Page:William Z. Foster - The Revolutionary Crisis of 1918-1921 (1921).djvu/46



The intense period of Fascism began in September, 1920, and lasted about a year. That was the "Golden Age" of the organization, the time when hunting workers became a sport for all the young-blood aristocrats to amuse themselves with. But the movement is now receding rapidly and bids fair soon to become a negligible factor in Italian life.

The basic reason for this recession is the general failure of the campaign. The workers' organizations have gallantly withstood the storm directed against them. Some, it is true, went down, but the heart of the movement is still sound. Seeing this, and realizing that the workers must eventually recover from the depression and demoralization afflicting them since the breakdown of the revolutionary metal workers' agitation, the exploiting class became alarmed and began to look for means to end the civil war, for they knew that if the masses woke up while the Fascisti campaign was in full swing, the probability was that they would make short work of the capitalist system and all its defenders. A contributing factor also to their fear was the rapid. spread of the "Arditti del Popolo" movement, which is an organization of radical workers who undertake to pay the Fascisti and their active supporters in their own coin. But the final urge to peace came from the recent general elections, when, despite wild terrorism by the whole Fascisti organization, the workers' parties were able to elect nearly as many national Deputies as they had before—140 (that is, 125 Socialists and 15 Communists) as against 156. After this electoral showing, which came as a great surprise to the exploiters, the latter decided to slacken a bit in their campaign of organized murder, and a peace pact was signed.in Rome on August 3rd, 1921. This interesting and important document follows:

For the purpose of restoring the normal life in Italy between political parties and economic organizations, the following have assembled—under the