THE GAPORETTO OF SOCIALISM 217
and had alienated the masses, while leaving the bourgeoisie
resigned and even partly in favour of such an event. Not
only was the July strike ten days too late, but it followed on
a campaign in which maximalists, communists and anarchists
had described it as the ( necessary and sufficient* means for
turning the tables and liquidating fascism, without any help
from the state or compromise with non-proletarian forces.
The authors of the appeal for the general strike had taken
careful precautions in drawing it up to show the connection
between the movement they were starting and state action,
which they called upon to defend their outraged liberties.
But if the working classes and the state were to work for
a common end there had to be some sort of connection
between them, in fact there had to be collaboration. By
calling the strike on July 31, however, the working classes
materially severed their connection with the state. Even
supposing (quite unjustifiably) that the state had decided
to cope with the fascist gangs, it would have been entirely
paralysed by the strike in the public services and the
railways, while the fascists, with several months5 advantage
in distributing their forces, could cover a wide area in their
columns of lorries. * A solemn warning to the government
of the country 5, said the secret committee's manifesto. But
neither to those who took part in it nor to those who suffered
it did the strike appear merely as a e warning '. There was
practically no government in existence, in consequence of
the cabinet crisis which had now lasted a fortnight; besides,
the c warning * could not be conveyed to the e government',
for the strike had destroyed all points of contact between the
wrorkers and the state. Conceived as a c demonstration 3, it
failed in its effect. In Rome the Popolari, worried by the
length and gravity of the crisis, had decided to agree to the
inclusion of right-wing elements in the new government.
In the country the catholic syndicates, the same which had
won over the Popolari to the idea of collaborating with the
right-wing socialists, refused to take part in the general
strike ; and thus at the critical moment allies were lost whose
help in assuring the * defence of liberty 5 was indispensable.
The king, who still had Giolitti in mind, broke off all
negotiations, and on August i—the strike having begun at