Land to the peasants! Factories to the workers!¶
Core Argument¶
The fall of Mussolini in July 1943 is not a mere change of government but the opening of a revolutionary crisis that, however unconsciously, is taking the form of a socialist revolution. The article, published in Socialist Appeal in mid-August 1943, argues that the masses have already begun to act in a manner that points beyond the bourgeois democratic horizon. Within hours of Mussolini’s resignation, workers razed the Fascist Party’s apparatus; in the northern industrial cities, workers’ committees—soviets—sprang up overnight. In Brescia, workers seized arms and formed an armed militia. Soldiers refused to fire on workers, and in Milan they sent delegates to the soviets, where peasants from the surrounding countryside were also represented. These facts, drawn from the trickle of news reaching the outside world, are presented as evidence that the Italian workers have instinctively taken the first steps toward the socialist revolution.
The article draws a direct parallel with the February Revolution in Russia. In both cases, the ruling class, fearing revolution from below, attempted a “palace revolution” from above. In Tsarist Russia, this was signalled by the murder of Rasputin; in Italy, it took the form of Mussolini’s dismissal and the installation of Marshal Badoglio. The difference is that the palace revolution has already been carried out in Italy, but this alters nothing fundamental. Badoglio is no break with fascism. The article cites an interview in which Badoglio declared Mussolini “a great man,” praised the monarchy and the Church, and defended “a civilisation founded on capitalism, on intellectual worth and the necessary social privileges of the ruling classes.” The same forces—monarchy, Church, landowners, capitalists—remain in control. Badoglio’s government is a reactionary stop-gap, incapable of solving Italy’s crisis. Its announcement of bankruptcy and price increases will only worsen the already intolerable conditions of the masses, provoking further revolt.
The polemical thrust is directed against those who would see the fall of Mussolini as a democratic turning point or who would place faith in the Allies. The article insists that the Italian capitalists are preparing to do a deal with Allied imperialism to save themselves from their own people. Roosevelt, Churchill, Eisenhower, and the activities of AMGOT all reveal a desire to preserve the monarchy and the ruling class from the historic penalty for their crimes. Caught between the hammer of the Allied armies and the anvil of German imperialism, the Italian revolution is in grave danger. The only solution is a strong revolutionary socialist party and leadership, as the Bolsheviks provided in 1917. The slogan that sums up the task is: “Land to the peasants! Factories to the workers!”