COUNTER-REVOLUTION 103
and where the struggle against c bolshevism'—i.e. against
Workers' Co-operatives, Sickness Funds and Culture Clubs,
inherited from Austrian Socialism—was accompanied by a
violent oppression of the Slovene and Croat populations.
The headquarters of the Slovene associations in Trieste was
set on fire in July 1920, and in October the socialist daily,
// Lavoratore, was attacked, and the Chamber of Labour in
Fiume destroyed. This form of action, while it was intensi-
fied in Julian Venetia, where it drew much support from
nationalist aspirations, spread into the Po valley, where it
acquired the characteristics which were dominant up to the
time of the march on Rome. In the Po valley, the towns
were on the whole less red than the country, being full of
landowners, garrison officers, university students, officials,
rentiers, professional men, and tradespeople. These were the
classes from which fascism drew its recruits and which
officered the first armed squads. Thus an expedition would
usually set out into the country from some urban centre.
With arms provided by the Agrarian Association or by some
regimental stores, the blackshirts would ride to their destina-
tion in lorries. When they arrived they began by beating
up "any passer-by who did not take off his hat to the colours,
or who was wearing a red tie, handkerchief, or shirt. If
anyone protested or tried to defend himself, if a fascist was
roughly treated or wounded, the ' punishment' was intensi-
fied. They would rush to the buildings of the Chamber of
Labour, the Syndicate, or the Co-operative, or to the
People's House, break down the doors, hurl out furniture,
books, or stores into the street, pour petrol over them, and
in a few moments there would be a blaze. Anyone found on
the premises would be severely beaten or killed, and the
flags were burnt or carried off as trophies.
The expedition usually had a definite object, which was
to * clean up * a neighbourhood. They would then draw up
at once outside the headquarters of the red organization
and destroy it. Groups of fascists would round up the
e leaders', mayors, and town councillors, the secretary of the
c league ', or the president of the co-operative. These were
forced to resign and banished for ever from the district,
under pain of death or the destruction of their houses. If