The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-13
Front
: BY HARRY CANNES

1tdIldH dSClSm 5 DISedSe
MussOlini Prescribes
The Party of Revolution
| ITALIAN fascism is suffer-
ing from a very grave dis
ease of its circulatory system.
1t already shows marked sink.
ing spells on the international
capitalist thermometer, the
stock and bond exchanges.
Mussolini, much concerned. is trv.
ing two methods to attempt to check
the ravages of the greatly aggra-
Yated financial crisis of fascism.
His first remedy, rather drastic.
is hating the flow of gold and gold
credits out of Italy. He has virtually
put all foreign credits held by ItaI-
ian citizens under government con.
troll.
The second remedy is more medi-
eval, the old panacea of bIood-Iet.
ing. The working and peasant masses
are bled freely and constantly in
order to relieve the apoplexy of the
huge financial Indebtedness of the
fascist regime.
Mussolini works along the idea
Of the totalitarian state. Since rea.
sons he, all of society is a unit. com.
posed Of various sindicates-bankers
indu2trialists, big land owners, off,
GERS, coldiers, sailors, peasants and
worker--then the body polite as a.
whole rhould feel the beneficial
effect Ct this blood-letting, especial
ly the upper strata, who in this par
ticular disease, are the most sensi-
tive to Mussolini's type of remedial
measures.
COMEHOW, while Mussolini was
" able to save the Ira from falling
more heavily, italian bonds dropped
precipitately on Monday. Italian
Government bonds, italian Public
Credit bonds, City of Milan bonds,
and City of Rome bonds - all
dropped from So to IS each. a sort
of mounting vote of lack of con-
fidence by the international f1nan-
ciers in Mussolini's ability to cure
fascism's financial crisis.
Latest official land there
fore inadequate and understated)
| figures show a big increase in bank
ruptcies, a growth in unemployment,
and drop in wages. Whereas the
| official wage index was 80 in 1881, it
is now SO. Unemployment, which in
1881, at the beginning of the crisis,
was officially recorded at TOT, 900, to-
day is given out as 1,057,000.
The public debt which was 80
billions in 1890, jumped to 81 bill
ions in 1882. and 103 billions in 1884
(due chiefly to war expenditures.
Now it can't stand the strain any
more.
IN this situation certainly there is
growing mass discomfort with fas-
cism, in the classical land of the
brutal, open, chauvinist dictatorship
of decaying capitalism. The ques-
ton is often asked, therefore, since
the masses after IA years of Fas-
cism in Italy see how it works why
| is there no greater evidence of revo-
lutionary resistance and action?
This question is fully answered by
Comrade K. Roncol in the latest
issue of the Communist Interna-
tional, No. %, in an article entitled:
Basic Lessons of the Struggle Of
the Communist Party of Italy
against FasciSm Under the Condi-
tons of the Totalized Regime"
Comrade Roncoli points out that,
unlike in Germany, where the Com
munist Party had deeply rooted it
self among the masses before the
advent of Hitler, in Italy the Com
munist Party had hardly come into
terror rule and to raise illusions Of
probable benefits among the Italian
masses. Mussolini, also, came
to power at the beginning Of
the relative sterilization of capital
ism in 1921, which gave the fascists
an opportunity to consolidate their
ing effectively wiped out, and along
with this has taken place re-or-
ganization and strengthening of the
Communist Party of Italy.
AS far back as 1924-6, the Party
n under the leadership of Antonio
Gramschi (now in a Mussolini dun
geon) re-organized and built up
new, splendid cadres, but because
these could not involve greater
masses, they were picked off by
Mussolini and virtually destroyed by
death and imprisonment.
In 1902, the Party center re-
stored contacts with the majority OF
the existing lower organizations, and
began to develop greater mass ac-
tivity, combining legal with illegal
forms of struggle.
The energetic and bold conduct OF
the thousands of Communists be-
fore the penal courts (such as the
| defense of the woman comrade
whose testimony we quoted in this
column not so long ago. has won
the admiration and respect of large
masses of italian workers
The Party which was reduced to a
party of Immigrants" in 1928-29, by
1882 was a fighting organization OF
thousands of actives. But Mussolini
has had long time to entrench his
system of terror, and the fight is a
difficult one.
Nevertheless, the forces of revo-
luton are gaining rapidly. Through
the censored news come reports Of
growing day to day struggles of the
peasants, workers and unemployed.
The aggravated financial crisis now