Red Flags, Black Shirts
A Timeline of Ideological Developments
A Preview
“QUIS CONTRA NOS?”
"What if we perish beneath the ruins of Fiume? The spirit of our resistance will leap forth, watchful and active. From the dauntless Sinn Fein of Ireland to the red flag which in Egypt unites the Crescent and Cross, all insurrections in spirit against the devourers of raw flesh, against the exploiters of weaponless peoples, will catch flame anew from our sparks flying afar.....
....Weaponless, we will be armed. The new crusade of all poor impoverished nations is the new crusade of all men who are free against the nations which usurp power to accumulate riches.
....To recongise any yoke whatsoever before having fought tooth and nail to shake off and shatter it is the surest sigh of slavery. We have shaken off the ancient yoke and we are resolved to shake off the new yoke. With that art of forgery, which is typical of the reverend council of forgeries, known as the Peace Conference, the new yoke bears the name 'liberty'; they name Fiume a 'free city.' Fiume, 'a free city' would in a short time become a nest of traffickers, brokers, usurers and political grafters.
Fiume is the extreme Italian guardian of the Julian Alps, the extreme fortress of Latin culture. Our cause is the greatest, most beautiful that today is opposed to the dementia and vileness of the world. It extends from Ireland to Egypt, from Russia to the United States, from Rumania to India."
-Gabriele D'Annunzio, to the New York Times, 12 January 1920
"There are strong, intelligent, passionate individuals, prey to great material or intellectual needs who, placed in the ranks of the oppressed, want at whatever the cost to free themselves and, in order to do this, have no hesitation about becoming oppressors."
-Errico Malatesta, The Tragic Bandits, 1913
Last edited: