Suchergebnisse

From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, Italy witnessed a significant increase in labour conflicts, trade unionism and social protests, all of which shook the foundations of the liberal state. Following the failure of the authorities' attempts to deal with mass protests, efforts were made under the governments of Giovanni Giolitti to adopt new policing policies that embraced state neutrality in social conflicts and the deployment at the same time of substantial police forces to prevent the escalation of conflict and bloodshed. The success of these policies is highly questionable and there were major differences in this respect between northern and southern Italy, and between rural and industrial areas. Nevertheless, these policies contributed to the fear of abandonment and desire for revenge felt by significant sections of the propertied classes, and the issue of strikebreaking was at the centre of the controversy. Focusing on the Po Valley, this article first presents a broad overview of the political situation in Italy with emphasis on policing policies and work replacement, then analyses the various forms of legal and illegal private strike-breaker protection organizations that took on clear subversive aims. Drawing on newspapers and archival records, the article highlights the overlap between private and public law enforcement and the combination of coercion and consensus in the Italian countryside. The long-term consequences of the unresolved issue of strikebreaking and private policing help explain the rise of Fascism after the Great War.

L'articolo si propone di analizzare la crisi dello stato liberale italiano durante l'età giolittiana attraverso la ricostruzione delle declinazioni tanto giuridiche e quanto pratiche delle tematiche della legittima difesa e della costituzione di corpi armati. La prima parte è dedicata al dibattito giuridico su porto d'armi, legittima difesa e corpi armati, con un'attenzione specifica alle posizioni dei positivisti e del giurista Vincenzo Manzini. Al tempo stesso, le questioni di dottrina non restano confinate a trattati ed enciclopedie giuridiche ma riflettono declinazioni pratiche di cruciale importanza sul terreno delle lotte sociali. Pertanto, nella seconda parte, l'articolo affronta l'analisi dell'evoluzione del quadro giuridico relativo a guardie notturne e guardie campestri al fine di sondare i cambiamenti della funzione sociale della proprietà privata e del ruolo dello Stato nella difesa dell'ordine. Infine, attraverso due casi studio (le Pattuglie cittadine di Bologna e dei Volontari lavoratori di Parma) vengono esaminati i processi di legittimazione politica e giuridica attraverso i quali dei privati cittadini si arrogano il diritto di reprimere in prima persona scioperi e disordini sociali. A emergere è una critica profonda dei fondamenti della legittimità dello stato liberale in nome di una sorta di legittima difesa di classe e di una riappropriazione della sovranità con chiare spinte eversive.

the purpose of this article is to analyse the role played by organized political violence in pre-1914 Europe, with special regard to labour conflicts, through an analysis of the social composition and the practices of four movements which deliberately resorted to armed organization: the Somatén in Catalonia (Spain), the Jaunes trade union in the French Département du Nord, and the Citizen Patrols and agrarian squads in the Province of Bologna (Italy). Despite their different origins and contexts, these movements pursued similar political strategies based upon the deliberate use of violence and guns, and shared anti-socialist, authoritarian and anti-democratic purposes. Analysis of their practices and political cultures enables us to evaluate the nature of the democratic processes in pre-1914 Europe and also helps to contextualize and understand the political and social violence which came to the fore after the end of the war in 1918.

AbstractThis article argues that squadrismo represented a central feature in the ideology and politics of Fascist Italy, influencing the whole period of the dictatorship. In the second half of the twenties, many squadristi became political prisoners, accused of being 'bad Fascists': it looked like the end of squadrismo. Despite punishments and (brief) periods of imprisonment, the squadristi actually continued to play an important part in the fascistisation of Italian society, in particular during the intransigent 1930s. By disciplining the blackshirts while continuing to make use of their particular skills, Fascism hoped to 'tame the revolution'.

This book provides a comparative and transnational examination of the complex and multifaceted experiences of anti-labour mobilisation, from the bitter social conflicts of the pre-war period, through the epochal tremors of war and revolution, and the violent spasms of the 1920s and 1930s. It retraces the formation of an extensive market for corporate policing, privately contracted security and yellow unionism, as well as processes of professionalisation in strikebreaking activities, labour espionage and surveillance. It reconstructs the diverse spectrum of right-wing patriotic leagues and vigilante corps which, in support or in competition with law enforcement agencies, sought to counter the dual dangers of industrial militancy and revolutionary situations. Although considerable research has been done on the rise of socialist parties and trade unions the repressive policies of their opponents have been generally left unexamined. This book fills this gap by reconstructing the methods and strategies used by state authorities and employers to counter outbreaks of labour militancy on a global scale. It adopts a long-term chronology that sheds light on the shocks and strains that marked industrial societies during their turbulent transition into mass politics from the bitter social conflicts of the pre-war period, through the epochal tremors of war and revolution, and the violent spasms of the 1920s and 1930s. Offering a new angle of vision to examine the violent transition to mass politics in industrial societies, this is of great interest to scholars of policing, unionism and striking in the modern era.