EMILIA AND TUSCANY: THE LIMITS OF TUSCAN POPULISM

The fascist movement in the Tuscan countryside began as an instrument of class repression organized by the large landowners. From the early weeks of 1921 the agrari unleashed a violent civil war against the union and political organizations of their tenants. Throughout the spring and summer the eight provinces witnessed an unending succession of raids by fascist squads against town halls with recently seated socialist councils; against the branches of the socialist and popular parties; against the offices of the subversive press; and against the homes of union officials. Activists were harassed, assaulted, and murdered. When resistance was offered, whole villages were plundered and set aflame.

That the sheer violence of the fascist onslaught was a major factor in its success is obvious. The use of terror was pervasive, systematic, and well organized. Socialist mayors and town councillors resigned their posts. Union leaders went into exile or fell silent. Opposition newspapers closed down. Individual members of the socialist and Popular organizations abandoned the cause, even accepting instead membership in the new fascist unions as the only guarantee of physical security. In Tuscany in particular we must not understate the efficacy of the fascist ‘redemption’ administered at night with the pistol, the cudgel, and the flaming torch, for the region achieved a sad national primacy in counter-revolutionary terror.