Bérmunkás, 1935. január-június (23. évfolyam, 824-849. szám)
1935-04-13 / 838. szám
8 oldal BÉRMUNKÁS 1935 április 13. Junior Column Fascism: The conservative reaction in Italy STATE OF ITALY IN 1919. Of all the countries that came out of the war victorious, Italy was the most disturbed by radical agitations. In that country the old Socialist party adopted communistic principles and in the election of 1919 carried six times as many cities and towns as in the previous election of 1913. Thus encouraged, Italian communists in several industrial centers came to the conclusion that the time was ripe to follow the Russian example. So they seized factories, expelled the proprietors, and proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat here and there in the manufacturing districts. Strange to say, the premier of Italy, at the time, Giolitti, decided to shed no blood. He let the communists keep possession of the brick walls and machinery for several days until they learned that it took special talent to operate factories and to get markets for their goods. THE RISE OF FASCISTI UNDER MUSSOLINI. The middle classes of Italy were not so cool as the government. They were dismayed by the threats of the communists and the disorders that had accompanied the recent progress of radicalism. Among the Italian citizens who watched the course of events was a young journalist, Benito Mussolini; born in 1883, the son of an Italian blacksmith, Mussolini, started life as a youth after receiving an education and a teacher’s diploma in the land of his birth. In his new home he took up the study of socialism, adopted Marxian doctrines, and became a firebrand of an agitator. For his dangerous teachings he was expelled from Switzerland. After his return to Italy, he become the editor of the leading socialist paper, and he was busily engaged in socialist propaganda when the World War crashed down upon humanity. Mussolini almost immediately declared himself in favor of the Entente Allies against Germany. Breaking with the socialist party, he threw himself into the agitation designed to force Italy into the war, and, when war was declared the fiery young radical rushed into the army. Receiving a wound at the battle front, Mussolini returned to Milan, where he edited a patriotic newspaper. Seeing the communists organizing in bands to seize and get possession of the government, and committing a good deal of violence and many murders in the operation, Mussolini decided to form a counter movement. In the spring of 1919 he began to organize, in opposition to the radicals, what he called “Fascist Fighting Groups,” taking the title from Italian word fasci, fasces, or bundle of rods, the symbol of unity and authority in Ancient Rome. Before many months passed, Italy was covered with a network of such societies dedicated to the self-chosen task of suppressing the followers of Lenin and the edvocates of all forms of communism, socialism, and political democracy. They fell upon their foes, driving communist mayors and councilors out of office, beating and killing, until they practically silenced the radicals in the name of Italian patriotism. MUSSOLINI BECOMES DICTATOR OF ITALY. Finding their power daily increasing, the Fascisti, in October, 1922, held a great congress at Naples, where forthy thousand strong, they paraded the city in military formation, wearing black shirts, with Mussolini at their head. In a burst of enthusiasm, Mussolini called upon the ministry to risign, threatening them with a march on Rome, where he proposed “to hand over to the King and Army a renewed Italy.” The cabinet wanted to declare martial law, but the King, fearing a revolution, called Mussolini to Rome and on October 30, 1922, made him prime minister. When he was installed in office, Mussolini summoned parliament and told the members that if they did not give him dictatorial powers he would drive them out of the city. They immediatelly conferred upon the dictator the authority of a Caesar to rule practically as he pleased. FASCIST PRINCIPLES. Although there was no little difference of opinion among the fasciti as to their program, in the course of years after the establishment of their dictatorship they made it clear that they stood for at least three fundamental ideas: 1. First of all, the repudiated as flatly as did the Bolshev- iki in Russia the doctrine of democratic government professed in England and America; viz, popular elections, majority rule, freedom of the press, and liberty of speach. The Italian parliament was allowed to continue, but Mussolini was made responsible only to the King (that is, to no one but himself) and he was empowered to remain in office even if the parliament voted against him. No editor was allowed to publish a newspaper without the consent of the government; and if he criticized the government, that is, Mussolini, he was liable to have his paper seized and to be punished besides. 2. While abolishing democracy and self-government the Fascisti also rejected both the Russian and the English idea of the proper relations for labor and capital. Russia declared that organized labor, the proletariat, should rule through a dictatorship. The Fascisti declared that while the laborers and peasants deserved sympathy, they were not intelligent enough to govern the country or run the factories. England followed the rule of allowing working people to organize unions freely and the capitalist to form corporations and associations, and then letting the two sides strugle with each other over wages, and hours, resorting to strikes and lockouts to enforce their demands. This theory the Fascisti utterly disclaimed. They provided for the organization of laborers in unions under government supervision, forbade strikes and lockouts, and ordered the settlement of all disputes between capital and labor by government courts of arbitration. The old Italian trade unions protested agains this iron rule, saying that it was a scheme of employers to enslave working people, but Mussolini paid no attention to their complaints. In short, the Fascisti demanded a cooperation of classes under the direction of the middle classes as superior in intelligence and capacity. 3. Departing from the Bol- sheviki idea that imperialism is a capitalist scheme for seizing other peoples’ territory, the Fascisti adopted a kind of Pan-Italian creed, somewhat Ebben a városban, amely maga egy nagy ország és amelyben olyan gyakran szemünk elé kerül a nagy város rettenetes nyomorúsága a sok millió nincstelenével együtt, látva ezt a végnélküli ármádiát és azok birka türelmét, azt kell, hogy mondjuk, hogy a munkásságnak sokkal nagyobb bűne nyomorúságos helyzete, mint magának a tőkés osztálynak. Mert amig a kapitalista még az elnökkel is harcba száll, amikor a profitját látja megtámadva, a munkás önmaga kovácsolja azokat az eszközöket, amelyek az ő mozgását, az ő szabadságát vannak hivatva megbénítani, gúzsba kötözni. Ennek a nemtörődömségnek az árát fizetjük most nélkülözésünk minden formájában. És még itt sem nyílik fel a szeme ennek a buta tömegnek, még most is az einem érhető délibáb, az ígéretek halmazára vár. Még mindég nem tanulta meg, hogy egyedül a maga és hozzája hasonlók lehetnek helyzete jobbra fordítói. A mig szervezetlenül bolyong városszerte az alamizsnák után, addig semmibe sem veszik sőt megvetés, lenézés az after fashion of Pan-Germanism. They called attention to the glorious past of Italy when Rome ruled Europe from Arabia to Scotland. They pointed out the noble qualities of the Italian people. They lamented the fact that they were crowded into a little country, and declared that they must have colonies at all cost. They organized Fascist societies in various place where Italian emigrants had settled, including the United States, and federated them with the home societies to preserve Italian citizenship, Italian rights and Italian culture. To cheering multitudes Mussolini made eloquent speeches about “Greater Italy” and hinted at war, if necessary, to make a place for Italy in the sun. When, for example, some Italian officers, serving on a boundary commission in Greece, were brutally murdered, Mussolini sent an ulltimatum to Greece as harsh as that sent to Serbia by Austria in 1914. Receiving an unsatisfactory answer, he seized the island: of Corfu and bombarded the town of Corfu, killing fifteen or twenty innocent inhabitants. Not long afterwards he crossed over to Africa, as if to say to mankind that Italy regarded that part of the world as her rightful property, hinting that the French would do well tO' respect Italian claims to empire. Yet on occassions, Mussolini praised peace and spoke about respecting the rights of his neighbors. But, whatever he said, there was no doubt that England and France looked with alarm op the possibility of war in the Mediterranean as a result of Italy’s cololnial aspirations under Fascist government. Cleveland, Ohio. osztályrésze, de ha szervezkedne az Egy Nagy Szervezetbe és harcolna a segélyek helyet a munkaalkalom, a rendes megélhetést biztositó fizetésekért nem lenne az utca “csavargója” — mint ahogy New York nincstelenjeit a még oda nem jutottak intézik el. Ébredj te nyöszörgő ember, szervezkedj. Csatlakozz az IWW-hoz, mert csak ez a szervezet képes formájánál fogva is a te és valamennyi munkás nyomorát megszüntetni és emberhez méltó megélhetést biztosítani. Ne késlekedj, ne légy a magad ellensége. Mi téged várunk, hogy veled és társaiddal a harcot a rendszer megváltozásáért megkezdhessük és győzelemre juttassuk. New York, 1935 április. G. Nagy. AZ IWW BROOKLYNI olasz csoportja április hó 20-án, este 8 órakor 158 Carroll St. helyiségében, műsorral egybekötött TÁNCMULATSÁGOT rendez a szervezési alapjára. Belépő jegy ára 25c. Meddig vártok még?
