By Benito Mussolini
I agreed to come and speak to the Sciesa Group this evening for three reasons—first sentimental, second personal, and third political. For the sentimental reason, because I wished to pay the tribute of my admiration and profound devotion to our unforgettable and magnificent Fallen—Melloni, Tonoli and Crespi; the first two of your squad and the last of the "Sauro." I remember them perfectly. Then I agreed also because of the way in which the Group has decided hold this celebration. Lastly, in view of the general attitude of expectation that holds in suspense the hearts of all Italians in the omen of some event which will arrive, I did not wish to let the opportunity slip for defining certain points, a definition which is necessary in these difficult times through which we are passing.
You feel, judging by your silent and austere attitude, that if the flesh is corruptible, the spirit is immortal. You feel that here in this little hall this evening the spirits of our Fallen are still with us. They are present; we feel their presence, because the soul cannot die. They fell in the most heroic action yet accomplished by Italian Fascism in the four years of its history. Because many times when the Fascists have gone forth to destroy with fire and sword the dens of the cowardly Social-Communist delinquents, they have only seen the backs of the fleeing enemy, but the members of the Sciesa squad and the two fallen, whom we remember, and all the squadrons of the Milanese Fascio, went to the assault of the offices of Avanti! as they would have attacked an Austrian trench. They had to scale the walls, break through barbed wire, burst open doors and face the hot lead which the enemy poured forth from their weapons. This is heroism. This is violence. This is the violence of which I approve and which I uphold. This is the violence of Milanese Fascism, and which Italian Fascism—and I speak to the Fascists of all Italy—ought to make hers. Not the little, individual, sporadic acts of violence, which are often useless, but the great, beautiful, relentless violence of the decisive hour. It is necessary, when the moment comes, to strike with the utmost decision and with the utmost inexorability. You must not think that I wish to hide the very strong sympathy I have for the Milanese Fascio, because my love, above all, is for the cause. When a cause has been sanctified by so much pure young blood, it must not, at any cost, become defiled in any way. Our friends have been heroes, their action has been that of warriors, their violence holy and moral. We exalt them, we remember them, and we will avenge them. We cannot accept the humanitarian, Tolstoyan moral standard, the morality of slaves. In times of war we adopt the formula of Socrates: "Overcome friends with kindness, overcome enemies with evil."
Our line of conduct is perfectly correct. Those who do good to us shall have good; those who do evil to us shall have evil. Our enemies cannot complain if, being enemies, they are dealt with harshly, as enemies must be dealt with. We are in a historical period of crisis which accelerates every day. The general strike, which was averted by the sacrifice of blood of the Fascists, was an episode in this crisis. Dissension lies between the Nation and the State. Italy is not a State, she is a Nation, because from the Alps to Sicily there is the fundamental unity of our race, our customs, our language and our religion. The war fought from 1915 to 1918 consecrates this unity, and if this is enough to characterize the Nation, the Italian Nation exists, full of resources, powerful and impelled towards a glorious destiny.
But the Nation must create for itself the State. And there is no State. Today the newspaper which represents Liberalism in Italy, the paper with the largest circulation—and which, for this reason, by upholding absurd arguments has done a great deal of harm at times—stated that there are two Governments in Italy, and if there are two, there is one too many. There is the Liberal Government and the Fascist Government; the State of today and the State of tomorrow. "We need a Government," said the Corriere della Sera. We agree, a Government is needed.
Two occurrences during these last days—one characteristic of our activity in the cause of piety, the other of our activity in the cause of legality—have proved the superiority of the Fascist State over the Liberal State, and have shown that Fascism is capable and worthy to succeed that State.
At San Terenzo in La Spezia, if all the dead were buried and the wounded taken to the hospital, if the country was cleared of debris, and the furniture and belongings safeguarded from the base attempts of human jackals, if the soldiers had their supplies in good time, it was by the activity of the Fascist State. And the mayor of Lerici—who is not a Fascist—telegraphed his great gratitude, not to the Prime Minister, but to us, as you may have learnt in Il Popolo d'ltalia.
Here we are in the camp of piety, and of human and national solidarity.
Let us transfer our attention to Bolzano. Here it is a question of Italian rights and law. Who stood up for those rights? Fascism. Who imposed Italianity in a city which ought to be Italian? Fascism! Who banished Julius Perathoner who for five years held in check five Italian Ministers? Fascism! It has been Fascism that has given a school and a church to the Italians in the Alto Adige, and inspired them with the sense of their own dignity! Who placed the bust of the king in the Council Hall? Fascism! The King, passing through Balzano, had forgotten: he evidently did not care!
The Germans are astonished and amazed at seeing before them all these young Fascists, physically beautiful and morally magnificent. Inhabiting as they do unlawfully our Italian soil, they seem to wonder: "What Italy is this?" And we answer: "By the action of the defeatist ministers and as a result of the unfortunate peace, you Germans are accustomed to the Italy of Abba Garima; now you must accustom yourselves to the Italy of Vittorio Veneto, which has force and energy, and which says: 'We are at the Brenner, and there we intend to stay! We do not wish to go to Innsbruck, but do not imagine that Germany and Austria can ever return to Bolzano!'"
This is the Fascist State which reveals itself to Italian eyes in two typical moments of current news: the disaster of San Terenzo and the Fascist occupation of Bolzano.
The citizens wonder which State will end by dictating its law upon the nation. We have no hesitation in answering that it will be the Fascist State.
The Corriere della Sera says that something must be done quickly, and we agree. A nation cannot live nursing in its bosom two States, two Governments, one in action and the other in power. But what is the way to give the nation a Government? I say Government, because when we say State we mean something more. We mean the spirit and not merely the inert matter and ephemera! There are two ways, gentlemen. If the whole of Rome was not suffering from a softening of the brain, they would summon the Chamber at the beginning of November, and having passed the Bill for Electoral Reform, make an appeal to the electors in December. Because the Facta crisis, which the Corriere invokes, could not alter the situation.
Thirty crises in the Italian Parliament as it is today would mean thirty reincarnations of Signor Facta. If the Government does not follow this path, gentlemen, we shall be obliged to take the other. You see that our tactics are now clear. On the other hand, when it is a question of assaulting the State it is no longer possible to have recourse to small conspiracies, of which the "yes or no" to attack remains a secret until the last moment. We must give orders to hundreds and thousands of men, and it would be merely absurd to expect to keep it secret. We play an open game. We leave our cards on the table until it is necessary to lift them; and we say: "There is an Italy which you Liberal leaders no longer understand. You do not understand it because of your backward mentality, you do not understand it because of your stagnant temperament, you do not understand it because Parliamentary politics has killed your spirit. The Italy which has come from the trenches is a strong Italy, full of life and impulse."
It is an Italy which deserves to begin a new period of history. There exists, therefore, a dramatic contrast between the Italy of yesterday and our Italy.
The conflict appears inevitable. It is a question now of developing our forces, summoning all our energies and strength, so that the conflict shall end in victory for us—and, as a matter of fact, upon that score there can be no doubt.
Now the Liberal State is a mask behind which there is no face, it is a scaffolding behind which there is no building. There are forces behind them, but there is no spirit. All those who ought to uphold it feel that it is approaching the extreme limits of disgrace, impotence and absurdity.
On the other hand, as I said at Udine, we do not wish to stake everything on the game, because we do not present ourselves as the saviours of humanity, nor do we promise anything special to the Italians. Indeed, we may even impose greater discipline and more sacrifices upon them. It may be that we will impose as much on the bourgeoisie as we will on the proletariat, because while there is an infected proletariat, there is a bourgeoisie still more infected.
There is a part of the proletariat that must be chastised in order that it may be redeemed afterwards, and there is a part of the bourgeoisie which detests us and tries to throw confusion into our ranks, which finances all the tabloids and anti-Fascist slander, a bourgeoisie which has hitherto ignobly courted the anti-national forces; a bourgeoisie for which I do not feel one ounce of pity.
We are surrounded by enemies: there are enemies both within and without. Those who are our open enemies, and who belong to the so-called subversive parties, have now perfected themselves in the art of ambush and assassination.
But there are other insidious enemies who try to harm the Fascist movement under the cover of the tricolour and other similar emblems, who try to infiltrate themselves into our movement and to create simulacra of organizations in order to weaken us just at the time when it is most necessary for us to remain compact and united.
Now I must say that if we do not have mercy upon those who attack us from behind the hedges, neither shall we have mercy upon those who attack us thus insidiously. When the clock of history strikes the hours, we must speak as the peasants do, simply, harshly, sincerely and loyally.
We have no great obstacles to overcome, as the nation is waiting for us, the nation hopes in us and feels itself represented in us. Certainly we cannot promise to plant the tree of liberty in the squares. We cannot give liberty to those who would profit by it to assassinate us. The stupidity of the Liberal State lies in this: that it gives freedom to all, including those who use this freedom to overthrow it.
We shall not give this liberty, not even if it is wrapped in the old faded garb of the immortal principles!
Finally, that which divides us from Democracy is not the electoral bells and whistles. If people wish to vote, let them vote. Let us all vote until we are sick of it! Nobody wants to suppress universal suffrage.
But we shall carry out a severe and reactionary policy. These terms do not scare us. If the representative organs of Democracy say that we are reactionaries it does not offend us, because what distinguishes us from the Democrats is mentality and spirit. History does not follow an obligatory itinerary; it is made up of contrasts and all kinds of vicissitudes, there are no centuries which are all light and no centuries which are all darkness. It is not possible to transport Fascism out of Italy, as it was not possible to transport Bolshevism out of Russia.
The Italians can be divided into three categories: the "indifferent", who will remain in their homes; the "sympathetic", who will have freedom of movement; and finally the "enemies", who will have their freedom restricted.
We shall make no promises. We shall not present ourselves as missionaries who bring the revealed truth.
But I do not think that our enemies will place serious obstacles in our way. Subversiveness is defeated. Look at the Congress of Rome. What a pitiful sight! When the leader of a congress becomes a fool and behaves like the lawyer of Busto, then you understand that we are already upon the bottom rung of the ladder. There was one Socialism, today there are four, and there is a tendency towards further divisions. And not only this, but each of these divisions claims to represent authentic socialism. It is no wonder that the proletariat scatters, discouraged and disgusted by the attitude of the Socialists. As I have already said, the day of Socialism is not only past as a party, its philosophies and doctrines no longer stand. The Italians and the Western peoples in general must burst with logical criticism the grotesque bubble of international Socialism.
Perhaps, looking at things from an historical point of view, it is a struggle between the East and the West, between the chaotic, fatalistic East (look at Russia) and us, we people of the West, who cannot be carried away by flights of metaphysics, but are thirsting for hard concrete realities.
Italians cannot be mystified for long by Asiatic doctrines, which are absurd and criminal in their practical application. This is the essence of Italian Fascism, which represents a reaction against the Democrats who would have made everything gray, mediocre and uniform; and tried every way to conceal and to render transitory the authority of the State, from the supreme head to the last usher in the law courts.
Consequently everybody from the King, who is much too democratic, to the lowest official has suffered from this false conception of life.
Democracy thought to make itself indispensable to the masses, and did not understand that the masses despise those who have not the courage to be what they ought to be. All of this democracy has failed to understand. Democracy has taken "style" from the lives of the people, but Fascism brings "style" back to the lives of the people; that is to say, it brings back colour, force, the picturesque, the unexpected, mysticism; in short, it brings back all that counts in the souls of the multitude.
We play upon every cord of the lyre, from violence to religion, from art to politics. We are politicians and we are warriors. We are syndicalists and we also fight battles in the streets and the squares. That is Fascism as it was conceived, and as it was and is realized, especially in Milan.
And, my friends, we must maintain this privilege. Fascism must always be kept up to this magnificent and marvelous level of strength and wisdom. We must not abandon ourselves to imitations, because that which is possible in a particular agricultural region, at a given moment, and in a given environment, is not possible here in Milan. Here the situation has been dominated more by the spontaneous maturing of events than by the violence of men or by circumstances. Here our domination becomes more and more solid, secure, effective. But, my friends, we must prepare ourselves with strong and pure souls, free from preoccupation for the tasks which await us. Tomorrow it is probable, almost certain, that the formidable burden of the direction of a modern State will be on our shoulders. And it will be on the shoulders not only of a few men, it will be on the shoulders of the whole of Italian Fascism.
And millions of eyes, many of them malicious, and millions of men, many of them beyond our frontiers, will be looking at us. They will want to see how we organize our hierarchies, how justice is administered in the Fascist State, how honest people are protected, how we deal with foreign policy, how we solve the problems of the school, of expansion and the army. And for any man who is caught in the act of wrongdoing, his error and his shame will reflect upon the whole hierarchy of the State and, of necessity, upon Fascism.
Have you, my friends, realized how formidable is the task which awaits you? Are you spiritually prepared for it? Do you think that enthusiasm alone is enough?
It is not enough!
It is necessary, because it is a primitive and fundamental force of the human spirit. It is impossible to do anything not inspired by intense passion or religious mysticism. But that is not enough. Together with these sentiments must work the reasoning forces of the brain. I think that in the case of a general crisis of all the forces of the nation, Fascism would have all that was necessary to impose itself and to govern. Not according to the ideas of demagogism, but according to the ideas of justice.
And then, by ruling the nation well, by leading her towards her glorious destiny, by reconciling the interests of all classes without exacerbating the hatred of one and the selfishness of the other, by uniting the Italian people as a single force to face the world tasks, by making the Mediterranean our lake—that is, allying ourselves with those who live in the Mediterranean, and expelling those who are the parasites of the Mediterranean; by fulfilling with patience this hard and cyclopean task, we shall inaugurate, thus, a truly great period in Italian history.
Thus will our dead be made immortal and their names written in the golden book of the Fascist aristocracy.
We shall point them out to the rising generation, to the children who are growing up and who represent the eternal spring of life that is renewed. We shall say: "Great was the effort and hard the sacrifice, and pure was the blood that was shed; and it was not shed to safeguard the interests of individuals, classes or castes, it was not shed in the name of materialism, it was shed in the name of an ideal, in the name of the spirit, in the name of all that is most noble, beautiful and generous in the human soul. With the example of our dead before you, I ask you to remember to be worthy of their sacrifice and to examine daily your own conscience."
Friends, I have faith in you! You have faith in me! In this mutual trust is the guarantee and certainty of our victory. Long live Italy! Long live Fascism! Honour and glory to the martyrs of our cause!
