THE ATTITUDE OF FASCISMO TOWARDS COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM Same speech delivered in the Chamber, 21st June 1921. _Hon. Mussolini._ I do not wish to enlarge upon the question of foreign policy, as I should then find myself out in the open, and I might ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs what Italy’s position exactly is in the face of the formidable conflicts which loom upon the horizon of international politics. While Count Sforza is at the head of Foreign Affairs in Giolitti’s Cabinet, we Fascisti cannot but find ourselves among the opposition. (Comments.) I shall pass now to an examination of the position of Fascismo with regard to the various parties—(Signs of attention.)—and I shall begin with the Communists. Communism, the Hon. Graziadei teaches me, springs up in times of misery and despair. When the total sum of the wealth of the world is much reduced, the first idea that enters men’s minds is to put it all together so that everyone may have a little. But this is only the first phase of Communism, the phase of consumption. Afterwards comes the phase of production, which is very much more difficult; so difficult, indeed, that that great and formidable man (not yet legislator) who answers to the name of Wladimiro Ulianoff Lenin, when he came to shaping human material, became aware that it was a good deal harder than bronze or marble. (Approval and comments.) I know the Communists. I know them, because a great many of them are my sons—I mean, of course, spiritually—(Laughter.)—and I recognise with a sincerity that might appear cynical, that it was I who first inoculated these people, when I put into circulation among the Italian Socialists a little Bergson mingled with much Blanqui. There is a philosopher[10] sitting among the Ministers who certainly teaches me that the neo-spiritualistic philosophies continually oscillating between the metaphysical and the lyrical are very dangerous for small minds. (Laughter.) The neo-spiritualistic philosophies are like oysters—they are palatable, but they have to be digested. (Laughter.) Footnote 10: Benedetto Croce, Minister of Public Instruction. These, my friends or enemies.... (Voices from the Extreme Left: “Enemies, enemies!”) _Mussolini._ Very well, then—enemies, swallowed Bergson when they were twenty-five and have not digested him at thirty. I am very surprised to see among the Communists an economist of the standing of Antonio Graziadei, with whom I had great battles when he was a reformer and had thrown aside Marx and his doctrines. While the Communists speak of the dictatorship of the proletariat, of republics more or less united with the Soviet, and other far-fetched absurdities of that kind, between them and us there cannot be other than war. (Interruptions from the Extreme Left. Comments.)