Page:L. W. - Fascism, Its History and Significance (1924).pdf/39

 Rh all working-class hopes and endeavours. The present position in the working-class parties is by no means simple. The reformists in their two parties, the Maximalists and the Unitary Socialists, are confronted by a united communist party embracing the Third Internationalists, who, until recently, preserved a separate organisation. The Strong distinction between the Communists and the Socialists is Strikingly illustrated in the attitude taken up towards the respective parties by Mussolini. It is a remarkable fact (especially noticeable during the April elections) that the anti-proletarian activities of the Fascists were concentrated on the Socialists, and that the Communists were left relatively free from interference. The Fascist wrath reached its climax in the murder of Matteotti, who was a reformist and not a revolutionary. The reason for this is probably that Mussolini regards the Communists with as much contempt as hatred. He does not regard them as his possible successors in power. But the danger of a reformist Liberal-Labour government, supported directly by the smaller trading and transport capitalists, and indirectly by the heavy industrialists, must always be present to his mind. Such a government is the most likely alternative to his own, and he must regard the right wing Socialists as his most immediate rivals.

But this is Mussolini's problem, not that of the workers; a petty bourgeois government is no more their ideal than is a Fascist. The workers have, however, the difficult task of co-operating politically against Fascism with reformist Socialists whose policy must inevitably lead to a middle class triumph, unless it is corrected by genuine proletarian tendencies. The task of applying the united working-class front against Fascism which now confronts the Communists and their sympathisers is, indeed, a delicate one: they have to avoid the danger of working-class sectionalism on the one hand and of class collaboration on the other.

That is the problem. The conditions in which it has to be solved are certainly happier than at any time since 1920. Already the Fascist Unions show frequent signs of revolt against the class peace which they exist to maintain: all such tendencies can be developed and the Fascist Unions finally disrupted by the proletarian elements within them. At the same time, the genuine trade unions can be rebuilt with the old time socialist ideology to provide an effective counter-attraction to the Fascist bodies. This can only be achieved by constant propaganda campaigns inside the factories and among the peasants, who are increasingly ready for joint action with the industrial workers.

The revival of active propaganda and organising work amongst the proletariat will undoubtedly involve a recrudescence of the violent measures of the Fascists, and the workers must prepare