CHAPTER III

Socialism and Labor in Italy

The Socialist Party was rather late in taking form in Italy as compared with Germany, Belgium and Denmark, but it was very quickly organized and became extremely powerful, owing to the fact that it not only joined forces with and helped to organize the industrial worker, but also helped to form unions among the peasants in a way that was unknown either in Germany or in France. This led to a very early development of co-operative societies in which the peasant unions played a very important part. These peasant organizations were not only economic and political but had strong leanings from the beginning toward Republicanism, which was engineered very quickly into Socialism. The leader in this peasant movement was Enrico Ferri.

These unions were among the first to establish special banks, which facilitated agricultural operations on a large scale. The industrial workers developed very much in the French manner, meeting in labor chambers or local centers which were called "Camere di Lavoro." These workmen's organizations were often under the protection of local municipal officials, and this added to the ease with which they were organized and developed.

The Socialist Party, almost from the beginning, directed the political action of both the industrial and peasant branches. The Socialist vote is reckoned as having grown from about 26,000 in 1902 to 320,000 in 1904 in the parliamentary elections. In the city elections the domination of the Socialists has been remarkable even in the largest cities. Socialist propaganda in Italy is not so much carried on in literary and journalistic forms in the north, as it is through the efforts of brilliant orators.

Between 1880 and 1900 the Socialists became divided into three sections or parties; the first, under the direction of Ferri, which was opportunist in character; the second, under the direction of Turati, whose program was distinctly Marxian, and who exercised the strongest influence among the intellectual classes, and especially in the north of Italy; the third party, led by Labriola, which was far more violent and revolutionary in its program and did not take much account of parliamentary methods, and which was supported by the Syndicalists.

* See Addendum, Part I.

The Italian parties are naturally rather extreme in their expressions of opinion and the differences among the three factions for a long time prevented unity of program, but more and more influence was gained by the radical section until it became evident, long before the war, that the Italian Socialist Party as a party would be defeatist.

The trade union membership in Italy in 1912 was already close to 1,000,000, larger in proportion to the population than that of France. The struggles between the groups were shown at the various congresses. In 1906 the Syndicalists and the Socialists had a bitter fight, the Moderates winning by about five to one. Shortly afterward Labriola resigned and formed a separate group. At the Congress of Rome in 1910 the Reformist Party, led by Turati, obtained a large majority against both the Radical Revolutionists, headed by Lazzari, and the Integralists, headed by Ferri. At the time of the war in Tripoli (1912) the party took a decided stand against the war, expelling one of its important leaders, Bissolati, and forecasting its action in 1914.

During the year before the war, in 1913, after the extension of the franchise, the Socialist Party obtained 960,000 votes, while the new moderate wing recently formed by Bissolati and his friends, called the Socialist Reformist Party, had 200,000 votes. The proportion of the total votes cast for the Socialists represented about one-quarter, as compared with more recent votes after the war, which total about one-third of the whole electorate. Notwithstanding the increased radicalism of the party as a whole, the labor elements in Italy remained in alliance with it.

The activities of the Socialist Party in Italy, its attitude toward the war, and toward the Bolsheviki, have many points of contact with past and possible conditions in the United States.

Was the Italian Socialist Party loyal to its government during the war, when Italian independence was in danger of being destroyed by the invasion of the Central Powers?

The answer is that it was not. It betrayed its country in every way possible.

The Socialist Party issued an official manifesto at the opening of the war in which it opposed the war and urged the soldiers to throw down their arms and go home. This was in 1915. The Socialists organized an elaborate defeatest campaign in the army, by leaflets and pamphlets and personal propaganda. As a result of this came the so-called Caporetto disaster, which nearly re

sulted in Italy's conquest. The Austrian and German armies penetrated through gaps left open for them by Socialized Italian regiments. Even after the popular national revolution and stiffening of patriotic resolve, the Socialist Party again issued another defeatist manifesto against the war.

The official statements of the Italian government, in and out of parliamentary debate, admit that this Socialist treachery almost brought about Italy's downfall. The theoretical Socialist opposition to war was, therefore, in Italy's case, inexorably carried out in practice.

The attitude of the Italian Socialists toward Lenin and Trotzky has been one of consistent approval and co-operation. The propaganda in the army was modelled on that of the Bolsheviki to disrupt the Russian army's morale, discipline and patriotism. Their efforts since the war have turned in the direction of gaining control of labor and of bringing on mass strikes. They planned a universal strike throughout Italy on July 20-21, 1919, to protest against interfering with the Bolsheviki in Russia and Hungary. They celebrated, on November 7, 1919, the anniversary of the Bolshevist revolution in Russia, by demonstrations in the principal cities of Italy. The extraordinary success of the Socialist candidates at the polls, due largely to the discontent with the high cost of living, has made the party a formidable element in the Italian Chamber.

It is generally considered that as a party the Italian Socialists approach more closely to the Bolshevik type than any other European section of the party. There must be a certain reaction of this attitude in that of the Italians in this country who have Socialist sympathies.

"The Italian Socialist Party was the first Socialist Party of power and influence to ally itself with the Third (Moscow) International, and which openly endorsed the program and manifesto of the Moscow Conference. This important step was taken by the National Executive Committee of the party which met in March, 1919, at Milan, by a vote of ten to three, and which was later endorsed by an overwhelming vote at the National Convention of the party. At the previous convention, the party decided to withdraw from the International Socialist Bureau and declined to send delegates to the Berne International Conference. The National Executive Committee later decided, however, to send two of its members to Berne to observe the activities of the

Conference. At the same convention, the party reiterated its anti-war position, called the Socialist deputies to task for failing to take a more aggressive stand in the Chamber of Deputies, and gave the Executive Committee power to expel recalcitrant deputies. It also refused to send delegates to the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference in London on the ground that it admitted the American Federation of Labor, while delegates from the Socialist Party of America and the Russian Communist Party were not present. The party also repudiated both the mission from the American Federation of Labor and the SocialDemocratic League of America, which visited Italy.

It

"The National Executive Committee submitted a proposition in December, 1918, to the party subdivision favoring the elimination of all minimum demands from the party program which is used in electoral campaigns. The proposition met with almost unanimous approval of the different sections of the party. also issued a declaration in which it sponsored the establishment of a Socialist Republic and the dictatorship of the proletariat, with the following scope: (1) The socialization of the means of production and transportation, land, mines, railroads, steamships operated and managed directly by the peasants, sailors, miners and workers; (2) distribution of commodities through co-operatives or municipal agencies exclusively; (3) abolition of military conscription and universal disarmament following the union of all Socialist proletarian international republics of the world.

"The declaration also vigorously advocated the withdrawal of troops from Russia, and announced that the Socialist Party "would not join in the homage to the representative of the United States," so that when President Wilson addressed the Chamber of Deputies, he found nearly forty seats, usually occupied by the Socialists, empty. The party convention also went on record against readmission of all those former members of the party who supported the government in the prosecution of the war and instructed its subdivisions to strictly observe this mandate.

"The Socialist Union, which was organized by pro-war Socialists, did not succeed in attracting to itself many of the members of the party. It formed an alliance with the so-called "Reformist Socialists," who had split away from the party, following the war with Tripoli.

"During 1919 the party continued its agitation for amensty

for political prisoners, and secured the release of several of its leaders, among whom were Constantino Lazzari, veteran secre tary of the party, his assistant, Nicola Bombacci, and the editor of the party organ "Avanti," Giacinto Serrati.

"In June, 1919, the International Socialist Bureau sent a committee consisting of Ramsay Macdonald and Jean Longuet to discuss with the Italian Party the reconsideration of the withdrawal from the Second International. The negotiations proved of no avail. The Italian Party, however, joined the international demonstration decided upon by the International Socialist Bureau on July 21st with the result that Italian Socialists alone among the "Allied" Socialists, conducted a general strike in protest against the Russian blockade. Entire provinces were prostrated by the industrial standstill. All traffic and communication ceased and in more than 240 municipalities, among them, Genoa and Florence, Soviets were established.

"The Socialist Party has denounced the Paris Peace and the proposed League of Nations, seeing in this attempt the "recreating of the Holy Alliance among the conquerors, to oppress not only politically, but also economically, the conquered populations, dumb victims of the mistakes and rapacity of the bourgeoisie, captained by imperialistic capitalism and against the international proletariat."

"Preparatory to the next congress of the Socialist Party, the National Executive Committee issued a draft of a program, in which the party is called upon to prepare for the coming revolution by the formation of agencies which would be in a position to direct the course of the revolution, with the aim of establishing a Soviet form of government. The program even goes as far as to promulgate certain fundamental principles underlying the dictatorship of the proletariat, such as the disenfranchising of persons who do not do any socially useful work.

"In the Parliamentary elections of November 1919, the Socialist Party scored a tremendous victory, receiving about 3,000,000 votes as against 883,409 in 1913, or more than a third of the votes cast, and increasing its representation in the Chamber from 44 to 159. The campaign was waged on an anti-war and revolutionary program, which included unqualified support to the Russian Soviet Government.

"The industrial labor movement is divided into two distinct groups, one co-operating closely with the Socialist Party, and the