# The Revolutionary Crisis of 1918-1921 in Germany, England, Italy and France/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III
THE WHITE TERROR IN ITALY
No less than Germany, England, and France, Italy also experienced a profound labor unrest just after the war. A wave of organization spread among the workers, the membership of the General Confederation of Labor reaching the unprecedented total of 2,500,000. Strikes multiplied on every hand, all of them being waged with unusual vigor and success. In September, 1920, the whole movement climaxed in a vast revolutionary outburst, as a result of the occupation of the steel and iron plants throughout all Italy by the militant metal workers.
The Seizure Of The Plants
The epoch-making movement of the metal workers developed simply enough. Harassed by a constantly mounting cost of living, the Federation of Italian Metal Workers (known as the F. I. O. M.), on June 18th, demanded a general increase in wages amounting to approximately 35%. This the organized employers resisted. Smarting under many recent defeats by the workers, including the establishment of the eight-hour day, the setting up of shop committees, the restriction of the employers' right to hire and discharge, etc., etc., they were eager to deal a blow at the unions. And they deemed the prevailing situation propitious for so doing. Industry was slackening up rapidly and thousands of workers were unemployed. Quite evidently a state of serious trade depression was setting in, and a consequent weakening of the strike power of the workers might be expected. So the employers delayed the negotiations, jockeying about to find a favorable opportunity for delivering the thrust which they were so anxious to put in.
In the midst of this maneuvering the F. I. O. M., as a ​demonstration of its power and to hasten the negotiations, ordered the metal workers everywhere to at once cease all overtime work and to confine themselves strictly to the eight-hour day. Unimpressed by this move, the employers finally gave the workers a definite refusal to their demands. This broke off negotiations, and the big fight began. The F. I. O. M. at once called a special convention which, after carefully going over the difficult situation, decided upon the two following war-measures: (1) to inaugurate a campaign of obstructionism, or slowing-up by all the workers in the industry, and, (2) to seize the metal plants if the employers attempted to use the lock-out as a counter-weapon. The resolution in question said:
"The convention adopts the proposition of the Federal Committee that, from the beginning of the working day on August 20th, a policy of obstructionism shall be applied in all the plants, in the manner and form indicated by that committee. The committee is sure that all the metal workers will know how to defend themselves with every means … their right to work, and to remain in the factories, as against every possible action of their employer adversaries."
Promptly, as planned, the obstructionism went into effect in all kinds of metal works in every part of Italy. At first the employers ridiculed the campaign and disregarded it as being of no consequence. But the splendid discipline of the Italian workers soon woke them up. By systematically "soldiering" and obeying the plant rules with elaborate over-care (destructive sabotage was sharply forbidden by the unions), the workers reduced the productivity of the whole industry by at least 50%.
A few days of this jolted the employers out of their complacency, and they at once proceeded to use their great weapon, the lock-out. The first place they tried it was in Milan where, on August 13th, 2,000 employes of the Romeo Company were locked out. But the Milan metal workers were wide-awake and determined. They immediately ​seized and occupied every metal works in the city, some 300 in all. Then the employers ordered a general lock-out throughout Italy for the next day. But again the alert metal workers outplayed them; they promptly took charge of every steel works, iron foundry, machine shop, etc., in the entire country. Then they mounted machine guns on them, hoisted red flags, and prepared to defend themselves. The 500,000 metal workers were in open revolt against their would-be masters.
Almost instantly these stirring events precipitated Italy into an intense revolutionary crisis. Everywhere the workers, their imagination and enthusiasm set on fire, rose in their might. They could see the great revolution close at hand. The industrial workers seized factories in many industries, and the peasants began to confiscate the land. As for the ruling class, they were stricken with the paralysis that came to their likes in Russia and Germany during the mass-uprisings in those countries, and which always comes to the exploiters in true revolutionary situations. They could do nothing—the Government was powerless, and the army likely to go over to the workers at any moment. The red flag flew over hundreds of towns and thousands of factories. Italy was on the very verge of the social revolution.
The Revolution Knifed
Such a tremendous situation, growing out of their simple wage movement, was of course far beyond the jurisdiction of the metal workers alone; hence Organized Labor as a whole, political and industrial, immediately took a hand in the matter. On September 9th, the Executive Bureaus of the Socialist Party and the General Confederation of Labor met in Milan to see what should be done next. But they could come to no agreement, and the whole problem was referred to the meeting next day of the entire Executive Committee of the General Confederation of Labor, which is composed of delegates from all the affiliated national unions and central labor councils, The represen​tatives of the Socialist Party were also invited to attend.
This conference was one of the most important labor meetings ever assembled, and marked a mile-stone in labor history. The fateful question it had to decide was: should there be a revolution or not? No sooner was the conference come together than two sharply opposing factions developed: one for the revolution and the other against it. Gennari, then a leader in the Socialist Party but now head of the new Communist Party, led the revolutionaries, while D'Aragona, General Secretary of the General Confederation of Labor, was the principal spokesman for the reformists.
Gennari, sensing the true situation and speaking for the Socialist Party, declared that the contest had passed beyond the realms of a mere wage dispute and had become a revolutionary political struggle. He demanded that the General Confederation of Labor turn over the direction of the movement to the Socialist Party, so that the latter could immediately try to put the revolution into effect and to establish the workers' society. D'Aragona strenuously combatted this proposal and threw all the weight of his prestige and official power against it. He insisted that the workers of Italy were not yet ripe for revolution, and that to attempt any such would be disastrous, in fact the suicide of the whole labor movement. He demanded that the struggle be restricted to purely an industrial affair, and he proposed that the movement, instead of aiming at the revolution, should be turned towards achieving the institution of workers' control in all the industries of Italy. In his stand D'Aragona had the support of the Turatti (right-wing) and the Serrati (centrist) groups, which normally control the Socialist Party, but which tempor​arily lost much of this control to the revolutionaries during the crisis.
Two general resolutions came before the conference, the first presented by D'Aragona for the reformist plan, and the second by Bucco for the revolutionary plan. Their most impotrant clauses follow:
(1) (D'Aragona), "The conference decides that the objective of the movement shall be the recognition by the employers of the principle of the workers' control in the factories. By this it is intended to open a way to those greater conquests which must inevitably lead to collective direction and socialization, thus settling fundamentally the question of production. The workers’ control will give to the working class the possibility of preparing itself technically, and will enable it to substitute (with the help of the technical and intellectual forces, which cannot refuse their cooperation in this highly necessary task) their own new authority for that of the employers which is now passing away."
(2) (Bueco), "Considering that the situation created in the country in consequence of the agitation of the metal workers does not admit of a solution of a purely economic character, and as it has created a state of mind in the working class which, rising far above craft interests, has developed high aspirations of a political character,
"The National Council of the General Confederation of Labor requests the Executive of the Party to take charge of the movement and to direct it to the realization of the maximum solution of the Socialist program, viz.: the socialization of the means of production and distribution."
​The former of these resolutions was to allow capitalism to continue, in return for a few reforms, and the latter was to at once declare a state of revolution. The first one was carried by a vote of 591,245 against 409,569, and the labor movement was thereby put squarely on record to eliminate the political aspirations of the workers in the situation, and to confine the struggle to purely economic grounds by directing the movement solely towards the winning of the workers' control of industry.
Following out this plan, a meeting was arranged on September 15th, with Prime Minister Giolitti and the employers. Giolitti expressed himself in favor of the workers' control and the employers were also compelled to agree to it in principle. Negotiations were then continued with the employers alone, which resulted a few days later in an agreement covering the whole industry and carrying with it increases in wages and a few other reforms. A mixed commission was appointed to study and prepare a proposition for the enactment of a law embodying the workers' control of industry. On September 21st–22nd, the metal workers held a congress to consider the contract and other results of their struggle. Considerable discontent was expressed by the radicals that the movement had been stopped short of revolution. But the die was east and the action of the reformist leaders was finally endorsed. On September 24th, the rank and file, by a referendum vote backed up the congress' action, and the historic battle, which had lasted three and a half weeks, was called off. The factories were turned back to the capitalists.
So died, ingloriously, the magnificent revolutionary effort of the Italian workers. It was the German revolution all over again, with but minor variations. A great anti-capitalist movement was peddled for a song by timid reformist leaders. The principal difference between the two was that in Germany, the situation being extremely acute, the workers actually got the reforms promised them, whereas in Italy, where matters were not quite so ​intense, they did not get them. Workers' control of industry has not been established in Italy up to this day. Nor is it likely to be without a great, direct struggle by the workers. The ruling class has made a football of the proposition. Their political and industrial agents have blocked its realization so thoroughly that it has now degenerated into merely a political demand of the labor movement. The great revolutionary movement was thrown away by the weak-kneed labor leaders on the strength of the promise of a crooked capitalist politician, Giolitti.
The White Terror
Almost instantly all Italy knew that the workers had been overwhelmingly defeated; that for the sake of an increase in wages, soon afterwards wiped out by the advancing cost of living, and for a vague promise of the workers' control, they had given up the best opportunity ever presented to the working class to abolish the wages system. As for the workers, they fell prey to a profound pessimism and demoralization. Raised to supreme heights by their superb effort, they dropped into the depths of discouragement when they saw it ruined. Their marvelous revolutionary spirit and enthusiasm vanished like a bubble that had been pricked. And by the same token the capitalists were cheered and heartened beyond measure. They rightly felt that they had won a tremendous defensive victory, and they also perceived that the defeated workers were broken in spirit and almost helpless. Hence, when they had recovered somewhat from their first fright at being dangled so unceremoniously over the revolutionary precipice, the latter launched a great offensive against the whole workers' line. This attack was one of the bitterest and most unscrupulous ever waged against labor. The capitalists were determined to take lasting revenge upon their rebellious slaves and to make forever impossible the recurrence of such a revolutionary danger as the one just passed.
One of the chief instruments used by the employers in this historic onslaught was the Fascisti organization. The ​Fascisti are a national body, with regularly established branches in nearly all the cities, towns, and villages of Italy. It is officially reported that their membership totals 170,000, but some labor men claim that it runs as high as 1,000,000. They have elaborate headquarters in many places, and are served by a whole battery of daily, weekly, and monthly journals. The organization, like White Guard movements everywhere, does lip-service to a rabid patriotism: it is supposed to be fighting for the glory of Italy, but in reality it is merely a tool for doing the dirty work of the country's employing interests. These exploiters finance it liberally and openly. The membership, especially the more militant part of it, is made up of ex-military officers, students, sons of business men, habitual criminals, and the hundred and one other degenerate elements who, through greed and stupidity, are always available to serve as White Guards for capitalism. The name of the organization was taken from the bundles of sticks, or "fasci," which served as the emblem of the old Roman Empire, and which typify the power that comes from close organization. The leading spirit of the movement is one Benito Mussolini, a renegade Socialist. He is editor of "Il Popolo d' Italia," national daily organ of the Fascisti. At a recent meeting of the latter’s central executive committee he was affectionately referred to as "the master and flame of our faith." In these days when European capitalists have a particularly dastardly attack to make against the workers, they always get some so-called revolutionist to maneuver it for them: Noskes, Briands, Thomases, Mussolinis, and Kerenskys are ever at hand to do them service.
The Fascisti organization is of comparatively recent growth. It originated from the scattering groups of fanatical "patriots," a la D'Annunzio, that sprang up immediately after the close of the great war. These "patriotic" nuclei won their spurs in April, 1919, when they raided, sacked, and burned the offices of the "Avanti!" the revolutionary paper in Milan. The movement lingered, however, ​weak and inconspicuous, until after the metal workers' strike. Then the frightened and belligerent employers seized upon it as just the weapon they needed, forced it into a mushroom growth, and launchd it in a deluge of blood and iron upon the devoted heads of the workers. Thus they inaugurated one of the most astonishing campaigns of oppression and bloodshed in modern history.
The method of the Fascisti is calculated, organized terrorism. They aim to paralyze the workers with naked fear and to destroy every semblance of organization and independence among them. Murder, arson, rape, kidnapping, and the systematic violation of every right, human and civil of the workers, are the means they use in their work of destruction. One of their favorite tactics is the so-called "punitive expedition." Commonly this horror developed as follows: for some real or fancied grievance, the Fascisti would decide to punish the workers in a certain town. To this end they would assemble their cohorts from the surrounding country, sometimes to the number of many thousands, and then make an armed, automobile raid in force upon the ill-fated community. Then they would proceed to brutally shoot and beat men and women, destroy working-class property, and generally act as thugs until their fine "patriotic" instincts were satisfied. When the invaders departed usually there would not be a stick or a stone of anything relating to Labor left standing. Such “punitive expeditions" happened in scores, if not hundreds of Italian cities and towns, particularly in the industrial north. They have resulted in the death of large numbers of workers and the destruction of many labor temples, cooperatives, newspaper plants, etc. A recent estimate calculated the ravages of the Fascisti as follows: workers killed 400, wounded 3500, labor temples, etc., destroyed 150.
The following experience of the town of Argenta is typical of what happened to many others:
"On the night of Saturday, April 15th, towards three in the morning, a thousand Fascisti, coming from Bologna and Ferrara, surrounded and invaded our district. Their goal was to terrorize and destroy the organizations which obstinately remained affiliated to the local labor council. Armed with revolvers, rifles, and hand-grenades, they fired many thousand shots. Divided in squadrons and led by local Fascisti, they invaded the homes of the known Socialists, many of whom they then dragged out and mercilessly clubbed. The Mayor, Zardi, was forced to sign his resignation. The Fascisti then occupied the Post Office and made the janitor ring the alarm bell constantly. The occupation lasted all night. Over twenty were seriously injured by the ferocious beatings. The Labor Temple was sacked and burned, as were the homes of many comrades. On April 17th, an expedition of Fascisti, in several auto trucks, went to St. Biagio d'Argenta, and destroyed the furniture and fixtures of the local there. Thus Argentano also, which had the most glorious labor traditions in our province, was forced to capitulate."
Special attention was given by the Fascisti to the destruction of the workers' political organizations. Free speech and assembly were entirely abolished in many districts. Men who dared to place their names in nomination on the Socialist ticket were beaten, assassinated, or driven away to other towns and ordered not to return on pain of death. Some were held incommunicado in the private jails of the Fascisti. A favorite terroristic method was to force the resignation of regularly elected local officials who might be friendly to the workers. In such cases the Fascisti would boldly and insolently demand that the Socialist mayors and councilmen get out of office, even though they had been placed there, as often happened in many radical strongholds, by nine-tenths of the total votes cast. And the history of the struggle indicates that the resignations were usually forthcoming when demanded. Those officials who refused did so at their peril. Good fortune would be theirs if they were not summoned to the door to answer a knock some dark night and then murdered in cold blood. ​In scores of localities the workers' representatives were thus driven from political office by the Fascisti and their positions turned over to reactionaries.
Naturally the labor unions also suffered heavy attack in the general campaign of oppression. Their strikes were fought with unparalleled bitterness and their militant members fiercely persecuted. This was particularly the case in the smaller localities, although even in the larger cities, such as Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Modena, Parma, etc., the movement suffered greatly. In many places the Fascisti actually compelled the unions' officers to resign: then, after electing tools of their own, they would affiliate the devitalized organizations to their national yellow labor movement. The same general tactics were used against the cooperatives, which had their property burned or stolen, their officers persecuted and ousted, and their organizations either broken up or absorbed by the Fascisti. The latter are actually building up their own "patriotic" trade union and cooperative movementswith remnants of organizations literally carved out of the body of Organized Labor.
The labor press, notably the "Avanti!" of Milan, was a special object of attack by the Fascisti. The methods employed varied, including the burning of the newspaper plants, the destruction of the presses, the intimidation of newsdealers for handling the papers, the stationing of Fascisti in the post offices who forced the workers, under pain of dire vengeance, to return their papers and to cancel their subscriptions, etc. Recently the "Avanti!" published a long list of newsdealers who had been compelled to stop handling their journal, and also tables showing thousands of subscribers who had been made to give up the paper. The following letter indicates a typical condition in the Fascisti war against the labor press:
"Cogruzzo, Reggio Emilia, "May 10th, 1921.
"Editor 'Avanti!',
"I must inform you that on the eighth of the current ​month the greater part of our best comrades were compelled by the Director of the Fascio to sign declarations refusing the 'Avanti!', and whoever might have refused would have been condemned to death. We signed against our will, because we were constrained by the violence of the Fascisti. But you of the management may contrive to send it to me, as my mind and faith has always been for Socialism, and will be for it tomorrow even as yesterday. Although the Fascisti may club me, may do with me as they will, still I will cry with my last breath: 'Long Live Socialism,' 'Long Live the International of Workers.'
"Fraternally,
"(C. U.)"
Far from attempting to stop this civil war, or reign of terror, provoked by the Fascisti, the Government openly aided it. Time and again its soldiers and police joined hands in the Fascisti depredations, and then arrested and punished the outraged workers. The workers were kept unarmed, under severe penalties, while the Fascisti were allowed to go about armed to the teeth. This attitude of the Government explains why a minority of Fascisti were able to so completely tyrranize over a majority of workers. Nor were the big fraction of Socialist members in the Chamber of Deputies able to change the situation. They complained in vain about the crimes of the Fascisti and their governmental allies. The whole situation gave evidence of the general breakdown of political government in Italy.
In the face of the Fascisti white terror, the attitude of the organized workers was largely one of passive resistance. Stating that Fascism was an after-war phenomenon that must soon pass away, their leaders counselled them to hold firm and not to allow themselves to be provoked into acts that would call forth still greater violence. For the most part the workers heeded this advice, although here and there some of the more aggressive ones occasionally gave the Fascisti a dose of their own medicine. But such resistance usually resulted in still further "punitive expeditions."
The Storm Abates
The intense period of Fascism began in September, 1920, and lasted about a year. That was the "Golden Age" of the organization, the time when hunting workers became a sport for all the young-blood aristocrats to amuse themselves with. But the movement is now receding rapidly and bids fair soon to become a negligible factor in Italian life.
The basic reason for this recession is the general failure of the campaign. The workers' organizations have gallantly withstood the storm directed against them. Some, it is true, went down, but the heart of the movement is still sound. Seeing this, and realizing that the workers must eventually recover from the depression and demoralization afflicting them since the breakdown of the revolutionary metal workers' agitation, the exploiting class became alarmed and began to look for means to end the civil war, for they knew that if the masses woke up while the Fascisti campaign was in full swing, the probability was that they would make short work of the capitalist system and all its defenders. A contributing factor also to their fear was the rapid. spread of the "Arditti del Popolo" movement, which is an organization of radical workers who undertake to pay the Fascisti and their active supporters in their own coin. But the final urge to peace came from the recent general elections, when, despite wild terrorism by the whole Fascisti organization, the workers' parties were able to elect nearly as many national Deputies as they had before—140 (that is, 125 Socialists and 15 Communists) as against 156. After this electoral showing, which came as a great surprise to the exploiters, the latter decided to slacken a bit in their campaign of organized murder, and a peace pact was signed.in Rome on August 3rd, 1921. This interesting and important document follows:
For the purpose of restoring the normal life in Italy between political parties and economic organizations, the following have assembled—under the ​presidency of Hon. Enrico De Nicola, president of the Chamber of Deputies—the representatives of the National Council of the Fascisti, the Fascisti Parliamentary group, the Socialist Party Executive Committee, the Socialist Parliamentary group, and the General Confederation of Labor.
There were also invited: The leader of the Communist Parliamentary group, the representatives of the People's Party Parliamentary group, and the Republican Deputies. The leader of the Communist Parliamentary group stated verbally to the president of the Chamber that the Communist Parliamentary group, in conformity and in harmony with the declarations published by the Executive Committee of the Italian Communist Party, would not participate in the conference. The representatives of the People's Party Parliamentary group, Hon. De Gasperi and Cingolani, responded thanking us for the invitation and expressing wishes that the result of the conference would be the much desired pacification. But they felt that the intervention of parties which do not find themselves in the same situation and the same struggle as the contestants might diminish the value of the agreement that was to be concluded between the two parties at issue. The group preferred to renounce its claim to official recognition, and to contribute to the success of the noble purposes of the President by persevering, in the Chamber and out of it, in its attitude of rigid legality and impartiality towards the social forces. For the Republican Deputies the Hons. Chiesa, Mazzolani, Conti, and Macrelli, replied, likewise thanking us and expressing fervid hopes for the pacification so necessary for the welfare of our country, but stating their belief that the intervention of the Republican Party would be inopportune because it has tried to remain neutral in the unfortunate contests between the factions, even when its own organizations suffered heavily.
1. It is understood that there is here reproduced and confirmed the official communication of the 28th of July, which settled a question raised by the Fascisti regarding the relations between the Socialist Party and the Communist Party.
2. The five bodies here represented agree to so ​arrange matters that all threats, overt acts, reprisals, punitive expeditions, vendettas, oppressions, and personal violence, of every species shall immediately cease.
3. The marks, emblems and badges of both parties shall be respected.
In this matter requests and propositions were made regarding the exposure of flags on public buildings, but the president ruled that such questions rest within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Government and Parliament and cannot be settled by agreement between political parties.
4. The parties mutually pledge themselves to respect each others economic organizations.
5. Every action, attitude or conduct in violation of this pledge and agreement shall be disavowed and deplored by the respective organizations.
The Socialist Party declares itself to be foreign to the organization and work of the "Arditi del Popolo," which moreover is made plain by the conference of the latter, which proclaimed itself independent of all parties.
6. Every infraction of these provisions shall be referred immediately to the judgment of an arbitrator, who shall objectively determine the responsibility therefor.
7. To work out this agreement the political and economic organizations of each party shall contribute to the construction in every Province of an arbitration committee composed of two representatives of the Socialists and two of the Fascisti, presided over by a person selected by common accord, or in failure of that, by the President of the Chamber of Deputies. Wherever, fifteen days from today, the parties have not designated their arbiters, the nomination of them shall be made by the undersigned organizations.
8. All the local agreements that do not correspond exactly to the spirit of this agreement are herewith annulled.
9. The organizations pledge themselves not to violently oppose the reinstatement in their positions, by legal means, of those who claim to have been forced to resign their positions as public officials.
10. The parties mutually agree to the restitution of all objects of value belonging to the organizations and ​to individuals, which eventually are found in the possession of other organizations and individuals.
11. The undersigned representatives invite the press of their respective political parties to conform themselves to the terms of the present agreement, in order that its ends may be accomplished as easily as possible.
The above is made public by means of the press with the firm faith and hope that everyone may understand how the gravity of the hour demands the strength and honesty of this joint word of peace, and the necessity for compliance with it.
The treaty was signed by representatives of the Fascisti, the Socialist Party Executive Committee, the Socialist Parliamentary group, the General Confederation of Labor, and the President of the Chamber of Deputies.
In August, shortly after this document was drawn up, the writer passed through Italy. Peace was then far from being established. The left wing of the Fascisti were in violent opposition to the peace treaty and were demanding the utter extermination of every form of organized labor. They had forced the resignation of Mussolini, Marsiglio, Rossi, and Farinacci, prominent officials of their organization. The walls of Florence, Bologna, and other cities were plastered almost unbrokenly with flaming posters, couched in violent language and calling upon the "Fascisti Italiani di Combattimento" to crush labor completely. Outrages were occurring in many towns, and the few remaining ​labor offices, cooperatives, etc., were all under heavy guard.
But the Fascisti movement, by its general failure, had a knife stuck in its heart even before the peace pact was signed, and it kept on bleeding until now, when it has lost very much of its former militancy. It is probably a very good thing for the capitalist class that this is so, because Italian Labor is rapidly awakening again and going over to the offensive. Even as I write, all Italy is torn with great strikes of the metal workers, seamen, printers, railroadmen, etc. In such a situation any great militancy by the Fascisti might easily rouse the workers to revolutionary resistance and thus bring about the end of capitalism.
Labor Cleans House
The Fascisti white terror was the penalty paid by Italian workers for betrayal by their leaders. The seizure of the metal works was a revolutionary act. Either it should have been followed by a general drive of the workers for political power, or it should not have been undertaken at all. As it was the workers were first spurred to the heights of revolutionary hope and enthusiasm and then thrown down to the depths of despair. The consequence for them was demoralization and an incapacity to resist the stormy attack of the aroused employing class.
The unfavorable outcome of the metal workers' strike has greatly strengthened the war of the revolutionary elements against the conservatives in the labor movement. One result of this war was the recent split in the Italian Socialist Party and the formation of the Communist Party by the seceding faction. Another result is the rapid spread of Communist sentiment among the trade unions. These bodies are being honeycombed by minority committees of revolutionists aiming to break the power and influence of the conservative leaders.
In Italy, as elsewhere, the Communists are very much opposed to splits in the industrial field. They are strictly for working within the old unions. Just now they are ​making strong strong efforts to bring the Syndicalist Union and the Federation of Railroad Workers, both of which are controlled by Syndicalists and Anarchists, into the ranks of the General Confederation of Labor, which is still in the hands of the reformist Socialists. Although this combination would still leave the revolutionaries in the minority, it would give them an organization so militant and powerful as to soon lead to their control of the whole labor movement.
On September 20th of this year, the Communists held their first national labor conference in Milan. There they outlined their general means of warring against the conservatives' control by adopting a resolution containing the following propositions: (1) Communists should stay inside the General Confederation of Labor, (2) Communists should work for trade union unity, (3) Communists in the trade union federations affiliated with the Red Trade Union International should work for unity with the General Confederation of Labor, (4) Communists should not try to detach unions from the General Confederation of Labor, (5) Communists in the railroad federation and other independent unions should work for their affiliation with the Red Trade Union International and the General Confederation of Labor.
At present the three revolutionary left-wing groups of Italian Labor, the Communists, Syndicalists, and Anarchists, control about one-third of the trade union movement. Their cause is developing rapidly, and once they are thoroughly organized, which must eventually happen, it will not be long before they have manned the labor movement throughout with real fighters, men who will not cringe in the test, as the Serrati-D'Aragona group did in the historic crisis growing out of the metal workers' strike.
* ↑ "Besides the F. I. O. M., there were three other unions in the movement, the Syndicalist Union, the "White" Union (Catholic), and the Italian Union of Labor (Nationalist). But they were minor factors. Of the 500,000 workers in the industry fully nine-tenths belonged to the F. I. O. M. The latter organization practically directed the negotiations with the companies.
* ↑ "L'occupazione delle fabbriche," P. 20—a pamphlet issued by the Central Committee of the Federation of Metal Workers (F. I. O. M.).
* ↑ This demand was in accordance with the agreement between the Italian Socialist Party and the General Confederation of Labor, which is to the effect that the political affairs of the working class shall be handled by the former organization, and their industrial affairs by the latter, and that when an industrial struggle verges into a political one the control of it shall pass into the jurisdiction of the Socialist Party.
* ↑ The workers' control is a committee system by which the industrial workers have an opportunity to learn all the technical and business sides to their respective industries. They have access to the books at all times, so that they may know how much profits are made, where the raw materials come from, how much of them are used, how the supply is regulated, where the finished products go to, what the turn-over of labor is, the general statistics of industry, etc. The workers may also attend the meetings of the boards of directors. They also exercise a certain control over the hiring and discharging of workers. The system is really a school in industrial management for the actual producers.
* ↑ These resolutions are taken from D'Aragona's report (P. 90 and 96) to the Leghorn, 1921, Congress of the General Confederation of Labor.
* ↑ The Federated Press, November 23rd, 1921.
* ↑ "Fascismo: Primi Elementi Di Un' Inchiesta Socialista Sulle Gesta Dei Fascisti In Italia, P. 59.
* ↑ Following the promulgation of the general treaty, a number of local agreements were worked out in the various cities and towns. And shamefully enough, these too often amounted only to vigorous Fascisti-Socialist alliances against the Communists. For example, in the Pieve d'Olmi pact, signed September 24th, 1921, and reported in the October-November number of "Alba Nuova," the local Socialists agree to the following disgraceful clauses: (a) To block the development of the Communist movement locally. (b) To nominate a commission composed of two Fascisti and two Socialists and a president chosen by the four members; to which shall be reported all untoward incidents, and all those who are members of the Communist movement—this being to differentiate between Socialists and Communists. 3. Expulsion of the Communists from the unions, and absolute prohibition against the Socialists wearing Soviet emblems. Direct separation from responsibility for the work of the Communists, and an obligation to report the same.