Left-interventionism

Left-interventionism is that part of the progressive interventionist movement of various matrices (Mazzinian, social-reformist, democratic socialist, dissident socialist, revolutionary) who saw in the Great War the historical opportunity, both for the completion of unity and both for the palingenesis of the Italian political system and the organization of the economic, legal and social system, therefore a profound change.[1][2]

This article is about the early-20th century Italian political movement. For interventionism in other political contexts, see Interventionism (politics).

History
Filippo Corridoni with Mussolini during a 1915 interventionist demonstration in Milan, Italy.

Left-wing interventionism originated from a process of internal self-criticism carried out by a substantial part of the revolutionary syndicalist movement, which, after the failure of Red Week in June 1914, gave rise to a theoretical evolution of its thinking.

In the following weeks Alceste De Ambris declared himself in favor of Italy's entry into the Great War alongside France, a fact that cost him his expulsion from the Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI). This led first to the simultaneous voluntary expulsion from the USI, headed by the neutralist and internationalist anarchist Armando Borghi, even of the strong Milanese section, led by Filippo Corridoni, and then to the expulsion of all interventionist sections. These went on to join with Futurist interventionism, which was already creating unrest in the squares with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni.

On October 5 Angelo Oliviero Olivetti created the Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Interventista, into which all the movements in the area converged, and at the same time a Manifesto, a political program supporting left-wing interventionism, was promoted. The movement thus aimed to operate a strong critique of the Italian Socialist Party and its neutralist position, seeing its failure to support the war as a lack of political perspective and reactionarism toward history in motion. The Great War was in fact seen as a historical opportunity to be exploited, a historical coincidence that could have acted as a catalyst for the revolutionary impulses of the Italian people, which, forged by the wartime experience (the Trinceocrazia[lower-alpha 1] precisely), should become aware of their potential by overthrowing the constituted powers of the state. In conclusion, the left-wing interventionists argued that if the people could not find within themselves the spark to ignite change, it would have to be an external factor, the war precisely.[3][4]

Annotations
  1. The term Trinceocrazia (lit. 'trenchcracy'; etymologically: "power of the trenches") denotes a mode of governance originated during World War I, in which soldiers' expertise in trench warfare determined their level of influence among the other soldiers.

References
  1. Ciotti, Amedeo (2015). 1914-1918 : perché quella guerra : l'Italia nel conflitto. Roma. ISBN 978-88-6677-910-0. OCLC 902638876.
  2. Payne, Stanley G. (1996). A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN 9780299148737.
  3. Rimbotti, Luca Leonello (1989). Il fascismo di sinistra (in Italian). Rome, Italy: Settimo Sigillo. pp. 16–30.
  4. Nello, Paolo (1978). L'avanguardismo giovanile alle origini del fascismo (in Italian). Bari, Italy: Laterza. pp. 19–20.
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