Beyond the Myth of Fascism as a “Revolution”
Italian Fascism has long been portrayed, both by the regime’s own propaganda and by certain later interpretations, as a revolutionary and modernizing movement capable of offering a “third way” between liberalism and socialism. This narrative, however, collapses under rigorous historical analysis. Beyond its rhetoric, Fascism functioned primarily as a conservative and reactionary political force, grounded in systematic violence and placed at the service of industrial and agrarian capital against organized labor and the trade union movement.
At the same time, Fascism pursued a geopolitical project marked by deep structural weakness. The ambition to build a Mediterranean and African empire far exceeded Italy’s economic, industrial, and military capabilities. Fascist imperialism was not the result of a coherent long-term strategy, but rather a combination of propaganda, nationalist revanchism, and the imitation of great imperial powers without possessing comparable resources.
To understand Fascism historically means dismantling its myths and situating it within the crisis of Italian capitalism after the First World War, the fears of the ruling classes, and the broader geopolitical dynamics of the twentieth century.
The Origins of Fascism in Post–World War I Italy
Fascism emerged in an Italy deeply destabilized by the First World War. The conflict had produced immense human losses, severe economic disruption, inflation, unemployment, and a radicalization of social conflict. Between 1919 and 1920, the so-called Biennio Rosso was marked by mass strikes, factory occupations, peasant mobilizations, and the rapid growth of the Socialist Party and trade unions.
For industrial, agrarian, and financial elites, this phase appeared as an existential threat. The fear of a revolutionary outcome similar to that of Russia, though often exaggerated, became the ideological glue binding together conservative forces. Fascism emerged within this context not as an autonomous revolutionary movement, but as an instrument of reaction.
The Fasci di Combattimento, founded by Benito Mussolini in 1919, attracted former soldiers, nationalists, political adventurers, and individuals marginalized by postwar demobilization. Their strength did not lie in a coherent program, but in their readiness to employ violence against labor organizations and the socialist movement.
Squadrismo as a Structural Political Practice
Squadrismo was not a marginal or spontaneous phenomenon; it was the core of Fascist political practice. Fascist squads acted as private militias serving the existing social order, attacking trade union offices, cooperatives, socialist clubs, labor chambers, and left-wing local administrations.
This violence was rarely opposed by the liberal state. On the contrary, the police, judiciary, and military apparatus often displayed tolerance or direct complicity. Fascism thus functioned as a para-state force tasked with carrying out repression that the liberal state was unwilling or unable to exercise openly.
The function of squadrismo was clear: to physically and symbolically destroy the organizational capacity of the workers’ and peasants’ movements. In many regions, especially in northern Italy’s agricultural and industrial areas, Fascism succeeded in restoring employer control through terror where the state had failed.
Fascism and Capital: A Structural Alliance
The notion of an “anti-capitalist Fascism” belongs more to myth than historical reality. From its earliest stages, Fascism received funding, protection, and political legitimacy from industrialists, large landowners, and the banking system.
After the seizure of power in 1922, this alliance became institutionalized. The regime dismantled trade union freedoms, dissolved independent unions, abolished the right to strike, and imposed corporatism as a mechanism for controlling social conflict. Fascist corporations did not represent a fair mediation between labor and capital; they were authoritarian instruments that subordinated workers entirely to employers and the state.
Fascist economic policies consistently favored profits over wages. Wage suppression, repression of labor demands, and the use of workers as an adjustment variable were central features of the Fascist model. State intervention, often cited as evidence of economic progressivism, in reality served to socialize losses and protect private capital.
The Collapse of the Liberal State and the Construction of Dictatorship
The March on Rome was not a revolution, but the capitulation of the liberal system. Fascism came to power through compromise with the monarchy, economic elites, and military leadership. Once in government, Mussolini gradually dismantled democratic institutions and transformed Italy into an authoritarian state.
The so-called Fascist Laws, the abolition of political parties, censorship, and press control were not tools of modernization but of social stabilization. The regime aimed to eliminate organized opposition and neutralize class conflict, not to resolve it.
The Myth of Empire and Fascist Geopolitics
On the international stage, Fascism developed a deeply unrealistic geopolitical project. Mussolini sought to transform Italy into a great imperial power dominating the Mediterranean and expanding in Africa. This ambition clashed with structural reality: Italy lacked the economic, industrial, and military resources required to sustain an empire.
Italy was dependent on imported raw materials, energy-poor, and industrially weaker than the major European powers. Despite this, the regime pursued expansionism, fueled by relentless propaganda that constructed an image of strength disconnected from reality.
The invasion of Ethiopia marked the peak of this imperial illusion. Although militarily successful, the campaign imposed enormous economic costs, isolated Italy diplomatically, and produced no lasting structural benefits. The Fascist empire in Africa remained fragile, maintained through repression and destined to collapse rapidly.
The Mediterranean as a Failed Sphere of Projection
The project of Mediterranean dominance, often framed as the restoration of Mare Nostrum, was equally unrealistic. British and French naval supremacy, combined with Italy’s industrial weakness, made regional hegemony unattainable.
The alliance with Nazi Germany did not strengthen Italy’s position but subordinated Fascism to Hitler’s strategic interests. Italy entered the Second World War unprepared, poorly equipped, and without a coherent strategy, paying the price of its geopolitical overreach.
Fascism, War, and the Collapse of the State
War exposed the regime’s contradictions. The Italian economy could not sustain modern warfare, the population was exhausted, and artificially manufactured consent rapidly eroded. Fascism, which had presented itself as the guarantor of order and national greatness, led the country into material and moral devastation.
The collapse of 1943 marked not only the end of the regime but the historical failure of its project. Italy emerged from the war defeated, occupied, and deeply divided. The imperial illusion was revealed as what it had always been: a propaganda construction.
Conclusion: Fascism as an Instrument of Social Conservation
Italian Fascism was not a revolution, but a preventive counter-revolution. It emerged to defend existing relations of production, destroy the labor movement, and restore capitalist authority through violence. Its geopolitical ambitions were not the expression of a rational national strategy, but an ideological escape forward, destined to fail.
Understanding Fascism in its historical function means recognizing it as an authoritarian response to the crisis of Italian capitalism and the fears of the ruling classes. This awareness is essential not only for interpreting the past, but for critically reading contemporary political dynamics, in which appeals to order, strength, and national greatness often reappear as illusory responses to structural crises.