Fascist Rulers

"[Marx was] the magnificent philosopher of working class violence."

"In the whole negative part, we are alike. We and the Russians are against liberals, against democrats, against parliament."

"The socialist revolution was a pure and simple question of ‘force.’… Between the [bourgeoisie and the proletariat] no accord is possible. One must disappear. The weaker will be ‘eliminated.’ The class struggle is therefore a question of ‘force.’"

"The outbreak of a socialist revolution in one country will cause the others to imitate it or so to strengthen the proletariat as to prevent its national bourgeoisie from attempting any armed intervention."

"With the unleashing of a mighty clash of peoples, the bourgeoisie is playing its last card and calls forth on the world scene that which Karl Marx called the sixth great power: the socialist revolution."

"Men do not move mountains; it is only necessary to create the illusion that mountains move."

"The Socialists ask what is our program? Our program is to smash the heads of the Socialists."

"Believe, obey, fight."

"The struggle between the two worlds [Fascism and Democracy] can permit no compromises. The new cycle which begins with the ninth year of the Fascist regime places the alternative in even greater relief — either we or they, either their ideas or ours, either our State or theirs!"

"Fortunately the Italian people has not yet accustomed itself to eat many times a day, and possessing a modest level of living, it feels deficiency and suffering less."

"I am making superhuman efforts to educate this people. When they have learnt to obey, they will believe what I tell them."

"I bequeath the republic to the republicans and not to the monarchists, and the work of social reform to the socialist and not to the middle class."

"For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes."

"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day."

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."

"It may be expected that this will be a century of authority, a century of the Left, a century of Fascism."

"The best blood will at some time get into a fool or a mosquito."

"If I advance; follow me! If I retreat; kill me! If I die; avenge me!"

"He never killed anyone, he sent people on holiday to confine them."

"Obviously the government of [Mussolini's] time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it … The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well."

"Stalin will never make socialism; rather Mussolini will."

"Mussolini was the son of a blacksmith, Hitler was the son of a house painter and I am the son of a miller."

"Long live Mussolini! Long live socialism!"

"Which European politician of the first half of the twentieth century could be relied on to read the philosophical and literary works of his co-nationals and send their authors notes of criticism and congratulation? Who, at the time of profound crisis and despite his evident ill health, kept on his desk a copy of the works of Socrates and Plato, annotated in his own hand? Who declared publicly that he loved trees and anxiously quizzed his bureaucracy about storm damage to the environment? Who, in his table talk while he was entrenched in power, was fascinated by the task of tracing his intellectual antecedents?... Who seemed almost always ready to grant an interview and, having done so, was especially pleased by the prospect of talking about contemporary political and philosophical ideas? Who left more than 44 volumes of his collected works? Who claimed with an element of truth that money never dirtied his hands? Who could conduct a conversation in three languages apart from his own?... The somewhat surprising answer to all these questions is Benito Mussolini, Duce of Italian Fascism and dictator of Italy from 1922 (or 1925) to 1945 (or 1943)."

"As the elections were being held, he published in Gerarchla a disquisition on Machiavelli. He had, he remarked, just re-read the Florentine writer's corpus, although, he added modestly, he had not fully plumbed the secondary literature in Italy and abroad. Machiavelli's thought was, Mussolini announced, more alive now than ever. His pessimism about human nature was eternal in its acuity. Individuals simply could not be relied on voluntarily to 'obey the law, pay their taxes and serve in war'. No well-ordered society could want the people to be sovereign. Machiavelli’s cynical acumen exposed the fatuity of the dreams of the Enlightenment (and of Mussolini’s own political philosophy before 1914)."

"Los Hitler, los Mussolini.../¡Balas! ¡Balas! ¡Balas! ¡Balas!/Las dos víboras de Europa/que con la muerte se pactan."

"The methods of the Duce are not by any means American methods...[but] methods which would certainly not appeal to this country might easily appeal to a people so differently constituted as are the Italians"

"A modern man may disapprove of some of his sweeping reforms, and approve others; but finds it difficult not to admire even where he does not approve."

"[One of the] leading statesmen in the world."

"What a man! I have lost my heart!... Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world... If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely from the beginning of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passion of Leninism."

"At Easter 1934 we paid a visit to Rome, where I had an interview with the Duce. I was favourably impressed. There were no histrionics, nor was I obliged, as I had been told would happen, to walk the length of a long room from the door to his desk. He met me at the door and accompanied me to it when I left. We agreed on the importance of rearmament and he laughed when I said that the idea that armaments produced war was as foolish as to think that umbrellas produced rain. Because he laughed at my joke I thought he had a sense of humour and was quite prepared to imagine he had other good qualities. It is too early to pronounce a final verdict upon Mussolini. The more I read about him, especially in the pages of Ciano, the less I like him, but no trustworthy biography has yet been written, so that it is wiser to withhold judgment. He is not, like Hitler, condemned out of his own mouth, nor by the notoriety and magnitude of his evil deeds. It may be that he began well and meant well, like so many of the Caesars before him, but that he ended ill as they did owing to the corruption of power."

"Mussolini is a brilliant thinker whose philosophy, though unorthodox, flows out of the true European tradition. If he is a myth-maker, he is, like Plato's guardians, conscious that "the noble lie" is a lie."

"The truth is probably that since Mussolini's own policy is by nature opportunist and agnostic, he finds it quite impossible to believe in the British faith in a new system of international order."

"Mussolini has the mentality of a gangster."

"The luncheon party [on 24 June 1935] was quite a large one, with ladies present. This occasion displayed to me the astonishing contrast between the two Mussolinis. When alone and in serious discussion, the Duce was calm, relaxed and reasonable, at least in my experience. There were no attitudes or airs. But the moment more than two or three were gathered together the man was transformed, jaw thrust out, eyes rolling and popping, figure strutting and attitudinizing. When luncheon was announced, Mussolini made a imperious gesture towards me and marched on. I hung back, English fashion, waiting for the ladies, and the Duce strode in alone."

"The League's withdrawal of sanctions brought hope to many that good relations between Italy and Britain could now be restored. The argument often put to me was that, if we would only make a concession to the Duce, he would reciprocate and our relations would soon mend. I had little confidence that this would be so, for the reasoning appeared to be founded on a misreading of Mussolini's character. To me, he was a tough and clever opportunist, who would rate concessions as weakness and who cared nothing for the principles of the League or for the Stresa front. He would incline to whichever side seemed to offer him the greater advantages. We could not, for moral and practical reasons, enter such a competition or offer him the plunder he sought; therefore Hitler and Mussolini would inevitably be drawn closer together. The Duce had made his choice between African adventure and European stability. He abandoned Austria when he marched against Abyssinia. Despite rumours, Mussolini and I had no personal quarrel and our relations were not a factor in the unfolding of policy on either side."

"The greatest genius of the modern age."

"Benito Mussolini was the first European leader not only to dispense with multi-party democracy but also to proclaim a new fascist regime. A blacksmith's son, a socialist and the author of two crudely anticlerical books, The Cardinal's Mistress and John Huss the Veracious, Mussolini had switched to nationalism even before the Italian Socialists opposed their country's entry into the First World War. The Roman fasces - the bundle of rods of chastisement that symbolized the power of the state - had been adopted by various pro-war groups; it was one of these that Mussolini joined. Here was the formula for fascism: socialism plus nationalism plus war. After a brief and undistinguished period of military service, Mussolini reverted to journalism, his true métier. But his political moment came with peace. Like their counterparts all over Europe, Italy's political establishment felt vulnerable as the Bolshevik contagion swept into the factories of Turin and the villages of the Po Valley. With his flashy charisma, Mussolini offered an echo of Francesco Crispi, the hero of the previous generation of Italian nationalists. With his newly formed Fasci di Combattimento, he offered muscle in the form of gangs of ex-soldiers, the squadristi."

"Even before his distinctly theatrical March on Rome on October 29,1922 - which was more photo-opportunity than coup, since the fascists lacked the capability to seize power by force - Mussolini was invited to form a government by the king, Victor Emmanuel III, who had declined to impose martial law. The old Liberals were confident they could continue business as usual. They underestimated Mussolini's appetite for power; it was entirely in character that at one point he held seven ministerial portfolios as well as the premiership. The press, the only thing he was competent to control, began to promote him as an omnipotent Duce, but behind the surface glamour there was always the threat of violence. Following the murder of the Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti in 1924 (almost certainly ordered by Mussolini) political opposition was suppressed. The likes of the Leninist Antonio Gramsci were consigned to prison. Henceforth, the National Fascist Party brooked no competitors. Newspaper editors were required to be fascists, and teachers to swear an oath of loyalty. Parliament and even trade unions continued to exist, but as sham entities, subordinated to Mussolini's dictatorship."

"Recently the New York Sun reported that when auditors got into the books of Mussolini's treasury, after his fall, they discovered that a large part of his deficit was due to the paying out of huge sums in subsidies to conceal the rise in the cost of living - a plan industriously urged here by the Hansen group and adopted by the President but as yet resisted by Congress."

"To Benito Mussolini, from an old man who greets in the ruler, the Hero of Culture."

"Mussolini rose from humble origins, made a career in journalism and became a persuasive politician. He created the Fascist Party whose violence intimidated the Italian government into making him Prime Minister. He transformed Italy into a one-party dictatorship. He was a master of propaganda, with grandiose ideas derived from the Roman Empire. Mussolini was fatally convinced that he was always right and that Italy was a great military power. He squandered the country's resources on a useless Empire, then blindly followed Adolf Hitler into the war that led him to disaster. After being dismissed from office, he ran a German puppet regime in northern Italy."

"Unfortunately, I am no superman like Mussolini."

"I feel like turning to my American friends and asking them whether they don't think we too need a man like Mussolini."

"For Mussolini, syndicalism was the most modern embodiment of the spirit of Marxist doctrine, which he added to the myths of his Nietzschean aristocratic philosophy to reach a socialism of quality rather than quantity."

"Still, the democratic governments are jabbering about these things, while Germany and Italy continue to pour in thousands of trained soldiers. It should be obvious to the blind that not only Hitler and Mussolini but Mr. Blum and Mr. Baldwin are in league in their intentions to crush the anti-fascist struggle and to drown in the blood of the Spanish people the maginificent beginnings of a new social structure."

"To be sure the Mussolinis and Hitlers are guilty of the same crime. They and their propaganda machines mow down every political opponent in their way. They also have added character assassination to the butchery of their victims."

"Once in power, Mussolini, established the model totalitarian state. Having smashed the organisations of the workers, the way was prepared for a savage attack on the standards of the masses in the interests of Big Business. The main brunt of fascism was borne by the working class, against whom it is aimed above all. With their weapons of struggle broken, with the establishment of scab company unions, the conditions were created to drive down the wages and lower the standards of living of the workers. The Labour unions were crushed. Shop stewards' representation in the factories was abolished. The right to strike ended. All Union contracts were rendered void. The employer reigned supreme in the factories once again. He became at the same tune, the "leader" of his employees. Any attempt to strike, any resistance to the wishes of the employer, was "punished with ferocious, penalties by the State. To challenge the employer was to challenge the full force of the State. In the words of the fascists: strikes are crimes "against the social community"."

"Whatever one thinks of his Marxism today, Mussolini was accepted by his socialist peers as a Marxist theoretician. He rose to leadership in the Italian Socialist Party at least in part on the basis of his recognized capacity as a ‘socialist’ intellectual."

"On November 24, 1914, when he was expelled from the Socialist Party, Mussolini insisted that his expulsion could not divest him of his ‘socialist faith.’ He made the subtitle of his new paper, Popolo d’Italia, ‘A Socialist Daily.’ National intervention in the European conflagration was an immediate issue and as a problem it divided socialists, but since most continental socialist parties had opted for war, Mussolini conceived at that time that interventionism was not a commitment sufficient to require the abandonment of socialism."