214 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
Arcangelo, Savignano, Cesena, Bertinoro, all the centres
and towns between the provinces of Forti and Ravenna,
and destroyed all red buildings, and offices of socialist and
communist organizations. It has been a terrible night.
Our passage was marked by high columns of fire and
smoke.'
As a result of these events, the general councils of the two
Chambers of Labour at Rome (socialist and anarchist) met
on the evening of July 28 and invited the central committee
of the Labour Alliance to proceedc immediately to a national
general strike, while warning the central committee that if
it hesitates, if it shirks its unavoidable duty, if it does not
decide shortly on a general movement, the organs of pro-
letarian defence in Rome will denounce its authority'.
A general strike was proclaimed on the evening of July 31—
to begin at midnight of that date—by the c secret committee
of action ' of the Labour Alliance, which issued the following
appeal :
e By proclaiming a general strike the Committee means
to defend the political and syndical liberties menaced by
the reactionary factions. ... It is the duty of all lovers of
freedom to break, by the strength of their joint resistance,
the reactionary attack, thus defending the conquests of
democracy and saving the nation from the abyss into
which it would be cast by the madness of dictatorship.
. . . The government of the country must take a solemn
warning from the general strike, so that an end may be
made of all violation of civic liberties, which should find
their protection and their guarantees in the application
of the law. During the general strike the workers must
refrain absolutely from committing acts of violence, which
would impair the solemnity of the demonstration and
would quite certainly be exploited by our enemies ;
except only in the case of legitimate defence of persons
or institutions, if by mischance enemy violence should be
directed against them. Only those orders emanating
from responsible organizations are to be carried out.
Workers, arise, in defence of civilized man's most sacred
possession, freedom !'