THE SYNDICAL AND · CORPORATIVE INSTITUTIONS OF ITALIAN·FASCISM BY G. LOWELL FIELD, M. A. INSTRUCTOR IN·GOVERNMENT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY .• . SUBMITfED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY .. IN THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SciENCE. CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ·NEW ¥0RK 1938 · THE SYNDICAL ·AND. CORPORATIVE INSTITUTIONS OF ITALIAN FASCISM George Lowell Field M.A. INfoTRUCTOR IN GOVERNMENT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY .ao. 4-33 in the "StUdies in History, :Economics [nd Public law'' o:r Columbia University~ SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF .THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JN THE FACULTY OF PoLITICAL SciENCE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK 1938 BY ftiX"IED Dr THE CXJYED SYA'IES OF AVQJCA ACKNOWLEDGMENT FoR useful advice and other assistance in the preparation of this study the author is gratt;ful to Professor Lindsay Rogers, Professor Arthur W . .Macmahon, Dr. Michael T. Florinsky, Professor Herbert W. Schneider, and Professor Schuyler C. Wallace of Columbia University. For his appointment to the Cutting Travelling Fellowship and other fellowships he is obli­ gated to Columbia University. For hospitality and assistance during his residence in Italy he is beholden to persons whose acquaintance he made at that time. · CONTENTS PACE INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 7 PART I . THE DICIAToRSHIP. CHAPTER I The Executive and the Fascist Party • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 19 CHAPTER II The Fascist Parliament. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 29 PART II THE OFFICIAL SYNDICATES CHAPTER III The Legal Position of the Syndicates • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 61 CHAPTER IV The Structure of the Official Syndicates . • • • . • • • • • • • • • • 72 CHAPTER V Syndical Representation . 83 CHAPTER VI Syndical Functions: Collective Labor Contracts ••• CHAPTER VII Syndical Functions: Labor Litigation • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 118 PART III THE CoRPORATIVE INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER VIII The Earlier Corporative Institutions ••••• 137 s 6 CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER IX .Planning the Corporations • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • . • . I 54 CHAPTER X Debate in the National Council of Corporations, , , •• , • , • . I6z CHAPTER XI The Establishment of the Corporations •• , • , , • • • • • • • . I77 CHAPTER XII The Corporations in Operation . , • 194 APPENDIX •••• 205 INDEX •••••• 207 INTRODUCTION ITALIAN FASCISM as a political system is characterized by three groups of special ins~itutions: the first constituting an exceptionally thorough legal embodiment of dictatorial control; the second providing · for state . control o.f. labor relations through governmental syndical bodies. vested with the exclu­ sive legal representation of capital· and labor; and the third involving a less definite control over various economic activi­ ties by governmental bodies known as " corporations ", which in a sense combine the official syndicates of capital and of labor. Continuous debate over the social and economic significance of these institutions has prevailed in foreign countries since the inception of Fascism as a legal regime and even the forms of the Fascist governmental ·agencies have frequently been shrouded in doubt~ In the present study, which is of a tech­ nically political character, no evaluation is attempted of the Fascist social system as an operating whole. Instead attention is here concentrated upon an analysis of the distinctive gov­ ernmental mechanisms of the Fascist state both in their formal public law aspects and also, within the limitations of available material, with respect to their actual functioning. For an under­ standing of these mechanisms in their present form ·a brief initial consideration of the historical development of Fascism has seemed desirable. During and immediately after the World War a large section of the Italian working class belonged to political and labor ·organizations of the Marxian Socialist movement and a con­ siderable iollowing had also been attained by less radical social reformers grouped in the "Popular Party" under the spon­ sorship of the Catholic Church. Throughout the period of the \Vorld \Vat the socialist organizations had consistently opposed Italian participation. The natural opposition of large property holders to these evidences of working class militancy was strengthened by a widespread hostility on the part of middle- 7 8 INTRODUCTION class groups, particularly war-veterans, to the openly inter­ nationalist attitude of the Marxist workers' organizations and to their manifestations of contempt for the symbols of the nation and for its armed forces. In this situation local groups known as fasci di combatti­ mento, "fighting clubs", were widely organized, especially in the northern part of the country, among elements discontented with the prevailing political attitude of the masses and with the consequent loss of prestige and authority on the part of the institutions of the state. These groups appear mainly to have been middle-class in composition but they received finan­ cial support and probably in many localities a certain amount of direction from persons of wealth. The characteristic activities of the early fasci, which were later to coalesce in the Fascist Party, were terroristic excursions against the radical parties and the labor and cooperative organizations. While the general tone of the early Fascist movement was definitely anti-radical, the Milan fascio, founded March 23, 1919, contained in its membership a number of former syn­ dicalist or socialist organizers and politicians, notably its chief spokesman, Benito Mussolini. Through the newspaper Il Po polo d'/talia, which he had owned and edited since 1915, Mussolini had secured a following among radicals who had turned nationalistic and during the war his journal had circulated with semi-official sponsorship among the troops as an antidote to the pacifism of the regular socialistic press, with which he had been formerly associated. In part because of their control of Il Popolo d'Italia and in part through ceaseless political manoeuvring the Milan Fascists were able to gain recognized leadership over the other fasci. As this leadership became more and more assured and as any prospect of winning a significant working class following became less and less a practical possi­ bility, the original vaguely radical program of the Milan group with its declarations for a capital levy and for high inheritance taxation gave place to pronouncements of a nationalistic and INTRODUCTION. 9 chauvinistic character, to denunciations of the current wave of strikes and of the Marxist parties, and to the enunciation of a doctrine of the collaboration of all classes and ·interests in building up the strength and glory of the Italian. nation. Finally in November, I921; the early development of Fascism was completed with the decision of a congress held at Rome and dominated by the Milan ieaders to convert the loose fed­ eration o£ the locaJ fasci ip.to a unified National Fascist Party. By the time Fascism had adopted the form of a political party a veritable civil war had been fought in a multitude of bloody Jocal encounters between the Fascist squads. and the various working class organizations. After the failure of the movement for the occupation and operation of the factories in the Summer of I920, with its consequent disillusionment among the leftist workers, Fascism had been more and more often the victor in the continuous street fighting and riots. In the complicated political situation within and outside of Parliament rapidly changing cabinets refrained from direct intervention in the civil struggle. Thus the Fascist forces came to be regarded by those who feared the consequences of work­ ing class militancy as patriotic defenders of order and of the national tradition in the face of a practical abdication by the official government. Subordinate elements in the state machin­ ery, however, can hardly be considered to have been neutral for the Fascist squads were undoubtedly aided by some of the higher officers of the army and often received the benefit of a deliberateblindness on the part of the police. In the Summer of 1922 the largest political groups in the Chaml:)er wei:e the Socialists, mainly from Northern Italy, and the Catholic " Popular Party " chiefly elected from the South, while the remaining seats together amounting to about half of the Chamber were mostly occupied by various liberal and middle-class groups. Any lasting coalition would have had to include more than one of the three main groups and since that was impossible cabinets of little prestige came and went, pre- IO INTRODUCTION senting a picture of ineffectuality that was seized upon and capitalized by the Fascists and by the Nationalist Party, an openly conservative group, which now came to align itself with them. Continued absence of stable control over the govern­ mental machinery made it possible for the Fascist squads in the early Autumn of 1922 to transform their strike-breaking guards at the various railroad stations and telegraph offices into what amounted to forces of occupation and by the month of October even to take a similar practical control over the police headquarters and prefectures throughout much of Northern Italy and in some of the Southern cities. On October 24 a Congress of the Fascist Party met at Naples and openly discussed the seizure of power. Armed Party squads then began to assemble near Rome and Mussolini announced a prospective march against the capital. In the meantime the ministry headed by Facta had resigned