Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)Mussolini, Benito
History
Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)
Mussolini, Benito
Fascism -- Italy; Italy -- Politics and government -- 1914-1945; Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945; Partito nazionale fascista (Italy)
I do not know for how long these elements who wish to collaborate
legally with the National Government can still remain united with your
party, together with those who would wish to do so but cannot, because
their inmost feelings do not allow them this step and this
collaboration. You certainly know me well enough to understand that, as
far as political discussion goes, I am intransigent. The small fry of
the two-fifths and of the three-quarters or some other fraction of this
electoral arithmetic does not interest nor concern me. Politics cannot
be compared to a retail business. (Assent and comment.) To be or not to
be! I am such a poor electoralist that I could even let you have the
thirty or forty deputies who satisfy you; but I do not give them to you,
as this would be immoral, because it would represent a transaction which
must be repugnant to your conscience, as it is to mine. (Assent and
comment.) In fact, I cannot accept a kind of Malthusian collaboration!
(Laughter and approval.)
_The Russian and the Italian Revolutions both tend to overcome all
Ideologies._ The speech delivered by the Hon. Labriola was certainly
powerful. He said that Ministerial crises are a substitute for
revolution. He should have said “Ersatz,” because substitutes, since
the war, are of German origin. That is too like the opinion of a
herbalist to be accepted. It may be that the want of Ministerial
crises leads to revolution, but here you have an example that shows
how excessive Ministerial crises lead also to revolution. But, above
all, it astounded me to hear the Hon. Labriola still employ the old
vocabulary of second-class Socialist literature, speaking of
bourgeoisie and proletariat—two entities clearly defined and
perpetually in a state of antagonism. It is certainly true that there
is not one bourgeoisie, but there are, perhaps, twenty-four or
forty-eight bourgeoisies and under-bourgeoisies. The same can be said
of the proletariat. What relation can there be between a workman of
the “Fiat” factory—specialised, refined, with tendencies and tastes
already bourgeois, who earns thirty to fifty lire a day—what relation
can there be between this so-called proletarian and the poor peasant
of Southern Italy, who despairingly scrapes his land burnt by the sun?
(Assent and comments.)
The Hon. Labriola has said that only the proletariat can give itself the
luxury of a dictatorship. This is a mistake which is proved and can be
proved. The only example of dictatorship is offered us by Russia. But
the Hon. Labriola has written dozens of articles to prove that
dictatorship does not exist in Russia and that dictatorship is not “of”
but “upon” the proletariat. All those who govern the Russian States are
professors, lawyers, economists, literary men, men of talent; that is to
say, men coming from the professional classes, from the bourgeoisie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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