346 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
served. The reformists were too routine-bound, too
paralysed by their fear of alienating the masses and endan-
gering syndical unity to be able to initiate any such move-
ment. They were vaguely aware that such a way out of the
difficulty might be found, but they were almost ashamed to
consider it. They tried out new catchwords which sounded
false even to their own ears and attempted to give them a
literary turn by vague references to the sacra lampa.1 For
to them the idea of the nation was just another means to
an end, which had turned up at the last moment and
which they had snatched at in the hope of evading the
enemy who were at their heels. But between € nation * and
c working class ' there was an unbridgeable void ; years of
propaganda and the slogan of £ red versus tricolour ' made
it impossible for the workers to see what their place could
be in this c nation \ or why they should associate themselves
with this new attitude. Besides, the fascists were not going to
give up their monopoly of patriotism. The result was that
the right wing suspected a trap and the left thought it was
treason. The only way of ending the deadlock would have
been for the united working class to face the problem of
forming a government aiming not only at smashing fascism,
but also at building a new Italy. At no less a price could
fascism be abolished. Only by fulfilling to the utmost the
duty they owed to themselves and to the community,
whose conscience and driving power they should have been,
could the workers defend their own rights. Duty, responsi-
bility and initiative were the price of liberty. Only in such
conditions could fascism have been beaten back in the
second half of 1922.
From August to September the fascist movement gained
momentum by means of a series of political and syndical
congresses, mobilizations and adunate. Provincial or regional
congresses offasci took place in Pescara (for the Abruzzi),
Rimini (for Romagna), Pola (for Istria), Porto Maurizio,
Tolentino (for the province of Macerata), Avellino, Ferrara,
Modena, Iglesias (for Sardinia) > Foggia, Messina, Gomo,,
Parma, Vicenza, Siena, Pesaro (for the Marches). Con-
gresses of fascist syndicates were held in Padua, Arezzo,
1 P. 184.