COUNTER-REVOLUTION 99
grasp of tactics, the use of arms, discipline, co-operation,
and even action itself. The very conditions of life of these
subversive elements allow them only extremely limited
resources ; any attempt at co-ordinated preparation
remains local, or at best extends to the district. . . . Long
and far-sighted preparation is impossible for them.
The more fanatical meet together, spur each other on,
choose leaders, issue instructions ; most of the others
remain undecided, passive, without initiative. Hypno-
tized by noise and crowds they delude themselves as to
their strength and their prospects. Their first reverse
will be followed by disillusion and disorder.3
This sketch of the situation was made before the working-
class movement had suffered the collapse which followed
the occupation of the factories. By this time the danger of a
popular insurrection, already discounted in the report, had
totally disappeared, and it was no longer necessary to carry
out in its entirety the programme of Colonel A. R.,£ military
expert in civil war '. But the government did not remain
inactive. On October 20 Giolitti's minister of war, Bonomi,
the former socialist, whom Mussolini himself had expelled
from the Socialist Party in 1912, sent out a circular,1
announcing that officers in course of being demobilized
(about 60,000) were to be sent to the chief centres with
orders to join the Fasci di Combattimento^ which they were to
control and staff, and for this they would receive four-fifths
of their present pay. In this way thzfasci themselves would
be enabled to carry out the part of Colonel A. R.'s pro-
gramme referring to ' local punitive expeditions', and later
on to go to further lengths, since they were assured of the
effective and indispensable aid of the state.
The contest soon became too much for the socialists, as
was shown by events in Bologna on November 21, 1920.
Here, at the municipal elections, the socialist list, mainly
composed of extreme left-wing elements, obtained 18,170
votes, against 7,985 for the national bloc, and 4,694 for the
Popolari. This was on a basis of universal suffrage, and the
1 Later Bonomi denied having taken this step and complained that he
had been * betrayed * by the military authorities.