COUNTER-REVOLUTION IOI
Bologna's greatest moment. When the new mayor appeared
the crowd burst into cheers, but the fascists who were lined
up, armed, at the corners of the square, opened fire. Panic
followed, and on the town hall balcony those entrusted with
the c defence ' dropped their bombs. Fascist revolvers and
municipal bombs accounted for nine dead and a hundred
wounded, all socialists or sympathizers. Indoors the reports
and explosions spread panic and rage. From the public
balcony revolver shots were fired at the minority benches,
mortally wounding Giordani, lawyer, ex-soldier, nationalist
and freemason, and one of the most pacific amongst the
opponents of the new administration.
The events of the Palazzo d'Accursio precipitated in
Bologna, Emilia, and throughout Italy an outburst of
accumulated hate and violence. The dead body of Giordani
was exploited to the point of hysteria, while the provocation
of the fascists, the illegality of arming against a properly
elected administration, and the nine dead socialists were
forgotten. Nothing was remembered but the ex-soldier with
a heroic war record, e killed in a trap ' by the ' anti-
nationalists '. Hatred separated the two camps ; waverers
kept off or joined the fascists. The socialists, incapable alike
of profiting by legal or organizing illegal methods, found
themselves up against both fascist squads and state forces.
The era of violence, reprisals, and c punitive expeditions '
had begun.
In December a clash took place in rather similar circum-
stances near the Castello Estense in Ferrara, with the same
effect on public opinion. In the province of Ferrara, how-
ever, another factor contributed to the success of fascism.
Here, at the beginning of 1921, took place the first great
reverse which was to lead to the total collapse of the
organized working-class movement. This province was the
electoral home of revolutionary and anti-socialist syndicalism.
Between 1907 and 1913 there had been a succession of violent
agricultural strikes under the leadership of Umberto
Pasella, future secretary-general of thefasci, Michele Bianchi,
future quadrumvir of the march on Rome, and others, nearly
all of whom went over to fascist syndicalism. If the
employers' resistance were prolonged they knew how to