Page:L. W. - Fascism, Its History and Significance (1924).pdf/22

 20 from Fascism but the violent subjugation of the landworkers. But Mussolini had other and wider aims. He wanted Fascism established as the permanent controlling force in Italian public life. He had no objection to the use of violence as a temporary means to the attainment of political power, but he by no means desired state of civil war to characterise Italy perpetually. When he and his capitalist masters were settled in the saddle, he would prefer to use constitutionalism as his governing instrument. Violence, then, as a political weapon must be kept within limits and not become the accepted and permanent method of politics. A further important point of difference between Mussolini and the landowning class was that he did not desire so much a beaten and broken working class as a body of "free" labourers. However complete the process of smashing the workers' organisations, there was always the danger of their being rebuilt and constituting a fresh menace to the domination of the employers. To this problem in 1921 the Fascists turned their attention.

The means adopted to counter the danger of revivified Trade Unions was the formation of rival organisations, the Fascist Trade Unions or National Corporations. These bodies are essentially collaborationist and opposed to a recognition of the class war. Originally it was proposed to unite in one association employers, technicians and workers. This was soon found to be an unworkable scheme, and modifications were made to provide for parallel groupings of employers and workers respectively, federated for common purposes. Even so, it was impracticable to get the federal bodies to function, and the affiliation of employers rapidly became nominal only. The workers' organisations played a considerable part in the campaign for reducing wages and worsening conditions of labour. As a friendly critic navely puts it: "The difference between Fascist organisers and other Trade Union organisers is that the former say frankly that, for the time being, wages must be reduced owing to present conditions in industry, while the latter are unwilling to recognise the necessity."

The National Corporations have given the Fascist leaders a good deal of trouble, and the workers organised therein have by no means always been prepared to take the advice of their organisers to accept the lowered conditions of life offered to them. Many instances have occurred in which the Fascist Unions themselves have turned on the employers with economic demands of their own; there have been seizures of farms, ships and factories by the Unions when the proprietors refused all concessions, and, as might be expected, the antagonism between the Unions and the landowners has always