March on Rome
For the movie by Dino Risi, see March on Rome (film) The March on Rome was a pseudo-
coup d'état by which
Mussolini's
National Fascist Party came to power in
Italy. It took place on
October 29,
1922.
Benito Mussolini founded the first
Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in
March 1919 at the beginning of the
biennio rosso, which he located at the
far left of the
interventionist movement in favour of the entrance into the
World War I, to which he had rallied himself during the war. He then supported an
anticapitalist and
nationalist program (
eight-hour day, land sharing, workers' participation, popular referendums, etc.). However, after a defeat at the November 1919 elections, supported by the
ruling classes and the Italian state, he launched the
squadristi against the
general strike which had started at the
Alfa Romeo factory in
Milan in August
1920. After the assassination of Giordani, a right-wing municipal counsellor in
Bologna, in November
1920, the
squadristi were used as repression tool by the state to crush the
socialist movement (which included a strong
anarcho-syndicalist component), especially in the
Po Valley.
Trade unions were dissolved while left-wing mayors resigned. The fascists, included on
Giolitti's "National Union" lists at the May
1921 elections, then won 35 seats. Mussolini then withdrew his support to Giolitti, and attempted to reach legally power by signing a "pacification pact" with the
socialists, which provoked a conflict with the most fanatized part of the movement, the
squadristi and their leaders the
ras. In July
1921, Giolitti attempted without success to dissolve the
squadristi. The contract with the socialists was then broke at its turn in November 1921, Mussolini adopted a
nationalist and
conservative program and founded the
National Fascist Party, which boasted 700 000 members in July
1922. In August, an
anti-fascist general strike was triggered, but failed to rally the
Partito Popolare Italiano and was repressed by the fascists. When Mussolini learnt that President of the Council
Luigi Facta had given to
Gabriele d'Annunzio the mission to organize a large demonstration on
November 4,
1922 to celebrate the national victory during the war, he decided the March to accelerate the process and sidestep any possible competition.
The
quadriumvirs leading the Fascist Party,
Emilio De Bono,
Italo Balbo, one of the most famous
ras,
Michele Bianchi and
Cesare de Vecchi, organized the March while the
Duce stayed behind. On
October 24,
1922, Mussolini declared before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in
Naples: "We want to become the state!", and then retired to Milan. Meanwhile, the
Blackshirts, who had occupied the Po plain, took all strategic points of the country. On
October 26,
Antonio Salandra warned
Prime Minister Luigi Facta that Mussolini demanded his resignation and that he was preparing to march on Rome. However, Facta didn't believe Salandra and thought that Mussolini would nicely govern at his side. To meet the threat posed by the bands of fascist troops now gathering outside Rome, Luigi Facta (who had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a
state of siege for Rome. However, the
King Victor Emmanuel III refused to sign the military order and handed power on
October 28 to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class and the liberal right-wing.
The march itself was composed of less than 30,000 men, but the king in part feared a
civil war since the
squadristi had already taken control of the Po plain and most part of the country, while Fascism was no longer seen as a threat to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on
October 29,
1922, while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. Mussolini thus legally reached power, in accordance with the
Statuto Albertino, the Italian Constitution. The March on Rome was not the conquest of power which
Fascism later celebrated but rather a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution, a transfer made possible by the surrender of public authorities in the face of fascist intimidation and the complicity of the
bourgeoisie, who thought it possible to instrumentalize Mussolini. The latter had declared himself a member of the
Manchester School in favour of
free market and
laissez faire economics. He also feigned to be ready to take a subalternate ministry in a Giolitti or
Salandra cabinet, but then demanded the presidency of the Council. Fearing a conflict with the fascists, the ruling class thus handed power to Mussolini, who would install the
dictatorship after the
June 10,
1924 assassination of
Giacomo Matteotti, who had finished writing
The Fascist Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination, by
Amerigo Dumini and others agents of the
Ceka secret police created by Mussolini.
*
The March on Rome entry at
tiscali.reference.
