OCTOBER 1922: THE FASCIST TAKEOVER

• coalition cabinet (fascists not a majority)

• 1924: new elections under the "Acerbo Law" (min. 25% of votes, earns 2/3 of seats, rest split proportionately)

King Victor Emanuel III THE "MARCH ON ROME"

THE FASCIST CONSOLIDATION OF POWER

• late 1922: King gives Mussolini temporary dictatorial powers

• Fascist squads turned into the MVSN ("Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza

Nazionale")• changes of personnel in

key government jobs

• new group of Fascist senators created

1923:

• 1924: Murder of Giacomo Mateotti causes "Aventine Secession" in Parliament

• opposition party meetings banned

• "Legge Fascistissime" passed

• new fundamental law alters constitution

• 1926: government by decree authorized

1925:

• 1928: new electoral law passed (ends universal vote, reduces electorate + alters election system)

• 1927: OVRA created (Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo)

• 1922-25: Twenty-Two Fascist "Corporations" (according to occupation, each with worker & employer syndicates) created for all 4 sectors of the Economy

• 1925: Palazzo Vidoni Pact

• 1926: Syndical Law passed & Ministry of Corporations created

• 1927: Charter of Labor ("Carta del Lavoro") implemented

• 1930: National Council of Corporations created

FASCIST ECONOMY: THE CORPORATE STATE

State monopoly on setting employer/worker negotiating rules

bans the right to strike

puts industrial worker/employer under further state control

sets details for worker/employer negotiations

-each headed by Fascist Party official/Representative-goal: end class conflict and industrial unrest

civil servants & Fascist party officials

Representatives of corporations from each sector of the economy

Mussolini & ministers

REPLACES CHAMBER OF

DEPUTIESIn theoryIn practice big industrials & landowners

WHY WAS THERE LITTLE OPPOSITION TO MUSSOLINI?

• many Italians had considerable reason to like him

• parliamentary opposition was divided and weak (esp. Socialists)

• fear of anarchy and communism by urban middle classes, the church, the military, big business, big landowners and

the King

• popular support for the King's decisions

RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH

1870-1919: Church refuses to recognize Italian State + urges catholics not to vote

1919: church creates PPI so that Catholics can vote

RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH

Pope Pius XI

• WHY DID THEY MISTRUST EACH OTHER?

anticlerical (Christianity=backwardness,

superstition, obstacle to progress)

Fascism="godlessness", threat to the social order

PPI + Catholic Trade Unions: great obstacles

to Fascism in parliament

Fascist control over education &

youthResistance by Azione Cattolica (Lay organization)

RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH• 1929:LATERAN PACTS & CONCORDAT

Mutual territorial recognition +

compensation to Vatican

Catholic influence on education, social & private

life, culture, and media

RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH

Ideological similarities: hate of communism, respect

for authority, need for social order, hostility to

divorce, contraception and abortion

• Allows "Il Duce" to gain massive local &

international prestige at a time when he was

not in a strong position

• 1923: Pope dissolves the PPI + urges the majority of

Italians (Catholics) to support the regime

• HOW DID THEY BENEFIT FROM EACH OTHER?• Establishes compulsory religious instruction in

Schools + state funding to rescue Bank of Rome

• protects Chuch position in society and keeps it as a part

of the Italian State• lowers Fascist violence against Azione Cattolica

• Continues attack on Socialism & guarantees rights of

the Church

FASCIST PROPAGANDA• RADIO & FILM: not fully developed until

1930s. Radio used in cities only.• POSTERS & SCHOOLS (1920s):

• mostly aimed at youth & youth organizations (competition with Church & Azione Cattolica over school curriculums and school books).

• Glorified youth, Fascist Architecture • RALLIES & MASS ACTIVITIES:

• NEWSPAPERS: Strict control. fascist papers, magazines & journals. censorship & harassment to non- fascist media. auto-censorship.

• theatrical live performances• militaristic marching formations

• individual submerged in the mass• youth organizations focus on group participation

COMMONFASCISTHATREDS

Anti-Christian

Anti-Monarchist

Anti-Feminist

Anti-Urban

Anti-free market

Capitalism

Anti-Individua

l

Anti-Pacifist

Anti-Communis

t

Anti-Democrati

c

Anti-Semitic

Anti- Capitalism (in

any form)

Idealisation of peasant values

Violence&

War

Womenas

Mothers

Cult of the

Leader

Nationalism &

Empire

Totalitarianism

the Corporate

State

Indoctrination of Youth

COMMONFASCISTBELIEFS

Idealisation of peasant and

proletarian values

Total State control, but organized differently

FASCIST ARCHITECTURE: FUTURISM

FASCIST ARCHITECTURE: NEOCLASSICAL STYLE

FASCIST ARCHITECTURE: NEOCLASSICAL STYLE