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 Rh has been variously described as a terrorist movement run by landowners, a mere "stunt" of excitable young ex-officers, a desperate outburst on the part of war-ruined middle-class elements, and so on. Each observer saw only one aspect of the movement, and regarded that as its main feature.

A close study of the whole situation reveals the fact that Fascism is essentially a movement expressing the interests of industrial capitalists. It is true that, at one time, the Fascist ranks were crowded with the sons of landlords, at another with ex-officers and the lower middle classes, while at another there were even considerable numbers of workers and of ex-socialists. But these are facts of temporary or minor significance. The financial support for the whole movement came in the main from capitalists, and the effect of the seizure of political power in Italy has been, as we shall see in detail later, administrative and legislative action in the interests of the same class.

We have already seen how the industrialists won a great victory over their agrarian rivals for power in securing Italian intervention in the war. But this victory was not a final one. The bourgeoisie emerged from the war in a shattered condition, while the landowning class had lost but little of their power. To a certain extent, these rivals had one aim in common—the subjugation of the proletariat; both wanted a docile, underpaid body of labourers, and the participation of the agrarians in the Fascist movement was an expression of their willingness to join the bourgeoisie in this issue. The Fascists had a difficult part to play; they had to co-operate with their minor enemy, the landlords, in opposition to the common foe, while at the same time they had to build up the hegemony of the capitalists against the pressure of the landlords.

The Fascist movement proper arose in March, 1919, when Mussolini formed his first Fascia Italiano di Combattimento (Italian Service Men's Union) in Milan, and subsequently all over the country. The early fasci were by no means reactionary. In fact, they shared in the general revolutionary character of all political movements of that time. The war against the "old State" (i.e., the agrarian State) was carried on under the plea that the politicians were wasting the fruits of the victory in the world war, and that ex-soldiers must unite to ensure that the nation reaped the benefit of the war-time sacrifices.

The early programme of the Fascists is fascinating and significant. Its demands included proportional representation, adult suffrage, the eight-hour day, a legal minimum wage, improved scales of social insurance, participation of the workers in the control of industry, expropriatory taxation, abolition of the standing army, nationalisation of munition factories, and so on. To secure these