34 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
Abolition of the Senate,
Convocation of a national assembly with the initial
task of deciding the form of the constitution.
Creation of national technical councils with the object
of extending and improving political democracy, in
accordance with the ideas conceived in Bavaria by Kurt
Eisner.
For social reform:
Eight-hour day.
Minimum wage.
Participation of workers5 representatives in the technical
management of industry.
Compulsory retirement of workers at fifty-five.
For military reform :
Replacement of the regular army by a national militia
with short periods of training, to be used for purely
defensive purposes.
Nationalization of all arms and munitions factories.
A foreign policy emphasizing the value of Italian
participation in the peaceful rivalries of the civilised
world.
For financial reform ;
An extraordinary levy on capital, substantial and
graded, amounting to a partial expropriation of all
wealth.
Confiscation of all the possessions of religious com-
munities, and abolition of episcopal revenues.
Revision of all contracts for war materials, and a levy
of 85 per cent on all war-time profits.
This programme, issued by the central committee of the
fasci with an eye to the general election, was obviously
much further to the left than Mussolini would have liked.
But he needed an organization behind him, and he did
not want to risk the immediate alienation of those who,
thanks to their common memories of * revolutionary inter-
ventionism', had just rallied to him. He did, however,