Squadrismo

   After World War I, formerly subservient farmhands and factory workers no longer deferred to property owners, who controlled political power on the local scene and enjoyed easy access, through prefects and parliamentarians alike, to national power as well. The victory in the 1919 elections of the Partito Socialista Italiano/Italian Socialist Party (PSI) frightened conservatives, who began to See the Fascists as effective instruments against the rise of unions trying to organize farm workers and factory workers alike. Financial support for the Fascist movement swelled as the Fascists went into action against socialists and workers. Black-shirted, black-fez-wearing action squads (squadre d’azione) were equipped with small arms and blackjacks (il santo manganello or “holy club”) and used vehicles often provided by sympathizers in army motor pools. When they were on an “expedition,” they would converge upon their target and would beat union organizers, administer massive doses of castor oil with humiliating effect, pillage rival buildings, and create as much confusion on the left as possible. Police rarely appeared on the scene until the squads had left. Even less frequently did they make arrests. Local Fascists who led the action squads took the title Ras, which was derived from Ethiopian tribal chiefs. Abrief list of outrages committed by the squads gives a clear idea of the lawlessness that prevailed in the last years of liberal Italy. In November 1920, nine socialists were killed, and more than 50 were wounded, when 500 armed Fascists burst into a meeting of the Bologna city council. In July 1921, 18 people died in a pitched battle between a Fascist squad and the townsfolk and police of Sarzana (Liguria). On 1 May 1922, clashes between the squads and socialists left dozens dead and wrecked rallies of the PSI all over Italy. The March on Rome in October 1922 would not have been possible had the squads not made Italy ungovernable in the preceding months. Mussolini owed his accession to power to squadrismo and to the timidity of the politicians of liberal Italy, who were unwilling to meet illegal violence with the force of law. One of Mussolini’s first acts as premier was to transform the squads into the Milizia Volontario di Sicurezza Nazionale/Voluntary Militia of National Security (MVSN). Flushed by this institutional legitimization, the squads continued their reign of terror throughout the first years of Mussolini’s premiership and were only brought to heel after Mussolini had consolidated his regime. By 1932, the original squadristi who had participated in the March on Rome were styled the Vecchia Guardia (The Old Guard), thus emphasizing that their role was in the past and not in the future of Fascism.

   See also Arditi; Fascism; Farinacci, Roberto; Matteotti, Giacomo; Spanish Civil War.