Evening star., 1928-10-28
Fascist State Bars Strikes


prisonment and $4,000 in fine Three
or more men convicted Of striking, or
promoting astrike, may get from one
to three years in jail and pay fines
ranging from $500 to $500 lire.
The administrative body of the cor
porative state is the ministry of corpo-
rations, which is headed by the 81
year-old Fascist, Giuseppe Botta1, a
trusted lieutenant of the Duce. This
ministry is made up largely Of experts
and technicians, appointed in co-opera-
ton with the ministry of public econ
omy It's task is to promote and sub
sidize activities designed to coordinate
production and encourage efficiency.
According to Mussolini, the ministry OF
corporations is "at the center and
periphery of the cooperative organiza-
ton, and keeps the balance between the
contrasting interests and clashing
forces of the economic world"
Trying to Create Economic Order.
What the Fascist syndicalists are try
ing to do is to create an economic or
der in Italy with corporations, or guilds,
of employers and employees, which shall
be self-governing with respect to pro-
duction, but wholly subservient to the
state politically. These guilds, which
now regulate wages, hours of employ
ment, and conditions of labor, Will ultl-
mately control production, as the SoViets
control production in Russia. In other
words FasciSm is contemplating syn
dicalist state, run by a powerful ma
tionalist government, in which capital,
if it survives, will be assigned the role
of coWorker.
The new Parliament, which will be
elected next year, is clearly an indlca-
tion of this program. Unlike our own
Congress, it is not political body, rep
resenting definite political alignments,
but an assembly of experts and tech
nicians. acting on behalf of the unions
and syndicates from which they are
chosen. Nomination for this Parliament
will be made by the Fascist Grand
Council from names submitted by the
unions, syndicates and other FasclSt
bodies. A single ticket of 400 candi-
dates will be submitted for APPROVAL and
the people will vote yes or no. In the
event that this ticket is defeated, the
various organizations will then submit
tickets of their own and the voters Will
be given a choice of candidates. NO
one NAV vote at the general elections
who is not a union or syndicate member
in good standing.
Classified With Difficulty.
The cooperative state, as now organ
lied is classified with difficulty. 1t Is
not a capitalist state because 1t assigns
to capital a secondary role, and 1t is
not a Socialist state because it does
recognize capital. Its main tendencies,
however, are clearly syndicalistic. The
Fascisti have borrowed largely from
Mussolini and the men who joined with
him in the organization of the Fasci in
1919. Sorel advocated labor mon
archy with the syndicates in control OF
the state. He conceived Of the people
as an aggregation of producers and not
as a political entity The syndicalist
state makes room for the capitalist only
when it operates in the interest OF the
commonwealth. In other words, capital
must be an instrument Of and not a
privileged interest in the state. This
differs from Socialism in that Socialism
does not recognize the function OF cap
ital and hence ignores 1t.
Just how far the Fascist will go in
realizing the Sorellian idea remains to
be seen. It is the opinion of the writer
that given a free hand they will ulti-
mately transform Italy as the bolshe-
vikS have transformed Russia.
Copyright, 1929