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LIST OF WARS: DETAILS

Blackshirts vs Leftists

Years: 1920-1922
Battle deaths: 3,300 [1]

Nation(s) involved and/or conflict territory [note]
Italy

Published: 2013-08-01 13:54:22 | Updated: 2013-08-14 23:56:54
In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the first "Italian Combat League" (Fasci Italiani di Combattimento) at the beginning of the "two red years" (biennio rosso). He suffered a defeat in the election of November 1919. But, by the election of 1921, Mussolini gained entrance to Parliament.

Out of his "Fascist" party the "Blackshirts" (Squadristi) were formed. In August 1920, the Blackshirts were used to break the general strike which had started at the Alfa Romeo factory in Milan. In November 1920, after the assassination of Giordana (a right-wing municipal counsellor in Bologna), the Blackshirts were used as a repression tool by the state[citation needed] to crush the socialist movement (which included a strong anarcho-syndicalist component), especially in the Po Valley.

Trade unions were dissolved while left-wing mayors resigned. The fascists, included on Giovanni Giolitti’s "National Union" lists at the May 1921 elections, then won 36 seats. Mussolini then withdrew his support to Giolitti and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the socialists by signing a "Pacification Pact" in summer 1921. This provoked a conflict with the most fanatical part of the movement, the "Squadristi" and their leaders the "Ras." In July 1921, Giolitti attempted without success to dissolve the squadristi. The contract with the socialists was then broken at its turn in November 1921, Mussolini adopted a nationalist program and founded the National Fascist Party, which boasted 700,000 members in July 1922. In August, an anti-fascist general strike was triggered, but failed to rally the Italian People’s Party (Partito Popolare Italiano) and was repressed by the fascists.

Source: Wikipedia, published under the GNU FDL. Retrieved 2013-08-14

SOURCES: FATALITY DATA

Notes on fatalities

[1] Battle deaths: Correlates of War, Intra-State War Data v4.1

More about sources

NOTE ON NATION DATA

NOTE! Nation data for this war may be inconlusive or incomplete. In most cases it reflects which nations were involved with troops in this war, but in some it may instead reflect the contested territory.

 

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