By Benito Mussolini
The figures regarding the numerical strength of the Party are really indicative and deserve some comment. They demonstrate that the membership numbers are always impressive and I believe that even when the necessary cuts and purges are made, the number will still be considerable. We will always be, as we must be, a mass Party, because in order to govern and run a nation of forty million people, which soon will be fifty million, it requires a mass, it requires tens of thousands of hierarchs who must be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of collaborators animated by the same faith. The important thing is to select them manually, according to necessity and depending on the period.
I am delivering a speech at this meeting because I want to report the address that was submitted to me by the Secretary of the Party, and I felt that I had to make it public. I did not have to do this, as no other decisions of the Directorate have been made public. But I thought it would be good to make it known to the nation, because the ideas contained therein are not only the ideas of the Directorate of the Party; they are also mine. And it is good for the nation to know that at some point life might become more rigorous, a rigor that maybe some do not yet suspect.
The reactions to this address, as far as foreign affairs are concerned, were typical and it is not worth discussing them. One should not argue with enemy nations except with canon fire: the best polemic is that of arms. One can try other methods, but evidently such methods do not work.
With regard to internal affairs, there have been some delays and temporary polemical deviations, as well as erroneous interpretations. Comrade Scorza intervened because obviously it was not lawful to ignore it. It is certain that I always defend the Party, in every case, however and wherever. Now, the Party in all its historical periods has been equal to its tasks. Men have made mistakes: they will be discussed soon. But such mistakes were always committed in good faith.
Was it perhaps a mistake to allow all the war veterans of the First World War to join the Party? I do not believe so. It was the combatents themselves who said: "Why do you want to leave us at the door? Many of us, peasants of small towns, believed that being in the Veterans Association and in the Party was the same thing." It was thought that giving recognition to these old valiant warriors of the World War was a good gesture, however imperfect and in any case not dangerous, even though the Party increased its numbers by some hundreds of thousands of men.
The Party is not only represented by the figures read a moment ago by Comrade Scorza: it is represented also by the tens of thousands of fallen and by the thousands of volunteers, from Guido Pallotta to Carmello Borg Pisani. For me, Pisani is a man like Cesare Battisti, Nazario Sauro, Filzi, Damiano Chiesa, and those who were martyrs of our Risorgimento. He deliberately offered himself to the ultimate sacrifice.
In all these years, the Party has upheld the country while it was engaged in a struggle, a struggle that we support and which began in January 1935.
The Party has its ideal line, which will always be defended by me, even if tomorrow I would have to deliver a speech like the one I gave on January 3. I well distinguish eternal values from ones which are ephemeral.
As for those points the Directorate has reported, let's examine them together:
"1. Severe and if necessary ruthless repression of all attempts to cripple the moral and material fabric of the people. If the current laws that are in force are not good enough, then they must be replaced by new ones."Perfect. But the Italian people deserve all our respect and all our love, because they set a simply wonderful example, and I really do not know what more we can ask from our people. They provide soldiers, they provide money (the last loan consisted entirely of small loans; the large ones have been few). They raise their chin high and are fearless in the face of bombings. There is one city in particular which has set a great example, which has revealed itself — not to me, who already knew her — but to the many Italians who did not know her and to the the world which had a false misconception of her: I am speaking about Naples and the seventy-thousand bombings she has suffered.
There are, of course, negative and adverse elements. Do you really expect that in a nation of forty million people there would not be, besides those who are officially opponents, a thousand or a hundred thousand individuals who are intolerant and scared due to personal reasons, or due to their weakened nervous systems or their organic constitution? We must not generalize. We strictly control everything and should not attribute too much importance to it. We have defeated almost everyone from the old parties; they will never be able to uproot the Regime and not even affect it beyond what may be the normal function of the Police. However, it is necessary to ridicule the proponents and spreaders of yellow journalism born from diseased fantasies. They are in need of restorative care.
"2. The unification of industrial production, which is to be accompanied by strict and if necessary ruthless discipline, while the unitary discipline of agricultural production must be perfected.."
Indeed, these forces of the national economy must be put on a rigorous discipline plan. The plans for agricultural production have been made, that is to say, the regulatory plan which intends to discipline four million farmers, i.e. four million farms. It is truly a revolutionary undertaking, also because the agricultural economy is complex and varies from region to region, sometimes from province to province. Although in this first year we can not expect that things will proceed entirely perfectly, nonetheless the regulatory plans for agricultural production have been made.
We must go further with regard to industrial production. We must have the courage to eliminate all industries that no longer have a reason to exist, and we must also have the courage to exempt those industrialists who are not responsible for the situation. "Man", said the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (excuse my erudition), "is the measure of all things". Mediocre institutions with well-trained men work well; perfect institutions with deficient men turn to ruin.
One day we thought it was time to stop considering Italy a French province when it comes to fashion. Fashion affects at least twenty million people in Italy. And so the Fashion Institute was created.
Many other entities have also worked extravagantly well. However, the abundance of entities really seems excessive. In textiles, for example, the wool-makers wanted their own entity and they called it the Wool Committee. The cotton-makers did not want to be left out, so they created the Cotton Institute. When it became necessary to impose textile autarky (against which there still remains some disguised residual opposition), the National Textile Bureau was created. When silk needed to be protected, the Silk Institute was created.
All this can, at a given moment, flow into that great river which must collect them. When I speak of entities, I also mean those entities which are not always necessarily projections of State administration. The riverbed that can gather all these entities is the guild (corporazione). We have created the guild as a disciplining force, coordinating all the economic activities of the nation. Everything must begin, develop and end in the guild, which is a modern and timely creation of our Regime which tomorrow will be implemented everywhere (albeit in other forms) if the economy is going to pass from the already-outdated liberal-individualistic phase without falling into Soviet-style bureaucratic statalism, where the whole economy, from steel to the hairdressers perms, has become an economic function of the State. The guild is a typical revolutionary creation of the Regime, and the precursor of a new era in world civilization.
Here, too, it is a question of whether the men who head the guilds are able to always fulfill their tasks and become true economic coordinators. If so, they remain in their position. If not, then here too it is a problem of men. But by now the Party has a fairly large and sufficiently-selected ruling class.
Hence why bureaucracy, true bureaucracy, is defined by me as something which may in some way affect the political and economic directives of the State. That is true bureaucracy. In which case, bureaucracy is limited to a few dozen people. The director generals of the ministries may influence the State administration and it is in their power to do so, since they represent a "continuity". But they are very well-prepared men in this regard: this is demonstrated by the fact that senior State officials are very much desired by private entities.
The law passed by the last Council of Ministers allows individual ministers to dismiss director generals who are not doing their jobs. I do not believe they are many. As for the rest of the Italian bureaucracy, I am the head of this bureaucracy and I consider myself one of the most diligent employees of the State. Just think that in twenty-one years I have never — I say never — lost any papers, not even insignificant ones, and at night my desk is clear of papers. I am constantly on the telephone. When I want to know how many projectors have already been built, old fashioned methods would force me to write a letter to the prefect, who would send a letter to the factory manager, who would answer with a letter to the prefect, who would send me a copy of this letter. Sometimes I use the telephone to directly call the factory manager, and sometimes I call the prefect, giving him the strictly necessary time to inquire and respond. This is simple.
There is still too much delay in the Italian bureaucracy. There is a tendancy towards older and outdated means of communication. ... It is necessary for the bureaucracy to be quick and to make use of all the means that modern technology and science abundantly offers us. It should, however, be added that Italian bureaucracy is one of the smallest among all the nations. It is the least paid, it is the most honest, and it is the one that has the least amount of public collaboration. The public, still accustomed to the historical memories of the old bureaucracies imposed by foreign states, must remind themselves and remember that they are dealing with servants of the State and collaborators of the Regime.
The bureaucracy in recent times has been innervated with younger elements; however, a reform will be implemented to make it smoother and faster in its decisions; and also to get it accustomed to having maximum courtesy and patience with the public, especially the delicate public, especially the little people who do not know the laws and do not have the time to read them. A formula that I once proclaimed in Naples must be universally applies: "Listen patiently and act justly".
Once we have increased the basic rations, then we will find a way to gain control over everyone and everything. In the interests of all. In the interests also of those who are afraid of dying of hunger and therefore hoard an abundance of provisions and reserves. We must say to these gentlemen: "Be smart! Do not do it!"
I repeat that this fight against the black market will have a positive result: an increase in basic rations; and a negative side: even more severe penalties than those already strictly enforced today.
We are still a very lenient Regime. The new Argentine government has already decreed a single style of dress. England has determined that women can not choose more than three colors for their dresses. Roosevelt has ordered a further shortening of men's shirts. (I presume that they will succeed in covering the navel). Italy is still the country with the best-dressed people in the entire world: here it has never been possible to establish large factories for mass produced clothing, because each person wants his own particular tailor. It will still be necessary however to disband the overabundance of male and female wardrobes. With those materials we will be able to make textiles for some classes of soldiers.
The federal authorities in the provinces must be vigilant not only in regards to foreigners, but also the treatment given to prisoners. In some cases the treatment of prisoners is simply deplorable. All those who return from captivity tell truly gruesome stories about the perfidy and cruel manners of the English, who, despite their external appearance, have remained a race of brigands, a people who have conquered the world through terror, iron and fire, and have destroyed entire populations of millions and millions of men, a people who made war against China in order to force its government to allow the use of opium, which has weakened to degradation a quarter of the human population.
It is symptomatic that officers returning from captivity have asked me only one thing: to appoint supervisors for the concentration-prison camps.
The last part of the address concerns mandatory labour. We must take advantage of all the human material of the nation. So far it has not been done in full. More or less successful attempts have been made, but in regards to the Jews, for example, not much has been done. It is clear that we must energetically proceed down this path by mobilizing all male and female energies. This has been done in all the countries of the world, with far more drastic and draconian measures than we have adopted here so far — I say so far.
Likewise, it is just that all Fascists are committed to creating what I defined last year as "the atmosphere of storage." We must stockpile everything, because, I repeat, I want to increase the rations.
Now let's address the working masses. Last March's work suspensions, some of which were very brief in duration, were sporadic and economically profitable. Any attempt to "politicize" them has failed in the most ridiculous and pitiful manner. No one — I repeat no one — responded to the "clandestine" invitation to demonstrate in the squares. The working classes are in line with the rest of the nation. I believe that a new impulse to syndical life will convince the workers that the Fascist Regime truly is the best Regime they can expect to find anywhere in the world. In this regard, it is good that the syndical leaders live among the workers — not "above" the workers, but "among" the workers — not disdaining the most frequent contacts with the workers who, after all, when they are not tainted by the Bolshevik beast, are good people, polite, quiet and only ask to be appreciated in their work.
As far as youth is concerned, I am naturally in agreement with the motion of the Directorate. I am always of the opinion that we must make room for the youth. And I once said that the infallible sign of an incipient senility is a truly absurd jealousy towards the young. We must make room for the youth, but not just anyone merely for the sake of being young. We must accommodate those young people who, besides being young, that is to say, besides being in the best and fleeting years of life, also have intrinsic qualities. It is clear that if an eighteen-year-old man is stupid, his situation is aggravated by the fact that he is eighteen and will remain stupid for another fifty years.
It is my conviction that the address delivered to the Party will make the youth our successors. This we must want. I said it in the square at Milan in 1936. We must be proud and happy to deliver our labours to the youth, because only in this way, from generation to generation, can the revolution be enriched with new, pure, enthusiastic energies.
I am very pleased to note that in today's appointment of federal hierarchs there are many classes ranging between 1905 and 1915, i.e. men who are aged between twenty-two and thirty.
Now there is the question that has been submitted to me by the Secretary of the Party which is linked to this problem: the question of the "Labarum Guard". This "Labarum Guard" can not be a duplication of the Militia, for the Militia was and is indeed the armed guard of the revolution. The Militia deserves the admiration and love of the Italian people. The Militia was literally covered with glory in all the battlefields where it saw action. The Militia today has hundreds of thousands of men; it has the "M" battalions, which are the model and should be the model for everyone; it has an armored division, whose armament was provided by the supportive sympathy of the Germanic SS. In order to avoid related issues, I have decided that the "Labarum Guard" is to be entrusted to the youth, namely to the Italian Youth of the Lictor (GIL). It is an ideal guard. The elderly regard it as perennial. Thus, one hundred to one hundred and ninety-five thousand young people, commanded by a squadrist of the first hour, will be entrusted with this task, which I certainly believe will exalt their pride and sublimate their faith. These young men will have to be chosen very carefully also from the physical point of view.
All men of the Party and all the hierarchs of the Party must be convinced — and must make this conviction a gospel for the whole Italian people — that there are no alternatives in this war; there is no "either-or"; there is no other option. This war does not permit other roads: the only road is to continue the war until victory. Either we win — as I firmly believe we will, together with our comrades of the Axis and the Tripartite Pact — or else Italy will have a dishonorable peace, which will diminish it to fourth or fifth-rate power.
As recently as this morning I was reading an article in a British magazine and saw this sentence:
Agriculture itself would be sacrificed because the big cereal producers in North America would say: "Your agriculture is not economical: we will give you grain. You can only cultivate easily perishable vegetables". Italy would return to being a simple geographical expression, which is what our centuries-old enemies always wanted. I refuse to think that there are any Italians, worthy of the name, who can contemplate anything of this sort without feeling themselves degraded into the most disgraceful of humiliations and shames.
There are doubters, and it is not surprising. Christ had only twelve disciples, and they had been cultivated for three years by superhuman preaching through the parched hills of Palestine. Yet, in times of trial, one betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver, another denied him three times, and some others were rather uncertain. So it comes as no surprise that there are some doubters. To these doubters it must be said that this war has developments that can not be predicted, developments of a political nature — and not only political — which are in gestation.
The massacres of Negroes in Detroit shows that the famous Atlantic Charter has become a joke. They claimed to want equality among the races. But as can be seen, the White American has a physical, irresistible and incurable intolerance for the Negro. Following the carnage in Detroit, the Negroes themselves are now convinced that Roosevelt's promises are nothing but lies. Chandra Bose — who does not fast — is at the threshold of power in India.
The enemy "must" play a card. They too have proclaimed that it is necessary for them to invade the continent. They will have to try it very carefully, because otherwise they will be defeated before even getting an opportunity to fight. But this is a card that can not be repeated. It was granted to Caesar to invade Britain for the second time after a wreck had dispersed the ships with which he had attempted the first invasion.
And still we need to distinguish between "landing" (which is possible), "penetration", and finally "invasion". It is quite clear that if this attempt fails, as is my belief, the enemy will no longer have any other cards to play to beat the Tripartite. He who stops at episodes badly judges the developments of this war.
The Italian people are by now convinced that it is a matter of life or death. It is necessary that as soon as the enemy attempts to land, that they be frozen in their tracks and stopped at the shoreline, i.e. that line of sand where water ends and land begins. If by chance they manage to penetrate, then the reserve forces which are stationed in the area must rush down and destroy the enemy to the last man. In this way, we can say that the enemy indeed occupied a corner of our country, but that they occupy that corner in a horizontal position for eternity.
The duty of the Fascist is this: to give this feeling — and more than that, this hope — absolute certainty by having iron-clad, unshakable confidence.
And so the Party begins to fulfill its function in this formidable moment. The Party, which is my creation, is something I love and jealously defend. In this period, the Party must be more than ever the engine of national life, the life-flowing blood, the backbone, the beating heart, the constant example. Be an example. There is nothing in the world that can overcome a good example. Stand in the midst of the people and assist them, for the people deserve to be assisted. Speak to them the language of truth. And remain firm. Remain firm, because that is what honor demands.
Those who flatter us today or send us messages ranging from the offensive to the absurd, would give us a kind smile tomorrow if we gave in to their false flatteries, but in their hearts they would still despise us. They would say: "Surely these Italians are not capable of resisting until 12:00. They will give up at 11:45." So much for honor, which we must hold in the highest regard. Then there are the supreme interests of the nation and the conquest of a victorious peace which will give Italy — which has been in a state of war for 30 years — the peace and the means to fulfill its historic mission, to which it will commit itself for the rest of the century.
Enemy propaganda is supremely stupid if it is directed against me personally. This is the eternal system of the English. They always need to concentrate their hatred on one person, whom they call the incarnation of the devil. They are false Christians and truly anti-Christian. For what concerns my responsibility, I naturally assume it in full. One day I will prove that this war could not have been avoided without incurring the penalty of suicide and without being downgraded as an unworthy power. The enemy — and for me the number one enemy is and always has been the Anglo-Saxon — is now convinced that twenty years of Fascism has permanently altered Italian life and that it is humanly impossible to erase it. The soldiers of all the Armed Forces feel the magnitude of the moment and the importance of their tasks. The moral resources of the Italian people are still intact. They expected us to fall after three months. We are still standing after three years.
Today, as the enemy overlooks the sacred soil of the Fatherland, the forty-six million Italians for all intents and purposes have become forty-six million fighters, who believe in victory because they believe in the eternal power of the Fatherland.
We must go further with regard to industrial production. We must have the courage to eliminate all industries that no longer have a reason to exist, and we must also have the courage to exempt those industrialists who are not responsible for the situation. "Man", said the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (excuse my erudition), "is the measure of all things". Mediocre institutions with well-trained men work well; perfect institutions with deficient men turn to ruin.
"3. More effective discipline and control over procurement, distribution and trade of all kinds, implacably eliminating disruptive and speculative interferences, superstructures and incompetence."Progress has been made in this field and can be objectively observed. There have been, of course, disguises, disturbances, disorder, losses and deprivation, but sometimes this is due to purely objective reasons that everyone can easily perceive.
"4. Reduction of economic entities to the bare minimum; many of these entities have proved unnecessary or outdated or harmful to the discipline of economic warfare; they should be included within the function of the guilds."Certainly I have spoken to the Senate about the labyrinth of entities. One day I entrusted my official with collecting the names of all the entities. We ended up with a volume of considerable proportions. I myself, in the Senate, said that there were truly too many entities, and that often times this was unnecessary and sometimes harmful. However, when you want to organize an industry, you must also create a body. If you do not want to call it an entity, you will call it an office, institute, center or organization. For example: in 1933, the country's rice economy was in mortal danger. Rice had dropped to minimum prices. All the representatives of the four Italian rice-growing provinces (Novara, Vercelli, Pavia, Milan) came to me, telling me that their ruin was imminent. The Rice Institute was then created. Everyone or almost everyone now unanimously recognizes that this entity has worked well to save our rice industry, which is a precious source of Italian wealth.
One day we thought it was time to stop considering Italy a French province when it comes to fashion. Fashion affects at least twenty million people in Italy. And so the Fashion Institute was created.
Many other entities have also worked extravagantly well. However, the abundance of entities really seems excessive. In textiles, for example, the wool-makers wanted their own entity and they called it the Wool Committee. The cotton-makers did not want to be left out, so they created the Cotton Institute. When it became necessary to impose textile autarky (against which there still remains some disguised residual opposition), the National Textile Bureau was created. When silk needed to be protected, the Silk Institute was created.
All this can, at a given moment, flow into that great river which must collect them. When I speak of entities, I also mean those entities which are not always necessarily projections of State administration. The riverbed that can gather all these entities is the guild (corporazione). We have created the guild as a disciplining force, coordinating all the economic activities of the nation. Everything must begin, develop and end in the guild, which is a modern and timely creation of our Regime which tomorrow will be implemented everywhere (albeit in other forms) if the economy is going to pass from the already-outdated liberal-individualistic phase without falling into Soviet-style bureaucratic statalism, where the whole economy, from steel to the hairdressers perms, has become an economic function of the State. The guild is a typical revolutionary creation of the Regime, and the precursor of a new era in world civilization.
Here, too, it is a question of whether the men who head the guilds are able to always fulfill their tasks and become true economic coordinators. If so, they remain in their position. If not, then here too it is a problem of men. But by now the Party has a fairly large and sufficiently-selected ruling class.
"5. Application of the most productive dynamism by State administrations and all the Entities, with the abandonment of bureaucratic forms and bargaining, tolerable perhaps in normal times, but criminal in times of war."We must not make Italian bureaucracy out to be some type of Turkish head, so that when things do not go perfectly, the bureaucrat must pay or must be put on the prosecution bench. Now, apart from the fact that there are private bodies with a very large bureaucracy, there is no need to confuse State employees, who number about six, seven or eight hundred thousand now (they have increased due to the war), with true and proper bureaucracy. We can not label as "bureaucrats" the one hundred and ninety thousand railway workers, thirty thousand postal workers, one hundred and twenty thousand teachers, both male and female, more than twelve thousand university and middle school professors, fifteen thousand magistrates, court clerks and other categories of this type.
Hence why bureaucracy, true bureaucracy, is defined by me as something which may in some way affect the political and economic directives of the State. That is true bureaucracy. In which case, bureaucracy is limited to a few dozen people. The director generals of the ministries may influence the State administration and it is in their power to do so, since they represent a "continuity". But they are very well-prepared men in this regard: this is demonstrated by the fact that senior State officials are very much desired by private entities.
The law passed by the last Council of Ministers allows individual ministers to dismiss director generals who are not doing their jobs. I do not believe they are many. As for the rest of the Italian bureaucracy, I am the head of this bureaucracy and I consider myself one of the most diligent employees of the State. Just think that in twenty-one years I have never — I say never — lost any papers, not even insignificant ones, and at night my desk is clear of papers. I am constantly on the telephone. When I want to know how many projectors have already been built, old fashioned methods would force me to write a letter to the prefect, who would send a letter to the factory manager, who would answer with a letter to the prefect, who would send me a copy of this letter. Sometimes I use the telephone to directly call the factory manager, and sometimes I call the prefect, giving him the strictly necessary time to inquire and respond. This is simple.
There is still too much delay in the Italian bureaucracy. There is a tendancy towards older and outdated means of communication. ... It is necessary for the bureaucracy to be quick and to make use of all the means that modern technology and science abundantly offers us. It should, however, be added that Italian bureaucracy is one of the smallest among all the nations. It is the least paid, it is the most honest, and it is the one that has the least amount of public collaboration. The public, still accustomed to the historical memories of the old bureaucracies imposed by foreign states, must remind themselves and remember that they are dealing with servants of the State and collaborators of the Regime.
The bureaucracy in recent times has been innervated with younger elements; however, a reform will be implemented to make it smoother and faster in its decisions; and also to get it accustomed to having maximum courtesy and patience with the public, especially the delicate public, especially the little people who do not know the laws and do not have the time to read them. A formula that I once proclaimed in Naples must be universally applies: "Listen patiently and act justly".
"6. Repression by any means necessary of the black market, a phenomenon common to all countries in war; but even so, it is incompatible with Fascist ethics, etc."This so-called black market is already undergoing a fierce persecution today. This persecution will become absolutely draconian on the day that I am able to increase the basic rations of bread, pasta and fat. Then there will be a coordinating of interests: those who would like to speculate by withholding food from the general supply will feel that there will no longer be so much demand because the ration will be adequate, and people with adequate rations will not be inclined to supply themselves at whatever cost in Zones B and C. Zone A is the rationed one. Zone B is the more or less contingent one. Zone C is that of the illegal black-market. The "morning report" of the Carabinieri, who have the task of serving in this struggle, keeps me informed daily. All confiscated goods are assigned to the reserve or to the refectory tables or to the poor people of the communes.
Once we have increased the basic rations, then we will find a way to gain control over everyone and everything. In the interests of all. In the interests also of those who are afraid of dying of hunger and therefore hoard an abundance of provisions and reserves. We must say to these gentlemen: "Be smart! Do not do it!"
I repeat that this fight against the black market will have a positive result: an increase in basic rations; and a negative side: even more severe penalties than those already strictly enforced today.
"7. The most severe control and, where appropriate, the closure of large hotels, pensions and luxury restaurants, etc."I strongly support the closure of these luxury hotels, where snobbish people often give scandal and even end up corrupting the good moral values of the small towns. For example: as you know, I read the provincial newspapers very attentively, not only the front pages but also the inside pages. Well, the other day I saw that some snobbish ladies from Rapallo had organized a twenty-two hole game of golf. This immediately caught my attention. Think about this: twenty-two holes of golf! Now, ladies who enjoy twenty-two hole games of golf deserve to be sent — and will be sent — to work in the factories or the fields. This is truly a classic example of what I call discrepant cretinism: people who are unhappy if they can not play a game of pinochle. And here we return to the subject of the bourgeoisie. We are always discussing this bourgeoisie, i.e. those who have a lot of "free time" to spend. Therefore, you can peacefully close these luxury hotels. Likewise all the male and female luxury tailors, etc.
We are still a very lenient Regime. The new Argentine government has already decreed a single style of dress. England has determined that women can not choose more than three colors for their dresses. Roosevelt has ordered a further shortening of men's shirts. (I presume that they will succeed in covering the navel). Italy is still the country with the best-dressed people in the entire world: here it has never been possible to establish large factories for mass produced clothing, because each person wants his own particular tailor. It will still be necessary however to disband the overabundance of male and female wardrobes. With those materials we will be able to make textiles for some classes of soldiers.
"8. Repatriation of all foreigners, etc."Foreigners in Italy were 100,000, many of whom have already been repatriated. Others have been "concentrated".
The federal authorities in the provinces must be vigilant not only in regards to foreigners, but also the treatment given to prisoners. In some cases the treatment of prisoners is simply deplorable. All those who return from captivity tell truly gruesome stories about the perfidy and cruel manners of the English, who, despite their external appearance, have remained a race of brigands, a people who have conquered the world through terror, iron and fire, and have destroyed entire populations of millions and millions of men, a people who made war against China in order to force its government to allow the use of opium, which has weakened to degradation a quarter of the human population.
It is symptomatic that officers returning from captivity have asked me only one thing: to appoint supervisors for the concentration-prison camps.
The last part of the address concerns mandatory labour. We must take advantage of all the human material of the nation. So far it has not been done in full. More or less successful attempts have been made, but in regards to the Jews, for example, not much has been done. It is clear that we must energetically proceed down this path by mobilizing all male and female energies. This has been done in all the countries of the world, with far more drastic and draconian measures than we have adopted here so far — I say so far.
Likewise, it is just that all Fascists are committed to creating what I defined last year as "the atmosphere of storage." We must stockpile everything, because, I repeat, I want to increase the rations.
Now let's address the working masses. Last March's work suspensions, some of which were very brief in duration, were sporadic and economically profitable. Any attempt to "politicize" them has failed in the most ridiculous and pitiful manner. No one — I repeat no one — responded to the "clandestine" invitation to demonstrate in the squares. The working classes are in line with the rest of the nation. I believe that a new impulse to syndical life will convince the workers that the Fascist Regime truly is the best Regime they can expect to find anywhere in the world. In this regard, it is good that the syndical leaders live among the workers — not "above" the workers, but "among" the workers — not disdaining the most frequent contacts with the workers who, after all, when they are not tainted by the Bolshevik beast, are good people, polite, quiet and only ask to be appreciated in their work.
As far as youth is concerned, I am naturally in agreement with the motion of the Directorate. I am always of the opinion that we must make room for the youth. And I once said that the infallible sign of an incipient senility is a truly absurd jealousy towards the young. We must make room for the youth, but not just anyone merely for the sake of being young. We must accommodate those young people who, besides being young, that is to say, besides being in the best and fleeting years of life, also have intrinsic qualities. It is clear that if an eighteen-year-old man is stupid, his situation is aggravated by the fact that he is eighteen and will remain stupid for another fifty years.
It is my conviction that the address delivered to the Party will make the youth our successors. This we must want. I said it in the square at Milan in 1936. We must be proud and happy to deliver our labours to the youth, because only in this way, from generation to generation, can the revolution be enriched with new, pure, enthusiastic energies.
I am very pleased to note that in today's appointment of federal hierarchs there are many classes ranging between 1905 and 1915, i.e. men who are aged between twenty-two and thirty.
Now there is the question that has been submitted to me by the Secretary of the Party which is linked to this problem: the question of the "Labarum Guard". This "Labarum Guard" can not be a duplication of the Militia, for the Militia was and is indeed the armed guard of the revolution. The Militia deserves the admiration and love of the Italian people. The Militia was literally covered with glory in all the battlefields where it saw action. The Militia today has hundreds of thousands of men; it has the "M" battalions, which are the model and should be the model for everyone; it has an armored division, whose armament was provided by the supportive sympathy of the Germanic SS. In order to avoid related issues, I have decided that the "Labarum Guard" is to be entrusted to the youth, namely to the Italian Youth of the Lictor (GIL). It is an ideal guard. The elderly regard it as perennial. Thus, one hundred to one hundred and ninety-five thousand young people, commanded by a squadrist of the first hour, will be entrusted with this task, which I certainly believe will exalt their pride and sublimate their faith. These young men will have to be chosen very carefully also from the physical point of view.
All men of the Party and all the hierarchs of the Party must be convinced — and must make this conviction a gospel for the whole Italian people — that there are no alternatives in this war; there is no "either-or"; there is no other option. This war does not permit other roads: the only road is to continue the war until victory. Either we win — as I firmly believe we will, together with our comrades of the Axis and the Tripartite Pact — or else Italy will have a dishonorable peace, which will diminish it to fourth or fifth-rate power.
As recently as this morning I was reading an article in a British magazine and saw this sentence:
"England must dominate the Mediterranean. We will no longer allow Italy to exist in any way as a military power."Whoever believes or pretends to believe the enemy's proposals in this war of attrition, is a criminal, a traitor, a bastard. Peace means capitulation; capitulation means dishonor and catastrophe. The first logical thing that the enemy would do would be to disarm Italy, and even confiscate hunting rifles, leaving Italy only the municipal police. It would mean the destruction of all industry, since we would no longer have the right to arm ourselves; it is clear that all steel, metallurgical and mechanical industries would be suppressed. It would also be the end of the automotive industry. Ford made two attempts to come to Italy: one time he wanted to set up camp at Livorno and another time at Trieste. Vain attempts. The enemy would leave us only our eyes to cry with! We can not exclude the probability that they would also take away all our artistic treasures as a form of "payment". It has already happened many times in our history that the conquers plundered Italy, including Napoleon.
Agriculture itself would be sacrificed because the big cereal producers in North America would say: "Your agriculture is not economical: we will give you grain. You can only cultivate easily perishable vegetables". Italy would return to being a simple geographical expression, which is what our centuries-old enemies always wanted. I refuse to think that there are any Italians, worthy of the name, who can contemplate anything of this sort without feeling themselves degraded into the most disgraceful of humiliations and shames.
There are doubters, and it is not surprising. Christ had only twelve disciples, and they had been cultivated for three years by superhuman preaching through the parched hills of Palestine. Yet, in times of trial, one betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver, another denied him three times, and some others were rather uncertain. So it comes as no surprise that there are some doubters. To these doubters it must be said that this war has developments that can not be predicted, developments of a political nature — and not only political — which are in gestation.
The massacres of Negroes in Detroit shows that the famous Atlantic Charter has become a joke. They claimed to want equality among the races. But as can be seen, the White American has a physical, irresistible and incurable intolerance for the Negro. Following the carnage in Detroit, the Negroes themselves are now convinced that Roosevelt's promises are nothing but lies. Chandra Bose — who does not fast — is at the threshold of power in India.
The enemy "must" play a card. They too have proclaimed that it is necessary for them to invade the continent. They will have to try it very carefully, because otherwise they will be defeated before even getting an opportunity to fight. But this is a card that can not be repeated. It was granted to Caesar to invade Britain for the second time after a wreck had dispersed the ships with which he had attempted the first invasion.
And still we need to distinguish between "landing" (which is possible), "penetration", and finally "invasion". It is quite clear that if this attempt fails, as is my belief, the enemy will no longer have any other cards to play to beat the Tripartite. He who stops at episodes badly judges the developments of this war.
The Italian people are by now convinced that it is a matter of life or death. It is necessary that as soon as the enemy attempts to land, that they be frozen in their tracks and stopped at the shoreline, i.e. that line of sand where water ends and land begins. If by chance they manage to penetrate, then the reserve forces which are stationed in the area must rush down and destroy the enemy to the last man. In this way, we can say that the enemy indeed occupied a corner of our country, but that they occupy that corner in a horizontal position for eternity.
The duty of the Fascist is this: to give this feeling — and more than that, this hope — absolute certainty by having iron-clad, unshakable confidence.
And so the Party begins to fulfill its function in this formidable moment. The Party, which is my creation, is something I love and jealously defend. In this period, the Party must be more than ever the engine of national life, the life-flowing blood, the backbone, the beating heart, the constant example. Be an example. There is nothing in the world that can overcome a good example. Stand in the midst of the people and assist them, for the people deserve to be assisted. Speak to them the language of truth. And remain firm. Remain firm, because that is what honor demands.
Those who flatter us today or send us messages ranging from the offensive to the absurd, would give us a kind smile tomorrow if we gave in to their false flatteries, but in their hearts they would still despise us. They would say: "Surely these Italians are not capable of resisting until 12:00. They will give up at 11:45." So much for honor, which we must hold in the highest regard. Then there are the supreme interests of the nation and the conquest of a victorious peace which will give Italy — which has been in a state of war for 30 years — the peace and the means to fulfill its historic mission, to which it will commit itself for the rest of the century.
Enemy propaganda is supremely stupid if it is directed against me personally. This is the eternal system of the English. They always need to concentrate their hatred on one person, whom they call the incarnation of the devil. They are false Christians and truly anti-Christian. For what concerns my responsibility, I naturally assume it in full. One day I will prove that this war could not have been avoided without incurring the penalty of suicide and without being downgraded as an unworthy power. The enemy — and for me the number one enemy is and always has been the Anglo-Saxon — is now convinced that twenty years of Fascism has permanently altered Italian life and that it is humanly impossible to erase it. The soldiers of all the Armed Forces feel the magnitude of the moment and the importance of their tasks. The moral resources of the Italian people are still intact. They expected us to fall after three months. We are still standing after three years.
Today, as the enemy overlooks the sacred soil of the Fatherland, the forty-six million Italians for all intents and purposes have become forty-six million fighters, who believe in victory because they believe in the eternal power of the Fatherland.
