MUSSOLINI THE “FASCISTA FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE”
WORKMEN’S RIGHTS AFTER THE WAR
Speech delivered 20th March 1919 before the workmen of Dalmine.
The episode of Syndicalist strife, during which the present Prime
Minister addressed a crowded meeting of ironworkers, is often
recalled as a kind of reproach by Italian Socialists. They would
like to attribute to Mussolini and to Fascista Syndicalism the
initial responsibility for that dark period in our national life
which had its dramatic expression in the occupation of the
factories.
But the methods of protest adopted by the patriotic Italian workmen
of Dalmine (Bergamo), although primitive on account of the moral
immaturity and technical incapacity of the proletariat at that time,
were provoked by the insolence of employers. For the rest, the
protest was kept within the bounds of correct and calm expression.
A significant item in the story, which reveals the state of mind of
the workers, is the following: tricolour flags, which were then
frequently insulted by organisations of workmen under the thumb of
the Socialist Party, flew from all chimney-tops during the
occupation of Dalmine works, while in the workshops below the work
itself throbbed cheerfully and briskly.
I have often asked myself if, after the four years of terrible though
victorious war in which our bodies and minds have been engaged, the
masses of the people would return to move in the same old tracks as
before, or whether they would have the courage to change their
direction. Dalmine has answered. The order of the day voted by you on
Monday is a document of enormous historical importance, which will and
must give a general direction to the line taken by all Italian labour.
The intrinsic significance of your action is clearly set forth in the
order of the day. You have acted on the grounds of class, but you have
not forgotten the nation. You have spoken for the Italian people, and
not only for those of your class of metal-workers. In the immediate
interests of your category you might have caused a strike in the old
style, the negative and destructive style; but, thinking of the
interests of the people, you have inaugurated the creative strike which
does not interrupt production. You could not deny the nation after
having fought for her, when half a million men have given their lives
for her. The nation, for which this sacrifice has been made, cannot be
denied, because she is a glorious and victorious reality. You are not
the poor, the humiliated, the rejected, as the old rhetorical sayings of
the Socialists would have you be; you are the producers, and it is in
this capacity that you vindicate your right to treat the industrial
owners as equals. You are teaching some of them, especially those who
have ignored all that has occurred in the world in the last four years,
that for the figure of the old industrial magnate, odious and grasping,
must be substituted that of the industrial captain.
You have not been able to prove your capacity for creation, on account
of shortness of time and of the conditions made for you by the
industrial leaders; but you have proved your good-will, and I tell you
that you are on the right road, because you are freed from your
protectors, and have chosen from among yourselves the men who are to
direct you and represent you, and to them only you have entrusted the
guardianship of your rights.
The future of the proletariat is a question of will-power and capacity;
not of will-power only and not of capacity only, but of both together.
You are free from the yoke of political intrigue. Your applause tells me
that it is true. I am proud of having fought for intervention. If it
were necessary, I would carve in capital letters upon my forehead, so
that all cowards might see, that I was among those in the glorious May
of ’15 who demanded that the shame of the neutral Italy of those days
should cease.
Now that the war is over, I, who have been in the trenches, and
witnessed daily for long months the revelation, in every sense, of the
valour of the sons of Italy—I say, to-day, that it is necessary to go
out and meet the returning workers and those, who were no shirkers, who
laboured in the factories with minds open to the necessities of the
hour. And those who do not see this necessity, involved by the new order
of things, or deny it, are either stupid or deluded.
I have never asked, and to-day less than ever, anything from you or
anybody. And so I have no anxiety or misgivings as to the effect that my
words will have upon you. I tell you that your action has been original,
and is worthy, on account of the motives of sympathy which inspired it.
Another observation. Upon the flagstaff of your building you have run up
your flag, which is the tricolour, and around it you have fought your
battle. You have done well. The national flag is not merely a rag, even
if it has been dragged in the mud by the bourgeoisie, or by their
representatives; it still remains the symbol of the sacrifice of
thousands and thousands of men. For its sake from 1821 to 1918
innumerable bands of men suffered privation, imprisonment and the
gallows. Around it during these years, while it was the rallying-point
of the nation, was shed the blood of the flower of our youth, of our
sons and brothers. It seems to me that I have said enough.
As regards your rights, which are just and sacred, I am with you. I have
always distinguished the mass which works from the party which assumes
the right, nobody knows why, of representing it. I have sympathy with
all the working classes, not excluding the “General Federation of
Labour,” though I feel myself more drawn towards the “Italian Union of
Workmen.” But I say that I shall not cease fighting against the party
which during the war was the instrument of the Kaiser. They wish at your
expense to try their monkey-like experiments, which are only an
imitation of Russia. But you will succeed, sooner or later, in
exercising essential functions in modern society, though the political
dabblers of the bourgeoisie and semi-bourgeoisie must not make
stepping-stones of your aspirations so as to arrive at winning their
little games.
They may have said what they liked to you about me, I do not mind. I am
an individualist, who does not seek companions on his journey. I find
them, but I do not seek them. While this despicable speculation of the
jackals rages, you, obscure workers of Dalmine, have cleared the way. It
is labour which speaks in you, and not an idiotic dogma or an intolerant
creed. It is that labour which in the trenches established its right to
be no longer considered as labour, necessarily accompanied by poverty
and despair, because it must bring joy, pride in creation, and the
conquest of free men in the great and free country of Italy within and
without her boundaries. (Enthusiastic applause.)
SACRIFICE, WORK, AND PRODUCTION
Speech delivered at Milan, 5th February 1920, before the Fascio
Milanese Combattimento.
If it were possible, before voting on the orders of the day, to put into
practice the system of democracy, we ought to have summoned the
Assembly. But when events follow one another with lightning speed, it is
not possible to carry out this system of absolute Democracy.
We have, therefore, voted the orders of the day, and wait for you to
ratify them. We have brought forward three, and done so from a point of
view essentially Fascista. I dare to say that one is born a Fascista,
and that it is difficult to become one. All the other parties and
associations argue on a basis of dogmas and from the standpoint of
definite preconceptions and infallible ideals. We, being an anti-party,
have no preconceptions. We are not like the Socialists, who always think
that the working masses are in the right, and we are not like the
Conservatives, who think that they are always in the wrong. We have got
above all this and have the privilege of moving on the ground of pure
objectivity. Voting these “orders of the day,” after a serious and
elaborate discussion, we have kept before us three classes of facts or
elements. First, we have kept in mind the general interests of the
nation, particularly as regards the recent strikes. Secondly, we have
considered the subject of production, because if we kill production, if
to-day we render sterile the fount of economic activity, to-morrow there
will be universal poverty. Thirdly, we have been guided, in voting these
orders of the day, by our disinterested love for the working classes.
_All must sacrifice themselves._ I agree with those who recommend the
spirit of sacrifice also to the working classes; I agree, because we do
not only say to the working men that they must wait, while still
working, for better times to come in order to break the vicious circle
in which they move; we also say that, generally speaking, capital must
be controlled. In this connection I announce to you that in a short time
a manifesto will be issued in which it will be once more asserted that,
in order to solve the financial problem, it is necessary to resort to a
threefold measure: first, the partial confiscation of all wealth over a
certain amount; secondly, the heavy taxation of inheritance, and
thirdly, the confiscation of super war profits.
_No Pessimism._ I am not a bit pessimistic about the future of the
Italian nation. If I were, I should retire from public life. But as I am
profoundly optimistic, I think that with the January strikes over we
have passed the critical period of our social crisis.
You will tell me that February has not brought much light; we have the
strike of 50,000 textile workers belonging to the Popular Party, which
shows that black Bolshevism has the same destructive and anti-social
character as the other Bolshevism. But it seems to me that the social
crisis is stabilising itself while awaiting solution. If we can get over
these next six or eight months without catastrophe, if we can increase
our trade with the East, if the workmen can be made to understand that
we cannot take our money there but must send our manufactured goods, and
that only thus will the high rate of living be diminished, because only
from the East come those raw materials of which we stand in need, it is
certain that the workmen will repudiate the more destructive than
constructive weapon of strikes and settle down to serious work.
_Sure Repentance._ Our position as regards the syndicalist movement is
not reactionary, as has been said by some purposely malicious adversary.
I wrote some very bitter articles during the strikes, but these
articles, which were so incriminating, brought me approval which was
very significant. If there is a man in the Italian Union of Workmen who
has worked seriously, it is the republican Carlo Bazzi, who has recently
founded the Syndicate of Co-operation, which is the necessary
counterwork to the Socialist co-operative movement. Now Bazzi wrote my
brother[4] a letter which contained these words: “I fully subscribe to
Mussolini’s article ‘You are immortal, Cagoia.’” This is enough for me.
But, at the same time, I do not require that everybody shall agree with
me, and that there shall be no one who differs. I am always ready to
persuade myself of my mistake when I am in the wrong. But I do not think
that our work can be valued now. I think that within five or six months’
time there will be quite a few Socialists who will recognise that I am
the only Socialist that there has been in Italy for the last five years;
and I am not being paradoxical, even if I add that the Socialist Party
on the whole is detestable. I think, too, that a great many elements of
the Centre and followers of Turati are beginning to recognise it even
now, and that in a short time the working classes will admit that the
days of 15th April and 20th–21st July, with all our violent opposition,
were providential and miraculous, because, having put the stake between
the wheels of the runaway coach, we prevented that what has happened in
Hungary should happen in Italy.
Footnote 4:
Arnaldo Mussolini, Editor of _Il Popolo d’Italia_.
_Production necessary._ To-day it is said that poverty should not be
socialised, but that is what we said two years ago, just as to-day it is
said that there must be increased production, as we said two years ago.
And when history comes to be written, as it will be shortly, then our
work will be judged very differently from that of the Socialists and the
responsible elements in the working classes.
The discussion of this evening, I think, might end with a declaration
upon these four points:
1. The meeting ratifies the “orders of the day” voted by the Executive
Committee and the Central Committee.
2. The meeting reaffirms its solidarity with the just demands of the
postal telegraphists and the railway men and all the State employees
(because I have never been tired of repeating that we are against the
strike, but not against the demands of the staff).
3. The meeting votes a warning to the Government that the working of the
State services must be made really efficient, whether it be by removing
the bureaucratic management or by industrialisation. (And I think that
autonomous organisations can be formed of the postal, telephone and
railway services, in which the agents would have a large direct
representation.)
4. Finally, the meeting votes its sympathy with all the working-class
elements who are agitating against the Socialist Party and urges them to
gather together in a compact body so that, though hitherto it has not
been possible, from to-day onwards it may be possible, even in Italy, to
live and work and struggle without being slaves to the new tyrannies,
without the necessity of being compelled to become a mere member in a
flock of membership cardholders like a flock of sheep.
“WE ARE NOT AGAINST LABOUR, BUT AGAINST THE SOCIALIST PARTY, IN AS FAR
AS IT REMAINS ANTI-ITALIAN”
Speech delivered at Milan, 24th May 1920, at the second National
Fascista meeting.
The following is not a conventional speech, but represents a sincere
act of faith, made in the darkest hour through which Italy passed,
the hour which followed upon the sweeping electoral and political
triumphs of 1919, when communal and provincial administrations were
divorced from the Liberal policies.
The subversive newspapers of the day regarded that second Fascista
meeting as a useless attempt at galvanisation, since the movement
which was destined later to conquer the State seemed then merely to
lead to a blind alley. Such is the futility of newspaper prophecies!
Words, at certain times, can be facts. Let us act, then, in such a way
that all the words we utter now may be potential facts to-day, and
reality to-morrow.
Five years ago, at this time, popular enthusiasm burst forth in all the
streets and squares of the towns of Italy. Looking back now and studying
the documents of those times, I can state, with certainty and a clear
conscience, that the cause of intervention was not taken up by the
so-called middle classes, but by the best and healthiest part of the
Italian people. And when I say the people, I mean also the proletariat,
because nobody could imagine that the thousands and thousands of
citizens who followed Corridoni were all from the middle class. I
remember that one Agricultural Chamber of Labour, that of Parma,
declared in favour of intervention on the part of Italy with a great
majority. And even admitting that the war was a mistake, which I do not
admit, he who scorns the sacrifice which has been made is despicable.
If you want to go back and make a critical examination, I am ready to
argue with anybody and to maintain: First, that the war was desired by
the Central Powers, as has been confessed by the politicians of the
German Republic and confirmed by the imperial archives. Secondly, that
Italy could not have remained neutral, and thirdly, that if she had, she
would find herself, to-day, in a worse condition than she actually does.
On the other hand, we who intervened must not be surprised if the sea is
tempestuous. It would be absurd to expect that a nation which had just
passed through so grave a crisis would recover itself in twenty-four
hours. And when you think that after two years we have not yet got our
peace, when you think of the weakness of those who govern us, you will
realise that certain crises of doubt are inevitable. But the war gave
that which we required of it—it gave us victory.
_Let us idealise Labour._ When, not long ago, you hissed the song of the
sickle and the hammer, you certainly did not mean to disdain these two
instruments of human labour. There is nothing more beautiful and noble
than the sickle, which gives us our bread, and nothing finer than the
hammer, which shapes metals. We must not despise manual work. We must
understand that if it is overrated to-day, it is because mankind, as a
whole, is suffering from a lack of material goods. It is natural,
therefore, that those who produce these necessaries are excessively
overrated. We do not represent a reactionary element. We tell the masses
not to go too far, and not to expect to transform society by means of
something which they do not understand. If there is to be
transformation, it must come when the historical and psychological
elements of our civilisation have been taken into account.
_Let us unmask the Deceivers._ We do not intend to oppose the movement
of the working classes, only to unmask the work of mystification which
is carried on by a horde of middle-class, lower-middle-class and
pseudo-middle-class men, who think that they have become the saviours of
humanity by the mere fact of being possessed of a card of membership.
“We are not against the proletariat, but against the Socialist Party in
as far as it continues to be anti-Italian.” The Socialist Party
continued, after the victory, to abuse the war, to fight against those
who had been in favour of intervention, threatening reprisals and
excommunication. Well, I, for my part, shall not give way. I laugh at
excommunication, and as for reprisals, we shall answer with sacred
reprisals. But we cannot go against the people, because the people made
the war. We cannot look askance at the peasants, who to-day are
agitating for the solution of the land question. They commit excesses,
but I ask you to remember that the backbone of the infantry was the
peasantry.
_Repentance._ We do not deceive ourselves by thinking that we shall
succeed in sinking completely the now wrecked ship of Bolshevism. But I
already note signs of repentance. I think that some day the working
classes, tired of letting themselves be duped, will turn to us,
recognising that we have never flattered them, but have always told them
the brutal truth, working really in their interests. If, to-day, Italy
has not fallen into the Hungarian abyss, it is due to us, because we
have saved them by active interposition and by our life.
We have then one clear duty, which is to understand the social
phenomenon which is developing before our eyes, and to fight the
deceivers of the people and maintain a sure and immovable faith in the
future of the nation.
_Towards Equilibrium._ There has been a period of lassitude on the
morrow of all great historical crises. But afterwards, little by little,
the tired muscles recover. All that which before was neglected and
despised becomes once more honoured and admired. To-day nobody wants to
talk of war, and it is natural. But when a certain period of time has
elapsed, things will change, and a large part of the Italian people will
recognise the moral and material value of victory, they will honour
those who fought and will rebel against those Governments which do not
guarantee the future of the nation. All the people will honour the great
“arditi.” It was the “arditi” who went to the trenches singing, and if
we returned from the Piave and the Isonzo, if we still hold Fiume, and
are still in Dalmatia, it is due to them.
Three martyrs, among the thousands who were consecrated to the war,
clearly defined what were to be the destinies of the nation. Battisti
tells us that the boundary of Italy should be at the Brenner; Sauro that
the Adriatic must be an Italian sea and commercially Italo-Slav; while
Rismondo tells us that Dalmatia is Italian. Very well! Let us swear upon
the standard which bears the sign of death, of that death which gives
life, and the life which does not fear death, to keep faith to the
sacrifice of these martyrs! (Loud applause.)
FASCISMO’S INTERESTS FOR THE WORKING CLASSES
Speech delivered at Prato della Marfisia in Ferrara, 4th April 1921.
The manifestations of enthusiasm culminating in the meeting at the
Prato della Marfisia solemnly confirmed the triumphant development
of Fascismo at Ferrara, the red province _par excellence_. On that
occasion some fifty thousand _contadini_, who had come on foot from
the remotest centres of the vast province, spent the day acclaiming
the “leader of the black shirts” and the new faith in Italy. A
noteworthy feature was that many red flags belonging to the
disbanded and defeated Socialist leagues were deposited before
Mussolini and thereupon trampled underfoot by the crowd.
People of Ferrara! and I say _people_ intentionally, because that which
I see before me now is a marvellous gathering of the people, in both the
Roman and Italian sense of the word. I see among you children who are
upon the threshold of life, and not long ago I shook hands with an old
Garibaldian, a survivor of that heroic Italy which was born at Nola in
1821, when two cavalry officers hoisted the flag of liberty against the
Bourbons, and which triumphed at Vittorio Veneto with the great and
magnificent victory of the Italian people. I see also among you factory
hands and their brothers of the fields.
We, Fascisti, have a great love for the working classes. But our love,
in as far as it is pure, is seriously disinterested and intransigent.
Our love does not consist in burning incense and creating new idols and
new kings, but in telling upon every occasion and in every place the
plain truth, and the more this truth is unpalatable the greater the need
to speak it out.
We, Fascisti, hitherto slandered and maligned, wished to continue the
war in order to obtain freedom of movement in Italy, and although not
giving way to a sense of weak demagogism, we are the first to recognise
that the rights of the labouring classes are sacred, and even more so
the rights of those who work the soil. And here I can give hearty praise
to the Fascisti of Ferrara, who have undertaken with facts, and not with
the useless words of the politicians, that agrarian revolution which
must gradually give the peasants the possession of the soil. I strongly
encourage the Fascisti of Ferrara to go on as they have begun, and to
become the vanguard of the Fascista agrarian movement in all Italy.
How does it come about that we are said to be sold to the middle
classes, capitalism and the Government? But already our enemies dare no
longer continue this accusation, so false and ridiculous is it. This
impressive meeting would move a heart harder than mine, and shows me
that you have done justice to those base calumnies put into circulation
by people who believed in the eternity of their fortunes, while in
reality they had barricaded themselves in a castle which must fall with
the first breath of a Fascista revolt. And this Fascista revolt, and we
could also use the more sacred and serious word _revolution_, is
inspired by indestructible and moral motives and has nothing to do with
incentives of a material nature. We, Fascisti, say that above all the
competition and those differences which divide men—and which might
almost be called natural and inevitable, since life would be
extraordinarily dull if everybody thought in the same way—above all this
there is a single reality, common in all, and it is the reality of the
nation and of the country to which we are bound, as the tree is bound by
its roots to the soil which nourishes it.
Thus, whether you like it or not, the country is an indestructible,
eternal and immortal unity, which, like all ideas, institutions and
sentiments in this world, may be eclipsed for a time, but which revives
again in the depths of the soul, as the seed thrown in the soil bursts
into flower with the coming of the warmth of spring. We have thus, by
our furious blows, broken the unworthy crust beneath which lay
imprisoned the soul of the proletariat. There were those among the
proletariat who were ashamed to be Italian; there were those who,
brutalised by propaganda, shouted “Welcome to the Germans!” and also
“Long live Austria!” They were for the most part irresponsible but
sometimes wicked! Well we, Fascisti, want to bring into every city, into
every part of the country, even the most remote, the pride and passion
of belonging to the most noble Italian race; the race which has produced
Dante, which has given Galileo, the greatest masterpieces of art, Verdi,
Mazzini, Garibaldi and d’Annunzio to the world, and which has produced
the people who won Vittorio Veneto.
And not this only. We do not intend to push the working classes
backwards. All that which they have won and which they will win is
sacred. But they must acquire these conquests by material and moral
improvement. We, Fascisti, do not speak only of rights, we speak also of
duty, as Mazzini would have wished. We have not only the verb “to take,”
we have also the verb “to give,” because sometimes when our country
calls, whether she be threatened by an internal or external enemy, we
exact both from our adherents and from those who sympathise with us
readiness even for the supreme sacrifice. And you, Fascisti of Ferrara,
have consecrated the Fascista ideals with martyrdom.
If the idea of Fascismo had not contained in itself great potentiality,
nobility and beauty, do you think that it would have spread with this
tremendous impetus! Do you think that seven lives would have been given
for it, lives which point out to us the path of perseverance and
victory? A short time ago I went to your cemetery. One by one we visited
the graves and threw our flowers upon them. Those seconds of silence
which we passed there were pregnant with feeling. Each one of us felt
that within those graves were the bodies of young men in the flower of
their days, men who were certainly loved and who had before them all the
possibilities of life. They are dead; they have fallen. But we, in this
great hour of your history, O people of Ferrara, will recall them one by
one in the orders of the day; and since they are not dead, because their
mortal clay is transformed in the infinite play of the possibilities of
the universe, we ask of the pure, bright blood of the youth of Ferrara
the inspiration to be true to our ideals, to be faithful to our nation.
And so we are content that our flags, after having saluted the dead,
smile on life, because the working people of Ferrara, and of all Italy,
have found the true path that had been forgotten, have cast off all
those ignoble politicians who had filled their heads with lying fables.
We, O Italians of Ferrara, have no need to go beyond our boundaries,
beyond the seas, in order to find the word of wisdom and of life. We do
not need to go to Russia in order to see how a great people may be
massacred. We do not need to turn the pages of the Muscovite gospels;
gospels which the prophets themselves are reviling since, overwhelmed by
the reality of life, they are denying them. We have no need to imitate
others, because brilliant original minds are to be found in Italy in all
branches of civilisation and learning. And if there is to be Socialism,
it cannot be the bestial, tyrannical Socialism of yesterday, it can only
be the Socialism of Carlo Pisacane, of Giuseppe Ferrari and Giuseppe
Mazzini.
Here, O people of Ferrara, is your history, your life and your future.
And we, who have undertaken this hard battle, which has cost us tens and
hundreds of lives, we do not ask you for salaries, we do not ask you for
votes. We only ask you for one thing, and that is that you shall shout
with us “Long live Italy!” (Loud applause.)
“MY FATHER WAS A BLACKSMITH AND I HAVE WORKED WITH HIM; HE BENT IRON,
BUT I HAVE THE HARDER TASK OF BENDING SOULS”
Speech delivered at Milan, 6th December 1922, before the workmen of
the iron foundries, in answer to Engineer Vanzetti, the manager.
On the occasion of his first visit to Milan after assuming the
Premiership of the Council, the city where he had lived and the
centre of his victorious political strife, Mussolini was urgently
summoned to the works of the Lombard Iron Foundries (Acciaierie
Lombarde), where he was welcomed with enthusiastic demonstrations of
support and appreciation. During the stormy years of 1919–20 these
very works were the scene of extraordinary events.
I am particularly glad to have seen these works, already known to me by
what has been accomplished in them in the last five strenuous years. I
am not going to make a speech, but, as has always been—and always will
be—my way, I shall tell you things clearly as they are, things that will
interest you.
The Government over which I have the honour of presiding is not, cannot
and does not wish to be anti-proletariat. The workmen are a vital part
of the nation; they are Italians and, like all Italians, when they work,
when they produce and when they live orderly lives, must be protected,
respected and defended. My Government is very strong and does not need
to seek a great deal of outside support; it neither asks for it nor
refuses it. If the workmen’s organisations choose to give me support, I
shall not reject it. But we shall have to come to a clear understanding
and to make definite agreements in order to avoid dissension later.
I was deeply moved just now while I was visiting the factory, and seemed
for an instant to be living again the bygone days of my youth. Because I
do not come of an aristocratic and illustrious family. My ancestors were
peasants who tilled the earth, and my father was a blacksmith who bent
red-hot iron on the anvil. Sometimes, when I was a boy, I helped my
father in his hard and humble work, and now I have the infinitely harder
task of bending souls. At twenty I worked with my hands—I repeat, with
my hands—first as a mason’s lad and afterwards as a mason. And I do not
tell you this in order to arouse your sympathy, but to show you how
impossible it is for me to be against the working class. I am, however,
the enemy of those who, in the name of false and ridiculous ideologies,
try to dupe the workmen and drive them towards ruin.
You will have the opportunity of realising that more valuable than my
words will be the acts of my Government, which, in all that it does,
will be inspired by and keep before it these three fundamental
principles:
First: The NATION, which is an undeniable reality.
Secondly: The necessity of PRODUCTION, because greater and better
production is not only the interest of the capitalist but also of the
workman; since the workman, together with the capitalist, loses his
livelihood and falls into poverty if the productions of the nation do
not find a market in the trade-centres of the world.
Thirdly: THE PROTECTION OF THE LEGITIMATE RIGHTS OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
Keeping these three essential principles in sight, I intend to give
peace to Italy and to make her more respected at home and abroad.
Nobody wants to go in search of adventures which will imperil the lives
and wealth of the citizens; but, on the other hand, neither do we wish
to follow a policy of renunciation nor allow Italy to be the last
considered among the nations. In order that we may be listened to in
international conferences—conferences which are of the greatest
importance to you workmen—it is necessary that the most rigid discipline
be maintained at home, as no one will listen to us if we have a
disturbed and unsettled country behind us.
You, workmen, must not think that it is only the head of the Government
who is speaking to you now, but a man who knows you well and who is
known by you; a man who understands your value and what you can and what
you cannot do. But, as the head of the Government, I tell you that this
one over which I preside is serious, strong and sure of itself, and no
slow-moving bureaucracy; it is a Government that wishes to act in the
interests of the working classes, interests which will always be
recognised when they are just.
The workmen thought that they could, and ought to, disassociate
themselves from the life of the nation; and this has been a great
mistake. They ought, instead, to be a most intimate part of the nation,
so that all our long and laborious toiling may not be miserably lost.
This is the message which comes from our dead, who, hovering above us,
repeat this command.
The Italian people must somehow find that medium of harmony necessary
for the reconstruction and development of civilisation; and if there be
rebellious and seditious minorities they must be inexorably stamped out.
Treasure up these words in your hearts and remember the motto of the
Fascista Syndicates:
The country must not be denied but conquered.
I raise my glass with you and drink to the future and the fortunes of
Italian industry, that it may take a glorious place in the eyes of the
whole world.
LABOUR TO TAKE THE FIRST PLACE IN NEW ITALY
Speech delivered at Rome, 6th January 1923, before a representative
gathering of Fascisti dock-workers from Genoa who had presented him
with an illuminated address.
You must certainly be aware of the fact that I take a great interest in
your city—an interest which dates from 1915 when Genoa, together with
Milan and Rome, led the way to revolution; because the revolution which
has brought the Fascisti into power began in the May of 1915, was
continued in the October of 1922, and goes on still, and will go on for
some time. I am very pleased to accept your message, and I thank you
with sincere cordiality.
I must tell you that the Government over which I have the honour of
presiding never has had, never can and never will have the intention of
following a so-called antilabour policy. On the contrary, I want to
praise the working classes, who do not put obstacles in the way of the
Government, who work, and who have practically abolished strikes. They
have redeemed themselves, because they no longer believe in the Asiatic
Utopia which came from Russia; they believe in themselves, in their
work; they believe in the possibility, which for me is a certainty, of a
prosperous Italian nation.
You have been directly interested in this greatness of the nation, and
you, who come from such a live centre as Genoa, are the most suited to
feel this ferment of new life, all this active preparation for a new
destiny.
The Government, as you see, governs for all, over the heads of all, and,
if necessary, against all. It governs for all, because it takes into
account all general interests; it governs against all, when any group,
whether of the middle class or of the proletariat, tries to put its
interests before the general interests of the nation. I am sure that if
the working classes—of which you are the aristocratic minority—continue
to give this noble exhibition of tranquillity and discipline, the
nation, which was upon the verge of ruin, will recover itself
completely.
I do not say things which have not been well considered and thought
over; and, after two months of government, I tell you that if the
Fascista revolution had been postponed for another few months or perhaps
only another few weeks, the nation would have fallen into a state of
chaos. All that we are performing now is really work in arrears; we are
freeing the citizens from the weight of laws which were the result of a
foolish demagogic policy; we are freeing the State from all those
superstructures which were suffocating it, from all the economic
functions which it was unfitted to perform; we are working to balance
the budget, which means re-establishing the value of the lira, which
means taking a position of dignity and influence in the international
world.
The Italy which we wish to make, which we are building up day by day,
which we shall succeed in making, as it is our aim and our immovable
determination to do, will be a magnificent creation of power and of
wisdom. You can rest assured that in this Italy the workman—and all
labour both of the brain and of the hands—will take, as is right, the
first place.