352 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
ideology and their interests.1 This new ruling class battens
on the state, indulging in shameless scrambles for gain,
runs through fortunes with ease, exploits and fleeces others,
but has no definite place in the economic life of the country.
Even when he becomes a landed proprietor or a capitalist
this new fascist ruler continues to draw the best part of his
resources from the political monopoly of which he is assured,
and from the perpetual expansion of the machinery of state,
which he encourages with all his might.2
Autarchy and preparation for war make this expansion
inevitable. The expansion of state machinery in its turn
is bound to involve autarchy and war. Nothing inside the
country can break this vicious circle. Fascism has succes-
sively wiped out the working-class movement, the people,
the nation, every restraining influence. Such is the tragic
balance sheet of the fascist attack of the years 1921-1922,
whose effects stretch far beyond the boundaries of Italy.
The flames which destroyed the Peoples' Houses were only
the beginning of a greater blaze which threatens to set
Europe alight. The blows that shattered the headquarters
of workers' syndicates, co-operatives and socialist sections
have struck at the foundations of the new Europe : the
Europe loathed by fascism, since it means the end of war
and fascists alike.
Ill
For fascism the political programme is a mere makeshift,
concocted to meet the immediate needs of political strategy.
On the eve of the march on Rome, as at the time of von
Schleicher's resignation, the fascists, like the national
socialists, based their candidature to power on the reality
of their strength and not on their old or new programme.
And it was their strength, directed against the working class
1 The ' left-wing * fascists, to be found chiefly amongst syndical officials,
are the greatest extremists in foreign policy and are always asking for state
intervention in internal policy and in the economic sphere. In this connection
there is, for example, a considerable distinction in tone and even in attitude
between the syndical paper, 11 Lavoro Fascista, and // Sole, the * organ of com-
merce, industry, finance and agriculture *„
2 In its present phase Italian fascism may be defined as a * triarchy', in
which power is exercised by the big capitalists, the bureaucracy and Mussolini
himself.