Are there points of similarity and continuity between the fascist
massacres of 1922, the Nazi-Fascist massacres of 1943-45, and theneo-fascist strategy of tension of the 1970s, culminating in the Bologna
massacre of August 2, 1980, the 45th anniversary of which occurs this
year? Apparently, one might say that the three historical periods are
very different and have no points of contact; by examining certain
dynamics, however, we can observe common traits.
Analyzing 60 years of a nation's history in a magazine article is
obviously not feasible; It is instead advisable to provide some
interpretative keys and then carry out an in-depth analysis of one of
the three identified periods, in this case the first, initial one, on
which the debate has rekindled with the entry into the government team
of figures who, through a partial reading of the facts, intend to carry
out a revisionist operation to justify current authoritarian choices. An
example of such statements is that of the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Edmondo Cirielli, who on 9 December 2024 at the presentation of
Italo Bocchino's book Perché l'Italia è di destra declared: «The deepest
distinctive trait of fascism was an extraordinary spirit of freedom» (1).
In the three identified periods, the massacres are characterised by the
following aspects: the spread of terror for strategic purposes through
the indiscriminate killing of innocent people; the military occupation
of physical spaces with the intent of reaffirming control of the
territory to the population; the misdirection of investigations by
people employed by institutional apparatuses of the State; and the
substantial impunity of many perpetrators of such massacres.
In future issues of the magazine, we will address the two subsequent
periods, examining, after the fascist and terrorist origins of early
fascism discussed in this article, the Nazi-fascist massacres of 1943-45
and the strategy of tension of 1969-1980.
The First Period of Massacres: 1922-1923
For simplicity's sake, we will begin our analysis with the events
following the March on Rome, when Mussolini received the formal mandate
from King Victor Emmanuel III to become Prime Minister and form a
government. An initial reconstruction of that era is attributed to
Giacomo Matteotti, who in 1924 published a chronology of the violent
episodes perpetrated by the Duce's men from November 1922 onward in his
book, "A Year of Fascist Domination." In listing the hundreds of deaths
recorded with tireless and commendable expertise, the Socialist MP does
not mention Rome because his story begins in November, but he describes
the other two massacres. He is unable to identify any common features
between the events.
The three episodes have similar characteristics and have probably never
been studied together. In Parliament, Mussolini presents this historical
phase as a pacification of the civil war of the previous two years,
which had left several thousand dead on the ground (2). On the national
territory, however, the squads continued to rage, killing hundreds of
innocents and occupying the reference points of the "subversives and
opponents": Chambers of Labor, workers' clubs, agricultural
cooperatives, party headquarters, and newspaper offices.
The point on which perhaps the greatest confusion has arisen in these
100 years, for various reasons that I do not intend to analyze in this
article, is the social composition of the victims of the black ferocity:
in the imagination and in the newspapers of the time, the dead were the
"reds" guilty of murders and conspiracies. In reality, the victims came
from various social strata, with differing political and religious
orientations (think of Don Minzoni, killed in July 1923 and a member of
the Popular Party that had supported the government). Many victims were
also picked up at random on the streets, due to mistaken identity or
denunciation. The so-called subversives and opponents lost, in addition
to many militants, strategic positions in terms of local presence and
institutional representation, with the forced dissolution of many city
councils due to resignations. They also lost buildings such as the
People's Houses and the Chambers of Labor. Some of these managed to
organize themselves and launch a primitive clandestine activity that
would explode with participation in the Spanish Civil War and then at
the beginning of the Resistance in Italy in 1943, first with strikes in
factories in Northern Italy and then with the formation of partisan groups.
Rome, October 30, 1922
In the working-class neighborhood of San Lorenzo, a reprisal was
unleashed against the population. Mussolini has just arrived in the city
to receive the mandate from King Victor Emmanuel III to form a
government. The fascist columns should move through the city without a
fight. They should... The story of the San Lorenzo massacre, too often
overlooked by memory, is masterfully illustrated by Gabriele Polo in
Assalto a San Lorenzo (Donzelli Editore, 2024).
The assault was an episode of unprecedented ferocity, violence
"justified" by the conquest of a strategic and symbolic territorial
objective, violence motivated by revenge. This violence was unleashed on
the population guilty of living in the red-light district, home to
socialist, anarchist, and communist circles.
The massacre was carried out by a column from Tuscany, a group that a
year earlier had been repelled by the neighborhood's Arditi del Popolo.
The attack on October 30, 1922, was the fourth fascist squad attack on
San Lorenzo in 16 months. In Turin, the Chamber of Labor was attacked
three times in 18 months, the first on April 26, 1921. The victims in
Rome were courageous workers who fought back, but also unsuspecting
passersby killed in the street and a 38-year-old widow who tried to
protect her son.
This, in effect, is the first example of a massacre under Fascism in
power, which went unpunished by both the judiciary of the Kingdom of
Italy and the Republican one, which did not open an investigation. The
Rome Police Headquarters compiled a total of 17 deaths in the city over
the three days at the end of October.
Gabriele Polo concludes his book with a list of the victims, recalling
the circumstances of their deaths and specifying that some of them were
buried at Verano: these are therefore traceable and irrefutable data.
Turin. From the March on Rome to the massacre of December 1922
On the evening of October 28, several hundred armed Red Guards marched
down Via Pietro Micca and rushed to defend the Chamber of Labor on Corso
G. Ferraris, while the Fascists held a rally in Piazza San Carlo.
Neither side wanted to engage in physical combat on the ground. A few
hours later, on October 30, seeing the weakness of the institutions and
sensing the King's will, the comrades changed strategy: they attacked
and burned the Chamber of Labor. At the same time, a seizure decree led
the Public Security forces to occupy the editorial offices of the
workers' newspaper "Ordine Nuovo" on Via Arcivescovado. The chevaux de
frise in the courtyard and the small arsenal organized to protect
against possible attacks by the Blackshirts were powerless against a
ministerial order. The two buildings symbolic of the Red Biennium were
thus conquered with violence and the complicity of the Monarchy.
Between November 1st and December 18th, union representatives demanded
the reopening of the Chamber of Labor, which had been damaged by the
attack and fire, while the editors of "Ordine Nuovo" demanded the
release of the newspaper's headquarters so they could resume
publication. Despite the blockade, several extraordinary copies printed
with makeshift means were released. These issues remain a symbol of the
strength of the labor movement and the beginning of the anti-fascist
underground in Turin. While many newspapers throughout Italy returned to
newsstands in November, "Ordine Nuovo" remained held hostage by the
police. A new series was subsequently published in Rome in March 1924,
after Antonio Gramsci had just founded the newspaper "l'Unita."
Turin, December 18-20, 1922
Sunday, December 17th, was filled with fascist initiatives in the city
center. A rally was held at the Alfieri Theater, followed by a parade
through the city's main streets. Among the thousand troublemakers were
representatives from Emilia-Romagna and Liguria. Their participation
from outside the region is indicative of provocation and abuse, although
no documents can be found to prove any premeditation. It should be
noted, however, that, by a strange coincidence, the first meeting of the
Grand Council of Fascism was held in Rome on December 15th. Turin's
Quadrumvir De Vecchi attended the meeting, and many changes were decided
upon that were implemented in the following days, such as the creation
of the Volunteer Militia for National Security and the change of police
chiefs in Turin, Cagliari, and Bari.
In the Savoy capital, on the night of the 17th, a double shootout
between fascists and communists at the Barriera di Nizza took the lives
of comrades Bazzani and Dresda. The fascist squad members identified the
communist railway worker Prato as the perpetrator of the two "murders,"
and that night posters announcing the reprisal were posted. There was no
evidence that Prato shot the two fascists; probably, as he himself wrote
from exile in Russia, the tram driver was only involved in the second
nighttime shooting.
The Turin squadrista leader Brandimarte stated in several interviews in
the following days: "Our dead are not mourned, they are avenged... We
have a list of over 3,000 names of subversives. From these, we selected
24 and entrusted their names to our best squads, so that they could
carry out justice. And justice has been done... The missing bodies will
be returned by the Po, if it returns them at all, or they will be found
in the ditches, ravines, or thickets of the hills surrounding Turin.
It is worth remembering that on Brandimarte's list, one of the most
wanted men was none other than Antonio Gramsci, who, being in Russia at
the time on behalf of the Communist Party of Italy (PCdI), was able to
"escape" certain execution.
The logic of 10 deaths for every fascist killed would be the same as the
reprisals carried out by the Nazis after September 8, 1943. For example,
at the Fosse Ardeatine, the number of victims was decided in Germany:
330 prisoners to be executed for every 33 soldiers killed. The field
commanders applied the utmost zeal in counting, and in the end the
victims numbered 335. This number, the ratio of ten people to be killed
for every victim to be avenged, is an incredible and non-trivial element
of continuity that passes through Turin in December 1922, but which had
already had a prologue in the reprisal of Roccastrada (GR) on July 24,
1921 (3): 10 residents killed for a comrade killed in a pickup truck.
The autopsy revealed that the shot pierced the victim's head from the
nape of the neck to the forehead, so the bullet probably came out by
mistake from the weapon of a comrade standing next to him.
Among the 11 official victims of the Turin massacre are two names
well-known among the Turin proletariat: Carlo Berruti, a city councilor
for the PCI, and Pietro Ferrero, anarchist secretary of the Fiom in the
capital.
The former was kidnapped from the State Railways office where he worked.
Taken to the Casa del Fascio for a preliminary identification, he was
eventually transferred to the countryside of Nichelino, where he was
shot in the early afternoon from behind. Berruti was the first victim in
chronological order.
Ferrero was killed late in the evening. Beaten in the morning inside the
Chamber of Labor, he was released with minor injuries. He spent a few
hours wandering around the city center. It is unknown why, in the
evening, he returned to the Chamber of Labor, where he was recognized by
the fascists. Taken back to the occupied building, he was interrogated
and finally executed. Ferrero's body was left nearby under the statue of
King Vittorio Emanuele II. It is clear that this gesture was a tribute
to the King, who had appointed Mussolini head of government,
guaranteeing impunity for the violence committed during those months.
Six of the other nine victims were workers. In some clandestine
commemorative cards, the communists in 1923 designated Ferrero, Berruti,
and these six victims as "our dead." The cards are cited in newspaper
reports of subversives arrested for illegal propaganda. The other three
victims cannot be classified politically. Quintagliè was a colleague of
Berruti's who condemned the barbaric murder; Mazzolla, a shopkeeper at
Barriera di Nizza, perhaps a police signalman, was punished by the
fascists who broke into his shop looking for Prato; and Pochettino, a
craftsman who was likely informed on by an employee he had recently fired.
For this Turin episode, the Gasti-Giunta investigation of January 1923
did not lead to any formal trial of the blackshirt perpetrators,
although it highlighted unjustifiable excesses of violence. Postwar
trials left the perpetrators unpunished. Ultimately, only one person was
convicted in absentia, a certain Macellari, for murder and attempted
murder. Brandimarte, head of the city's squads and coordinator of
fascist operations during the massacre, served a couple of years in
prison before being acquitted due to insufficient evidence and enjoyed a
generous officer's pension until his death in 1971.
He died in a private clinic a few steps from the statue of the King
where Ferrero was laid to rest.
La Spezia, January 22, 1923
The Turin massacre became a model, and in La Spezia, the Blackshirts
once again attacked the defenseless population. The murder of a fascist,
Giovanni Lubrano, prompted a reprisal, the details of which, however,
remained unclear. The murder was likely premeditated by other fascists
according to internal regulations, but the assassins blamed the
"subversives." The number of victims is uncertain: 12 bodies have been
identified, but newspaper reports indicate more. A realistic figure
could be as high as 19 civilians killed.
Hundreds of workers from the Ligurian capital will leave the city with
their families for France, especially Marseille, to work in the
shipyards across the border and escape retaliation. The story of escapes
to France is also common in Turin and throughout Piedmont in the
aftermath of the bloody December. To understand the sense of omnipotence
and immunity guaranteed by state bodies, it's worth recalling Pietro
Nenni's words in "Avanti!" on January 27, 1923, when he attacked the
repressive nature of Mussolini's government, citing La Spezia: "The
killing of a fascist by fascists was avenged with the Turin system of
ten for one, ten lives seized so at random, in the darkness of night,
among people who professed an idea that no longer has the government's
approval and who bear no responsibility, either direct or indirect, for
the crime."
Conclusions
The reprisals in San Lorenzo in Rome, Turin, and La Spezia have never
been studied together. Could analyzing the fascist squads' modus
operandi be a research avenue? Matteotti wasn't able to correlate the
data in 1923, and he doesn't have all the information available now.
Despite this, his book and his other journalistic investigations
resulted in his death sentence.
The uncontrolled violence of the gangs during this period arose from
contradictory impulses: on the one hand, frustration at not yet having
complete control of the territory; on the other, excitement stemming
from the guarantee of impunity. The Kingdom's judiciary, before
gradually becoming a broadcasting body at the service of the
dictatorship from 1925 onwards, could have chosen to defend law and
freedom. Instead, it preferred to turn a blind eye.
Notes:
(1) Luciana Cimino, "Criticism Even from Elon Musk's Staff," "Il
Manifesto," December 10, 2024.
(2) Salvemini estimates that three thousand people died in political
clashes in the country between 1921 and 1922. See Gaetano Salvemini,
"The Origins of Fascism in Italy." Harvard Lectures, Feltrinelli, Milan,
1966.
(3) The Roccastrada (GR) massacre occurred just three days after the
events in Sarzana (SP), when a punitive expedition of Blackshirts from
Tuscany led by Dumini was repelled by the Carabinieri and the
population, resulting in a heavy death toll among the squadristi and the
population. Most likely, the excitement of carrying out the expedition
to Roccastrada and the desire to inflict exemplary punishment on La
Spezia 18 months later stemmed from frustration over the defeat at Sarzana.
In the images: 1. Pietro Ferrero, a mechanical worker at FIAT, a member
of the Italian Anarchist Union and secretary of the FIOM in Turin, a
victim of fascist terrorism in the massacre of December 18-20, 1922; 2.
Turin, December 18-20, 1922, the sites and victims of the fascist massacre.
Giovanni Salierno, a Physics graduate from the University of Turin, has
worked in the metalworking industry for twenty years, specializing in
instrumental metrology. Since 2010, he has been conducting research and
promotion of the memory of the fascist massacres. He has produced
documents and articles on the fascist squadristi episodes of 1922-23 and
the fascist massacre in Turin on December 18-20, 1922, on which he has
organized over fifty educational events.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
_________________________________________
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