By Benito Mussolini
Eight years ago, in the days of late October, the pace of Italian history had extraordinarily accelerated. These were moments of "high tension". ... Finally, with the national meeting in Naples, the fate of the government of that time and the fate of the Nation itself fell into our hands. ... On October 28th the order was launched. From that moment a great era began in the history of the Italian people. Recalling those days, our soul still trembles with emotion and pride, and we thank Destiny which allowed our generation to experience two events that are the most memorable in the existence of individuals and of Nations: War and Revolution.
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The Revolution thus did not meet enemies in the open field: those same men who a few months earlier had played the supreme card of the so-called legalitarian general strike, withdrew from circulation; they seemed to accept the fait accompli.
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Shortly thereafter, I created two original institutions that caused an irreparable rift between the old demo-liberal world and the new Fascist world: the Militia, with which the Revolution was preparing its specific and irreplaceable defenses, and the Grand Council, whose function as a driving organ and coordinator of the Regime, in all its manifestations, has been fundamental over time.
It is not necessary today to go over the full history of these formidable years of the Fascist Regime. Those who make history do not feel the need to write it at all; at most one can give an explanation. And in any case, we are only at the beginning. Woe if we begin to have nostalgia for things we can not return to. Instead, we look with our eyes turned to the future: what we still have to conquer interests us much more than what we have already conquered. The life and glory of Nations lies in this spirit of the future, in this projecting beyond today: within this "tirelessness" is the heroic sign of the Fascist faith.
We must ruthlessly eject the conservatives, the cowards, the fainthearted and the men of yesterday from our ranks and even from our lives. He who is not ready to die for his faith is not worthy of professing it! Eight years of events and eight years of work have led us to an ever more resolute political and moral intransigence; to an increasingly clear and definitive assumption of responsibility.
My formula of 1925 is the same as today: all power to Fascism and exclusively to Fascism! The Revolution, which spared its enemies in 1922, today lines them up quietly against the wall, and will do likewise tomorrow. Today therefore it is stronger. How many of our enemies claim that there is no real revolution until the firing squads can take note of it. The Revolution that was unitary since the Congress of Rome of 1921, has remained such and will remain such: that is its incomparable strength. Jacobins, Girondins, Thermidorians, Right and Left, are unknown terminologies in the Fascist Regime
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Do you remember my speeches last May at Livorno, Florence and Milan? I will comment on them long after the event, now that the tumult of others' comments appears to have abated. With those speeches I intended to tear the mask off the face of hypocritical Europe, which stammers about peace at Geneva but prepares for war everywhere.
They considered my speeches to be a declaration of war, while they conveniently forgot the war being waged for the last eight years against the Fascist Regime by the men, groups, parties and sects which I alluded to in Florence.
Is killing Fascists as such not an act of hostility? Is defaming and slandering the reputation of the Regime not an act of war? What calumnies, however infamous, have not been launched by the world against the Fascist Regime? Look at what happened after the executions in Trieste, is this not proof that a war against the Fascist Regime is underway; a moral war for now, but in preparation for a military war?
Slanderous lies are weapons of war: soon they will claim that we even cut off the hands of children, just as was said about the Germans in 1914, but it seems that all those supposedly mutilated children have mysteriously vanished.
All this is done in order to stir up hatred against Fascist Italy; hatred that is preached and practiced by millions of individuals. Counter-revolutionary hate, reactionary hate, conservative hate; all of which honors and exalts us; it is the universal, Socialist, Liberal, Democratic, Masonic Vendee which fears for its idols, which sees its altars crumbling, which sees its mystifications being destroyed. We are fighting against a world which is going downhill, but which is still powerful because it represents an enormous mass of interests. Fascists realize this.
Anti-Fascism is not dead, the opposition still exists. Only the scope of the struggle has expanded: yesterday it was Italy, today it is the world, because everywhere there are people fighting for or against Fascism. There exists therefore a "moral" war against us, and it is inevitable that it will be accentuated. It is logical and providential that we must win back victory day by day. If not, then this time Fascism would be exceeded. But alongside this moral war, the preparations for a material war are being hastened along our frontiers.
Do you see these documents? They contain a list compiled day by day of the war-like preparations of the years 1927, 1928 and 1929 against Italy, preparations made long before my speeches in Livorno, Florence and Milan. Here is the list of batteries erected, forts constructed, of armaments ordered and delivered. Could I refrain any longer from sounding the alarm to the Italian people?
Naturally, those whose masks were torn off tried to invert the situation by once again depicting Italy as the only danger to European peace, by depicting Italy as a nation of wolves amid a bleating flock of peaceful lambs. But that trick is puerile. Fascist Italy relatively arms itself because others arm themselves. She will disarm when all others disarm.
I repeat that as long as there are cannons they will always be more beautiful than beautiful (but often false) words. When words will be sufficient to regulate relations between peoples then I will say that words are divine.
Let it be clear, however, that we are arming ourselves spiritually and materially in order to defend ourselves, not in order to attack. Fascist Italy will never take the initiative in war.
Our own policy of revising old treaties—which is not new, but was proposed as early as June 1928—is aimed at avoiding war...
Who violates the Covenant of the League of Nations? Those in Geneva who have created and want to perpetually maintain two categories of States: the armed and the unarmed. What legal and moral equality can exist between the armed and the helpless? How can we expect this comedy to endure indefinitely, when the protagonists themselves have already begun to feel weary?
As for Italy's policy on the Danube and in the East, it is dictated by reasons of life. We are trying to utilize the last square inch of our territory. What we are doing is gigantic. But soon our territory will be saturated by our growing population. We wish this and we are proud of this, because life produces life.
By the year 1950 Italy will be the only country of young people in Europe, while the rest of Europe will be wrinkled and decrepit. People will come from over the frontier to see the phenomenon of this blooming Spring of the Italian people.
Only toward the East can our pacific expansion occur. This explains our friendships and our alliances. The dilemma propounded at Florence still holds good: we are tough with our enemies, but we are marching side by side with our friends.
Our foreign policy is straightforward, without evasion or mental reservations. A written agreement is sacred for us, whatever may happen. Nor do we know of any other means whereby a people can increase its prestige and the trust others have in it.
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As far as the general economic situation is concerned, I confirm what I said on October 1st. The specific problems of the Italian economy occupy me daily. The people must know and do know it. The people must know that the Fascist Regime is not the liberal regime that lets go and moves on, but is a Regime that plans and provides. The hundreds of thousands of workers who work in Italy know this. Despite discomfort there is an improvement in their state of mind.
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While the working people look towards Fascism with increased sympathy, the debris of the so-called liberal and professional bourgeoisie becomes ever more hostile. Some of them have managed in recent years to infiltrate the Party or institutions of the Regime, especially on the periphery. ... They are the types of people who can betray us... It is better to have them in front of us than beside us. They are not a danger today, but they are certainly a nuisance, and in certain cases they can become a threat.
Fascism is an army on the march. Its well-being, therefore, must be guaranteed by methods of safety. The Freemasons, who are sleeping, may reawaken. By eliminating them we can be sure that they will sleep forever!
Even all the residuals of the old destroyed parties must be treated with suspicion and in any case rejected also by the margins of the Regime. The regime had to extend and expand as widely as possible; now the Party must instead emphasize its physiognomy and its psychology of fighting, because the fight continues. Not only that, but it will have no respite.
The longer our regime lasts the more the anti-Fascist coalition has recourse to expedients dictated by desperation. The struggle between the two worlds can permit no compromises. The new cycle which begins with the ninth year of the Fascist Regime places the alternative in even greater relief—either we or they, either their ideas or ours, either our State or theirs!
The new cycle must be of greater harshness, not of greater indulgence. Whoever has interpreted it differently has fallen into the grave error of misinterpretation. This explains why the struggle has now become world-wide and why Fascism has become the subject of debate in all countries, here feared, there hated, elsewhere ardently desired.
The phrase that Fascism is not an article for export is not mine. It is too banal. It was adopted for the readers of newspapers who in order to understand anything need to have it translated into terms of commercial jargon. In any case it must now be corrected.
Today I affirm that the idea, doctrine and spirit of Fascism is universal. It is Italian in its particular institutions, but it is universal in spirit; nor could it be otherwise, for spirit is universal by its very nature. It is therefore possible to foresee a Fascist Europe which will model its institutions on Fascist doctrine and practice, a Europe which will solve in the Fascist way the problems of the modern State of the twentieth century, a State very different from the States which existed before 1789, or which were formed afterward.
Fascism today responds to universal needs. In fact, it solves the triune problem of relations between the State and the individual, between the State and groups, and between groups and organized groups. This is why we smile when would-be prophets say that our days are numbered. Nothing will remain of these prophets other than dust and ashes, not even a memory, while Fascism will still be alive.
As for the rest, we need time—a lot of time—to do our work. I am not speaking of material work, but of moral work. We must scrape and eliminate from the character and mentality of the Italians those corrosive germs left over from the terrible centuries of political, military and moral decline from 1600 to the rise of Napoleon. This requires great effort.
The Risorgimento was only the beginning, since it was the work of too few people; on the other hand, the World War was profoundly educational. It is now a question of continuing, day by day, in this work of remaking the character of the Italians. Those two centuries, for example, gave rise to the legend that Italians do not fight. The sacrifice and heroism of the Italians during the Napoleonic wars demonstrated the opposite.
Indeed, the Italians of the early Renaissance, the Italians of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries were men of an iron nature who wore all their courage, their hatred and their fury on their sleeves in battle. No other people dared to risk their lives like the Italians. But the myths originating from the two centuries of decline still continue to persist. Today just as yesterday the prestige of nations is determined absolutely by their military glories and armed power.
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Combat requires harmony, discipline, the spirit of sacrifice, and great fraternity among those who have the same faith and fight against the same enemies.
Given the breadth and increasing toughness of the struggle between Fascism and anti-Fascism, anything that can weigh down or diminish the Party must be avoided. Now is no longer the time for small things: local issues must not absorb more time and energy than is strictly necessary. Anyone who does not submit to this imperative need automatically places himself outside the mentality and ranks of Fascism.
The ninth year of the Fascist Era begins with an act of faith whose significance is imposing. The battalions of the MVSN—before knowing the decisions of the Grand Council—have made a commitment to serve for ten years and practically for life. Is there any other youth in the world today with a purer and more ardent faith? Is there anything in the world that even remotely resembles this level of dedication? The avant-gardes of tomorrow's Italy are already prepared.
Recently a foreign writer, after having witnessed the rehearsals of a squadron of our intrepid aviators, described Fascist Italy in this way:
"The Peninsula today is an immense field in which millions of men silently train on land, on sea, in the sky, in schools, in stadiums, in churches, for the great sacrifice of life, for the regeneration of the race, for Latin eternity, for the great battle that will take place either tomorrow or never. One hears a thumping sound like an immense legion on the march."Precisely. Fascist Italy is an immense legion which marches under the Fascist symbol towards a greater future. Nobody can stop her. Nobody will stop her.
This is the message for the year which begins tomorrow: Year IX of the Fascist Era.
