Rivista Anarchica Online


dossier Anarchists Against fascism

Mussolini in power
by Errico Malatesta

Malatesta's analysis of Fascism
The anarchist was one of the few, both in the revolutionary and reformists, to understand the true essence of the phenomenon in an authoritarian way. Here are two of his writings, in 1922 and 1923 respectively.

 

At culmination of a long series of crimes, fascism has finally settled to the government.
And Mussolini, the Duce, just to stand out, began by treating the members of parliament as a master would treat the stupid and lazy servants.
The parliament that was to be "the palladium of freedom," given its size.
This leaves us completely indifferent. Between a bully who threatens and insults, because it feels safe, and a band of cowards who seems to delight in his degradation, we do not have to choose from. We note only - and not without shame - what kind of people is that which dominates and whose yoke we can not escape.
But what is the meaning, as the scope, as the likely result of this new way to take power on behalf and in the king's service, violating the constitution that the king had sworn to respect and defend?
Apart from the poses they would like and not the opinion of the operetta Napoleonic poses rather than when they are not acts capobrigante, we believe that ultimately there will be nothing changed, except for a time greater pressure from the police and against subversive workers. A new edition of Crispi and Pelloux is always the old story of the bandit who becomes a policeman!
The bourgeoisie, threatened by the mounting proletarian tide was unable to solve the urgent problems without war, unable to defend themselves with traditional methods of legal repression, you could see lost and would have greeted with joy that he had some military dictator and said he had drowned in blood any attempt to rescue. But in those moments immediately after the war, it was too dangerous, and could precipitate a revolution rather than demolish it. In any case, the general savior did not come out, or not turned out that the parody. Instead came out of adventurers who, having found in the subversive parties sufficient field to their ambitions and their desires, they thought to speculate on the fear of the middle class by offering in return for appropriate compensation, and relief of irregular forces that, if secure of impunity, could indulge in the excesses against workers without affecting directly the responsibility of the supposed beneficiaries of the violence committed. The bourgeoisie accepts, solicits, pays their competition: the government official, or at least part of government officials, think of providing them with weapons, to help in an attack when they were about to get worse, to ensure their impunity and to disarm those who previously had to be attacked.

The workers were unable to oppose violence with violence because they had been taught to believe in the law, and why, even when all hope had become impossible and the fires and the murders were multiplying under the watchful eye of the authorities, the men they had faith preached their patience, calmness, beauty and wisdom to get beat "heroically" without resistance - and therefore were defeated and offended in assets, in, the dignity, people’s most sacred feelings.
Perhaps, when all the workers' institutions were destroyed, organizations disbanded, the men most hated and killed or are considered more dangerous imprisoned or otherwise reduced to impotence, the bourgeoisie and the government wanted to put a stop to the new Praetorian Guard who now aspired to become the masters of those who served. But it was too late. The fascists are now the strongest and most want to get paid for the service rendered. And the middle class will pay, of course, trying to pay for itself on the shoulders of the proletariat.
In conclusion, increased poverty, increased oppression.
As for us, we have only to continue our battle, always full of faith, full of enthusiasm.
We know that our path is strewn with thistles, but chose knowingly and voluntarily, and we have no reason to abandon it. So we know all those who have a sense of human dignity and compassion and want to dedicate themselves to fighting for the good of all, they must be prepared for all the disappointments, all the pain, all the sacrifices.
Since there are always those who let themselves be dazzled by appearances of strength and they always have a kind of secret admiration for the winner, there are also subversive who say that "the fascists have taught us how to do the revolution."
No, the fascists did not teach us anything.
They made the revolution, revolution if you want to call, with the permission of their superiors and in service of their superiors.
Betray their friends, every day deny the ideas professed yesterday, if it agrees to your advantage to serve their masters, to ensure the acquiescence of the political and judicial authorities, from police to disarm their opponents and then stick them in ten against one, military preparations without the need to hide, even getting the from government weapons, vehicles and objects of barracks, and then be called by the king and put under the protection of God ... is all stuff that we could not and would not want to do. And it's all stuff that we had expected that would happen the day on which the bourgeoisie felt seriously threatened.
Rather, the rise of fascism must be a lesson to the Socialists legalists, who believed, and alas! still believe that we can overthrow the bourgeoisie by the votes of half plus one of voters, and would not believe it when we told them that if they ever reach a majority in parliament and wanted - just to make absurd assumptions - to implement socialism by parliament, they would have their asses kicked!

Errico Malatesta
(“Umanità Nova”, 25 novembre 1922)

Milan's San Vittore prison, Errico Malatesta in March 1921 during a hunger strike to protest his and other anarchists continued detention following the attack at the Teatro Diana.


Anarchism, anti-Fascism and Resistance

(Some recommended books, all in trade at this time. by Massimo Ortalli)

AA.VV., La Resistenza sconosciuta. Gli anarchici e la lotta contro il fascismo, Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2005
AA.VV., L’Unione Anarchica Italiana. Tra rivoluzione europea e reazione fascista (1919-1926), Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2006
Antonioli Maurizio e Giulianelli Roberto (a cura di), Da Fabriano a Montevideo. Luigi Fabbri: vita e idee di un intellettuale anarchico e antifascista, Pisa, Biblioteca Franco Serantini, 2006
Balestrini Nanni, Parma 1922. Una resistenza antifascista, Roma, Derive approdi, 2002
Balsamini Luigi, Gli arditi del popolo, Casalvelino, Galzerano editore, 2002
Berneri Camillo, Mussolini grande attore, Castellammare di Stabia, Spartaco, 2007 Dalla Casa Brunella, Attentato al Duce, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2000
Cacucci Pino, Oltretorrente, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2003
Canali Giulia, L’antifascismo italiano e la guerra civile spagnola, Lecce, Manni, 2004
Chicca Piero, Provenza e figlio, Pisa, Biblioteca Franco Serantini, 2005
Cortese Domenico, Salvatore Cortese. Un antifascista arbëresh di Lungo, Lungo, Masino, 2007
Cucchini Roberto, I soldati della buona ventura. Antifascisti bresciani, Brescia, Gruppo Anarchico Bresciano, 2009
Di Lembo Luigi, Guerra di classe e lotta umana, Pisa, Bibl. F. Serantini, 2001
Domaschi Giovanni, Le mie prigioni e le mie evasioni. Memorie di un anarchico veronese dal carcere e dal confino fascista, a cura di Andrea Dilemmi, Verona, Cierre edizioni, Istituto veronese per la storia della Resistenza
Fabbri Luigi, La controrivoluzione preventiva. Riflessioni sul fascismo, Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2009
Fedele Santi, Luigi Fabbri. Un libertario contro il bolscevismo e il fascismo, Pisa, Biblioteca Franco Serantini, 2006.
Ferrari Saverio, Le nuove camicie brune, Pisa, Biblioteca Franco Serantini, 2009
Francescangeli Eros, Arditi del Popolo. Argo Secondari (1917-1922), Roma, Odradek, 2000
Galzerano Giuseppe, Angelo Sbardellotto, Casalvelino Scalo, Galzerano, 2003
Galzerano Giuseppe, Michele Schirru. Vita, viaggi, arresto, carcere, processo e morte dell’anarchico italo-americano fucilato per l’“intenzione” di uccidere Mussolini, Casalvelino Scalo, Galzerano, 2007
Galzerano Giuseppe, Enrico Zambonini. Vita e lotte, esilio e morte dell’anarchico emiliano fucilato dalla Repubblica Sociale Italiana, Casalvelino, Galzerano, 2009
Garavini Nello, Testimonianze. Anarchismo e antifascismo vissuti e visti da un angolo della Romagna, Imola, La Mandragora, 2010
Gargiulo Filomena, Ventotene isola di confino, Genova-Ventotene, Ultima spiaggia, 2009
Gentili Valerio, La legione romana degli Arditi del popolo, Roma, Purple Press, 2009
Giulietti Fabrizio, Il movimento anarchico italiano nella lotta contro il fascismo 1927-1945, Manduria, Lacaita, 2004
Gurrieri Pippo, Giorgio Nabita, sarto. Socialismo, anarchismo e antifascismo a Vittoria, 1889-1938, Ragusa, Sicilia Punto L, 2008
Lucetti Riccardo, Gino Lucetti, l’attentato contro il duce, Carrara, Tipolito, 2000
Mariani Giuseppe, Memorie di un ex terrorista, Genova - Ventotene, Genova-Ventotene, Ultima spiaggia, 2009
Marini Marina, Gino Lucetti. Lettere dal carcere, Casalvelino Scalo, Galzerano, 2010
Pagano Alessandra, Il confino politico a Lipari, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2003
Palma Paolo, Una bomba per il duce. La centrale antifascista di Pacciardi, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2003
Riesenfeld Martine Lina, Piegarsi vuol dire mentire. La resistenza libertaria al nazismo nella Ruhr e in Renania, Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2005
Rossi Marco, I fantasmi di Weimar, Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2001
Rossi Marco, Sovversivi contro fascisti a Livorno (1919-1943), Livorno, Gruppo Malatesta, 2002
Rossi Marco, Ribelli senza congedo. Rivolte partigiane dopo la Liberazione 1945 – 1947, Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2009
Sacchetti Giorgio, Senza frontiere. Pensiero e azione dell’anarchico Umberto Marzocchi (1900-1986), Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2005
Santin F. e Sommariva M., Ventotene storie di confinati, Genova, Annexia, 2007
Sprega Franco e Tagliaferri Ivano, Los italianos. Antifascisti e guerra civile spagnola, Due Santi di Marino, Infinito edizioni, 2007
Staid Andrea, Gli Arditi del popolo. La prima lotta armata contro il fascismo 1921-1922, Ragusa, La Rivolta, 2007
Stara Pietro, La comunità escludente. La Nuova Destra tra piccole patrie e Europa nazione, Milano, Zero in Condotta, 2007
Tagliaferri Ivano, Il colonnello anarchico. Emilio Canzi e la guerra civile spagnola, Piacenza, Scritture, 2005
Zambonelli Antonio, Vita battaglie e morte di Enrico Zambonini, Villaminozzo, Circolo Enrico Zambonini – Fed. anarchica reggiana - Anpi e Fiap di Reggio Emilia, 2008


This dossier comes as a supplement to n. 357 (November 2010) of the anarchist magazine "A".
After the special edition of "A", built in thirty years of 1943 ("A" 20 April 1973), the first edition of this dossier was released in April 1996 ("A" 216), the second, revised and corrected, April 2003 ("A" 289), the third, revised and with educational purposes, with updated bibliography, in the summer of 2007 ("A" 328). This new reissue, with minor changes and updated bibliography, brings to 32,000 the total number of copies printed so far.
The realization of this dossier have contributed Furio Biagini, the Piombinese Anarchist Federation, Anarchist Groups Imola, Paolo Finzi, Alfredo Mazzucchelli and Massimo Ortalli.
And speaking of anarchist anti-fascism, since April 2006 is also a 40-page dossier (published in "A" 316) dedicated to anarchist partisan Emilio Canzi Piacenza (1893-1945), promoter of the Arditi del Popolo, exiled in France, volunteer in Spain, who was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Germany, confined to Ventotene, imprisoned in the camp of Renicci of Anghiari (Arezzo), and a tireless organizer of resistance against the Nazi-Fascists, commander of the XIII area only partisan. Canzi the dossier we have so far printed 9,000 copies.
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