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Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... 1978), p. 962. The federazione (also called Federconsorzi) was a central organization of farmers who united on a local basis in order to purchase the technical means necessary to agricultural work. It mostly represented the middle classes. 9. Alessandra Staderini and Mario Toscano, "La campagna tra relata' e propaganda," in L'economia italiana tra le due guerre 1919-1939 (Rome: Comune di Roma, 1984), p. 202. 10. Edward Tannenbaum, The Fascist Experience: Italian Society and Culture 1922-1945 (New York: Basic Books, 1972), p. 95. 11. D. Preti writes: "While the Battle of Wheat had an impact in terms of research for intensifying production in the agrarian areas that were the most developed from the capitalistic point of view, in the agronomically weaker and socially more backward areas of the South it ended up precluding to those areas that were especially poor in organic substances the possibility of wealth that could only come from manure" (cited in Corni, op. cit., p. 407). 12. Valerio Castronovo, "La politica economica del fascismo e il Mezzogiorno," Studi Storici , vol. XVII, no. 3 (1976), pp. 25-39. 13. Corni, op. cit., p. 407. 14. Tannenbaum, op. cit., p. 95. 15. Castronovo, op. cit., p. 33. Castronovo argues that fascism's economic politics basically favored the North. On the relation between fascism and economy, see also Paul Corner, "Fascist Agrarian Policy and the Italian Economy in the Interwar Years," in John A. Davies, ed., Gramsci and Italy's Passive Revolution (London: Barnes and Noble, 1979). 16. See Cesare Longobardi, Land-Reclamation in Italy: Rural Revival in the Building of a Nation (London: P.S. King and Son, Ltd., 1936), p. 40. 17. Staderini, "La politica cerealicola," op. cit., p. 1044. 18. Philip Cannistraro, La fabbrica del consenso: Fascismo e mass media (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1975), p. 278. 19. Maranesi was the president of the Organizzazione Nazionale Combattenti (ONC), an organization founded in 1917 to help the soldiers of World War I readjust to civilian life. See his letter to Mussolini announcing the publication of the Agrarian Collection, Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Segreteria Particolare del Duce, Carteggio Ordinario, 1922-43, fasc. 509.742. The publication of these specialized collane seems to indicate that the regime's audience was cultivated and educated. The regime in this case addressed agrarian middle classes and not the bulk of the rural population, among whom illiteracy was still rampant. 20. See photos no. 227 and no. 237 for the 1929 event in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Fototeca, Ufficio Propaganda, Foto attivita' del Duce, Busta 5. Mussolini presented his plan for autotreni at the November 15, 1929, meeting of the Permanent Committee of Wheat. See Opera Omnia , vol. XXIV, pp. 167-168. 21. Staderini, "La politica cerealicola," op. cit., p. 1071, note 126. 22. For official photographs see photo no. 1146 for 1929, no. 734 for 1931, and no. 693 for 1932 in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Fototeca, Ufficio Propaganda, Foto attività del Duce, Buste 4, 7, 9. 23. Issue of July 11, 1926. 24. Issue of October 24, 1926. 25. See Mussolini's inaugurating speech in Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, pp. 31-36. 26. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Segreteria Particolare del Duce, Carteggio Ordinario, fasc. 509.828/1. 27. On the reclamation of the Pontine Ager see Riccardo Mariani, Fascismo e citta' nuove (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1976), and Diane Ghirardo, Building New Communities: New Deal America and Fascist Italy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). 28. The law of December 24, 1928 (no. 3134) on integral land reclamation stated that it "not only deals with marshlands but it also aims at the intensification of agrarian production in the whole kingdom" (Archivio Centrale dello Stato, La legislazione fascista 1922-1928 [I-VII], Legislatura XXVII, vol. II). 29. Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce, 1933-391. Also see Cinegiornale 1932-1028 (silent) in Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce. 30. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Fototeca, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Ufficio Propaganda, Foto attività del Duce, Busta 13, 61359-61677, 61394. 31. Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce. Also see Cinegiornali 1933-317; 1935-707. 32. Staderini, "La politica cerealicola," op. cit. For a different interpretation of the relation between fascism and industry, see Piero Melograni, Gli industriali e Mussolini: Rapporti tra Confindustria e fascismo dal 1919 al 1929 (Milan: Longanesi, 1972). Melograni argues that fascism did not help the industry. 33. Anna Treves, Le migrazioni interne nell'Italia fascista: Politica e realta' demografica (Turin: Einaudi, 1976). 34. On fascism's agrarian politics, also see Giuseppe Tattara, "Cerealicoltura e politica agraria durante il fascismo," in Gianni Toniolo, L'economia italiana, 1861-1940 (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1978). 35. Alberto Cadeddu, Stefano Lepre, and Francesca Socrate, "Ristagno e sviluppo nel settore agricolo italiano (1918-1939)," Quaderni Storici , nos. 29/30 (May-December 1975), p. 505. Also see Corni, op. cit., and Jon S. Cohen, "La rivalutazione della lira del 1927: uno studio sulla politica economica fascista," in Toniolo, op. cit. 36. Staderini, "La Federazione Italiana dei Consorzi Agrari," op. cit. 37. Corni, op. cit., p. 416. 38. The agricultural issue in the fascist context also needs to be analyzed within a complex set of economic relations both within Italy and in the international arena. 39. Staderini, "La politica cerealicola," op. cit., p. 1071, note 126. 40. Opera Omnia , vol. XXIII, p. 343. 41. Scritti e discorsi , vol. V, p. 124. 42. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, p. 262. 43. Ibid., p. 42. 44. Ibid. For other measures the regime took on the matter of reproduction, see David Horn, Social Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). 45. See, among others, Scritti e discorsi , vol. VII, pp. 14-15: "People rise when they are numerous" (March 10, 1929). Also see vol. VIII, p. 234: "One needs to be strong first numerically, since if cradles are empty, the nation becomes old and decays" (August 24, 1933). And vol. IX, p. 40: "Irreplaceable condition of supremacy is numerical growth" (March 18, 1934). 146 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... A theory on the demographic occupation of territories was developed by the nationalist Enrico Corradini at the Florence Congress of 1910. Corradini turned the question of emigration from a humiliating issue for Italy into a potential element for colonial development, a positive factor in imperialist struggles. After the Libyan war of 1911, which gave Italy her first colonial success, several political groups, also from among the social-democrats, considered Italy's expansion an expression of "healthy imperialism." The conquest of foreign territories was interpreted as an effective answer to the agricultural population's need for expansion, especially those from the South, who were otherwise forced to emigrate. Libya came to be conceived as a "populating colony" ( colonia di popolamento ), and her economic organization was supposed to preserve the agricultural interests of the southerners. See Luigi Goglia and Fabio Grassi, Il colonialismo italiano da Adua all'impero (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1981). 46. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, pp. 43-44, 45-46. 47. See Mussolini's speech to rural workers of October 26, 1935, in which he affirmed that fascism had sympathy for the 24 million peasants because from them "came and will come the million infantry soldiers, necessary when the moment comes, to defend the legitimate interests of the Nation" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. IX, p. 222). 48. In its original German version Korherr's book had been prefaced with an essay by Oswald Spengler. 49. Opera Omnia , vol. XXIII, pp. 209-210. 50. Ibid., p. 216. 51. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, p. 45. 52. Scritti e discorsi , vol. V, p. 433. 53. Opera Omnia , vol. XXI, p. 356. 54. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, p. 259. 55. "I prefer those who work hard, straight, a lot, in obedience and, possibly, in silence. To this last category, the true, authentic rurali of the Italian Nation belong" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. V. p. 430 [October 10, 1926]). He repeated this concept in Pole-sine on December 15, 1926: "Among all the workers, the most noble and disciplined are the workers of land" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. V, p. 474). On December 8, 1929, he told farmers: "The [rural] army is immense, ordered, disciplined, faithful" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. VII, p. 172). 56. Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce, 1933-312. Mussolini had pronounced the sentence "The war we prefer" in his speech of December 19, 1932, for the foundation of Littoria ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. VIII, p. 148). 57. Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce, Cinegiornale 1933-207. 58. The slogan was drawn from Mussolini's speech of December 16, 1934, pronounced for the inauguration of the Province of Littoria in the Pontine Ager. See Scritti e discorsi , vol. IX, p. 154. The speech was recorded in the Cinegiornale 1934-595, in Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce. 59. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, p. 36. 60. Scritti e discorsi , vol. IV, p. 295. 61. Scritti e discorsi , vol. III, p. 51 (speech of January 28, 1923, to workers of Poligrafico ). 62. Ibid., p. 108 (speech at the University of Padova of June 1, 1923). 63. Ibid., p. 135. 64. Mussolini wrote on January 1, 1919: "Imperialism is the eternal and immutable law of life. It is after all the need, desire, will of expansion that every individual, every living and vital people ( popolo ) brings within itself" ( Opera Omnia , vol. XII, p. 101). Also see Giorgio Rumi, Alle origini della politica estera fascista (1918-1923) (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1968). 65. See "Dottrina del Fascismo," where Mussolini wrote: "One can think of an empire, i.e. a nation that directly or indirectly leads other nations, without the need to conquer one only square kilometer of territory" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. VIII, p. 88). 66. Mussolini contrasted the mean economic expansion of the British and the brutal territorial conquests of the Germans to Rome's domination in the Mediterranean, which contributed to world civilization and development ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. I, p. 374; vol. II, p. 201). In 1932 Mussolini told Ludwig: "I intend the honor of nations in the contribution they gave to the culture of humanity" (Emil Ludwig, Colloqui con Mussolini [Milan: Mondadori, 1932], p. 199). 67. Scritti e discorsi , vol. I, p. 374. 68. See for example Scritti e discorsi , vol. II, pp. 22, 32. 69. Article of April 20, 1919, in Il Popolo d'Italia , now in Opera Omnia , vol. XIII, p. 72. Also see Giorgio Rumi, "'Revisionismo' fascista ed espansione coloniale (1925-1935)," in Alberto Aquarone and Maurizio Vernassa, eds., Il regime fascista (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1974). 70. Scritti e discorsi , vol. I, p. 374. 71. Ibid., pp. 374-375. 72. Mussolini's considerations on foreign politics reflected the liberal government's approach to the colonial question, whereas both the fascists and the liberals insisted on Italy's right to a powerful position in the world order, and both affirmed the legitimacy of a poor, proletarian country's claims to expansion. See Goglia and Grassi, op. cit. 73. Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). Frye includes melodrama in the romance mode. 74. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, p. 120 (synthesis on internal and foreign politics to the Ministers' Council, December 15, 1927). 75. For a discussion of fascism's foreign politics and its relation to interior politics, see Jens Petersen, "La politica estera del fascismo come problema storiografico," Storia Contemporanea , vol. III, no. 4 (December 1972), pp. 661-705. Petersen, however, tends to underplay the importance of war in fascism's self-definition. 76. Scritti e discorsi , vol. V, pp. 190-191. 77. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VI, p. 283. 78. On March 24, 1924, the fifth anniversary of the fasces' foundation, Mussolini told the Italian mayors convened in Rome: "One does not have the right to believe in humanitarian, peaceful ideologies. They are very beautiful, you see, in theory. They are magnificent, poetic utopias. But the factual reality admonishes us to be vigilant and to consider the ground of foreign politics as a highly mobile ground" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. IV, p. 72). A few months later, in a June 4, 1924, speech at the Chamber, Mussolini declared: "But one needs to be vigilant. That is why next to a foreign politics of peace—because only peace can allow us to stand up again—we need to keep ready and efficient all our land, sea and air forces" (ibid., p. 173). 147 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
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