The Biennio Rosso (English: "Red Biennium" or "Two Red Years") was a two-year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, following the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Brunella Dalla Casa, ''Composizione di classe, rivendicazioni e professionalità nelle lotte del "biennio rosso" a Bologna'', in: AA. VV, ''Bologna 1920; le origini del fascismo'', a cura di Luciano Casali, Cappelli, Bologna 1982, p. 179. The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the fascist

blackshirts The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...

militia and eventually by the

March on Rome The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, ...

of Benito Mussolini in 1922.

Background

The Biennio Rosso took place in a context of economic crisis at the end of the war, with high unemployment and political instability. It was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factories occupations. Tension had been rising since the final years of the war. Some contemporary observers considered Italy to be on the brink of a revolution by the end of 1918.Pelz, ''Against Capitalism''
pp. 126-28
/ref> The population was confronted with rising inflation and a significant increase in the price of basic goods, in a period that extensive unemployment was aggravated by mass demobilization of the Royal Italian Army at the end of the war. Association to the trade unions, the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

(PSI), and the

anarchist movement The history of anarchism is as ambiguous as anarchism itself. Scholars find it hard to define or agree on what anarchism means, which makes outlining its history difficult. There is a range of views on anarchism and its history. Some feel anar ...

increased substantially. The PSI increased its membership to 250,000, and the major Socialist trade union, the General Confederation of Labour (''Confederazione Generale del Lavoro'', CGL), reached two million members, while the anarchist

Italian Syndicalist Union Unione Sindacale Italiana (''USI''; ''Italian Syndicalist Union'' or ''Italian Workers' Union'') is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers' Association (IWA; ''Associazione Internazionale dei Lav ...

(''Unione Sindacale Italiana'', USI) reached between 300,000 and 500,000 affiliates. The vigour of the anarchists was boosted by the return from exile of the anarchist leader Errico Malatesta in December 1919.Biennio Rosso (1919–1920)
in: Ness, Immanuel (2009).
The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest
', Blackwell Publishing,

Events

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, factory councils – which the leading Italian Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci considered to be the Italian equivalent of Russia's sovietsBellamy & Schecter, ''Gramsci and the Italian State''
p. 29
/ref> – were formed and many

factory occupations Occupation of factories is a method of the workers' movement used to prevent lock outs. They may sometimes lead to "recovered factories", in which the workers self-manage the factories. They have been used in many strike actions, including: *t ...

took place under the leadership of revolutionary socialists and

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...

s. The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the Padan plain and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests, and armed conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias. Industrial action and rural unrest increased significantly: there were 1,663 industrial strikes in 1919, compared to 810 in 1913. More than one million industrial workers were involved in 1919, three times the 1913 figure. The trend continued in 1920, which saw 1,881 industrial strikes. Rural strikes also increased substantially, from 97 in 1913 to 189 by 1920, with over a million peasants taking action.Gramsci: the Turin years
by Megan Trudell, International Socialism No. 114, April 2007Neufeld, ''Italy: school for awakening countries'', p. 547 On July 20–21, 1919, a general strike was called in solidarity with the Russian Revolution.1918-1921: The Italian factory occupations and Biennio Rosso
at libcom.org In April 1920, Turin metal-workers, in particular at the Fiat plants, went on strike demanding recognition for their 'factory councils', a demand the PSI and CGL did not support. The 'factory councils' more and more saw themselves as the models for a new democratically controlled economy running industrial plants, instead of as a bargaining tool with employers. The movement peaked in August and September 1920. Armed metal workers in Milan and Turin occupied their factories in response to a lockout by the employers. Factory occupations swept the "industrial triangle" of north-western Italy. Some 400,000 metal-workers and 100,000 others took part. On September 3, 185 metal-working factories in Turin had been occupied.Bellamy & Schecter, ''Gramsci and the Italian State''
pp. 51-52
/ref> The PSI and CGL failed to see the revolutionary potential of the movement; had it been maximized and expanded to the rest of Italy, a revolutionary transformation might have been possible. Most Socialist leaders were pleased with the struggles in the North, but did little to capitalize on the impact of the occupations and uprisings. Without the support and quarantined, the movement for social change gradually waned.

Aftermath

By 1921, the movement was declining due to an industrial crisis that resulted in massive layoffs and wage cuts. In contrast to the passive demeanor of the PSI and CGL, employers and the upcoming fascist did react. The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist

militia (the ''

Fasci Italiani di Combattimento The ''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento'' ( en, Italian Fasces of Combat, link=yes, also translatable as ''"Italian Fighting Bands"'' or ''"Italian Fighting Leagues"'') was an Italian Fascist organization created by Benito Mussolini in 1919. It wa ...

'') with the support of Italian industrialists and landowners. And eventually by the

of Benito Mussolini in October 1922.A Marxist History of the World part 76: Italy’s 'Two Red Years'
Counterfire, May 20, 2012 A quantitative sociological study of the period by analyzing newspaper news in the periodQuantitative Narrative Analysis (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences). Roberto Franzosi, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 2010. clearly demonstrates the evolution of violence acts between the social groups involved.

References

* Bellamy, Richard Paul & Darrow Schecter (1993).
Gramsci and the Italian State
', Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press, * Neufeld, Maurice F. (1961).
Italy: school for awakening countries - The Italian labor movement in its political, social, and economic setting from 1800 to 1960
', New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. * Pelz, William A. (2007).
Against Capitalism: The European Left on the March
', New York: Peter Lang,

External links

''Biennio rosso'' texts
at Libcom.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Biennio Rosso Political history of Italy Anarchism in Italy 1919 in Italy 1920 in Italy 1919 labor disputes and strikes 1920 labor disputes and strikes Riots and civil disorder in Italy Labor disputes in Italy Revolutions of 1917–1923 Subsidiary conflicts of World War I

Background

Events

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading

External links