Churchill’s quislings have no mass support¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter excoriates the Allied claim to be waging a “war for democracy,” arguing that the switch of the Italian capitalist class, monarchy, and fascist hierarchy into the Churchill-Roosevelt camp exposes the conflict as a naked imperialist struggle for markets, raw materials, and spheres of influence. The core argument is that the Allies are not fighting to defeat fascism but to preserve the reactionary social order that produced it. The evidence is the composition of Marshal Badoglio’s “democratic” government: Badoglio himself, Mussolini’s former Chief of Staff who conquered Abyssinia with poison gas; General Roatta, responsible for reorganising fascist troops in Spain and later for massacres and pillage in occupied Yugoslavia; General Ambrosio, with an equally criminal record of terror; and other fascist war criminals retained in their posts. The chapter notes that even the “yellow press” baulked at this hypocrisy, and that the British press initially wrote disapproving articles before falling into line.
The text draws on the historical context of Italian fascism’s rise, pointing out that Badoglio and King Victor Emmanuel paved the way for Mussolini’s coming to power and supported fascism to the end. Their change of sides is not motivated by love of democracy but by the attempt to salvage part of the lost Italian empire and to rely on Anglo-American bayonets to protect them from the wrath of the Italian masses. The chapter contrasts this with the genuine movement of the Italian workers, who destroyed fascism after Mussolini’s fall, and who are now held under the boot of both Nazis and Allied imperialism.
A notable polemic is directed against the hypocrisy of the Allied generals, exemplified by General Mason Macfarlane intervening to prevent Badoglio from answering a question about restoring democracy. The chapter also attacks the simultaneous agreement with Portugal’s dictator Salazar, who suppressed trade unions, assisted Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler, and now supports the “democracies” for loot. Franco too is preparing to switch sides. The polemic extends to the entire Allied project: “A Europe ruled by the reactionary fascists, monarchists and near-fascists… all having one thing in common: hatred of the working class.” The chapter concludes by citing Badoglio’s own account of German soldiers in Rome cheering rumours of Hitler’s assassination as proof that the revolutionary movement of the Italian masses will rise again, together with the workers of all Europe, to abolish capitalism and war.