Nowadays, when "fascism" is mentioned, everyone hates it deeply and hates it to the core. It is always associated with domestic autocratic dictatorship, bloody suppression, and external crazy aggression and cruel plunder. In fact, the meaning of the word "fascism" has evolved several times from its emergence to 1922, when the fascist regime was first established in Italy.
The word "fascist" first appeared in the ancient Roman period and was transliterated from the Latin "fasces". When nobles traveled, the servants held up a bunch of sticks with an ax stuck in the middle, which was called "fascist". It symbolizes the right to flog or execute those who violate their will. When Mussolini first organized and promoted the fascist movement, he named it "fascio", which originally meant "association" and "alliance". Later, in order to show his power, Mussolini He Weiwei insists that "fascio" is "fasces", and the "National Fascist Party" is indeed renamed from the organization named after "fascio", so people usually translate "fascio" as "fascist"
However, when Mussolini initially advocated the fascist movement, he did not take the word "Fasces" from the Latin word, but the Italian word "Fascio", which means "association" or "association" in Italian. "Alliance" and "Gang". The Italian "UTET Encyclopedia" published in 1970 explained "Fascio" as referring to "a number of forces that are roughly the same in nature from the perspective of ideology and discipline, in order to achieve ** *Unite with a common goal"[i]. In fact, at the end of the last century, the emerging Italian working class was influenced by the new socialist ideas and organized themselves one after another. The workers' organizations established in some places were based on " Some of them were named "Fascist" (Fasico)[ii]. Among them, the most influential one was the Sicilian "Worker Fascist" founded in 1890 by sulfur mine miners, factory workers and farmers in Sicily Fascio Dei Lavoratori). After the organization was established, it put forward a revolutionary program that reflected the demands of workers and peasants, including the abolition of exorbitant taxes, improvement of labor conditions, and opposition to capitalist occupation of farmland. It was very attractive to workers, farmers, and other petty bourgeois elements. As a result, it developed rapidly, with more than 300,000 members. Although the Sicilian "Labor Fascist" was forced to disband due to brutal suppression by the government, it has had a profound influence throughout Italy. " became synonymous with revolution. After the outbreak of World War I in the autumn of 1914, various political forces in Italy launched a fierce struggle around the issue of participation in the war and neutrality. On October 5, Milan trade union leader Di Zio, who advocated participation in the war, · Ten people including Bacci, syndicalist leader Michele Bianchi and reactionary nationalist Cesare Rossi established the first fascist group in Milan that claimed to be "socialist"[iii] The organization "International Action Revolutionary Fascism" issued a manifesto calling on the masses to join the war. On January 1, 1915, Mussolini changed its name to "Revolutionary Intervention Fascism". At that time, Mussolini had just left the Socialist Party. His thoughts and activities were still in the socialist and communist stage, and he still regarded himself as a "left" leader of the Socialist Party. Therefore, it was easy for him to imitate the Sicilian workers. Fascist approach. However, the revolutionary intervention fascism ceased in name only when Mussolini was drafted into the army in August 1915. After the end of World War I, Mussolini gathered a group of veterans and other petty bourgeois elements and established a new organization in Milan on March 23, 1919, still named after "Fascism" and called "Fighting" Italian Fascism”. It should be said that at this time he still wanted to win over the workers and peasants and regain the support of the majority of members of the Socialist Party in the name of "fascist" revolution. [iv] This is evidenced by the first political statements and manifestos of fighting Italian fascism. However, after the fighting fascists suffered a disastrous defeat in the general election in November 1919, Mussolini "abandoned his socialist tone" and began to combine with the landlords and the bourgeoisie to establish widespread fascist armed action groups in urban and rural areas and carry out large-scale uprisings. Violent terrorist activities have become a tool used by the ruling class to suppress the revolutionary movement of workers and peasants. The meaning of the word "fascism" has undergone a qualitative change, and people compare it with castor oil and big sticks.
Subsequently, with the support and connivance of the landlords and bourgeoisie, the fighting fascists developed extremely rapidly. By the spring of 1912, they had developed into a political force capable of controlling the situation in Italy. Mussolini officially declared in the Italian Parliament that fascism and communism were enemies. [v] After that, he began to dream of restoring the hegemony of the ancient Roman Empire, and traced the origin of the word "fascism" back to the ancient Roman era. As mentioned above, in the ancient Roman period, "fascism" was a kind of The special sign is in the shape of a bundle of neatly shaved round sticks of the same thickness and length, with an ax inserted in the middle and tied tightly with a red rope. Mussolini believed that the "rod bundle" symbol could not only instill the militant spirit of the ancient Roman Empire into fascists, but also illustrate that fascism was a whole of life, death and violence. It emphasizes "consistency" and "discipline". Anyone who is inconsistent or violates discipline will be immediately punished. Mussolini's purpose was to take advantage of the widespread nationalism and the strong nostalgia for ancient Rome that emerged in Italy after World War I to strengthen his power and status within the fascist movement and promote it externally in the future. The policy of aggression and the imposition of an anti-democratic dictatorship in Italy sought historical and theoretical justification. On November 7, 1921, Mussolini held the Third National Congress of the Fighting Italian Fascists in Rome, officially changing its name to the "National Fascist Party" and setting the "rod bundle" as the party emblem[vi]. Rini himself was elected "leader". "Leader" became a synonym for Mussolini. This not only laid the foundation for Mussolini to implement dictatorship in Italy after the establishment of the fascist regime, but also made him one of the culprits in World War II. "Fascism" has become a synonym for the "very reactionary, extremely chauvinistic and most aggressive" authoritarian dictatorship that has been notorious for thousands of years.