THE MARCH ON ROME 243
cavalry, marched through the town. Meanwhile the
magistrates had hastened to examine fresh witnesses, with
the result that at 3 p.m. the arrested fascists wrere set free.3
Again in September the fascists attacked Molinella, a large
rural centre where the working-class population, under the
leadership of the mayor, Giuseppe Massarenti, was entirely
socialist. Here the authorities had taken strong measures to
prevent fascists from outside approaching the neighbour-
hood. The local fascio and the landowners were furious and
demanded that this4 scandal5 should be stopped. Mussolini
supported them by declaiming in the Popolo d* Italia against
this 4 silly comedy'. c The situation/ explains Chiurco,
c remained the same for several days. The leaders of the
fascio protested against the excessive police precautions,
which amounted to martial law and unfairly restricted the
liberty of honest citizens. Landowners declared a lock-out
against socialist labour, and were joined by manufacturers
and tradesmen. The fascists occupied the country-side.5
A month later they occupied the town hall. These were
but a few events among thousands which were occurring
every day, especially on Sundays, all over the country. In
the meantime what changes and vicissitudes had affected
the different parties ?
The working-class movement was beginning to disin-
tegrate. Before the end of August the National Syndicate
of Railwaymen and the Italian Syndical Union (anarcho-
syndicalist) broke away from the Labour Alliance. The
extremists who had forced the Committee of Action into
proclaiming the strike were the first to quit the sinking ship.
The Printers* Federation, very right-wing, declared a few
days later that it c reserves the right to decide for itself on
each occasion as to its participation in political strikes *,
that is to say it no longer recognized the alliance between the
General Confederation of Labour—to which it belonged—
and the Socialist Party. On October 6 the Confederation
itself renounced the pact and declared its independence.
This pact had subordinated the actions of the syndicates to
the foolishness and inefficiency of the political party, and
had helped to bring about the workers5 failure. But at this
moment such a decision could only signify a hasty retreat