50 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
various members of the extreme left, including Mulatcsta
and Giulietti, conceived the idea of turning the situation
created by the occupation of Fiume to revolutionary ends.
Malatesta, the anarchist, who was aged about sixty-seven
and had returned from exile only a few days before, was the
only real revolutionary in Italy in the 1919-20 period. For
him the word £ revolution 5 had a definite meaning, and
implied a course whose final goal was Rome.
The starting point mattered little ; Fiume would serve,
for d'Annunzio might be won over, and there were arms to
be seized. The revolution, according to Malatesta, must be
brought about at once, for, he said ; c If we let the right
moment slip we shall pay with tears of blood for the fright
we have given the bourgeoisie.' A survivor of the " Alliance'
of Bakunin, he had taken part in the attempted rising of the
'Band of Benevento 3 in April 1877, and had been the
moving spirit of the c red week ' of 1914. Now that all Italy
was in ferment swift action was wanted, and unhesitating-
use must be made of anything which could ensure victory.
So Malatesta got into touch with d'Annimzio. For go-
between he had Captain Giulietti, head of the Federation of
Marine Labour, Giulietti, who had contrived the secret
return of Malatesta to Italy and supplied money for the
anarchist daily, Umanita Nuova^ was at the same time a
valuable ally of d'Annunzio's, In October 1919 his Federa-
tion had seized the Persia, which was loaded with arms for
the White armies fighting the Soviets, and brought it to
Fiume.
It was both an advantage and a disadvantage for Mala-
testa that he had no official connection with the working-
class movement. He was unhampered by routine and had
a will of iron. But the socialists, who still had the confidence
of the masses, were as suspicious of him as of d'Annunzio.
Some of the c conspirators', at their secret meetings in
Rome, refused to support him without the co-operation, or
at least the approval of the Socialist Party and the General
Confederation of Labour. The latter, alarmed, withheld
approval from the scheme, and it went no further ; par-
ticularly as Mussolini, who had wind of It, and wanted no
1 Which appeared first in February 1920 in Milan.