Leftism

The first systematic leftist and nationalistic opposition against Moscow-centered communism came from Italy. It was fascism; it had clearly socialistic origins. The fasces were the Roman symbols of authority and they reappeared in the symbols of the French Republic and on the American dime at a later period. In the earlier 1890s fasci (“bundles,” leagues) of workers so-called fasci dei lavoratori created grave disturbances primarily in Sicily, but also in parts of Tuscany. They were imbued with romantic socialist ideas and could only be subdued by force.

Mussolini returned from the war as a non-Socialist and in order to stem the tide of chaos and anarchy this still staunch republican and leftist founded the fasci di combattimento whose real fighting force were the squadristi. They wanted to save Italy from total anarchy toward which the country indeed was headed. They also wanted to Italianize the newly-acquired regions wrested from Austria in total defiance of the principles of self-determination. They considered the preservation of the Austro-German character of the Central Tyrol a “national scandal” and brutally attacked the local population. The formal founding of the Fascist party, however, took place only late in 1921, the March on Rome in October 1922. (Mussolini went most of the way by train.) By that time the Fascisti already had wise support not only from ex-Socialists but also from the middle and upper classes.

One need only read the pertinent passages about Italian fascism in the very interesting diaries of Victor Serge, a dissident Russian Communist, to understand the deep and lasting connection between the national and international leftist ideologies, socialism-communism and fascism. Serge writes about Nicola Bombacci, a Socialist who later returned to Italy and “collaborated.” When Serge met him in his exile in Berlin (1923-1924), Bombacci told him that Mussolini owed much to the ideas of the Communists. “Why,” Serge asked, “didn’t you get rid of Mussolini at the time of the destruction of the cooperatives?” “Because our most militant and energetic men had gone over to him.” Serge confesses that he then realized how much he was tortured by the attraction fascism exercised on the extreme left.