No More Learning

The social program of the Catholic hierarchy. --This was evolved as means for counteracting the rise of class-conscious trade unions dominated by left wing and materialistic--in particular by Marx-
5 The essence of the Fascist corporate system is found in hierarchical implementa- tion of patrimonial class domination by monopolistically oriented and compactly organized vested-interest groups.
6 The "Nationalist" movement, though important, can be ignored for our present purposes. Like Fascism, which it preceded, it was not in itself a causal or contributory force, but the result of such force. Nor was its strength, as expressed in numbers or influence, of much importance.
58
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59
ian--social philosophies. It may be divided into three phases: from the first third of the 19th century to the delivery of the Papal Encyclical Rerurri Novarum in 1891; from Rerum Novarum to the inauguration of the Fascist system in 1922; after the Papal Ency- clical in commemoration of Rerum Novarum, delivered in 1931 and known as Quadragesimo AnnoJ Beginning, in the first phase, as a general criticism of conditions created out of the capitalistic milieu, the papal position had shifted until by 1931 it not only for- mally endorsed Mussolini's fascism per se, but also recommended the formula as a panacea for all other industrial countries as well.
In the first phase. Catholic writers took their place among vari- ous proponents who hoped to solve the issues of class conflict and industrialism by recourse to doctrines inspired by Christianity. ^ Le Play, the French engineer, hoped to transform the employer into a benevolent master who would care for his workmen as father to his children. Protestant writers such as Kingsley, Carlyle, and Ruskin wanted something less patriarchal, but saw in various forms of class collaboration good Tory means for turning the lion of indus- trial capitalism into the lamb of social harmony. The leading Cath- olic writers, however, went straight to the Middle Ages--the period in which the Church dominated the whole of European society for their inspiration.
Under one form or another a series of Catholic spokesmen ^ ad- vocated recrudescence of the medieval conception of a corporatively organized society. Many of these initial expositions were the work of French emigres returning to the homeland following the Treaty of Vienna in 1815 and the inauguration of the Holy Alliance. On the
7 The intervening period, 1922 to 1931, might, in turn, be divided into two inter- vals: a period of partial and at times bitter conflict between church and state reach- ing from the inauguration of Fascism to the Lateran Accord in 1929; and from the Lateran Accord, which recognized Catholicism as the official religion in return for Papal support of Fascist leadership in the upbuilding of the new Roman Empire, to recommendation of corporate ideas by the papacy as'the solution of the "Social question" in general. Most notable of its successes has been the "clerical fascism" of the ill-starred Austrian totalitarians, Dollfuss and Schuschnigg, and the system of General Franco which emerged from the Spanish Civil War.
8 See "Doctrines Inspired by Christianity," in C. Gide and C. Rist, History of Economic Doctrines, pp. 483-514.
9 An early representative of these was Philip Buchez, Essai d'un traite complet de philosophic, du point de vue du catholicisme et du progres (Paris, 1838-40), and Abb^ de Lamennais, La Question du travail (1848).
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other wing a few were highly reminiscent of the social-communism
advocated so vehemently by the early church fathers/^ since they
appeared in large part as attacks on the institution of private prop-
erty and in defense of workers' rights to a fair wage and a decent
standard of living. But Catholic writers of a more "practical" turn
of mind advocated simply mixed or collateral syndicates in which
the principles of hierarchy would dominate and the employer would
play the role of "leader" or "master" to his flock. The model was the
Church/^ and "the corporations which would be set up under the
aegis of religion would aim at making all their members contented
with their lot, patient in toil, and disposed to lead a tranquil, happy
^2
life. "
Though never entirely free of important schismatic differences,
the Social-Catholic movement maintained almost from the begin- ning a fairly coherent reform program. Prior to the revolutionary upheavals of 1848 it was predominantly antiliberal, generally op- posing both laissez faire and free competition on the grounds that the doctrines of the Physiocrats and the early French liberals on the one hand and the socially irresponsible practices of certain traders and manufacturers on the other largely accounted for the French Revolution, its tempestuous aftermath, the rise of anticlericalism, and the spread of class antagonisms. The "free thinking" bour- geoisie were distrusted almost as much as the popular democracy for which it appeared inevitably to prepare the way. ^^
The events of 1 848 convinced Catholic thinkers that socialism, as the residuary legatee of liberal and democratic doctrines, was the
10 Such as Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Cyprian, Gregory of Nazianze. See the pro- gram of Vicomte de Villeneuve-Bargemont as outlined by Thomas Parker Moon, The Labor Problem and the Social Catholic Movement in France (New York, 1921), pp. 19-25. See also Paul K. Grosser, Ideologies and American Labor, New York, 1941.
11 "The corporation is simply the model of the Ghurch. Just as for the Ghurch all the faithful are equal in the sight of God, so here. But equality ends there. For the rest of it is a hierarchy. " Quoted by Gide and Rist, op. cit. , p. 500, from Segur- Lamoignon, L'Association catholique, July 13, 1894.
12 Gide and Rist, loc. cit. , quoted from the Encyclical of Leo XII, December 28, 1878, called Quod Apostolici.
13 Veuillot, a clerical journalist, was opposed to the "free thinking bourgeoisie" but held that, while misery must be destroyed, "poverty is a divine institution" and charity the true social science. He proposed a Holy Roman Democracy to parallel the Holy Roman Empire; the latter, of course, was to lead the former by authorita- tive principles and both were to be hierarchically directed from above. The Confed- eration of Italian Industries was later to refer to its own program, patterned along these lines, as "authoritarian democracy. " Moon, op. cit. , p. 30.
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greatest of all the Church's enemies. Moderates like Melun and Le Play lost out, and, under the stimulus of the official patronage of Napoleon the Third, the movement began to take more definite shape around three leading objectives; first, to overcome the radical- ization of the working classes through an ideological conquest of the "workers' souls"; second, to transform the employer from a hard- hearted profit seeker into an aristocratic and paternal "leader" of his men; and third, to revive the medieval guild or corporate form of organization.
The first objective called for universal indoctrination with official Catholic Christianity, the second for various forms of benevolent social legislation, and the third for integral or mixed syndicalism. Under Count Albert De Mun and Count La Tour du Pin, these three phases were forged into an effective political program which was shortly taken up abroad--particularly in Germany under the leadership of Baron Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler
soon received official papal blessing.
Industrial organization, De Mun held, should take the form of
"the Catholic Guild, which is neither a trade-union, nor a tribunal of arbitration, but a center of Christian activity where the interest of the profession is superior to private interest, where antagonism between capitalist and workingman gives way to patronage exercised in a Christian spirit and freely accepted. . . . It is always the same thought: limit competition, associate common interests, impose upon the employer the duty of patronage, uplift labor and the con- dition of the laborer. " ^*
Contemporaneously with De Mun's agitation (in the seventies and eighties), a great deal of interest in programs for class collabora- tion was aroused by the "experiment" of the French spinning firm of Harmel at Val-des-Bois. In the words of a very sympathetic ob- server, the "Christian Guild" of the Harmels was evolved as follows:
The simple principle of union by itself was considered inadequate; it tended to create labor-unions hostile to capital and bent on class war- fare. The principle of democratic control of industry would logically lead to the elimination of the employer. The principle of capitalistic paternalism, if taken alone, was inadequate because it failed to awaken any vital response among the workingmen. The Harmels attempted to
14 Ibid. , pp. 99-100.
--and which
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make a Christian synthesis of these principles. In the first place, the workers were permitted, nay encouraged, to form various associations
a men's club, a woman's association, a girls' society, a mutual benefit society. Democratic control was practiced in the management of these associations, and was represented by elected shop-committees, but was not carried to the extreme. The Guild Board, an elective council of workingmen, was consulted on such questions as shop-management and wage-schedules, but had no sovereign authority in these matters; the policy of the employers was to act with democratic advice and consent, but not to abdicate their authority. The third principle, paternalism, received expression in manifold efforts on the part of the employers to promote the material and moral welfare of the workingmen, to foster and guide even the institutions controlled by the workers. The paternal influence may be seen in the fact that one of the employers acted as chairman of the Guild Board, and the supervision of general guild in-
terests was entrusted to a committee composed of the members of the firm, the chaplain, the school-director, and representatives of the vari- ous workingmen's associations. In this fashion the three principles of association, democratic control, and capitalist paternalism were com- bined and balanced in a complex organism consisting of first, employ- ers, second, the general committee of employers and representatives of the workingmen's institutions, third the workingmen's Guild Board, fourth, shop committees, fifth, various economic, social and religious associations among the work-people. ^^
Here is a precis not only for much of the social legislation that was to follow, but also for the more benevolent type of company union as well as the more violently counterrevolutionary Fascist syndicates of the Mussolini regime. Gone completely was the attitude of hos- tility toward capitalist and employer wherever he could be per- suaded to add to his entrepreneurial functions those of father and leader to his employees. And also, by the same token, gone com- pletely was the hostility to labor organization wherever workers could be gathered into associations, governed and directed by em- ployer interests from above in a fixed hierarchy of command and subordination and deliberately modeled after the pattern of the
Universal Church.
Until late in the century the papacy had paid relatively little at-
tention to the Social-Catholic movement. The general idea, of course, of universal guild organization under the benevolent super- vision of the Church has never been abandoned. From time to time
15 Ibid. , pp. 1 14-15.
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references had been made to guilds in various papal utterances, such as, for example, Humanum genus in 1854, Quod Apostolici mu- neris in 1878, and Aeterni Patris in 1879. But it was with the ency- clical letter of Pope Leo XIII on "The Condition of Labor" (Rerum Novarum)in1891 thatrecrudescenceofthecorporateorganization of society became the official doctrine. The Encyclical was directed specifically at the Socialists, and in condemning their social doc- trines Leo XIII saw fit for the first time to commit the Church to full support of capitalistic institutions. Social inequality, private ownership of the means of production, free competition, laissez faire, the accumulation of great wealth, and the rest, were justified as "just" and according to the "laws of nature. " Conversely, "class war" was declared "irrational," since "in a state it is ordained by nature that these two classes (the rich and the poor) should exist in harmony and agreement. " The employer was to treat his labor "justly" and render him that which was due. The multitudes must, he said, be kept "within the line of duty. " Organization along lines of medieval guilds provided at once the ideal solution for social con- flict, an offset for the greed of the poor, and a solvent for the cupid- ity of the rich. ^^
Various Catholic Social-Action groups took up the new program with great enthusiasm. Shortly, some of these groups began to look forward to the "corporative reorganization of society" ^^ as a whole. All masters and men were to be organized, preferably, in mixed syn- dicates, consisting of both employers and labor, or collateral syndi- cates, in which the two groups would be organized separately for purposes of group collaboration. ^^ The state was not to interfere
16 See in particular, Rerum Novarum, paragraphs 53 to 65, inclusive, reproduced in full in Henry George, The Condition of Labor, an Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII (New York, 1891), pp. 121-57.
17 "We must direct all our private initiative and concentrate public attention upon this one reform--the corporative reorganization of society. " Cited by Gide and Rist, History of Economic Doctrines, p. 497, from Programme de I'oeuvre des cercles ouvriers, April, 1894.
18 "In 1894 the Congress of Catholic Circles which met at Rheims declared that, 'without minimizing the difficulties which stand in the way of extending the mixed syndicats, the formation of such syndicats must be our chief aim. ' In 1904, Father Rutten, one of the leaders of the Belgian Catholic Syndical movement, in a report on the syndicalist movement writes as follows: 'We do not despair of the mixed syndicat, which in theory we certainly think is nearest perfection. But we must not blind ourselves to facts, and whether we will or no we have to admit that at the present moment the mixed syndicat in ninety industries out of every hundred seems
63
? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
with such autonomous associations except to see that they were duly protected and did not use their pooled strength to the detriment of the general community. They were, in short, to be self-governing associations for the promotion of class collaboration. ^^
In the subsequent period of organization, the idea of collateral syndicates, sometimes referred to as ''integral syndicalism," defi- nitely gained the upper hand. It is interesting to note that this idea was taken over unaltered to form the basis of the Fascist system of organization by social-economic categories.
The early years of Fascist rule found Mussolini and the Pope fre- quently at swords' points. But just as accession to power stilled the former's lingering radicalism, so the immense ideological strength of the latter amongst the mass of the Italian peasantry coupled to the expansive power of the papal hierarchy blunted the anticlerical edge of Fascist propaganda. In the Lateran Accord of 1929 Fascism adopted the papacy on condition that the papacy concede popular allegiance to the objectives of Fascism and the State and Empire in which those objectives were embodied. ^^
It was hardly to be expected that the Accord, widely acclaimed as it was, would settle all the issues at dispute. Quadragesimo Anno was condemned by many Fascists for some of its implied criticisms of their system. But in the main the document possesses historical sig- nificance primarily for its wholesale acceptance of the tenets under- lying the Fascist social program.
"Harmony between ranks in society" now became the dominant theme: "Now this is the primary duty of the state and of all good citizens," the Pontiff declared, "to abolish conflict between classes with divergent interests, and thus foster and promote harmony be- tween the various ranks of society. " ^^ Instrumental to this objec- tive "must be therefore the reestablishment of vocational groups,"
quite Utopian. ' " Gide and Rist, op. cit. , pp. 76, 498, quoted from Duchesne, Syndicats ouvriers beiges (1906).
19 This early statement of the principle becomes explicable when it is recalled that Rerum Novarum was directed against Socialism as much for its apotheosis of the power of the state in opposition to private capitalism as for its support of heretical social and moral principles.
20 For the text of the Lateran Accord, see Walter C. Langsam and
Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since ipi8 (Chicago, 1939), pp. 557-66.
21 All quotations are from copy of the text reproduced in Langsam and Eagan, op. cit. , pp. 567-72.
64
J.
M. Eagan,
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for "as nature induces those who dwell in close proximity to unite into municipalities, so those who practice the same trade or profes- sions, economic or otherwise, combine into vocational groups. "
While such organization of social-economic categories is to be "autonomous," Pius definitely rejected "free competition" and the past "errors of the 'Individualistic' school" as "the true guiding prin- ciples of economics. " They had their place, to be sure, but "it is very necessary that economic affairs be once more subjected to and gov- erned by a true and efEective guiding principle. " This the state is alone competent to determine, and in taking notice of "special syn- dical and corporative organization . . . inaugurated . . . within recent times," the Encyclical declares that "little reflection is re- quired to perceive the advantages of the institution [Fascist institu- tion] thus summarily described: ^^ peaceful collaboration of the classes, repression of Socialist organizations and efforts, the moder- ating influence of a special ministry. " Fixity of status and occupa- tion, the outlawing of strikes and lockouts, and the location of the ultimate powers of umpire and reconciliation in a theologically ac- ceptable totalitarian state assured to His Holiness that "social har- mony" and "class collaboration" of which Leo XIII had dreamed forty years before.
There was some bitter -^ to be taken with the sweet, but in the
22 "The state here grants legal recognition to the syndicate or union, and thereby confers on it some of the features of a monopoly, for in virtue of this recognition, it alone can represent respectively Workingmen and employers, and it alone can con- clude labor contracts and labor agreements. Affiliation to the syndicate is optional for everyone; but in this sense only can the syndical organization be said to be free, since the contribution to the union and other special taxes are obligatory for all who be- long to a given branch, whether workingmen or employers, and the labor-contracts drawn up by the legal syndicate are likewise obligatory. It is true that it has been authoritatively declared that the legal syndicate does not exclude the existence of un- recognized trade associations.
"The corporations are composed of representatives of the unions of workingmen and employers of the same trade or profession, and as true and genuine organs and institutions of the state, they direct and coordinate the activities of the unions in all matters of common interest. " Quadragesimo Anno, Langsam, op. cit. , p. 569. This language is practically identical with that employed in the official propaganda min- istry of the Fascist party. Cf. The Law of April 21, 192'j, known as the Labour Char- ter, reproduced in Langsam, op. cit. , pp. 519-25.
23 In particular that "concentration of power" which "has led to a threefold strug- gle for domination" for power within the dictatorship, for control over the state, and amongst the states, which leads to war. Also, "the intermingling and scandalous con- fusing of the duties and offices of civil authority and of economics" which not only degrades "the majesty of the state" but leads to "economic imperialism. " Quadra- gesimo Anno, loc. cit.
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light of subsequent events it would appear that the rapprochement between the papacy and the New Roman Empire has been growing steadily closer. ^* Even the Axis accord does not seem to be wholly unwelcome in papal circles. ^'^
The composition of the pre-Fascist labor movement. --There is no need here to recapitulate the voluminous expository and argu- mentative literature on this phase of the Italian corporate-state background. 2<< It will suffice to indicate in rough outline a few of the peculiarities of the Italian labor movement which made it so readily and generally adaptable to the type of controls which the organized "right" sought, under Fascism, to place on it.
1. Though of comparatively recent origin, the labor movement in Italy had begun to form central federations and confederations early in its history. There was practically no such thing as a labor move- ment in any part of the country before 1874. Yet by 1890 first efforts were already being made to federate. After a number of reverses, these efforts had succeeded, at the outbreak of the war, in bringing the vast bulk of organized labor into three great confederations: The General Confederation of Labor (CGL), with about 321,000 members; the Catholic Italian Confederation of Labor (CIL), with around 103,000 members; and the Italian Syndicalist Association (USI), with some 100,000 members. ^^ By 1920, after a period of de- cline during the war, membership had risen until the CGL and the CIL were able to claim a membership of 2,150,000 and 1,205,447, respectively. This represents not only an unusually high level of
24 In the Abyssinian venture it was commonly believed that the papacy lent its financial support, and in the Spanish Civil War it allied itself openly on II Duce's side.
25 The new totalitarian system in process of formation in France appears to enjoy papal blessing. Only belatedly, and then only under considerable pressure, was re- proof for the utterances of Father Coughlin forthcoming.
26 To mention but a few, favorable summaries are given in the semi-official volume by Fausto Pitigliani (now in exile). The Italian Corporative State (London, 1933); Michael T. Florinsky, Fascism and National Socialism (New York, 1936); Benito Mussolini, The Corporate State (Florence, 1936); various publications (in mimeo- graph) of the Italian Library of Information; and Michels, Italien von Heute. Criti- cal summaries are found in Ebenstein, Fascist Italy; Gaetano Salvemini, Under the Axe of Fascism (New York, 1936); George Seldes, Sawdust Caesar (New York, 1935); and Carl T. Schmidt, The Corporate State in Action (New York, 1939).
27 I find no two authorities who agree on these figures. The data for the CGL and the USI are taken from Freedom of Association (Series A, No. 31, International Labor Office, Geneva), IV, 4-5. The figures for the CIL are from Wladimir Woytinsky, Die Welt in Zahlen (Berlin, 1926). II, 123.
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unionization, but also an unusually high degree of centralized direc- tion. On this footing trade unionism loomed large.
2. Membership was drawn primarily from agricultural and hand- icraft labor. Data taken from official sources,^^ showed 453,000 in- dustrial workers belonging to trade unions in 1912 for 408,000 agricultural workers. Subsequent years did not greatly alter the pic- ture. ^^ Even as late as 1921 probably not more than one-third of organized Italian labor could be classified as "industrial. " ^^ The strength of the labor movement, in other words, was much less than it appeared to be. The reasons were as follows:
(a) Themovementwaswidelyscatteredgeographically,andthe typical unit was small, localized, provincial, and more or less inde- pendent and self-contained.
(b) Organized agricultural labor was property minded: its prin- cipal grievance was the perpetuation of the system of metayagej and its members were neither very conscious of their own class nor conscious of having a great deal in common with the industrial workers.
(c) Thepositionofthelargenumberofhandicraftandshopem- ployees was not greatly different.
Their lingering feudal attach- ments and partially articulated middle-class sentiments made them at best poor and unreliable partners in a militant, class-conscious struggle for political power. ^^
3. A third and even more fatal weakness in the Italian labor move- ment was centered in more or less irreconcilable doctrinal differ-
28 Woytinsky, op. cit. , II, 124; cited from Annuario Statistico Italiano, Series 2, VII (1917-18), 330.
29 The war years were an exception; there was then a tendency for agricultural members to increase over industrial membership, indicating a relatively heavier war draft on the latter group.
30 Even the most militant and class-conscious of the central associations, the CGL, had 294,000 out of 1,206,000 members listed as attached to agriculture. In addition, many other crafts, e. g. , the bulk of those listed as textile workers (78,000 in 1921) should really be called agricultural laborers. For another viewpoint on agricultural workers and trade unionism in Italy consult the writings of Ignazio Silone, who has developed the subject in detail and who takes a somewhat different position.
81 The number included in this category must have been numerically more im- portant than Woytinsky's figures indicate. It is possible that when due allowance is made for those listed under industrial categories who worked as handicraftsmen the number would be as large or larger than those properly classed as industrial workers. In addition, close to 100,000 workers were employed in governmental or semigovern- mental (railways, post and telegraph, etc. ) activities and who were, consequendy, at least partially controlled by governmental authorities under dvil-service regulations.
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ences. The largest of the three more important general groups, the General Confederation of Labor, was led, perhaps more clearly than any other continental trade-union group, by politically minded socialists of the more orthodox (not revisionist, as in Germany) school. The second largest group, the Italian Confederation of La- bor, followed the line laid down by Rerum Novarum and was, con- sequently, in the main quite hostile to the CGL. Its mixed-syndicates program bears a very close resemblance to the "company union" in the United States, and its alternative, integral syndicates, was erected on the substitute foundation of organized "class collaboration. " The third group, the Italian Syndicalist Association, followed a mixture of ideas adapted from Bakunin, the anarchist, and from theorists of the Sorel persuasion. Their position was similar in a number of respects to the anarchist trade unions of Barcelona as shown in the early stages of the Spanish Civil War. They favored, in the main, economic as against political action, and they had a tendency to be very militant upon an insubstantial organizational structure--that is, they submitted badly to group discipline and the centralization of authority.
Thus, while Italian labor movement was simultaneously numeri- cally imposing, fired in at least two camps with revolutionary doc- trines, and sufficiently centralized to be able to move rapidly on occasion, it was hampered because (a) it was compounded of largely dissentient occupational groupings of widely varying sense of group solidarity, political education, and social attachments, and (b) it was split into three groups, which differed from one another on objec- tives and methods. To this should be added the fact that at the criti- cal moment, during the postwar period before the coming of the Fascists, leadership was complicated by two additional difficulties: on the one hand, militant leaders were divided between the more violent, Sorelian syndicalist type (of which Mussolini was an out- standing example) and the Marxists; and, on the other hand, the Marxists were split between those who had devoted and still wished to dedicate the bulk of their energies to the gaining of political privi- leges for labor, and those who were prepared to face a distinctly revolutionary situation with a revolutionary program of action. ^^
32 Even amongst these latter, there was no clear realization of the revolutionary possibilities of the years 1920-22 until it was too late. Palme Dutt in Fascism and
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It is not necessary here to trace again ^^ the results of this posture of affairs on the labor side during the period of occupation of the factories and the spread of general-strike tactics in the two years preceding the political triumph of Fascism. Suffice it to say that the unions then came so close to complete triumph that the organized opposition was determined to strike at the root of the matter by destroying for all time all power of independent union initiative and that they found in Fascism an acceptable formula for trans- lating intent into action. And the Fascists in turn, with ambivalent eclat, evolved this program by deftly fusing Sorelian ideas, happily bereft of all revolutionary sentiment, with catholic integral syndi- calism as evolved by the CIL--but now sheared from its popular moorings.
The Central Employers' Associations. --The employers' associa- tion movement in Italy likewise possessed three peculiarities which, in combination, go far towards explaining the early adoption of such a relatively mature employer's solution of their labor problems. In the first place, alongside of--and in some respects preceding--indus- trial organization came organization of agricultural employers, dom- inated by the feudal-minded and closely knit owners of the great latifondi. In the second place, both associations, while working very closely together on many matters, never divided their interests in political and economic affairs from their interests in social and labor matters. And thirdly, dominant influence among industrial em- ployers was held by groups both highly localized in the industrial north and operating on a (relatively) large scale in new, swiftly growing, and technologically modern industries.
Under the first point, it is interesting to note that organization of agricultural employers was started by and grew to exercise great influence under the owners of the spreading latifondi in the Po
Social Revolution (London, 1934), p. 96, quotes Serrati, from whom most followers of the Leninist persuasion hoped a great deal, as declaring at a subsequent Con- gress of the Communist International that "Our fault is that we never sufficiently prepared ourselves for the events that have overtaken us. . . . Today we believe it essential to abandon the democratic illusion, and to create a combative, active, and audacious Party. " Additional aspects of the problem were the impact of Bolshevism, the growth of the Maximalist movement and the corresponding confusion.
33 See, in particular, the very pro-Fascist book by Pietro Gorgolini (with a foreword by Mussolini), The Fascist Movement in Italian Life (London, 1923), and the very anti-Fascist book by Angelo Rossi, The Rise 0/ Italian Fascism (London, 1938).
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Valley. As the movement spread to other parts of Italy, it stimulated organization of small farmer holdings around a variety of social and economic objectives. But, from the beginning, the leadership of the great landowners of the north (together with an increasing pressure towards federation and unification) tended to repress interests and objectives in conflict with their own.
The General Confederation of Agriculture was finally brought into existence in 1911 as a coordinating body for all Italian agricul- tural-employer interests, but, although its membership was said to be around 700,000 landed proprietors, its program was centered largely around the single-minded defense of the system of metay- age ^*--a system not unlike the recently much publicized share- cropper relationship of the American South. ^^ What this indicated, of course, was first that the vast bulk of the Italian agricultural popu- lation--and Italy is primarily a rural country even today ^^--was made up of laborers and tenant farmers ^^ and that ownership of land was highly concentrated. ^^ And secondly, that the social rela-
34 At its first congress the Confederation "defined its guiding rules" as follows: "That all the affiliated associations should support and extend the system of metayage, as being the most effective instrument for creating a stable social basis for agricul- tural progress and for the economic and moral improvement of the workers them- selves, and that, while observing in the drafting of the economic clauses of such contracts [with organized agricultural workers] a liberal and modern spirit, they should defend the necessity for safeguarding the technical direction of the owner against the efforts of any who may seek, whether by the limitation of this power or by insisting on the substitution of farming leases for contracts of metayage, to with- draw the administration of rural undertakings from the hands of those technical experts who have done good service to the cause of agricultural progress and pro- duction. . . . That the principle of co-partnership should be extended even to the class of occasional workers and to that of workers with fixed wages. " Quoted in ILO, Freedom of Association, IV, 8.
35 "Metayage, a system of land tenure in Western Europe and also in the United States, in which the farmer pays a certain proportion (generally half) of the produce to the owner (as rent), the owner generally furnishing the stock and seed or a part thereof. " Murray, New English Dictionary.
36 "The economic life of Italy is basically rural. . . . The total gainfully occupied population of ten and more years of age is 17,262,521; 8,083,332 are occupied in agriculture. The total population of the country in 1931 was 41,176,671, of which num- ber nearly 48 percent was comprised in families whose head was employed in agri- culture. . . . Data for any of the last thirty or forty years would not give a substan- tially different picture of the economic structure of the rural population. " Schmidt, The Plough and the Sword, pp. 1, 10.
37 "According to the occupational census of 1931, roughly 8,000,000 persons over the age of 10 are engaged in agriculture. Of this number about 3,000,000 are classed as 'operating owners,' 900,000 as 'cash-tenants,' 1,700,000 as 'share-tenants,' 2,500,000 as 'wage-workers,' and 27,000 as 'managers. ' " Idem.
38 "The 3,800,000 dwarf and small holdings comprise but 32. 7 percent of all the
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tionship between the possessing and the landless classes was of a distinctly feudal stamp.
This feudal stamp was not lost when the great Po Valley estates went over to modern forms of highly mechanized industrial agri- culture during and following the war. Relationships between mas- ter and men continued in much the same atmosphere as before, with the main difference that the latter had lost whatever social claims they had once possessed, and that the former, much as in the case of large-scale agriculture on the American Pacific Coast, had been freed of certain more or less compelling obligations assumed under the technically more primitive arrangement. That is to say, the mood, the social outlook, the plans and programs of the leading figures in the General Confederation of Agriculture were of the patronal, patrimonial, feudal stamp.
Not until after the war did employer interests in the industrial field succeed in attaining the level of central organization achieved by agricultural employers in 1911. Earlier efforts had been made from time to time, the last preceding attempt in 1910 having, even at that late date, proved premature. ^^ In 1920 the General Confed- eration of Italian Industry was organized as a central policy-forming body for some one hundred member bodies,
divided among federal organizations [of which twenty-five were na- tional] and local organizations and was made up of two sections:
(a) The Economic Section, which protected all kinds of industrial in-
terests and set up as its aim the defense of those interests by means of direct co-operation in the drafting of laws and also by supporting the interests of its members against the state;
(b) The Trade Union Section, which studied and solved problems connected with the relationships between industrialists and the staff dependent on them, and also problems connected with social legislation. *^
All commentators agree that the Confederation was a highly or-
ganized institution, exercising "a powerful influence on the whole
farm land in the country, whereas the 400,000 large farms control 67. 3 percent thereof. These figures evince the extreme concentration of land ownership in rela- tively few hands. " Ibid. , p. 13.
39 A parallel attempt made in that year to form the Association of Italian Joint Stock Companies (Associazone fra le Societa Italiana per Acione) was more success- ful. It maintained an independent existence through the war, and was instrumental in the accouchement of the Confederation of Italian Industry. See Pitigliani, The Italian Corporative State, pp. 144-45.
40 ILO, Freedom of Association, IV, 9.
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? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
of national life" from the day of its inception. As with its agricul- tural counterpart, it united in a single body both social (primarily antilabor) and economic interests. Headquarters were maintained at Milan, the leading industrial city of north Italy, which, being located in the center of the upper Po Valley, brought them into immediate juxtaposition with the Agricultural Confederation. And the leading figures in the Confederation were the captains in com- mand of that impressive network of large-scale industrial enterprises which were concentrated in that area.
Not only did the big industrialists lead in the inner councils of the Confederation, but the establishments over which they held control fell largely, and in some respects entirely, in the general classification of the *'new" industries which had arisen out of chemi- cal and engineering research after the turn of the century. Italy was a comparatively late industrial arrival, and she lacked, furthermore, material resources for the large-scale development of many of the older industries. The newer industries required large initial out- lays in scientific research and experimental development; their capi- tal needs were heavy and, once launched, they were closely protected under patent and similar monopoly controls.
Within the northern Italian manufacturing nucleus the most im- portant industries were heavy chemicals, machines, textiles, and engineering. Most of the big concerns, such as Snia Viscosa in rayon. Fiat and Isotta Fraschini in automobiles and allied lines, Ercole Marelli and Pirelli in electrical manufacturing, Breda in railroad equipment, and the giant Montecatini in the chemicals, ordnance and metal field, date either from immediately before the First World War, or rose to importance during and immediately after that catastrophe. *^ Most of them were financed in whole or in part
41 Snia Viscosa: founded July 18, 1917, headquarters and larger plants at Milan, capital in 1938, 525,000,000 lire; Fiat: founded in 1906, headquarters in Milan (auto- mobiles, diesel engines, parts, railroad stock, airplanes and engines, etc. ), capital in 1939, 400,000,000 lire, employed 54,000 workmen; Montecatini: founded in 1888, headquarters in Milan (copper, pyrites, sulphur, fertilizers, dyes, varnishes, rayon, aluminum, pharmaceutica, etc. ), capital in 1938, 1,300,000,000 lire; Ercole Marelli: successor in 1920 to parent company founded 1891, headquarters in Milan (electrical equipment, motors, generators, pumps, etc. ), capital in 1938, 80,000,000 lire; Isotta Fraschini: headquarters in Milan (steel, automobiles, engineering, ordnance, bronze, aluminum, magnesium, etc. ), capital in 1938, 120,000,000 lire; Pirelli: founded in 1920, headquarters in Milan (electrical cables, automobile tires, etc. ), capital in 1938, 263,981,500 lire, 20,400 employees; Breda: successor in 1899 to parent company or-
72
? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
73 by foreign capital/^ catered directly or in large part to a demand dominated by the rapidly expanding transportation, communica- tion, and power networks which were of at least a semipublic char- acter on the one hand, or sold directly to the various governmental bodies concerned with public construction and war needs on the other. All of these factors made not only for large scale develop- ment, but also for expansion on a monopolistic or semimonopolistic
footing from the very beginning. *^
Under auspices such as these--and it cannot be too strongly em-
phasized that in Italian industrial councils the great preponderance of power and influence lay in these circles--the natural, normal, matter-of-course attitude of the leadership of the General Confed- eration of Italian industries should have been monopoly-oriented in all economic affairs, and patronal or feudal in all social matters. That is to say, the exigencies of background and organization were such as to cause complete accord with the General Confederation of Agriculture (most conservative and reactionary and at the same time most highly developed of agricultural employer associations any- where in the world) in the normal course of peacetime events. How much more logical then, that, given the recent, vivid experience with the autocratic controls of war-time, they should face a new emergency with the mood, the outlook, and the will to improvise the necessary weapons for consolidating a common front of em- ployer interests against the threat of revolutionary action from below.
ganized in 1850, headquarters in Milan (steam and electric locomotives, railroad rolling stock, ships, airplanes, etc. ) capital in 1938, 127,800,000 lire, 17,073 employees. 42 There were, in addition, a good many important, wholly foreign owned, subsidi- aries, such as the Societa Generale Italiana Viscosa (capital in 1938 of 75,000,000 lire, and wholly owned by the British firm. General Rayon Ltd. ) and the branch systems of Ford and General Motors. Most of these concerns have branches and affiliates scattered all over Europe, and corporate holdings, spheres of influence, etc. , interlace with other foreign holdings until it is practically impossible at any one point to
unravel the skein.
43 A situation arose, in other words, not greatly unlike that which W. Sombart
traces at such length in Der Moderne Kapitalismus (Leipzig, 1902), I, Part II, through the early mercantilistic and cameralistic phases of capitalism, when the army and public authorities dominated so many of the leading supply industries. Added to this is the point Veblen has argued so cogently for Germany--in his Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution (New York, 1915)--that the borrowing country borrows the latest, most advanced techniques of production and marketing. The Italians borrowed from abroad large-scale production methods and monopoly forms of organization.
? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
74
Not, of course, that there is any direct proof that the General Con-
federation of Italian Industries singly or in association with other employer bodies did actually "think up" the Fascist state. Nor, even, that there was uniform agreement within these circles on just exactly what and how to face the critical situation that arose in the postwar confusion. ** But that they did find in Fascism something which they could support and from which they could derive great advantages to themselves there is no longer any question whatsoever. For present purposes, the significant fact is that the organizational structure, spun after much trial and error under the Fascist regime, is a straight-line development from that which had been evolved out of these employer circles in the past, and that the system which fol- lowed the March on Rome was coherent not only with former growth trends, but also with the attitudes and ideologies which had become dominant in organized Italian business.
The Corporate State. --Again it is not necessary to recapitulate in detail the numerous, and for present purposes, largely accurate sum- maries that have been made of the machinery of the corporate state, or the steps by which this machinery has been brought to its current state of development. The system is not yet complete, enthusiastic proponents avow, and is not likely to reach that state for a long time to come, if ever. Many of them like to stress that it is of the very nature of Fascist institutions that these neither do nor can achieve settled and permanent forms, since they are devised as flexible in- struments to encourage growth and change and not as glove-fits for a static condition.
It may be in point, however, to indicate briefly a few of the fea- tures of the new system which make it appear not so new or out of line with recognizable trends abroad. In its most recent annual pub- lication, the Fascist Confederation of Industrialists, successor in 1926 to the General Confederation of Italian Industry discussed above, speaks of the new system as a "guild economy," this being, they say, "the nearest English equivalent to the Italian 'corpora-
4* There were conflicts at numerous points between organized industry and agri- culture, between heavy and light industry, between industrial and financial interests. See Daniel Gu^rin, Fascism and Big Business (New York, 1939), for a discussion (very inadequate) of the conflict of interests between the Banca Commerciale Italiana, representing light industry, and the Banca Italiana di Sconto, representing heavy industry, in the early days of the Fascist dictatorship. See also Rossi, The Rise of Italian Fascism.
? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
75
zione. ' " And they cite a dictionary definition of the word "guild" which terms it "a corporation or association of persons engaged in kindred pursuits for mutual protection and aid. " If then, you "ex- tend this definition to a whole nation of producers . . . you have a fairly adequate conception of Italian guild economy. " *^
"An Outline Study" of "The Organization of Production and the Syndical Corporative System," especially prepared for the American public by the official New York representative of the Italian propa- ganda ministry, makes much the same point. Finding a "general identity of motive and a somewhat similar process of development among all associations of producers from the dawn of history down to our modern age," the writer, significantly enough, traces the rise of ideas and elements leading to and incorporated in Italian Fascism from most ancient times through associations fixed in social status, occupationally circumscribed, self-contained, and exclusive, and making for "harmony" in society. The associations succeed in this by virtue of the subjection of their members to a regime of class stratification, characterized by relative vertical immobility, and rigorously controlled from above by a self-appointed and cooptative "elite. " Governance proceeds via the instrumentalities of hierarchi- cal privilege and prerogative provided by the political apparatus and is exercised "authoritatively" (antidemocratically) over such occupationally organized servile and semiservile strata below. *^
Direct precedents are traced to the Papal Encyclicals of Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo AnnOj to the earlier organizations of labor and capital which preceded these, and to the model of D'Annunzio's "10 corporations of producers"; in its turn, D'An- nunzio's model was adapted from the Quadragesimo AnnOj in terms of the "integral syndicalism" advocated by the Rerum Novarum.
45 Fascist Era, Year XVII, p. 33.
46 China: "Corporative life has always been the cornerstone of the static civiliza- tion of China. " Its universal system of "organized groups of producers" was on a "voluntary," "caste" footing which "combined Church, school, court and town-hall of occidental communities" and which was characterized by "absence of sharp fric- tion between the employer and the employee. " India: "Division of labor has also been the keystone of society" practicing "rigid separation of groups from a social and religious standpoint. " Egypt: had a "system of organized and coordinated labor" with "privileged classes" and "state controlled corporations," etc. The Near East, ancient Rome and the medieval guilds: the latter are termed "functional democra- cies," an idea which may have led to the description of Fascism by the engaging expression "authoritarian democracy. " See The Organization of Production and the
? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
In the evolution of Fascist corporative ideas, the exact role of the Fiume programs, known as the "Carta del Quarnaro," is not clear. Announced in a burst of lyric enthusiasm as the Constitution of the Free State of Fiume by the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, Sep- tember 8, 1920, it proposed to do away with all past parliamentary institutions and the old state bureaucracy and to substitute for the "citizen" the "producer. " All former state functions were to be decentralized and managed by ten compulsory but "autonomous" (self-governed) corporations of producers, divided along parallel lines by employer and employee interests and grouped according to major occupational interests. ^^ Property was not to be abolished but capitalists were to become "wise leaders seeking to further the in- terests of their company" *^ according to the principle that the "sole
Syndical Corporative System (Italian Library of Information, New York, 1941), and Fascist Era, p. 32.
47 According to Article 19 of the Carta del Quarnaro, the corporations or guilds were to be constituted as follows:
"In the first guild are enrolled the salaried workmen in industry, agriculture, commerce, and transportation; and the artisans and small proprietors who perform their own rural task or who have a few casual helpers.
"The second Guild comprises the technical and executive staff of every private industrial and rural establishment, excluding the proprietors themselves.
"In the third are enrolled all those attached to commercial establishments, who are not strictly workmen; and in this too joint-proprietors are excluded.
"The fourth Guild unites the promoters of industry, agriculture, commerce, and transportation, provided they are not merely proprietors, but according to the spirit of the new laws, wise leaders seeking to further the interests of their company.
"The fifth is composed of all public, communal, and civil employees of all ranks.
"The sixth comprises the intellect of the land: the young student body and its in- structors; teachers in the public school and students in the higher institutions, sculp- tors, painters, decorators, architects, musicians, and all those who carry on the fine arts, scenic arts, and decorative arts.
"In the seventh are enrolled all those who practice professions of their own choice which have not been included in the preceding classifications.
"The eighth is composed of cooperative societies in production, labor consump- tion, whether industrial or agricultural; and only the executives of these same soci- eties can be represented.
"The ninth comprises all sea-faring people.
"The tenth has neither art, nor number, nor title. Its coming is expected like that of the tenth Muse. It is reserved to the mysterious forces of the people consecrated to the unknown genius, to the apparition of the new man, to the ideal transfigura- tion of labor and time, to the complete liberation of the spirit over pain and agony, over blood and sweat. It is represented, in the civic sanctuary, by a burning torch upon which is inscribed an old Tuscan work of the time of Communes, a remarkable allusion to a spiritualized form of human labor: Fatica Senza Fatica [Toil without Toil]. " From a mimeographed translation in the library of the Casa Italiana, Co- lumbia University.
48 Idem.
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? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
lawful claim to dominion over any means of production and ex- change is labor. Labor alone is master of the thing made most advan- tageous and more profitable to general economy. " *^ The state was not to intervene in the internal life of the corporations so long as relations within and amongst the corporations were felicitous and peaceful.
Two fundamental ideas underlie the Fascist redaction of ideas borrowed from these sources. First is the conception that readers of an historical turn of mind will recall underlay the attempt of Col- bert, the great French mercantilist, to smash feudal localization and trade restrictions by (a) generalizing the structure of guild controls so that they would not serve as barriers between different sections of the country, but would become coextensive with the national do- main, and by (b) endowing such expanded trade organizations, either as a whole or segmentally by concerns or groups, with mercan- tilistic prerogatives of regulated self-governance and monopolistic privilege. ^^ For the medieval guilds in the Colbertian effort, sub- stitute the preceding organizations of business and labor in the Fascist system. The Fascist systematization of the whole of the ma- chinery taken over along definite model and hierarchical lines is thus seen to represent peculiarities of organizational procedure, and not differences of theory.
In the second place, the Fascist innovations centered around the plan to expand the structure of controls of the legal business cor- poration to the whole of the associations and federations with which such corporations were associated; this was to be done, how- ever, without at the same time endowing the parallel organizations of labor with power to counteract the expanded controls--^which, of course, would have defeated the main purpose. Under the old regime, the individual corporation possessed, wherever it was free to act as it desired, a system of rigorous and thoroughly despotic controls over policy formation and execution. Outside of the in- dividual corporation and amongst corporations of like business interests, power shaded off into a loose penumbra of more or less unenforceable ''communities of interests. " The Fascists sought to substitute in place of the penumbra the more compact, "dense,"
49 Ibid. , Article 9.
50 See Eli Heckscher, Mercantilism (London, 1935).
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? THE FASCIST SYSTEM
and imperative regime of command and subordination of the busi- ness corporation.
This regime was to relate to the whole range of economic and social issues which concerned the conduct of economic activity. It had to do, in other words, with prices, production, markets, cost systems, plant expansion, taxation, subsidies and subventions, tar- iffs, and the rest, as well as with labor problems. But if extension of the characteristic internal regime of the business corporation to the whole of each trade or industry or "category" or "cycle of production," was to be carried through, what was to become of the trade unions? Were these, in compliance with the first concep- tion, to be expanded parallel with the employers' associations? And if so, how reconcile the new set-up with the second con- ception?
The answer was found in taking the form of the first and the essence of the second. More simply, the powers of the business cor- poration were expanded to cover the entire industry, and the trade unions, now deprived of all power of independent action, were forthwith expanded into all-exclusive bodies under the au- thority of a central administration, which was sympathetic with and closely allied in aims, programs, and point of view with the business interests--if it was not at times and places, as some critics aver, wholly dominated by these interests.