The Third Crack In The Dam: The Doctrine of Volkism and Fascism and the Italian Revolution
If anything else cannot be understood, let this be the example. Socialism is to Communism what Volkism is to Fascism.
- Gerald Harrison, founder of the Australian Fatherland Party, addressing the first General Meeting on the 18th June 1951.
To understand the principles of both political ideologies, one must understand their place in a greater context.
In the ancien regime of France prior to the Revolution, the Estates General would be formed in such a way that the traditionalist and conservative representatives sat to the King's right, with the moderates and centrists in the middle and the radicals and revolutionaries to the King's left. In essence, where people stood that time would define the politics for the rest of history. However, many people considered it simplistic, with historians after the Second World War taking an in-depth look at people's beliefs in places such as Australia, Britain, France, the United States and China.
For the sake of time, we will consult with the most popular yet controversial example: The Miliotis Scale devised by Dr Archimedes Miliotis (1) during a series of lectures at Oxford University in 1982 - 1983. Miliotis designed a system where each ideology could be marked down according to several tenants and statements therein:
1. Economic Intervention by the Government - Laissez-faire, Welfare Net, Mixed Economy, State Capitalist, Nationalisation
2. Religion in Society - Atheistic State, Secular State, Religious Tolerance, Separation of Church and State, Pastoral System, National Religion, Theocratic Regime
3. Children In Society - Total Emancipation, Apprentice Boys and Girls, Schools For Learning, Compulsory Education, Compulsory Boarding Schools
4. The Family - No Nuclear Family, Communal rearing of children, the Nuclear Family, The Family is promoted, The Family is Subordinate to the State
5. The Government - No Authority, Night Watchman State, Democratic State, Natural State, Safety Net, Interventionist State, Totalitarian State
6. The Military - Citizen Defence, Militia, Army Serving a State, Military Junta, The People are Subordinate to the Military.
7. The Race - Miscegenation (2), Minority-Racial Preference, Personal Preference, Personal-Racial Preference, Racial Purist
8. The Law - Laws of Nature Apply, Social Contract, Regulatory State, Legalist State, Nanny State, Curfew State, Authoritarian State
9. Morality - To Each Their Own, A Code of Honour, Secular Morals, Inalienable Rights, Religious Morals, Morals of "God", One Man's Morals Over All
10. Nation - No Nation and No Borders, Tribes, A Defined Community With Borders, Expansionist State, Exponential State (3)
Communism is the idea (rooted in philosophy, economics, politics and sociology) that the people must reorient the society around the common ownership of the means of production and the abolition of social classes and hierarchy thereby, money and the state. It is based on the idea of two diametrically opposed groups that have existed in all capitalist societies: The Bourgeoisie, otherwise known as "the Capitalist Class" and the Proletariat or the "Working Class". The bourgeoise are, according to communism, the minority in society that profit off the working class via private ownership of the means of production. The proletariat, according to the theory, work for their wages and are shut out of the system by the bourgeoise. According to communist theory, it must be made clear that the working class (Proletariats) must rise up against the capitalists and take away the means of production for themselves to share among the people.
Socialism, as opposed to the violent revolution marking communism, is rooted in the social ownership of the means of production via democratic means. That is to say, socialism is built upon democratic processes to allow the proletariat to control the means of production. It should be noted, however, that socialism is the primary stage of communism. In other words, socialism leads to communism.
Fascism is the political idea that liberal democracy, conservatism, socialism and capitalism are irrelevant to the state. A one-party state, totalitarian in power and authoritarian in nature would be beneficial to a nation. This nation would not be constrained by any morality that exists in the pre-Fascist society, such as religion, laissez-faire capitalism, liberalism, human rights, et cetera. What would matter to a nation would be demographics. To quote David Robert Jones, a British sociologist and open Volkist:
But within the principles of Fascism (5), a problem was found. Not from a fellow Fascist, but from a contrarian accosted by the public for being a pornographer despite his attention to the dehumanising effects of industrialisation and modernity within English society.
David Herbert Lawrence (1885 - 1930) (6)
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A contrarian by nature, he was reviled as a misogynist but at the same time praised as having strong female characters within his works as well as support for women's suffrage at his youth. He was also, according to Bertram Russell, a supporter of converting the British Empire from a monarchy to an absolute dictator and dictatrix to rule over England. This was, of course, when he condemned the Trotsky led-revolts in Russia and in the Dutch East Indies and Marx's theories in general. It was during his time in Italy with Bertram Russell in 1925 when he discovered translated documents given by a fascist sympathiser. Upon reading the whole thing, Lawrence said out of nowhere, "how will you convince people to be a part of the minority when power is never given back to the people?" Of course, it was said in his contrarian nature and not in a way to improve fascist thinking. Yet it did.
What had to occur was a transitionary stage. Something that had to develop to transform the liberal democratic state into the fascist state.
We now turn to Giovanni Gentile.
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Gentile was an Italian that dabbled in philosophy that was Hegelian and that contained idealism. In the 1919 Election, the ruling Prime Minister Antonio Salandra was defeated by the rising Liberals, Democrats and Radicals (LDR) under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (7) and the new Italian People's Party under Luigi Sturzo. To gain the initiative of the pro-war public and to combat the rise of the Italian Socialist Party (which won 166 seats instead of OTL's 156), Sturzo managed to negotiate a coalition with the veteran's rights party Combatants' Party (24 seats), the socially conservative Economic Party (12 seats) and the rump remains of the Liberal Union Party of Salandra. With the Italian Socialist Party denied their right as the largest party, talk of revolution began to unfold. But more on that later.
Gentile would form his ideal leadership of the nation from the Philosopher King: A hard-working, thrifty individual that is wise, strong, courageous and just to the people that he rules over. Such a person would not need to be elected and would continue his education as a wise man. He would not be restrained by democracy or by the morality of the mob, or by socialism or liberalism.
Using the system of syndicates, labour and capital would be united in a corporatist system. This would be where businesses, trade unions and workplaces would form "corporate groups" to advocate common interest within a certain sphere such as agriculture, the military, industry, mining, et cetera. Formed in guilds, this would provide harmony among the classes (poor, lower classes, middle and upper class). This system can also be found under the "revolutionary syndicalism" of Georges Sorel.
Having found flaws within democracy, the fascist movement within Italy feared that the next election would see the rise of the Italian Socialists. Anti-democratic sentiments meant that the fascists believed in replacing the parliament of Italy with a "Chamber of Corporations", where the representatives of each sphere of industry would represent itself and its own interests.
The economy was to also be autarkic in nature: Italy was meant to provide all the resources that she could for her population. If she could not, then expansion was necessary. With the acquisition of German Cameroon, it was to be the future post of Italian migrants if Italy were not able to hold "surplus population". It was this part of the fascist policy that took not from Social Darwinism and the imperialism of Britain, France and the other European powers.
But it was still not answered: How would a state transfer itself from the liberal democratic state to the fascist state. Gentile would write of the need to develop a collective group, a collective race or a collective demographic within a nation. Such interests would be built on collective interests that are outside of the Marxist dichotomy of Bourgeoisie-Proletariat. Instead, theses interests would be according to industry (which would allow a greater motivation towards Corporatism), to race (which would build up the structure for a Racial Army) and to ability (where the physically strong are endorsed to breed as much as possible, while the mentally disabled undergo euthanasia or sterilisation). In order to promote the strong, one-party state, it would first use the power of democracy to take its policies to the people. As the mandate for government is weakened due to partisanship, the party must campaign on longer terms of office and or stronger government powers, which would allow for a greater exploitation of extrajudicial powers. As the powers are granted, the "democratic autocracy" as Gentile stated, would be overtaken by the "True Fascist State that is formed by the body of the Nation".
Searching for a name for such a system of "democratic autocracy", Gentile turned to the "blood and soil" idea of the German Völkisch movement, naming the intermediate period Volkism. Volkism would allow for the transition from a democracy to an anti-democracy, the capitalist nation to a syndicalist one, a conservative nation to an anti-conservative nation and a communism nation to an anti communism nation.
In short, according to the ATL quote, socialism is to communism what volkism is to fascism.
Written between September 1919 and February 1920, The Doctrine of Volkism and Fascism would become the tome of the anti-conservative right, the syndicalists that believed in war and in expansionism. As the tensions between the workers and employers rose, the publication of Gentile's work began to spread among the anti-communist factions within the country. While Russia and the Dutch East Indies would never be able to deal with the revolution, Italy seemed to go the opposite way. In 1919 alone, 1.5 million workers were involved in strikes as the Polish Flu had struck the country.
As the post-war population was demobilising, the fascists and the communists began to ramp up their confrontational styles. The fascists began to bear truncheons and wear black uniforms, while the communists named and shamed non-union workers into compliance. Alberto Meschi, one of the leaders of the Italian Syndicalist Union, began to call for men like Mussolini to back down from anything extreme in March 1920. Given how the previous months had been filled with alleyway stabbings, driveway shootings and rioting on both sides, the threat was considered hollow. Mussolini would then address the Italian Fasces of Combat on the 16th March 1920 in Catanzaro:
(8)
On the 25th of March, Gramsci was walking along the Piazza del Duomo, flanked by a five members of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Seeing the unrest as opportunity, he was planning on addressing a rally of fellow supporters in the wake of the ruling coalition government splitting due to the Combatants' Party members threatening to join the Opposition. This came after veteran's payments were cut and the defence budget being reduced in order to prevent Orlando's LDR from voting with the Socialists. Gramsci hoped, that by the CP doing this, the Italian Socialists would have the mandate to rule if they protested for a fresh election.
Standing in-between the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Battistero di San Giovanni, Gramsci began to address the citizens of Florence on the dire straits that their country was focussed on. Despite the posters declaring "PEACE HAS BEEN GAINED" and "TRAVEL TO OUR NEW COLONIES!", there was no sign of victory for the people. As each paragraph of his speech was made, a few more people came in. Then, at 1:12pm, seventeen men approached from the northern side and thirty three from the southern side of the meeting. Taking out a Beretta M1917 (9), one of the blackshirts aimed at Gramsci. Shooting him five times, the man charged forward to shoot at the crowd. Following the lead of the gunman, the forty nine other blackshirts came in to assault both peaceful citizens as well as members of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Shooting and beating one another, the fight broke off at 3:52pm, when the fascists retreated from the wrath of ISU members. Upon looking at the scene, the police declared Gramsci to be dead, having suffered massive trauma to the head, at lest two pints of blood being lost as well as a shattered pelvis. That night, members of the ISU held a candlelight vigil in his memory, as they declared him a martyr for their cause.
Antonio Gramsci (22nd January 1891 - 25th March 1920)
And with every martyr, there must come an act to avenge him. (10)
On the 21st of April 1920, 60,000 members of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Syndicalist Union marched. The 21st of April was special to the Italian people, as it marked the founding of Rome in 753 BC. 60,000 men marched on Rome, armed and angry at the system. Not just for the coalition makeup that denied their party the right to govern, but also the lack of success despite being on the winning side of the First World War. These men demanded the overthrow of the monarch, the restoration of the Italian Socialist Party's right to rule, as well as universal suffrage and wage rises.
Having been caught by surprise, the Prime Minister urged the King to consider the need to retaliate. King Victor Emmanuel III allowed for it to happen. Historians have debated whether it was because of the Prime Minister's plea, the fact that Rome was suffering traffic jams and delays in day-to-day work because of the marchers or because of pressure from businesses, the military and fascists who opposed the marchers. Whatever reason, the King allowed for the protests to be broken up.
On the 22nd April, a counter-protest within the city of 10,000 people clashed with the marchers, who began drawing out pistols and firearms. News of gunshots spread throughout the city. Pope Benedict XV allowed for scared citizens to come inside the Vatican, as every man with a gun barricaded inside buildings. Street by street, the protestors and Romans clashed, with even women and children being caught in the crossfire. Now outside the city, the news of the march alerted the fascists. Mussolini, General Emilio De Bono and 20,000 armed fascists and soldiers marched from the south.
A small trickle of the many thousands of fascists and soldiers marching against the "Red Protest"
On the 24th April 1920, the leader of the march, Giuseppe Di Vittorio, declared the founding of the First Republic of Italy. At midday three hours later, he urged the men guarding the Vatican to stand down or they would storm the barricades and force their way in. Fearing the possibility of death, the Pope and the Cardinals allowed him inside. Gathering with a dozen unarmed MPs from the Italian Socialist Party and members of the Italian Syndicalist Union, Di Vittorio addressed Pope Benedict XV and the Cardinals. The Pope wished to resolve the Roman Question once and for all. Di Vittorio demanded that Rome would be the capital of the First Republic and that the Papacy shall not receive any other lands than the Vatican itself. After an hour of argument, Pope Benedict XV realised that there would be no possible way around it. Di Vittorio would end the Roman Question, and Pope Benedict feared that Di Vittorio would find someone more agreeable to the terms. Wanting no war to be fought over this matter, the Pope agreed to those terms, in exchange for the Papacy remaining in Italy and Catholicism not being persecuted and that elections are to be held for the rightful governance of Italy. Wanting Di Vittorio to agree to the last point, the Pope did not move on any other matter unless he was willing to concede the result. There was the hope, that if the King called for fresh elections, the Socialists could be defeated and that the order could be restore. That is what he hoped.
At 10pm, the fascists and the soldiers arrived at Rome, clashing through the night with the socialists and communists. Fighting went on even under the cover of darkness, with people on both sides isolated and being beaten up or captured. Several socialists were cornered and shot to pieces in the south of the city, with up to 300 unarmed Socialist Party members being shot and beaten to dead with iron bars, glass bottles and bricks. Meanwhile, fascists were given no mercy, with several of them being shot and then left to hang upside down until sunrise.
Because when sunrise came up, everyone asked the same question. "What the fuck happened?"
The reason why they asked that was because, during the night, Mussolini was cornered and shot alongside his fellow fascists, left to hang upside down with a pool of blood trickling onto the ground.
Mussolini with a fellow fascist, dead for over eight hours
Having had their leader killed and reaching no objective, the fascists retreated from Rome at 9am on the 25th April 1920. Over 6,560 people died in the fighting, with the socialists under Di Vittorio forcibly ending the Roman Question. Whether Pope Benedict XV felt any better would be up for debate.
King Victor Emmanuel III, having heard of the violence, met the Pope and assisted with the relief of the city. The ruling coalition under the Italian People's Party was more or less broken, with the Socialists having the plurality but no willing partner. With all details at hand, the King declared a snap election for the 1st September 1920.
Campaigning against the March on Rome, the Italian Fasces of Combat (IFC) under Giovanni Gentile (the popular successor and intellectual mind behind Mussolini and the movement) sent thousands of people to speak on behalf of their candidates, moving onto every single one of the 508 seats and making Mussolini a martyr of the cause. The fascists adopted a new motto:
The Combatants' Party, shocked by the March, stood down any candidates and merged with the NFP on the 1st May, as did the pro-business anti-communist Economist Party, the liberal/conservative Italian Liberal Party, nationalist Italian Nationalist Association and the socially liberal Social Democratic Party. Vittorio Emanuele Orlando would take his party, renamed the Democratic Liberal Party (not to be confused with the UK Democratic Liberals), and campaign on a centrist platform, opposing the violence of the fascists and the communists and socialists. The Italian People's Party suffered a crisis, as much of the rank-and-file were split over the opinion of the fascists. Over one-third of the candidates defected to the IFC. The Italian Republican Party managed to regain confidence, as moderates began to be dissuaded by the violence endorsed by the Italian Socialist Party.
Out of 522 seats and 10,852,268 registered voters (11), the 1st September 1920 would be an interesting presentation. And by interesting presentation, I mean the same shit repackaged with more seats and more votes.
And when the final result came
THE
SOCIALISTS
WERE
FUCKING
LIVID
Angry at being the largest party and yet commanding no majority, protests rose in Turin, Florence, Rome and Milan as Di Vittorio declared himself President of the First Republic of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel III ordered his arrest, with the fascists attempting to kill him when he attempted to arrive in Rome. Having failed to do so, the fascists retreated as they were met with a counter protest.
Giovanni Gentile, along with General Emilio De Bono, assembled 25,000 fascists in Naples to declare their allegiance to "God, the King and to Italy", where they announced Di Vittorio as a traitor to the state and a wanted man. At the first sight of the results, every party refused to enter into a coalition with the Italian Socialist Party. An attempt to storm armouries succeeded in the Po Valley, where over 150,000 socialists made themselves ready with rifles, machine guns and even grenades. The whole of October was dedicated to open street warfare, with roads blocked off by either fascists or socialists. Tarring and feathering opponents, smashing up houses during the night, ransacking schools and businesses, setting fire to cars and restaurants.
In short, Italy was burning.
Group of Italian Syndicalist Union members celebrating the Liberation of Turin (9th - 14th October 1920)
Soldiers for the Italian Fasces of Combat facing an enemy charge outside of Florence. Despite being beaten back, the fascists kill over 12,000 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Florence (12th - 21st October 1920)
After the failure of the German Revolution and the Russian Revolution, over 150,000 "International Combatants" from Russia, Poland, Denmark, the United States, Spain, France, Greece, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom arrived to fight alongside the Republican forces. These people would smuggle weapons and supplies overland and into the communist-held territory. Meanwhile, a total of 65,000 "Collaborators" joined the fascists, from almost the exact same places. In fact, one-third of all international volunteers were Russian, whether or not they were fighting alongside the Communists or the Fascists.
The fighting wore on, as the industrial north was given over to production of war materials. Despite some areas beginning to see starvation, the conflict was legitimising the Di Vittorio regime. As there was no longer a chance of peace, businesses withdrew their monies from banks in the north of the country, seeing a flight of capital to the conservative, agrarian south. Angry over this, Di Vittorio issued National Ordinance Number One: the expropriation of wealth from banks in socialist-held territory for the use of the war effort. Over 20 million livre were taken through this method, although five times the amount was said to have escaped their clutches. Noxious poison gases were deployed by both sides, suffocating the innocent and driving the horror of fighting closer and closer onto the doorstep of every one. Flamethrowers were purchased by both sides, with Florence witnessing the execution of 500 "spies" by the Socialist Party, while copies of The Communist Manifesto were torched under Giovanni Gentile's orders. Airplanes began to be used for strategic bombing, with ten times as many planes used by the fascists. Many of the planes, as well as the pilots, came from Germany. Speaking of, a total of 25,000 Germans fought in the Italian Revolution, with only 3,000 fighting for the communists. Many of the Germans on the fascist side would take part in battles as well as using experimental weaponry. One such example was a dozen tanks in the Battle of Ravenna commanded by a man named Erwin Rommel.
With no side willing to back down and no side able to gain the upper hand, the Pope declared a truce on the 25th December 1921. It was declared that the north of the country would declare independence as the First Republic of Italy(12). The south would maintain its legitimacy as the Kingdom of Italy, retaining all of the colonies that were held in place. No reparations were to be paid, however prisoners were to be exchanged. The King, having had enough of war, agreed as well as Di Vittorio. Sickened by the fighting, Errico Malatesta waits to see if there is any chance to challenge Di Vittorio for the leadership of the new country.
As families return to broken homes, mothers begin to bury their husbands and their sons. In no more than sixteen months of fighting, a total of 120,000 Italians died alongside 47,580 international volunteers. A total of 250,000 men, women and children were wounded, with over 100,000 homeless. Many farmlands would be scorched for decades, with repopulation efforts continuing to this day. As for the two nations. It would take a while before unification became a reality.
1. ATL version of George Miller, aka the director of Mad Max
2. The choice of deliberately wanting to be with others outside of "race", has nothing to do with the crime of mixed-race marriages or sex.
3. "Exponential State" fits more with the concept of lebensraum.
4. ATL version of "Third World" or "Developing", but in a more racist context.
5. ATL Fascism takes more of the element from Blanquism.
6. OTL Passport photo
7. OTL Prime Minister of Italy that was part of the "Big Four" at the OTL Treaty of Versailles.
8. ATL speech references the "lady's not for turning" from Thatcher and "We Will Bury You" from Khrushchev.
9. OTL Beretta M1918, looks like this:
10. ATL March on Rome with Communists instead of Fascists! WHOAAAAAAAAAAH
11. 1919 Election had 508 seats, whereas 1921 election had 535 seats. Given how there is 27 seat difference in two years, I divided by two (13.5) and rounded up to get the ATL 1920 Election result. I used the same method for the estimated voter registration, but I took away 6,000 because of how many adults died during the March on Rome (the rest were children).
12. The First Republic consists of (deep deep breath): Provinces of Viterbo, Grosseto, Siena, Arezzo, Pesaro Urbino, Ancona, Perugia, Terni, Macerata, Fermo, Rimini, Livorno, Pisa, Firenze, Forlì Cesena, Ravenna, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca, Massa and Carrara, La Spezia, Genova, Savona, Imperia, Cuneo, Torino, Aosta, Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Pavia, Alessandria, Asti, Vercelli, Biella, Verbano Cusio Ossola, Varese, Novara, Milano, Monza and Brianza, Como, Sondrio, Lecco, Lodi, Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantova, Rovigo, Venezia, Padova, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Trento, Bolzano, Belluno, Udine, Pordenone and Gorizia.
All of the gains from the First World War, including Trieste, remain in the hands of the Kingdom of Italy thanks to crackdowns from the fascists and from the Italian military. So the FIR should look something like this:
Jesus Christ, it has taken me quite a few days, because things have evolved in my head. I now have stuff flowing on that have not been mentioned before.
I hope that you have enjoyed this update and that you continue to like and comment. All thoughts are welcome, it helps to keep this TL realistic and I will see you all next time.
Bye for now.
- Gerald Harrison, founder of the Australian Fatherland Party, addressing the first General Meeting on the 18th June 1951.
To understand the principles of both political ideologies, one must understand their place in a greater context.
In the ancien regime of France prior to the Revolution, the Estates General would be formed in such a way that the traditionalist and conservative representatives sat to the King's right, with the moderates and centrists in the middle and the radicals and revolutionaries to the King's left. In essence, where people stood that time would define the politics for the rest of history. However, many people considered it simplistic, with historians after the Second World War taking an in-depth look at people's beliefs in places such as Australia, Britain, France, the United States and China.
For the sake of time, we will consult with the most popular yet controversial example: The Miliotis Scale devised by Dr Archimedes Miliotis (1) during a series of lectures at Oxford University in 1982 - 1983. Miliotis designed a system where each ideology could be marked down according to several tenants and statements therein:
1. Economic Intervention by the Government - Laissez-faire, Welfare Net, Mixed Economy, State Capitalist, Nationalisation
2. Religion in Society - Atheistic State, Secular State, Religious Tolerance, Separation of Church and State, Pastoral System, National Religion, Theocratic Regime
3. Children In Society - Total Emancipation, Apprentice Boys and Girls, Schools For Learning, Compulsory Education, Compulsory Boarding Schools
4. The Family - No Nuclear Family, Communal rearing of children, the Nuclear Family, The Family is promoted, The Family is Subordinate to the State
5. The Government - No Authority, Night Watchman State, Democratic State, Natural State, Safety Net, Interventionist State, Totalitarian State
6. The Military - Citizen Defence, Militia, Army Serving a State, Military Junta, The People are Subordinate to the Military.
7. The Race - Miscegenation (2), Minority-Racial Preference, Personal Preference, Personal-Racial Preference, Racial Purist
8. The Law - Laws of Nature Apply, Social Contract, Regulatory State, Legalist State, Nanny State, Curfew State, Authoritarian State
9. Morality - To Each Their Own, A Code of Honour, Secular Morals, Inalienable Rights, Religious Morals, Morals of "God", One Man's Morals Over All
10. Nation - No Nation and No Borders, Tribes, A Defined Community With Borders, Expansionist State, Exponential State (3)
Communism is the idea (rooted in philosophy, economics, politics and sociology) that the people must reorient the society around the common ownership of the means of production and the abolition of social classes and hierarchy thereby, money and the state. It is based on the idea of two diametrically opposed groups that have existed in all capitalist societies: The Bourgeoisie, otherwise known as "the Capitalist Class" and the Proletariat or the "Working Class". The bourgeoise are, according to communism, the minority in society that profit off the working class via private ownership of the means of production. The proletariat, according to the theory, work for their wages and are shut out of the system by the bourgeoise. According to communist theory, it must be made clear that the working class (Proletariats) must rise up against the capitalists and take away the means of production for themselves to share among the people.
Socialism, as opposed to the violent revolution marking communism, is rooted in the social ownership of the means of production via democratic means. That is to say, socialism is built upon democratic processes to allow the proletariat to control the means of production. It should be noted, however, that socialism is the primary stage of communism. In other words, socialism leads to communism.
Fascism is the political idea that liberal democracy, conservatism, socialism and capitalism are irrelevant to the state. A one-party state, totalitarian in power and authoritarian in nature would be beneficial to a nation. This nation would not be constrained by any morality that exists in the pre-Fascist society, such as religion, laissez-faire capitalism, liberalism, human rights, et cetera. What would matter to a nation would be demographics. To quote David Robert Jones, a British sociologist and open Volkist:
Fascism is rooted in the idea of Race. Race has always been a part of our understanding of humanity, but Fascism and its creators took it one step further to declare that Races had to be not only superior, but solitary in their existence. Either by assimilation or extermination.
Fascism was developed in Italy by Benito Mussolini, based on the fasci, Italian organisations that were the equivalent of guilds or syndicates. In 1915, Mussolini created the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria (Fasces of Revolutionary Action), which was socialist yet anti-Marxist. Mussolini, during this time, would take his inspiration from the controversial French socialist Louis Auguste Blanqui. Blanqui would be famous or infamous for the quote "No gods, no masters". Blanquism would be controversial as well, as it declared the ideas of a social movement and the importance of the working class to be irrelevant. What mattered, according to the philosophy, would be the concentration of radical power in a small sector of the community. Thus, the movement could not be perverted or whitewashed before the radicals overthrew the bourgeoisie and established the totalitarian social order. Then and only then could the movement be restored to the people. What separated Fascism from Blanquism would be the necessity of a continuous social order that was restrictive and anti-democratic. At war's end, the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria began recruiting from pro-war trade unions, as interventionism became a factor of Fascist thinking. So, as the 1920's came along and as the Italians saw the return of the Dutch East Indies to The Netherlands, they began to see a window of opportunity. As colonial powers expanded their influence, their culture and their ideals onto the "Unbuilt World" (4), the fascists believed that Fascism can be given the same chance. If Fascism took hold in a state, it would be necessary to spread the influence to the nation's colonies (if it had any) or to allies. This "Syndicate of Fascist States" would rival the capitalist powers and the "Unbuilt World". Any attempt to resist would be met with a "Racial Army", a mass levy of soldiers that fitted the model of a "racially pure" Nation-State. Women would be subordinate to men, in such a way that women could not obtain employment, that they would be pressured to go into the home and that men were to obtain a status that was superficial and devoid of individuality. All children would be reared by the state, with the family meaning nothing but loyalty to the race, whatever race it happened to be.
But within the principles of Fascism (5), a problem was found. Not from a fellow Fascist, but from a contrarian accosted by the public for being a pornographer despite his attention to the dehumanising effects of industrialisation and modernity within English society.
David Herbert Lawrence (1885 - 1930) (6)
View attachment 578783
A contrarian by nature, he was reviled as a misogynist but at the same time praised as having strong female characters within his works as well as support for women's suffrage at his youth. He was also, according to Bertram Russell, a supporter of converting the British Empire from a monarchy to an absolute dictator and dictatrix to rule over England. This was, of course, when he condemned the Trotsky led-revolts in Russia and in the Dutch East Indies and Marx's theories in general. It was during his time in Italy with Bertram Russell in 1925 when he discovered translated documents given by a fascist sympathiser. Upon reading the whole thing, Lawrence said out of nowhere, "how will you convince people to be a part of the minority when power is never given back to the people?" Of course, it was said in his contrarian nature and not in a way to improve fascist thinking. Yet it did.
What had to occur was a transitionary stage. Something that had to develop to transform the liberal democratic state into the fascist state.
We now turn to Giovanni Gentile.
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Gentile was an Italian that dabbled in philosophy that was Hegelian and that contained idealism. In the 1919 Election, the ruling Prime Minister Antonio Salandra was defeated by the rising Liberals, Democrats and Radicals (LDR) under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (7) and the new Italian People's Party under Luigi Sturzo. To gain the initiative of the pro-war public and to combat the rise of the Italian Socialist Party (which won 166 seats instead of OTL's 156), Sturzo managed to negotiate a coalition with the veteran's rights party Combatants' Party (24 seats), the socially conservative Economic Party (12 seats) and the rump remains of the Liberal Union Party of Salandra. With the Italian Socialist Party denied their right as the largest party, talk of revolution began to unfold. But more on that later.
Gentile would form his ideal leadership of the nation from the Philosopher King: A hard-working, thrifty individual that is wise, strong, courageous and just to the people that he rules over. Such a person would not need to be elected and would continue his education as a wise man. He would not be restrained by democracy or by the morality of the mob, or by socialism or liberalism.
Using the system of syndicates, labour and capital would be united in a corporatist system. This would be where businesses, trade unions and workplaces would form "corporate groups" to advocate common interest within a certain sphere such as agriculture, the military, industry, mining, et cetera. Formed in guilds, this would provide harmony among the classes (poor, lower classes, middle and upper class). This system can also be found under the "revolutionary syndicalism" of Georges Sorel.
Having found flaws within democracy, the fascist movement within Italy feared that the next election would see the rise of the Italian Socialists. Anti-democratic sentiments meant that the fascists believed in replacing the parliament of Italy with a "Chamber of Corporations", where the representatives of each sphere of industry would represent itself and its own interests.
The economy was to also be autarkic in nature: Italy was meant to provide all the resources that she could for her population. If she could not, then expansion was necessary. With the acquisition of German Cameroon, it was to be the future post of Italian migrants if Italy were not able to hold "surplus population". It was this part of the fascist policy that took not from Social Darwinism and the imperialism of Britain, France and the other European powers.
"Granted that the XIXth century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the XXth century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the "right", a Fascist century. If the XIXth century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the “collective” century, and therefore the century of the State."
- OTL Quote from The Doctrine of Fascism
- OTL Quote from The Doctrine of Fascism
But it was still not answered: How would a state transfer itself from the liberal democratic state to the fascist state. Gentile would write of the need to develop a collective group, a collective race or a collective demographic within a nation. Such interests would be built on collective interests that are outside of the Marxist dichotomy of Bourgeoisie-Proletariat. Instead, theses interests would be according to industry (which would allow a greater motivation towards Corporatism), to race (which would build up the structure for a Racial Army) and to ability (where the physically strong are endorsed to breed as much as possible, while the mentally disabled undergo euthanasia or sterilisation). In order to promote the strong, one-party state, it would first use the power of democracy to take its policies to the people. As the mandate for government is weakened due to partisanship, the party must campaign on longer terms of office and or stronger government powers, which would allow for a greater exploitation of extrajudicial powers. As the powers are granted, the "democratic autocracy" as Gentile stated, would be overtaken by the "True Fascist State that is formed by the body of the Nation".
Searching for a name for such a system of "democratic autocracy", Gentile turned to the "blood and soil" idea of the German Völkisch movement, naming the intermediate period Volkism. Volkism would allow for the transition from a democracy to an anti-democracy, the capitalist nation to a syndicalist one, a conservative nation to an anti-conservative nation and a communism nation to an anti communism nation.
In short, according to the ATL quote, socialism is to communism what volkism is to fascism.
Written between September 1919 and February 1920, The Doctrine of Volkism and Fascism would become the tome of the anti-conservative right, the syndicalists that believed in war and in expansionism. As the tensions between the workers and employers rose, the publication of Gentile's work began to spread among the anti-communist factions within the country. While Russia and the Dutch East Indies would never be able to deal with the revolution, Italy seemed to go the opposite way. In 1919 alone, 1.5 million workers were involved in strikes as the Polish Flu had struck the country.
As the post-war population was demobilising, the fascists and the communists began to ramp up their confrontational styles. The fascists began to bear truncheons and wear black uniforms, while the communists named and shamed non-union workers into compliance. Alberto Meschi, one of the leaders of the Italian Syndicalist Union, began to call for men like Mussolini to back down from anything extreme in March 1920. Given how the previous months had been filled with alleyway stabbings, driveway shootings and rioting on both sides, the threat was considered hollow. Mussolini would then address the Italian Fasces of Combat on the 16th March 1920 in Catanzaro:
The Fascist Century shall be one where the people of Italy shall give everything to the State, everything for the State and allowing nothing to go against the interests of the State. We shall not be burdened by the confines of liberalism. We shall not be held back by the whims of the mob that calls for democracy. We will not be pushed away from power by the communists or the socialists.
The communists shall turn, but the fascist shall not be for turning. And if men like Antonio Gramsci wish for the situation to be otherwise, let me be clear. While you have the hammer and the sickle, we shall have the rifle and the shovel.
We will bury you. (Applause)
The communists shall turn, but the fascist shall not be for turning. And if men like Antonio Gramsci wish for the situation to be otherwise, let me be clear. While you have the hammer and the sickle, we shall have the rifle and the shovel.
We will bury you. (Applause)
(8)
On the 25th of March, Gramsci was walking along the Piazza del Duomo, flanked by a five members of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Seeing the unrest as opportunity, he was planning on addressing a rally of fellow supporters in the wake of the ruling coalition government splitting due to the Combatants' Party members threatening to join the Opposition. This came after veteran's payments were cut and the defence budget being reduced in order to prevent Orlando's LDR from voting with the Socialists. Gramsci hoped, that by the CP doing this, the Italian Socialists would have the mandate to rule if they protested for a fresh election.
Standing in-between the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Battistero di San Giovanni, Gramsci began to address the citizens of Florence on the dire straits that their country was focussed on. Despite the posters declaring "PEACE HAS BEEN GAINED" and "TRAVEL TO OUR NEW COLONIES!", there was no sign of victory for the people. As each paragraph of his speech was made, a few more people came in. Then, at 1:12pm, seventeen men approached from the northern side and thirty three from the southern side of the meeting. Taking out a Beretta M1917 (9), one of the blackshirts aimed at Gramsci. Shooting him five times, the man charged forward to shoot at the crowd. Following the lead of the gunman, the forty nine other blackshirts came in to assault both peaceful citizens as well as members of the Italian Syndicalist Union. Shooting and beating one another, the fight broke off at 3:52pm, when the fascists retreated from the wrath of ISU members. Upon looking at the scene, the police declared Gramsci to be dead, having suffered massive trauma to the head, at lest two pints of blood being lost as well as a shattered pelvis. That night, members of the ISU held a candlelight vigil in his memory, as they declared him a martyr for their cause.
Antonio Gramsci (22nd January 1891 - 25th March 1920)
And with every martyr, there must come an act to avenge him. (10)
On the 21st of April 1920, 60,000 members of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Syndicalist Union marched. The 21st of April was special to the Italian people, as it marked the founding of Rome in 753 BC. 60,000 men marched on Rome, armed and angry at the system. Not just for the coalition makeup that denied their party the right to govern, but also the lack of success despite being on the winning side of the First World War. These men demanded the overthrow of the monarch, the restoration of the Italian Socialist Party's right to rule, as well as universal suffrage and wage rises.
Having been caught by surprise, the Prime Minister urged the King to consider the need to retaliate. King Victor Emmanuel III allowed for it to happen. Historians have debated whether it was because of the Prime Minister's plea, the fact that Rome was suffering traffic jams and delays in day-to-day work because of the marchers or because of pressure from businesses, the military and fascists who opposed the marchers. Whatever reason, the King allowed for the protests to be broken up.
On the 22nd April, a counter-protest within the city of 10,000 people clashed with the marchers, who began drawing out pistols and firearms. News of gunshots spread throughout the city. Pope Benedict XV allowed for scared citizens to come inside the Vatican, as every man with a gun barricaded inside buildings. Street by street, the protestors and Romans clashed, with even women and children being caught in the crossfire. Now outside the city, the news of the march alerted the fascists. Mussolini, General Emilio De Bono and 20,000 armed fascists and soldiers marched from the south.
A small trickle of the many thousands of fascists and soldiers marching against the "Red Protest"
On the 24th April 1920, the leader of the march, Giuseppe Di Vittorio, declared the founding of the First Republic of Italy. At midday three hours later, he urged the men guarding the Vatican to stand down or they would storm the barricades and force their way in. Fearing the possibility of death, the Pope and the Cardinals allowed him inside. Gathering with a dozen unarmed MPs from the Italian Socialist Party and members of the Italian Syndicalist Union, Di Vittorio addressed Pope Benedict XV and the Cardinals. The Pope wished to resolve the Roman Question once and for all. Di Vittorio demanded that Rome would be the capital of the First Republic and that the Papacy shall not receive any other lands than the Vatican itself. After an hour of argument, Pope Benedict XV realised that there would be no possible way around it. Di Vittorio would end the Roman Question, and Pope Benedict feared that Di Vittorio would find someone more agreeable to the terms. Wanting no war to be fought over this matter, the Pope agreed to those terms, in exchange for the Papacy remaining in Italy and Catholicism not being persecuted and that elections are to be held for the rightful governance of Italy. Wanting Di Vittorio to agree to the last point, the Pope did not move on any other matter unless he was willing to concede the result. There was the hope, that if the King called for fresh elections, the Socialists could be defeated and that the order could be restore. That is what he hoped.
At 10pm, the fascists and the soldiers arrived at Rome, clashing through the night with the socialists and communists. Fighting went on even under the cover of darkness, with people on both sides isolated and being beaten up or captured. Several socialists were cornered and shot to pieces in the south of the city, with up to 300 unarmed Socialist Party members being shot and beaten to dead with iron bars, glass bottles and bricks. Meanwhile, fascists were given no mercy, with several of them being shot and then left to hang upside down until sunrise.
Because when sunrise came up, everyone asked the same question. "What the fuck happened?"
The reason why they asked that was because, during the night, Mussolini was cornered and shot alongside his fellow fascists, left to hang upside down with a pool of blood trickling onto the ground.
Mussolini with a fellow fascist, dead for over eight hours
Having had their leader killed and reaching no objective, the fascists retreated from Rome at 9am on the 25th April 1920. Over 6,560 people died in the fighting, with the socialists under Di Vittorio forcibly ending the Roman Question. Whether Pope Benedict XV felt any better would be up for debate.
King Victor Emmanuel III, having heard of the violence, met the Pope and assisted with the relief of the city. The ruling coalition under the Italian People's Party was more or less broken, with the Socialists having the plurality but no willing partner. With all details at hand, the King declared a snap election for the 1st September 1920.
Campaigning against the March on Rome, the Italian Fasces of Combat (IFC) under Giovanni Gentile (the popular successor and intellectual mind behind Mussolini and the movement) sent thousands of people to speak on behalf of their candidates, moving onto every single one of the 508 seats and making Mussolini a martyr of the cause. The fascists adopted a new motto:
Il Prefetto di Ferro può morire, ma l'Italia continuerà
Iron Prefect may die, but Italy shall go on!
Iron Prefect may die, but Italy shall go on!
The Combatants' Party, shocked by the March, stood down any candidates and merged with the NFP on the 1st May, as did the pro-business anti-communist Economist Party, the liberal/conservative Italian Liberal Party, nationalist Italian Nationalist Association and the socially liberal Social Democratic Party. Vittorio Emanuele Orlando would take his party, renamed the Democratic Liberal Party (not to be confused with the UK Democratic Liberals), and campaign on a centrist platform, opposing the violence of the fascists and the communists and socialists. The Italian People's Party suffered a crisis, as much of the rank-and-file were split over the opinion of the fascists. Over one-third of the candidates defected to the IFC. The Italian Republican Party managed to regain confidence, as moderates began to be dissuaded by the violence endorsed by the Italian Socialist Party.
Out of 522 seats and 10,852,268 registered voters (11), the 1st September 1920 would be an interesting presentation. And by interesting presentation, I mean the same shit repackaged with more seats and more votes.
Political Party | Number of Seats (522) | Number of Votes (6,884,141 or 63.4% turnout) |
Italian Socialist Party | 189 (36.2%) | 2,492,059 |
Democratic Liberal Party | 164 (31.4%) | 2,161,620 |
Italian People's Party | 31 (5.9%) | 406,164 |
Italian Fasces of Combat | 121 (23.1%) | 1,590,236 |
Italian Republican Party | 0 | 3,534 |
Liberal Union | 17 (3.2%) | 220,292 |
Italian Radical Party | 0 | 1,784 |
Radicals, Republicans and Socialists | 0 | 1,462 |
Agrarian Party (allied with the Italian Fasces of Combat) | 0 | 6,990 |
And when the final result came
THE
SOCIALISTS
WERE
FUCKING
LIVID
Angry at being the largest party and yet commanding no majority, protests rose in Turin, Florence, Rome and Milan as Di Vittorio declared himself President of the First Republic of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel III ordered his arrest, with the fascists attempting to kill him when he attempted to arrive in Rome. Having failed to do so, the fascists retreated as they were met with a counter protest.
Giovanni Gentile, along with General Emilio De Bono, assembled 25,000 fascists in Naples to declare their allegiance to "God, the King and to Italy", where they announced Di Vittorio as a traitor to the state and a wanted man. At the first sight of the results, every party refused to enter into a coalition with the Italian Socialist Party. An attempt to storm armouries succeeded in the Po Valley, where over 150,000 socialists made themselves ready with rifles, machine guns and even grenades. The whole of October was dedicated to open street warfare, with roads blocked off by either fascists or socialists. Tarring and feathering opponents, smashing up houses during the night, ransacking schools and businesses, setting fire to cars and restaurants.
In short, Italy was burning.
Group of Italian Syndicalist Union members celebrating the Liberation of Turin (9th - 14th October 1920)
Soldiers for the Italian Fasces of Combat facing an enemy charge outside of Florence. Despite being beaten back, the fascists kill over 12,000 enemy soldiers during the Battle of Florence (12th - 21st October 1920)
After the failure of the German Revolution and the Russian Revolution, over 150,000 "International Combatants" from Russia, Poland, Denmark, the United States, Spain, France, Greece, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom arrived to fight alongside the Republican forces. These people would smuggle weapons and supplies overland and into the communist-held territory. Meanwhile, a total of 65,000 "Collaborators" joined the fascists, from almost the exact same places. In fact, one-third of all international volunteers were Russian, whether or not they were fighting alongside the Communists or the Fascists.
The fighting wore on, as the industrial north was given over to production of war materials. Despite some areas beginning to see starvation, the conflict was legitimising the Di Vittorio regime. As there was no longer a chance of peace, businesses withdrew their monies from banks in the north of the country, seeing a flight of capital to the conservative, agrarian south. Angry over this, Di Vittorio issued National Ordinance Number One: the expropriation of wealth from banks in socialist-held territory for the use of the war effort. Over 20 million livre were taken through this method, although five times the amount was said to have escaped their clutches. Noxious poison gases were deployed by both sides, suffocating the innocent and driving the horror of fighting closer and closer onto the doorstep of every one. Flamethrowers were purchased by both sides, with Florence witnessing the execution of 500 "spies" by the Socialist Party, while copies of The Communist Manifesto were torched under Giovanni Gentile's orders. Airplanes began to be used for strategic bombing, with ten times as many planes used by the fascists. Many of the planes, as well as the pilots, came from Germany. Speaking of, a total of 25,000 Germans fought in the Italian Revolution, with only 3,000 fighting for the communists. Many of the Germans on the fascist side would take part in battles as well as using experimental weaponry. One such example was a dozen tanks in the Battle of Ravenna commanded by a man named Erwin Rommel.
With no side willing to back down and no side able to gain the upper hand, the Pope declared a truce on the 25th December 1921. It was declared that the north of the country would declare independence as the First Republic of Italy(12). The south would maintain its legitimacy as the Kingdom of Italy, retaining all of the colonies that were held in place. No reparations were to be paid, however prisoners were to be exchanged. The King, having had enough of war, agreed as well as Di Vittorio. Sickened by the fighting, Errico Malatesta waits to see if there is any chance to challenge Di Vittorio for the leadership of the new country.
As families return to broken homes, mothers begin to bury their husbands and their sons. In no more than sixteen months of fighting, a total of 120,000 Italians died alongside 47,580 international volunteers. A total of 250,000 men, women and children were wounded, with over 100,000 homeless. Many farmlands would be scorched for decades, with repopulation efforts continuing to this day. As for the two nations. It would take a while before unification became a reality.
1. ATL version of George Miller, aka the director of Mad Max
2. The choice of deliberately wanting to be with others outside of "race", has nothing to do with the crime of mixed-race marriages or sex.
3. "Exponential State" fits more with the concept of lebensraum.
4. ATL version of "Third World" or "Developing", but in a more racist context.
5. ATL Fascism takes more of the element from Blanquism.
6. OTL Passport photo
7. OTL Prime Minister of Italy that was part of the "Big Four" at the OTL Treaty of Versailles.
8. ATL speech references the "lady's not for turning" from Thatcher and "We Will Bury You" from Khrushchev.
9. OTL Beretta M1918, looks like this:
10. ATL March on Rome with Communists instead of Fascists! WHOAAAAAAAAAAH
11. 1919 Election had 508 seats, whereas 1921 election had 535 seats. Given how there is 27 seat difference in two years, I divided by two (13.5) and rounded up to get the ATL 1920 Election result. I used the same method for the estimated voter registration, but I took away 6,000 because of how many adults died during the March on Rome (the rest were children).
12. The First Republic consists of (deep deep breath): Provinces of Viterbo, Grosseto, Siena, Arezzo, Pesaro Urbino, Ancona, Perugia, Terni, Macerata, Fermo, Rimini, Livorno, Pisa, Firenze, Forlì Cesena, Ravenna, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca, Massa and Carrara, La Spezia, Genova, Savona, Imperia, Cuneo, Torino, Aosta, Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Pavia, Alessandria, Asti, Vercelli, Biella, Verbano Cusio Ossola, Varese, Novara, Milano, Monza and Brianza, Como, Sondrio, Lecco, Lodi, Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantova, Rovigo, Venezia, Padova, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Trento, Bolzano, Belluno, Udine, Pordenone and Gorizia.
All of the gains from the First World War, including Trieste, remain in the hands of the Kingdom of Italy thanks to crackdowns from the fascists and from the Italian military. So the FIR should look something like this:
Jesus Christ, it has taken me quite a few days, because things have evolved in my head. I now have stuff flowing on that have not been mentioned before.
I hope that you have enjoyed this update and that you continue to like and comment. All thoughts are welcome, it helps to keep this TL realistic and I will see you all next time.
Bye for now.