7 Benito Mussolini 7teens and worked, often as a schoolmaster, to spread the
party doctrine. The newspaper he founded, La Lotta di
Classe (“The Class Struggle”), won such recognition that in
1912 he was made editor of Avanti! (“Forward!”), the official
socialist daily published in Milan. As its antimilitarist, anti-
nationalist, and anti-imperialist editor, he thunderously
opposed Italy’s intervention in World War I.
Soon, however, he changed his mind about interven-
tion. He began writing articles and making speeches in
favour of war. He resigned from Avanti! and was expelled
from the Socialist Party. He assumed the editorship of Il
Popolo d ’Italia (“The People of Italy”) and served with the
Italian army from 1915 to 1917.
Rise to Power
Wounded while serving with the bersaglieri (a corps of
sharpshooters), he returned home a convinced antiso-
cialist and a man with a sense of destiny. Advocating
government by dictatorship, he formed a political group
in 1919 that marked the beginning of Fascism, fasci di
combattimento (“fighting bands”). It was comprised of
groups of fighters bound together by ties as close as those
that secured the fasces of the lictors—the symbols of
ancient Roman authority. So Fascism was created and its
symbol devised.
Mussolini was a dynamic and captivating orator. At
rallies—surrounded by supporters wearing black shirts—
he caught the imagination of the crowds. His attitudes
were highly theatrical, his opinions were contradictory,
his facts were often wrong, and his attacks were frequently
malicious and misdirected; but his delivery was extraordi-
narily effective.
Fascist squads—militias inspired by Mussolini but often
created by local leaders—swept through the countryside