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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