A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #36 - Memory - Fascist Massacres: A Black Thread from 1922 to 1980 - Giovanni Salierno (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Are there points of similarity and continuity between the fascist 
massacres of 1922, the Nazi-Fascist massacres of 1943-45, and the 
neo-fascist strategy of tension of the 1970s, culminating in the Bologna 
massacre of August 2, 1980, the 45th anniversary of which occurs this 
year? Apparently, one might say that the three historical periods are 
very different and have no points of contact; by examining certain 
dynamics, however, we can observe common traits.
Analyzing 60 years of a nation's history in a magazine article is 
obviously not feasible; It is instead advisable to provide some 
interpretative keys and then carry out an in-depth analysis of one of 
the three identified periods, in this case the first, initial one, on 
which the debate has rekindled with the entry into the government team 
of figures who, through a partial reading of the facts, intend to carry 
out a revisionist operation to justify current authoritarian choices. An 
example of such statements is that of the Deputy Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, Edmondo Cirielli, who on 9 December 2024 at the presentation of 
Italo Bocchino's book Perché l'Italia è di destra declared: «The deepest 
distinctive trait of fascism was an extraordinary spirit of freedom» (1).
In the three identified periods, the massacres are characterised by the 
following aspects: the spread of terror for strategic purposes through 
the indiscriminate killing of innocent people; the military occupation 
of physical spaces with the intent of reaffirming control of the 
territory to the population; the misdirection of investigations by 
people employed by institutional apparatuses of the State; and the 
substantial impunity of many perpetrators of such massacres.
In future issues of the magazine, we will address the two subsequent 
periods, examining, after the fascist and terrorist origins of early 
fascism discussed in this article, the Nazi-fascist massacres of 1943-45 
and the strategy of tension of 1969-1980.

The First Period of Massacres: 1922-1923

For simplicity's sake, we will begin our analysis with the events 
following the March on Rome, when Mussolini received the formal mandate 
from King Victor Emmanuel III to become Prime Minister and form a 
government. An initial reconstruction of that era is attributed to 
Giacomo Matteotti, who in 1924 published a chronology of the violent 
episodes perpetrated by the Duce's men from November 1922 onward in his 
book, "A Year of Fascist Domination." In listing the hundreds of deaths 
recorded with tireless and commendable expertise, the Socialist MP does 
not mention Rome because his story begins in November, but he describes 
the other two massacres. He is unable to identify any common features 
between the events.
The three episodes have similar characteristics and have probably never 
been studied together. In Parliament, Mussolini presents this historical 
phase as a pacification of the civil war of the previous two years, 
which had left several thousand dead on the ground (2). On the national 
territory, however, the squads continued to rage, killing hundreds of 
innocents and occupying the reference points of the "subversives and 
opponents": Chambers of Labor, workers' clubs, agricultural 
cooperatives, party headquarters, and newspaper offices.
The point on which perhaps the greatest confusion has arisen in these 
100 years, for various reasons that I do not intend to analyze in this 
article, is the social composition of the victims of the black ferocity: 
in the imagination and in the newspapers of the time, the dead were the 
"reds" guilty of murders and conspiracies. In reality, the victims came 
from various social strata, with differing political and religious 
orientations (think of Don Minzoni, killed in July 1923 and a member of 
the Popular Party that had supported the government). Many victims were 
also picked up at random on the streets, due to mistaken identity or 
denunciation. The so-called subversives and opponents lost, in addition 
to many militants, strategic positions in terms of local presence and 
institutional representation, with the forced dissolution of many city 
councils due to resignations. They also lost buildings such as the 
People's Houses and the Chambers of Labor. Some of these managed to 
organize themselves and launch a primitive clandestine activity that 
would explode with participation in the Spanish Civil War and then at 
the beginning of the Resistance in Italy in 1943, first with strikes in 
factories in Northern Italy and then with the formation of partisan groups.

Rome, October 30, 1922

In the working-class neighborhood of San Lorenzo, a reprisal was 
unleashed against the population. Mussolini has just arrived in the city 
to receive the mandate from King Victor Emmanuel III to form a 
government. The fascist columns should move through the city without a 
fight. They should... The story of the San Lorenzo massacre, too often 
overlooked by memory, is masterfully illustrated by Gabriele Polo in 
Assalto a San Lorenzo (Donzelli Editore, 2024).
The assault was an episode of unprecedented ferocity, violence 
"justified" by the conquest of a strategic and symbolic territorial 
objective, violence motivated by revenge. This violence was unleashed on 
the population guilty of living in the red-light district, home to 
socialist, anarchist, and communist circles.
The massacre was carried out by a column from Tuscany, a group that a 
year earlier had been repelled by the neighborhood's Arditi del Popolo. 
The attack on October 30, 1922, was the fourth fascist squad attack on 
San Lorenzo in 16 months. In Turin, the Chamber of Labor was attacked 
three times in 18 months, the first on April 26, 1921. The victims in 
Rome were courageous workers who fought back, but also unsuspecting 
passersby killed in the street and a 38-year-old widow who tried to 
protect her son.
This, in effect, is the first example of a massacre under Fascism in 
power, which went unpunished by both the judiciary of the Kingdom of 
Italy and the Republican one, which did not open an investigation. The 
Rome Police Headquarters compiled a total of 17 deaths in the city over 
the three days at the end of October.
Gabriele Polo concludes his book with a list of the victims, recalling 
the circumstances of their deaths and specifying that some of them were 
buried at Verano: these are therefore traceable and irrefutable data.

Turin. From the March on Rome to the massacre of December 1922

On the evening of October 28, several hundred armed Red Guards marched 
down Via Pietro Micca and rushed to defend the Chamber of Labor on Corso 
G. Ferraris, while the Fascists held a rally in Piazza San Carlo. 
Neither side wanted to engage in physical combat on the ground. A few 
hours later, on October 30, seeing the weakness of the institutions and 
sensing the King's will, the comrades changed strategy: they attacked 
and burned the Chamber of Labor. At the same time, a seizure decree led 
the Public Security forces to occupy the editorial offices of the 
workers' newspaper "Ordine Nuovo" on Via Arcivescovado. The chevaux de 
frise in the courtyard and the small arsenal organized to protect 
against possible attacks by the Blackshirts were powerless against a 
ministerial order. The two buildings symbolic of the Red Biennium were 
thus conquered with violence and the complicity of the Monarchy.
Between November 1st and December 18th, union representatives demanded 
the reopening of the Chamber of Labor, which had been damaged by the 
attack and fire, while the editors of "Ordine Nuovo" demanded the 
release of the newspaper's headquarters so they could resume 
publication. Despite the blockade, several extraordinary copies printed 
with makeshift means were released. These issues remain a symbol of the 
strength of the labor movement and the beginning of the anti-fascist 
underground in Turin. While many newspapers throughout Italy returned to 
newsstands in November, "Ordine Nuovo" remained held hostage by the 
police. A new series was subsequently published in Rome in March 1924, 
after Antonio Gramsci had just founded the newspaper "l'Unita."

Turin, December 18-20, 1922

Sunday, December 17th, was filled with fascist initiatives in the city 
center. A rally was held at the Alfieri Theater, followed by a parade 
through the city's main streets. Among the thousand troublemakers were 
representatives from Emilia-Romagna and Liguria. Their participation 
from outside the region is indicative of provocation and abuse, although 
no documents can be found to prove any premeditation. It should be 
noted, however, that, by a strange coincidence, the first meeting of the 
Grand Council of Fascism was held in Rome on December 15th. Turin's 
Quadrumvir De Vecchi attended the meeting, and many changes were decided 
upon that were implemented in the following days, such as the creation 
of the Volunteer Militia for National Security and the change of police 
chiefs in Turin, Cagliari, and Bari.
In the Savoy capital, on the night of the 17th, a double shootout 
between fascists and communists at the Barriera di Nizza took the lives 
of comrades Bazzani and Dresda. The fascist squad members identified the 
communist railway worker Prato as the perpetrator of the two "murders," 
and that night posters announcing the reprisal were posted. There was no 
evidence that Prato shot the two fascists; probably, as he himself wrote 
from exile in Russia, the tram driver was only involved in the second 
nighttime shooting.
The Turin squadrista leader Brandimarte stated in several interviews in 
the following days: "Our dead are not mourned, they are avenged... We 
have a list of over 3,000 names of subversives. From these, we selected 
24 and entrusted their names to our best squads, so that they could 
carry out justice. And justice has been done... The missing bodies will 
be returned by the Po, if it returns them at all, or they will be found 
in the ditches, ravines, or thickets of the hills surrounding Turin.

It is worth remembering that on Brandimarte's list, one of the most 
wanted men was none other than Antonio Gramsci, who, being in Russia at 
the time on behalf of the Communist Party of Italy (PCdI), was able to 
"escape" certain execution.

The logic of 10 deaths for every fascist killed would be the same as the 
reprisals carried out by the Nazis after September 8, 1943. For example, 
at the Fosse Ardeatine, the number of victims was decided in Germany: 
330 prisoners to be executed for every 33 soldiers killed. The field 
commanders applied the utmost zeal in counting, and in the end the 
victims numbered 335. This number, the ratio of ten people to be killed 
for every victim to be avenged, is an incredible and non-trivial element 
of continuity that passes through Turin in December 1922, but which had 
already had a prologue in the reprisal of Roccastrada (GR) on July 24, 
1921 (3): 10 residents killed for a comrade killed in a pickup truck. 
The autopsy revealed that the shot pierced the victim's head from the 
nape of the neck to the forehead, so the bullet probably came out by 
mistake from the weapon of a comrade standing next to him.
Among the 11 official victims of the Turin massacre are two names 
well-known among the Turin proletariat: Carlo Berruti, a city councilor 
for the PCI, and Pietro Ferrero, anarchist secretary of the Fiom in the 
capital.
The former was kidnapped from the State Railways office where he worked. 
Taken to the Casa del Fascio for a preliminary identification, he was 
eventually transferred to the countryside of Nichelino, where he was 
shot in the early afternoon from behind. Berruti was the first victim in 
chronological order.
Ferrero was killed late in the evening. Beaten in the morning inside the 
Chamber of Labor, he was released with minor injuries. He spent a few 
hours wandering around the city center. It is unknown why, in the 
evening, he returned to the Chamber of Labor, where he was recognized by 
the fascists. Taken back to the occupied building, he was interrogated 
and finally executed. Ferrero's body was left nearby under the statue of 
King Vittorio Emanuele II. It is clear that this gesture was a tribute 
to the King, who had appointed Mussolini head of government, 
guaranteeing impunity for the violence committed during those months.
Six of the other nine victims were workers. In some clandestine 
commemorative cards, the communists in 1923 designated Ferrero, Berruti, 
and these six victims as "our dead." The cards are cited in newspaper 
reports of subversives arrested for illegal propaganda. The other three 
victims cannot be classified politically. Quintagliè was a colleague of 
Berruti's who condemned the barbaric murder; Mazzolla, a shopkeeper at 
Barriera di Nizza, perhaps a police signalman, was punished by the 
fascists who broke into his shop looking for Prato; and Pochettino, a 
craftsman who was likely informed on by an employee he had recently fired.
For this Turin episode, the Gasti-Giunta investigation of January 1923 
did not lead to any formal trial of the blackshirt perpetrators, 
although it highlighted unjustifiable excesses of violence. Postwar 
trials left the perpetrators unpunished. Ultimately, only one person was 
convicted in absentia, a certain Macellari, for murder and attempted 
murder. Brandimarte, head of the city's squads and coordinator of 
fascist operations during the massacre, served a couple of years in 
prison before being acquitted due to insufficient evidence and enjoyed a 
generous officer's pension until his death in 1971.
He died in a private clinic a few steps from the statue of the King 
where Ferrero was laid to rest.

La Spezia, January 22, 1923

The Turin massacre became a model, and in La Spezia, the Blackshirts 
once again attacked the defenseless population. The murder of a fascist, 
Giovanni Lubrano, prompted a reprisal, the details of which, however, 
remained unclear. The murder was likely premeditated by other fascists 
according to internal regulations, but the assassins blamed the 
"subversives." The number of victims is uncertain: 12 bodies have been 
identified, but newspaper reports indicate more. A realistic figure 
could be as high as 19 civilians killed.
Hundreds of workers from the Ligurian capital will leave the city with 
their families for France, especially Marseille, to work in the 
shipyards across the border and escape retaliation. The story of escapes 
to France is also common in Turin and throughout Piedmont in the 
aftermath of the bloody December. To understand the sense of omnipotence 
and immunity guaranteed by state bodies, it's worth recalling Pietro 
Nenni's words in "Avanti!" on January 27, 1923, when he attacked the 
repressive nature of Mussolini's government, citing La Spezia: "The 
killing of a fascist by fascists was avenged with the Turin system of 
ten for one, ten lives seized so at random, in the darkness of night, 
among people who professed an idea that no longer has the government's 
approval and who bear no responsibility, either direct or indirect, for 
the crime."

Conclusions

The reprisals in San Lorenzo in Rome, Turin, and La Spezia have never 
been studied together. Could analyzing the fascist squads' modus 
operandi be a research avenue? Matteotti wasn't able to correlate the 
data in 1923, and he doesn't have all the information available now. 
Despite this, his book and his other journalistic investigations 
resulted in his death sentence.
The uncontrolled violence of the gangs during this period arose from 
contradictory impulses: on the one hand, frustration at not yet having 
complete control of the territory; on the other, excitement stemming 
from the guarantee of impunity. The Kingdom's judiciary, before 
gradually becoming a broadcasting body at the service of the 
dictatorship from 1925 onwards, could have chosen to defend law and 
freedom. Instead, it preferred to turn a blind eye.

Notes:
(1) Luciana Cimino, "Criticism Even from Elon Musk's Staff," "Il 
Manifesto," December 10, 2024.
(2) Salvemini estimates that three thousand people died in political 
clashes in the country between 1921 and 1922. See Gaetano Salvemini, 
"The Origins of Fascism in Italy." Harvard Lectures, Feltrinelli, Milan, 
1966.
(3) The Roccastrada (GR) massacre occurred just three days after the 
events in Sarzana (SP), when a punitive expedition of Blackshirts from 
Tuscany led by Dumini was repelled by the Carabinieri and the 
population, resulting in a heavy death toll among the squadristi and the 
population. Most likely, the excitement of carrying out the expedition 
to Roccastrada and the desire to inflict exemplary punishment on La 
Spezia 18 months later stemmed from frustration over the defeat at Sarzana.

In the images: 1. Pietro Ferrero, a mechanical worker at FIAT, a member 
of the Italian Anarchist Union and secretary of the FIOM in Turin, a 
victim of fascist terrorism in the massacre of December 18-20, 1922; 2. 
Turin, December 18-20, 1922, the sites and victims of the fascist massacre.

Giovanni Salierno, a Physics graduate from the University of Turin, has 
worked in the metalworking industry for twenty years, specializing in 
instrumental metrology. Since 2010, he has been conducting research and 
promotion of the memory of the fascist massacres. He has produced 
documents and articles on the fascist squadristi episodes of 1922-23 and 
the fascist massacre in Turin on December 18-20, 1922, on which he has 
organized over fifty educational events.

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