By Benito Mussolini
Once again I see the joyful faces of my comrades who were by my side in the early days, when, just as today, we faced a world that was overthrown through hard battles and cruel sacrifices. Even back then everyone and everything was against us, and our cause was condemned by everyone from the blacks to the reds. If we triumphed, it was because Fascism carried within itself the reasons for its rise and affirmation. Now I see again my comrades who have remained faithful to the flag and who intend to always remain faithful, despite the passing of many years and the betrayals of the infamous summer of 1943.
Your black brigade is named after the great Aldo Resega, a valiant fighter, a generous heart, and an exemplary citizen who consecrated his faith with his blood. It can be said of him that he came from the people and died for the people, because his assassins—who were in the pay of the enemy—were outside the popular community. All of you, from the leading officer to the common soldier, are strictly bound to engage in irreproachable conduct according to formal law and Fascist custom, so that nothing can tarnish the name and memory of this patriot and Fascist soldier. Based on the reports I have been given, I conclude that your brigade consists of solid and brave men, in which combat is a second nature, and love for Italy is a fundamental element of your souls. The military structure given to the Party last June is in perfect harmony with the Party's own tasks in the current period of national history, which is dominated by the war and by the dark, disgraceful, shameful betrayal of September 8.
At the Congress of Verona, the Republican Fascist Party fixed its postulates. If the events of war have delayed the application of some of them, this does not mean that the postulates have changed. They remain.
In times of high moral and political tension, watchwords are few and extremely clear.
To those who ask us "what do you want?", we respond with three words which summarizes our program. Here they are: Italy, Republic, Socialization.
We are enemies of generic, concordant and alibistic patriotism, which inclines towards compromise and perhaps towards defection. For us, Italy means honor and honor means loyalty to your given word, an indispensable title of reputation for individuals as well as for peoples; and loyalty to your given word means collaborating with your ally in work and in combat.
In the examples of history, everyone remembers that traitors, both in politics and in wars, are utilized but despised.
Now it is precisely at this moment in which Germany is engaged in a supreme struggle and eighty million Germans are becoming eighty million soldiers, in an effort of superhuman resistance; it is precisely at this moment in which the enemies anticipate—in their hopes and illusions—a victory that they will not achieve, because Germany will never capitulate, because capitulating would be the political, moral and physical "death" of Germany; it is at this moment that we reaffirm our full, total solidarity with National Socialist Germany, which is fighting with a courage and a virtue that could be called "Roman", and which has even earned the admiration of those enemies who are not completely blinded by hatred.
This is very clear for everyone. This is the inflexible attitude of Republican Italy. The series of betrayals by which the House of Savoy disqualified itself, from Carlo Alberto to Vittorio Emanuele III, has ended with the fall of the monarchy. Our Italy is republican. The Italian Social Republic is located to the north of the Apennines. And this Republic will be defended inch by inch, to the last province, to the last village, to the last cottage. Whatever the war events on our territory may be, the idea of the republic, founded by Fascism, has now entered into the spirit and customs of the people.
The third word of the program—Socialization—should be regarded as a consequence of the first two: Italy and Republic. Socialization is nothing more than the Italian and human—our—realization of a practicable socialism; I say "our" because it makes labour the only subject of the economy, but rejects the mechanical egalitarianization of everything and everyone, an egalitarianism which does not exist in nature and which is impossible to create in history.
All those who have a soul free from bias and factional sectarianism can recognize themselves in the tripartite motto: Italy, Republic, Socialization.
With this we intend to summon the best elements of the working people onto the political scene. The capitulation of September 8 marks the honest liquidation of the bourgeoisie as a global ruling class. The spectacle it offered was scandalous. There have been incredible acts of degradation and sordid manifestations of anti-national and anti-social selfishness.
As always, those who change their feelings and their opinions depending on the circumstances of the war are barely worthy of compassion and, in some cases, are worthy of contempt. The ups and downs in the moods of many people disregards the positive examination of the situation, which, being complex and universal, can not be judged on the basis of momentary impressions, often caused by deafening enemy propaganda.
Not only will Germany never capitulate, because it can not capitulate, since its enemies seek to destroy it both as a State and as a race, but also because Germany still has many tools in its arsenal, in addition to what may be called unanimous decision: the iron will of its people.
The enemies are in a hurry and have declared such. We know our pains and they are many, but is there anyone so willfully naive as to believe that everything that happens in England, Russia and even the United States is really the best of things? Do you not realize that there is a fairly large group of intelligent people in England who are wondering: was it really worth it to go to war against so-called German imperialism? Was it really worth it to lose hundreds of thousands of men in addition to all the positions of the Far East? Was it really worth it to provoke the emergence of Slavic imperialism, which has already taken a hold of all of Europe from the Vistula and the Baltic to the Mediterranean (a painful note for London!)?
And have you not heard the rumors that the lousy and absurd Casablanca formula of "unconditional surrender" must be revised, if they do not wish to further sacrifice millions of more lives? Because the greatest massacre of all time has a name: democracy. Under this word hides the voracity of Jewish Capitalism, which seeks to exterminate men and destroy Christian civilization in order to accomplish their scientific exploitation of the world.
Realizing these truths within your own spirit means that at some point events will take another turn, and the future developments of the war—in which science will play a supremely important role—will strangle the throats of the enemy as they sing their premature hymns of victory. We intend to participate in this stage of the war by eliminating the enemy's accomplices from within and by calling upon all the Italians who accept our tripartite program. Whatever happens, we will not deflect a single line from the program which today I wanted to illustrate while speaking to you, dear comrades of the Black Brigade: you are the expression and honor of the first-born Fascist league.
In vain, under the protection of foreign mercenaries and foreign bayonets, the men of the unconditional surrender, i.e. the men of infamy and cowardice, are now engaged in a persecution against Fascists and Fascism. They do nothing but document our unbreakable continuity. Six separate political parties are artificially bound together by a single and negative bond: the persecution and iconoclastic purge against Fascism.
This is because they feel that the supposedly dead Fascist movement is still alive, is still in the air that they breathe, is still in the things that they encounter at every step, thanks to the irrepressible material and spiritual signs that Fascism has left everywhere. No human force can erase from history that which has already entered history as a reality and as a faith. In the last twenty years tens of thousands of Fascists, the flower of the Italian race, have died fighting under our black banner, in peace and in war, in Italy, in Europe and in Africa. They constitute an everlasting testimony and safeguard of the heroic expression of Fascism.
Deliver my greetings to the Milanese comrades, as well as the echo of my certainty in a victorious conclusion for Italy and Europe in this colossal clash of civilization, which takes its name from Fascism.
