Speech at the Congress of Verona, November 14, 1943

By Alessandro Pavolini

In opening this first National Assembly, we lift our thoughts to those who have sacrificed their lives for the Revolution, to those who have fallen on the battlefronts in this war that still rages, to those who have fought in recent months alongside our German comrades, to our fallen soldiers killed in the foothills of Istria and Dalmatia by the Communist Partisans, who should be added to the ranks of those hundreds of martyrs of the Fascist Revolution. Finally we lift our thoughts to our most recent dead who shed their blood in the piazzas and villages of Italy in these past weeks, setting a shining example.

Before addressing the main topic of this National Assembly—namely the Party's position concerning the convocation of the Constituent Assembly and the solutions it poses to the problems in the life of our Country—before addressing this topic, which is the primary reason that the Duce convened this meeting, we will first examine other aspects of Fascist and Italian life during this period, since this is the first time that we are all gathered together and communications are currently difficult.

To begin with, let's take a moment to address a topic that I just now touched upon and which concerns us all, namely this terrorist wave which the internal and external enemy is utilizing in Italy in an attempt to destroy the life of our newly-risen young Party.

Clearly it is a true wave which has been taking place for several weeks and has increased in the last two weeks. Does it break the scion of the Party? No: it strengthens it. This is precisely the feeling that people have in every province and city where squadrist blood has been shed.

What does this bloody resumption against us mean? It means that the internal and external enemy takes us seriously, acknowledges that we exist, that we are handling the situation and taking over the country. Therefore they are desperately trying to squash us. But this fact is essential in our history, in the life of Italy: the men and commanders of squadrism are attacked, the hierarchs and loyal soldiers of the Party are assaulted, because Italy is beginning to fight again, Italy is shedding its blood, Italy and its sons are raising men of honor to the front, men who know how to risk their lives for an idea.

Each of you who come from those provinces where squadrist blood has been sheld also know how the cities and villages, slowly but surely, are beginning to rise and sprout again around this valuable seed of blood. The crowds of people feel enormously and profoundly impressed when they see families of the dead—popular families, families of young women in mourning—walking behind the coffins of fallen squadrists. I heard about what happened in Novara, as the funeral procession of four recently killed squadrists passed by, a voice shouted: "These men were guilty of enrichment!". Were they truly enriched, dear comrades? All of them were old soldiers of the Revolution; one of them was the same who had reopened the Novara Federation. Their bodies were accompanied by their families, who—and I do not intend any offense when I say this—all came from the poorest and lowest rank of society. We must avenge our dead, we must avenge them and we must take definitive control of Italian life in their name. If I gave such an order to the squads, it is because I had the feeling that this situation required it.

Let me clarify that the Tribunals to which I referred are not the Extraordinary Tribunals mentioned in the Decree recently approved by the Council of Ministers which concerns the position of those who committed treason from July 26 to September 8 and those who carried out acts of violence against Fascists or against the institutions of the Regime during that nefarious period. I did not intend to refer to this law, but to a law made during the time of Badoglio and which—for once—is actually a good law, one which we can optimally utilize. It is a law that establishes, i.e allows us to establish, within 24 hours, when there are particular conditions disturbing the public order, Extraordinary Tribunals which can judge immediately and according to martial law, so that the verdict is immediately issued and the guilty are immediately condemned with the only effective penalty there is: the death penalty.

Moreover, in recent days the punishment of those guilty of treason has taken proportions that must be followed in many other provinces. I am especially referring to the province of Verona, where we are currently located, and where the punishment of traitors has always been immediately followed up with aggression or the killing of Fascists [by anti-Fascists].

But I do not wish to say goodbye to the city of Verona: we did not come here for Cangrande della Scala; we came here because this is the home of comrades Cosmin and Todeschini, who are doing very excellent work, and because Verona—together with other cities—is an exemplary city in the revival of Fascist activity. Likewise, energetic reprisals followed in Novara and Brescia, where the latest attack took place a few nights ago, in which a Blackshirt was killed in the Militia Command Barracks. This was followed up with the execution of 11 Communists, who were hung in the streets of the city until nine o'clock in the morning, in order to set an example and teach the population.

I am neither a bloodthirsty man nor a maniac; my mental upbringing is exactly the opposite; but I have the precise feeling that we either do this or else consciences will not be reached. [...] Naturally, in carrying out this necessary work of justice with awareness and with a sense of absolute justice, it is necessary to strike not only the small fish: above all we must strike the leading agents.

In many provinces we are witnessing the phenomenon of industrialists funding this subversive revival of Leninist gangs, actually subsidizing these bands of rebels. It is absolutely imperative that we intervene; these are precisely the elements which must be punished first. As for the phenomenon of these rebel gangs, each of you knows about them just as well as I do. Let's give a rough breakdown of who they are: there are the true and proper Communists, who take their orders from Moscow; there are groups that belong to English paratroopers or escaped prisoners, or men who were allowed to escape during the days of disgrace, and this includes above all those elements who more than anything else dodged conscription or compulsory labor; and finally there is the group that arbitrarily classifies itself as "patriots", which includes elements of various kinds, partly anti-Fascist, partly not. In part it also includes decorated officers, some of whom can be redeemed and enter our service.

So now in this intensification of civil struggle—a struggle that we hope and truly wish will be short, very short, so that the whole country can devote itself to its rebirth, since this rebirth is also a war in itself, albeit of a different type—we must put the problem of these stragglers at the top of our agenda. We need adequate means to crush them as soon as possible.

I know the problem that the provincial leaders have in this fight: there are many squadrists, but not always enough weapons. To remedy this problem it is necessary for the affected provinces to keep close contact with us and with the German Command, so that we can overcome these difficulties.

[...]

As for the squads and squadrism, our heart can not but rejoice in seeing the squads once again occupying the squares of Italy, even if it is for painful reasons. Squadrism was the spring of our life, and once a squadrist always a squadrist. I am speaking, of course, of those present. In the same way, we must be careful to ensure that everything in our resurrected squadrism remains pure—everything—just as the blood of our Fallen is pure. I praise the leaders of Turin and Florence who proceeded to arrest Count Gaschi and Dumini: squadrism must be absolutely pure, it must strike where it needs to strike; but it must not alienate the sympathies of healthy people from the Party, it must in no way tarnish the halo of purity that the Party must have around itself.

The transformation of the Fascist squads into federal police squads has been done—as you certainly understand—in order to legalize the necessary action of squadrism, and also for the sake of improving relations with our German comrades in this period, as well as to better resolve the issue of arming Fascists.

Now, for the Quaestors (and gradually the Quaestors will be increasingly selected from the Federal Comrades and Squadrist Mayors), the provision that I have given which enables Quaestors—when the need arises—to order the use of federal police squads—after warning the Party hierarchs—makes the most sense.

Let me also add that the task of squadrism is not a permanent task; it is a necessary task in this present period that we hope will be settled as soon as possible. When the situation allows it, we hope and desire that the Militia—which we would like to see become the true and authentic guard of the Revolution, the lifeguard of Fascists and the Fascist leagues—can be developed and assume the function of a national armed political police, and receive our squads into its reconstituted ranks. Until then, squadrism—always better disciplined by its leaders—will remain an irreplaceable force, which constitutes the essential order of the organs of Republican Fascism.

As for the reconstitution of the Militia and the Armed Forces, I want to clarify one point of the law—an excellent law that was adopted on the initiative of General Graziani concerning the establishment of the Armed Forces.

You may have heard that the Armed Forces must be non-political. Let me clarify this point, because I, like you, initially had doubts about this in the Council of Ministers. This point was made clear to me by Marshal Graziani, and honestly, I find his idea to be right: that the Armed Forces of the Republic—by the very fact that it adheres to the Republic, swears loyalty and allegiance to the political program, which is essential for the Republic itself—is only in this sense intentionally political.

Before saying that this is wrong, let me finish his reasoning: from a certain point of view, these forces will be in the service of the political idea that emanates from the Republic; on the other hand, if these forces are political in the strict sense that we intend to give to the word, then we would have to make enrollment in the Party obligatory for Officers.

I am absolutely opposed to obligatory membership in the Party, because of the disastrous experience we have had. Then you might say: "let's have some enroll and others not." If we have an Armed Forces where some permanent Officers are enrolled in a political party while others are not, then discipline will fall apart and we would witness the same disastrous phenomena of the past:

1) there is the phenomenon of camouflage: Officers who ask for membership in the Party but do not have faith in the Party;

2) then there is also the phenomenon of Officers who are members of the Party, but who try to use the Party in order to advance their own careers.

There is an infinity of interference back and forth between the Party and the Armed Forces that is harmful both to the Party and to the Armed Forces. Finally, there is the fact that, if there is a Fascist political nucleus more numerous than the rest, the rest of the Armed Forces is non-Fascist.

For these reasons—and without denying the delicacy and perplexities that may exist on this subject—I believe that the best solution is precisely the intermediate solution, namely, that the Armed Forces is political because it is in the service of the State, since they swear loyalty to its Leader, but this Army can not be organized within the Party.

[...]

I believe—and this was the thesis that I supported on behalf of the Party—that in addition to the Blackshirts, who will line the Militia's formations in combat alongside the other Army formations on the front lines; but alongside this very important branch which summarizes in itself all the most glorious traditions of the Militia battalions that fought in Africa, in Russia and in Italy, alongside this branch, I will say primary, the Militia must include another branch which—as I said before—will assume the duties of an armed political police in national territory that will truly form the armed guard of the Revolution. You will say: "We've heard before that the Militia is the Armed Guard of the Revolution, and in some sense this was not always the case."

[...]

Now let's move on to another topic of fundamental importance, which we are all very eager to address.

We have already talked about what the immediate punishment will be in every city for those directly and morally responsible for the assassination of Republican Fascists, both perpetrators and instigators. We are very eager to punish those traitors—particularly the major ones—who contributed to plunging the country into this abyss from which we are laboriously trying to get it back. In this regard, it may appear to some that time has been lost. Let me draw your attention to these facts which can not be denied. When the Party was reconstituted, this was done on the basis of a series of 5 short orders that the Duce issued via radio, which all of you certainly remember: one of these orders specified that the first urgent task of the newly-formed Party was to set an example by punishing the traitors. Now each of you who has reopened the Federations, or who has gathered the first nucleus of loyal men around you, know very well that we have not been able to carry out this order, or at least not in every case, because there are some cities in which the forces that were responsible for arresting the traitors were themselves in agreement with the traitors. This is the situation in which we found ourselves. The quaestors and carabinieri wanted to arrest us; they had no intention of arresting the men whose names were on the lists we had given them. It has not been easy.

[...]

They went there accompanied by two or at most four young Fascists armed with machine guns. This was the situation in which the new State arose. And before taking possession of the police, in this way, certainly you understand that it obviously took some time and that it was a matter of providing lists of people to be arrested; but there was no guarantee that the arresting officers would not first warn the men whom they were supposed to be arresting.

Therefore, each group of arresting officers were accompanied by a loyal Fascist who made sure that they followed orders, and of course in this period a large part of those who were supposed to be arrested had time to flee, not abroad but to other areas of Italy: thus many of them are still being searched for. Many of them are hiding out near Verona, not far from here, and their capture has been entrusted to our guards, who we always trust to a certain extent, and to our Fascist comrades of Verona, who we trust more than anyone else.

With regard to the formation of the extraordinary tribunals and the special extraordinary tribunal, which is destined to judge the members of the Grand Council of Fascism, it has been unfortunately confirmed that our Minister of Justice, the first Minister of Justice of the Republican Fascist Government, Comrade Tringali Casanova, has passed away. This is a painful loss. He was a man of unbreakable faith, and even in the past he was an exemplary punisher of the enemies of the revolution.

And this has obviously led to a slowdown in the formation of tribunals and the rapidity of other operations. You know that the decree establishing the tribunals—and this partly calms us but also partly makes us eager—places these legal instruments (which are judicial instruments but also political instruments) into the hands of Party men.

Thus it was not possible to form ordinary magistrates. Moreover, their very name indicates their revolutionary extraordinary nature. Each of you have provided me with names for the establishment of extraordinary provincial tribunals. As you know, we took three men from each province and sent them to different provinces because the proceedings will have greater effectiveness and independence from the influence of the local environment. Moreover, for several days, I have handed over to the Duce the names of nine comrades for the Council of Ministers (which has the power to decide on the matter, in accordance with the Executive Decree), who were selected as men of absolute faith, men of revolutionary intransigence, often times men who have personally suffered together with their families, personally experiencing the effects of this treason through beatings, through wounds and through exile. I presented the names of these nine carefully-selected comrades to the Duce, because they will constitute the extraordinary special tribunal.

I tell you now, as far as punishment is concerned, according to the law, the only penalty for those guilty of treason is death.

The law does not provide for any other alternative because, clearly, treason is always worse than any other crime, in whatever degree it is committed, in any period; it completely disqualifies a man and makes him an outcast from the Party, an outcast from national society, and requires an exemplary execution.

Especially now, in a time where treason has helped plunge the Nation into chaos and misery, it is clearly not possible to impose any sentence other than that provided by the law. Radio and newspaper publications have greatly manipulated public opinion and the opinion of Fascists [...] on this matter. Some men who had no direct responsibility in this matter have sometimes been wrongly accused. On the other hand, some of the principal traitors are still missing.

But there also remains the fact that some of the main perpetrators have still not been arrested and perhaps yet clearly identified. It would be good to do this as soon as possible, because this plague must be completely eliminated from the life of the Country and the life of the Party. And this plague of the past must be truly and totally eradicated, because we want once and for all to put a definitive end to the defamation of Fascism. It is time to say enough to the scandals, to the accusations and to all the nonsense made against Fascist leaders, against those who remained poor, against those who fought in all the wars that occurred in their generation, against those who did their duty as best they could with the forces they had, in positions entrusted to them by the Duce; today as yesterday they are in the breach; they are the ones who suffered imprisonment under Badoglio; they are the ones who were forced to flee, suffer beatings, had their families persecuted, and are still in the breach, today as yesterday; they are the ones who have been killed in recent days. In short, they are men whom we will not allow anyone to insult in the slightest way.

Do we really want to prolong the 45 days of Badoglio with further scandalism? Do we want to now insist upon a form of self-injury or even masochism? In those 45 days the formula of Voltaire was widely adopted: "Calumniate, calumniate; some of it is bound to stick." And some of these calumnies now stick to the reputation of honest men who were entirely blameless.

(Interuption: "Ettore Muti!")

Since you mention the name of Ettore Muti, let me say—in remembrance of this wonderful comrade and heroic figure, this most wonderful human figure, I would say poetically wonderful—let me say that by his mere presence, with his occasional meeting, he touched each of our lives; he gave us something more precious than a memory, something that invited us; he showed us that in the Italian race there are values ​​of pure, youthful, fresh, daring heroism. They tried to besmirch this great man during the days of betrayal. And let me also say—because it is the truth—that if he were still alive and here among us, rather than only present in our memories, then they would still attempt to fling mud on him or accuse him of being an old name because he wore so many medals on his chest, because he had fought in many wars and because his name was widely known among the Italian people. His name, made sacred by death, is now a young name forever. But in his name we wish to honor all those men—dead or alive—who, in the 22 years of Fascism, and in the revolutionary years that preceded it, raised the banner of the revolution, risked their lives, did not take advantage of their offices, and together with the Duce helped build everything that in the centuries and in history makes Fascism great and important in the world.

As for the youth, the subject is linked in some way to them, because we do not want there to be a fracture in Republican Fascism; we want both the old and the young to be equally Fascist. Regarding the question of youth organization, many Federations have asked whether or not the GUF would return and exist in the same form in which it had existed up to this point.

I do not think this is appropriate. Clearly the university students are a valuable force and we are happy to have them with us. However, the GUF, in the form that it existed, was too non-political and carried out a number of functions ranging from sports to assistance which had nothing or little to do with politics. Secondly, if we have to create and nuclearize a part of the youth movement in the Party, we must begin with the concept that these young people must belong to every social category, especially the social categories of workers, lower-echelon employees and rural people, i.e. those categories which—according to the will of the Duce—must form the backbone of the Party itself.

Now, in an eminently proletarian Party, do we want our political leadership to be made up exclusively of those who attend universities? No. Not unless the universities are attended only by the best and smartest men in the primary and middle schools of the Republic, without distinction of class and economic conditions of families, as we wish the universities to become. Then and only then will the student masses and the GUF truly represent the nursery of our leadership, i.e. the political forces of tomorrow.

But in the current period it is necessary that those Fascist university students who are fortunately in the Party join their strength as much as possible with young workers, peasants and traders, because if we want to be the Party that the Duce told us to be—and which the demands of the social life of the Nation require us to be—then we must also draw tomorrow's hierarchs from them, and especially from them. However, the Fascist University Groups and in general the whole youth movement in Italy has one and only function right now: that of calling the youth to arms!

For this reason the hierarchs of the Fascist University Groups must be formed by those who have fought in the war, which can not take place at this present time due to conditions of physical impairments deriving from the war. Let it be clear that the youth in Italy today have only one mission and it is this: to fight and to recruit their peers to fight alongside them. There are also comrades available for special conditions. Because, dear comrades, let's be clear about this: either we win by playing this card or we lose the game, and that means losing the Fatherland. Therefore I fully approve the order of the day in which the university students of the Valtellina asked for membership in the Militia and the Armed Forces of the State at the end of the fight.

A few moments ago I said that works of assistance such as sports and other activities do not have much to do with politics. As far as assistance is concerned, Fascist women can carry it out and can provide us with a very valuable contribution. I will immediately say that throughout this whole episode from July 26 until today, I saw a good part of the women doing very well. In order to understand just how valuable a woman can be in a man's life, you must have gone through the experience of imprisonment, or persecution, or of having had masses of men against you. I believe that each of us has experienced this a bit, and I believe that each of you who reopened the Federations found that some of the very first people who approached you were women who asked if they could resume their work of assistance. So we want these women with us and we want them to resume their work of assistance.

This work of assistance in the Party must be clearly separated from bureaucracy—from that indispensable bureaucracy which is also necessary for administration—and, gradually, from the central nucleus of the Party. We want the Party, as such, to be only and solely political: it is an assembly of men who speak, who express their ideas, men who for the rest of their lives exercise political control in their spheres of action and observation, men who are leaders in the political sense. The Party is nothing more than this.

As for everything else, all the activities that the Party has been charged with up to now and which are also very useful, must in my opinion—unless I receive news from you that convinces me otherwise—function in their own right, possibly led by comrades appointed by the Party, led by Fascists and Party men if necessary. But the Party, at the center or at the periphery, must be a sort of Ministry full of different functions. The daily routine of the Federal Commissioner must not be divided and occupied with various minimal tasks, such as kicking off sports competitions, distributing soup, visiting one institution or another. It is about politics and only politics. Of course, it is about implementing revolutionary politics! Now concerning the question of assistance, we realize that it is necessary to do something vast in the field of national life at this time, especially for the victims of bombing.

[...]

Regarding this, I have an idea and some news: as you know, we are currently in the process of liquidating Jewish assets. It is not merely rhetorical: they are sucking the blood of the Italian people. It is only fair that this blood be returned to the people. It seems to me that there is no better way to return it to the people than by providing for the needs of those victims of the bombings and those who were devastated by the war, whose main responsibility can be traced back to the Jews.

Therefore, in the immediate future, alongside Fascist assistance, I plan to form committees composed mainly of workers, not assistance officials, but citizens who help those who are not Fascists. You do not know: this is about establishing non-formal but substantial intransigence. Now, you taught me that from the political point of view you will have much greater results if you see, for example, a Federal Commissioner instructing three workers of a workshop, even non-Fascists, in order to provide for the needs of the workers. I told you that this assistance can be done in grand style. It can be estimated, based on the calculations already made, that the first sum which can be made available for this work is one billion lire.

As for the life of the Party, I will also say this: despite the dramatic period which we are facing, the membership numbers are already quite high and I would even say sufficiently high, because according to summary calculations based on your reports there are about 250,000 members. Thus the Party already has considerable strength: precisely the strength we need in Italian life.

Of course, for practical reasons, it is not possible to absolutely close this matter with an airtight seal: many comrades are missing, others are POW's, others are at war. There are some essential situations that remain to be examined.

The case of new membership is above all an exception which must be carefully examined and judged by comrades elected by the assembly so that the Party is composed entirely of absolutely faithful comrades who, except for negligible exceptions, are men who joined with us in the very first weeks leading up to today. They knew that their lives and their families lives were at risk in this period, yet they still chose to join themselves to us for life and for death.

[...]

Let's be clear. We are in perfect agreement that the Republic must hold elections, according to the directives that will be laid out in the Statute of the Party. According to the Duce's directive: "I intend that the Head of the Republic be elected every five years by the people"; but at the same time, we do not have much faith in an electoral system, and we are all in agreement about that. Italy's experience with elections has been a disastrous experience, and in truth Nitti's Italy was just as bad as Badoglio's. Therefore, I believe that a mixed system would suit our needs much better. We can address this again if anyone has a better idea.

Will there be elections also in the syndicates? In fact, elections in the syndicates already existed before. The transformation of the syndical associations into a single Confederation of Labour, Arts and Technics is what will allow us to review the whole complex of syndical organization.

We must infinitely streamline it, because the syndical bureaucracy reached gigantic proportions, and one of the major causes of this gigantic growth was the Party, because it was precisely the Party that—for reasons of assistance—continually tried to arrange the elements of syndical organization. These organisms have thus become swollen from the syndical point of view. This personnel has been completely liquidated. Since all this personnel—or at least its center—has been completely liquidated by a fortunate coincidence, the necessary conditions are now there for the personnel of the syndical mechanism to be greatly simplified; we can now return to the concept that most of the posts should be held not by officials, but by representatives of the category, because the point of non-election or false election is not only a system by acclamation, but by acclamation the name of an official or comrade was proposed who did not always live up to the task.

[...]

Some responded well, others did not. In short, it is about changing the whole mentality, even the mentality of our Party men, because if we want the syndicate to be useful, then the syndicate must not be a political tool, the syndicate must be useful and preside over the welfare of the workers; a Regime where the syndicate functions with worker satisfaction and with worker adhesion is a strong Regime. And this is the best policy we can make.

[...]

Prior to convening the Constituent Assembly, we will adopt a programmatic manifesto for the Party which will outline our entire course of action. This will be the reference point for the Italian people to know exactly what the Republican Fascist Party believes in. As for the immediate policy to be implemented, here are the Party's most urgent aims and desires: the continuation of the war alongside our Tripartite allies and the formation of the Italian Armed Forces which will serve alongside the soldiers of the Fuhrer. These are the two essential goals that tower above everything else in importance and urgency. The Party will have to examine what our position will be on constitutional and internal matters, on matters of foreign policy, and above all on social matters. Why social? Because our Republic will have to be above all a social State. As for the Constituent Assembly, the Party's thought—which is taken from the Duce's directives—is that it is a sovereign power of popular election, which in its first act will declare the abolition of the monarchy, solemnly condemn the last treasonous and fugitive king, proclaim the Social Republic, and appoint its Head.

As for the formation of the Constituent Assemnly, it seems that it would have to be constituted by representatives of the working people through the syndical organizations and by representatives from the occupied provinces through the organization of displaced persons.

It must also include—and I would like to say above all include—representatives of war veterans, including prisoners of war, through those who have been repatriated due to disabilities; representatives of the army and the judiciary; representatives of Italians abroad; and any other body or institution whose participation contributes to the synthesis of the Nation's values.

The Constituent Assembly must grant a series of rights to the citizens, be they soldiers, workers, or taxpayers, while also specifying their duties. A series of rights which, without falling into the vague idea of the so-called freedom of the press, also accords citizens the right responsibly criticize the public administration's actions.

It must include a declaration on the rights of the citizen in regards to the election of the highest powers of the Republic and in particular according to the directive that the Duce has given concerning the election of the Head of the Republic; it must include a specific clarification of the rights of the citizen with regard to his personal freedom, assuring him that no one arrested in the act or detained for preventive reasons will be held beyond a determined number of days without a warrant from the judicial authorities; and it must also include—since this is what every Constitution worthy of the name includes—a declaration of independence and a declaration on the functioning of the Magistracy with regard to its Organs.

[...]

A key point is this: do we plan to have a single party? I believe that we can only have a single party. The Party envisions an order of fighters and believers which must become an organism of absolute political purity, worthy of being the guardian of a revolutionary idea, of that idea which rules the State. It must be clearly established by our Institutes that membership in this Party is not required for any job or position. The Party is composed of Republican Fascist Combat Leagues, however we will discuss this later and each of you will be able to speak. This fundamental law must contain a reference to the religion of the Republic, which can only be the religion professed by 99% of the population.

There is another question. The religion of the State is the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion, and every other cult will be respected. However, as far as the Jews are concerned, the leadership of the Party proposes that in this matter a formula be adopted that leaves no room for misunderstanding and that all members of the Jewish race be regarded as foreigners who belong to an enemy nationality during this war, with all the consequences that this statement implies, because for those who have studied the problem, this policy is one which cuts to the root of the problem.

[...]

As far as foreign policy is concerned, it is clear that the essential aim of the Republic's foreign policy must be the liberation of the Fatherland from foreign invaders; defending the unity, independence and territorial integrity [of Italy]; and recognizing the necessity of having vital living space, which is indispensable for a population of 45 million inhabitants living in an area insufficient to feed them. Moreover, in the European and therefore worldwide sphere—and this has always been our aspiration—we are for a community of European nations, perhaps even a united federation of European nations who accept these following principles: Europe for the Europeans; elimination of the century-long British intrigues from our continent; abolition of the internal capitalistic system and combat against global plutocracies; and the valourisation of Africa's unused resources for the benefit of European peoples, with full respect for those peoples, particularly Muslim ones, who have already shaped themselves into mature and civilized nations, such as Egypt.

In social matters it is clear that Fascist socialism can not be Marxist socialism, which sees nothing but manual labor and demagogically neglects technical and intellectual work, which from a purely human point of view are absolutely necessary and just as indispensable as manual labour, and from the point of view of hierarchy in business they are even superior, being an expression and an individual contribution to collective labour. Our socialism can not be a Communist socialism like Russia, because it is contrary to our spirit; we can not fathom the absurd total nationalization of all economic activities down to artisan activities, all rural activities and all professional activities like they do in Russia. Ours must be a syndical socialism which achieves a decisive step forward on the path of social justice, without renouncing any of the social progress that has already been accomplished over the last 20 years by the Fascist regime.

[...]

With regard to private property, that property arising from individual labour and from individual savings, which is, as I said earlier, an extension of the human personality and which we want to guarantee and protect, it is clear that the core of this healthy property is the home.

For us the home is not just a property right, it is a right to ownership. The Party therefore intends to include in its program, and this is absolutely essential, the creation of a national agency for popular housing which will absorb the existing institute and extend its action even further, making home ownership available to families of all categories of workers via the construction of new homes or the gradual repurchase of existing ones, affirming in this regard the general principle that rent payments ought to go towards ownership of a home, once capital has been paid off in full. The first duty of this agency will be to solve the war's detrimental effects [on housing] by expropriating and distributing empty buildings and by erecting temporary structures.

As for the single Confederation, it has already been addressed. I would add though that the employees of public services and industrial enterprises of the State must be allowed to form syndicates like any other worker. All the impressive social provisions created by the Fascist regime over the last twenty years remain intact. The Charter of Labour in both letter and spirit constitutes the starting point of a longer journey.

Finally, the Party recognizes a salary adjustment for all workers is an urgent necessity, especially for lower-echelon and middle-echelon workers. In order that this measure not be ineffective or harmful due to the well-known circle that leads to inflation, price rises, inadequate wages and money devaluation, the Party believes it is necessary to accomplish this through cooperatives and factory stores, through the expansion of the "Provvida's" responsibilities, through the expropriation of stores that have broken the law, placing them under state or cooperative management. In short, all those means that can be devised and quickly put into action. Part of the salary should be paid in foodstuffs at official prices. This is the only way to stabilize at least some of the prices and the lira's value, as well as contribute to the market's recovery.

As for the black market, we ask that speculators be placed under the authority of special courts and be punished with the death penalty, just like traitors and defeatists. As I said, the situation of lower-echelon employees and other workers is urgent.

With this social part of our program, I believe that we will take a decisive step above and beyond what people expect and at the same time we will do it with that sense of balance that is typical of our Italian nature; we will do it as responsible men but together with men who know how to look forward, men who know how to look toward the future, men who are selfless and seek nothing except the good of the people.

It is clear that if we are to achieve these social postulates quickly and easily, if it is on this ground that the State goes to the masses, then it is necessary that the masses come to the State.

I would like to add that the realization of all this is conditioned by the fact that these social achievements are truly social conquests by the people, who will in fact achieve them by fighting and working. There is only one way for the Italian people to reach these goals in the social sphere, which are the goals of many generations of Italians, and which are the original goals of the Revolution, goals which the revolution now inscribes again upon its unscrupulous flags, now that it is free from all forms of compromise; there is only one way to reach this end: being in the army of labour, in the army of arms, an operating compactness; there is only one way for the Italian people to defend their conquests of yesterday, today and tomorrow: by ousting the invading Anglo-American plutocracies from our national soil.

This is why the Party wants to be—and above all it has to be, in this period—besides an internal fighting organ for the defense of the revolutionary idea in its men and in its institutes, and besides an organ of political discussion whose word is recognized as authoritative, it must above all be an organism that speaks to the Italian people through men who have the prestige of fighting and the prestige of faith, showing them the way; teaching them that honor is the entire life of a people, and that without honor a people can not exist; convincing them that we and our German ally are fighting for the same cause, and that they are fighting for us, and that tomorrow we will fight alongside them—not for them, but for a common idea, for the salvation of Europe, for our national existence, for continental and racial honor; persuading the people to take up arms, to be the Italian people of our dreams and our will, the one for which so many martyrs have fallen in the Risorgimento, in the war of the Fatherland, in the Revolution, the one for whose future so many martyrs sacrifice themselves each day and make sacred with their mute presence. This Constituent Assembly of ours, which wants to mark the sign of recovery, wants to be the symbol of awakening, and wants to open—in the name Duce, after so much darkness, after so much desperation—the light of desperate hope before our spirits, the light of our will which will achieve its end.