THE INTERNAL CRISIS OF FASCISM 135
infect those people when I introduced into Italian socialism
a little Bergson diluted with plenty of Blanqui.' But they
have failed to digest the mixture properly., he added. The
fascists make a distinction between the Socialist Party and
the General Confederation of Labour : ' Our attitude to the
latter, which has never been one of opposition, might be
modified if the Confederation as a whole—its leaders have
long since considered it—were to separate from the Socialist
Party '. Under these conditions mutual disarmament was
possible, and Mussolini declared that he desired it, for * if
things go on like this, the nation runs a real risk of plunging
into an abyss 3.
Was Mussolini sincere in making these very conditional
and prudent advances ? If a definite answer were called
for, we should say yes. Not because he had the slightest
intention of going back to his old love, for Mussolini was
convinced that the age of capitalism had only just begun
and that, as he wrote a month after his speech, ' the new
reality of to-morrow, for the ra'th time, is capitalistic '.
The news from Russia, where famine raged and the N.E.P.
was taking the place of c war communism', convinced him
that there was a universal Restoration. Since the future
belonged to capitalism, socialism had no hope of making
headway ; the choice lay between an almost dead past and
the unlimited possibilities of the future, and his choice had
been made in advance. Besides, he risked nothing by his
overtures. If Giolitti brought off a coalition with the
socialists, they would enter the cabinet in triumph, and on
their own conditions. For this reason Mussolini declared
in his speech that he was * anti-Giolitti, since the flirtation
between Giolitti and the socialist parliamentary group has
never been so pronounced as now'. But if the wedding
should take place on the initiative and under the guidance
of Mussolini, the fascists would refuse to act as the poor
relations of the new menage, and the socialists would find
their demands curtailed.
The majority of the Socialist Party were against participa-
tion, fearing the attacks of the communists. If their right
wing, the leaders of the General Confederation of Labour,
joined the government, they would lose some of their