Conference. At the same convention, the party reiterated its anti-war position, called the Socialist deputies to task for failing to take a more aggressive stand in the Chamber of Deputies, and gave the Executive Committee power to expel recalcitrant deputies. It also refused to send delegates to the Inter-Allied Socialist and Labor Conference in London on the ground that it admitted the American Federation of Labor, while delegates from the Socialist Party of America and the Russian Communist Party were not present. The party also repudiated both the mission from the American Federation of Labor and the SocialDemocratic League of America, which visited Italy.

"The National Executive Committee submitted a proposition in December, 1918, to the party subdivision favoring the elimination of all minimum demands from the party program which is used in electoral campaigns. The proposition met with almost unanimous approval of the different sections of the party. It also issued a declaration in which it sponsored the establishment of a Socialist Republic and the dictatorship of the proletariat, with the following scope: (1) The socialization of the means of production and transportation, land, mines, railroads, steamships operated and managed directly by the peasants, sailors, miners and workers; (2) distribution of commodities through co-operatives or municipal agencies exclusively; (3) abolition of military conscription and universal disarmament following the union of all Socialist proletarian international republics of the world.

"The declaration also vigorously advocated the withdrawal of troops from Russia, and announced that the Socialist Party "would not join in the homage to the representative of the United States," so that when President Wilson addressed the Chamber of Deputies, he found nearly forty seats, usually occupied by the Socialists, empty. The party convention also went on record against readmission of all those former members of the party who supported the government in the prosecution of the war and instructed its subdivisions to strictly observe this mandate.

"The Socialist Union, which was organized by pro-war Socialists, did not succeed in attracting to itself many of the members of the party. It formed an alliance with the so-called "Reformist Socialists," who had split away from the party, following the war with Tripoli.

"During 1919 the party continued its agitation for amensty

for political prisoners, and secured the release of several of its leaders, among whom were Constantino Lazzari, veteran secretary of the party, his assistant, Nicola Bombacci, and the editor of the party organ "Avanti," Giacinto Serrati.

"In June, 1919, the International Socialist Bureau sent a committee consisting of Ramsay Macdonald and Jean Longuet to discuss with the Italian Party the reconsideration of the withdrawal from the Second International. The negotiations proved of no avail. The Italian Party, however, joined the international demonstration decided upon by the International Socialist Bureau on July 21st with the result that Italian Socialists alone among the "Allied" Socialists, conducted a general strike in protest against the Russian blockade. Entire provinces were prostrated by the industrial standstill. All traffic and communication ceased and in more than 240 municipalities, among them, Genoa and Florence, Soviets were established.

"The Socialist Party has denounced the Paris Peace and the proposed League of Nations, seeing in this attempt the "recreating of the Holy Alliance among the conquerors, to oppress not only politically, but also economically, the conquered populations, dumb victims of the mistakes and rapacity of the bourgeoisie, captained by imperialistic capitalism and against the international proletariat."

"Preparatory to the next congress of the Socialist Party, the National Executive Committee issued a draft of a program, in which the party is called upon to prepare for the coming revolution by the formation of agencies which would be in a position to direct the course of the revolution, with the aim of establishing a Soviet form of government. The program even goes as far as to promulgate certain fundamental principles underlying the dictatorship of the proletariat, such as the disenfranchising of persons who do not do any socially useful work.

"In the Parliamentary elections of November 1919, the Socialist Party scored a tremendous victory, receiving about 3,000,000 votes as against 883,409 in 1913, or more than a third of the votes cast, and increasing its representation in the Chamber from 44 to 159. The campaign was waged on an anti-war and revolutionary program, which included unqualified support to the Russian Soviet Government.

"The industrial labor movement is divided into two distinct groups, one co-operating closely with the Socialist Party, and the

other consisting of the syndicalist organizations, which are not interested in political action. The General Confederation of Labor, which is the strongest labor federation, has endorsed the war position of the party and was instrumental in forcing the Italian Government to discontinue its participation in the antiRussian campaign. The government was also forced to publicly announce that no more troops would be sent to Russia, that no munitions would be dispatched, and that no Italian steamers would be allowed to transport munitions or materials to the Russian counter-revolutionary elements. At a national conference in April, the Italian labor unions demanded the convocation of a constituent assembly for a revision of the form of government favoring the transformation of the national parliament as constituted at present into a national soviet.

"The membership of the Italian labor unions is estimated at present to be about 1,000,000, which is an increase of almost 300,000 since 1917, and an organization campaign is at present on throughout the country to enroll more workers into the unions."

(These statements are taken from the able summary published in the American Labor Year Book, 1919-1920, pp. 372-4.)

The National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party arranged for a Congress in October, 1919, at Bologna. There were four groups within the Socialist Party which prepared four distinct programs that were considered throughout Italy by the members several weeks before the meeting.

These four programs were as follows:

The first was that of the Reformists led by Turati, who was the founder of the party in Italy and had been its leader until 1918. Turati had been consistently opposed to the war but was opposed also to revolutionary direct action, and was not among those who favored the Soviet program. He wanted the party to keep co-operating with the present government in Italy with a program of conquering public power through the ballot and meanwhile securing reform measures. He was of the same type of Marxian Socialist as the German Socialists led by Kautsky.

Opposed to Turati were the Maximilists led by Serrati. This section of the party had gained control at the Congress in Rome in 1918 and had pledged themselves to absolute sympathy and co-operation with the Soviet government in Russia. Serrati himself had come from the United States where he had directed a

Socialist newspaper and the organization of an Italian Socialist Party. He was the coming man in the Italian group.

The only difference between the program of Serrati and that of Lenin was that Serrati believed the party should take part in the present government; should send as many deputies to Parliament as possible; should use the parliamentary platform for spreading Socialist ideas and keeping out pseudo Socialists. Meantime, the program of the party was to be a Soviet program, including arming of the proletariat, disarming of the bourgeoisie, and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. This was to be done while ostensibly supporting the parliamentary regime through the progressive establishment of Soviet workers' organizations throughout the country, and educating the proletariat for its coming supremacy.

A third party of Centrists was headed by Lazzari. It was a rather colorless timid party, which coalesced with the Reformists when the Congress opened, reducing the groups from four to three before it came to the voting.

The last of the parties was that of the Abstentionists, headed by the young leader named Bordiga, who was even more extreme than Serrati and the Maximilists, preaching of course abstention from parliamentary action and immediate direct action to bring about the revolution.

The voting on the three programs was:

For the Maximilists of Serrati, 48,411; for the Unitarians of Lazzari and Turati, 14,886; and for the Abstentionists of Bordiga, 3,417.

This meant an even greater triumph for the Soviet section of the Socialist Party than in the Congress of 1918.

The party had then to decide on its policy in the approaching elections; and it nominated its candidates from all three of the above groups in proportion to their voting strength, on condition. that all elected candidates should follow the policy, not of their group, but of the whole party. A very characteristic and important condition was that no one could be a candidate of the party who had in any way favored or aided the late war.

It must be remembered that Serrati had taken part in the Turin uprising during the war, which was considered by the government an act of treason of the Socialist Party behind the lines, and had led to his imprisonment for eight months.

This incident also had led Premier Orlando in Parliament to

state that after the Caporetto diaster, Italy had been in worse danger from traitors behind the lines than from enemies in front, and to agree with a speech of one of the former Socialist leaders that he would be ready to shoot down any traitorous Socialist.

The pronounced Soviet character of the Congress, it was thought, might bring about disagreement with the great Italian labor organization which was largely Syndicalist. But this break did not occur and the elections were very successful from a Socialist point of view. They secured almost one-third of the membership of the Chamber of Deputies, electing 156 candidates.

On the day of the opening of the Italian Parliament, they asserted their lack of loyalty to the Royal government by remaining seated while the King ascended the throne, and by rising from their seats and shouting, "Long live Socialism," and leaving the chamber as soon as the Royal address was delivered.

This action led to disturbances and strikes throughout a large part of Italy. The Italian Socialists are as a body very levelheaded and do not expect to bring about an immediate revolution until two things have occurred:

In the first place, a very much wider education of the people and its organization in Soviet form; and in the second place, a wider international diffusion of adherence to the Soviet idea; because they feel that only as an international movement can Communism succeed.

The program of the Italian Socialist Party as declared in 1892 is retained practically intact by the present party, except for the details of Soviet organization and the preparations for direct action.

The latest development of the Socialist Soviet campaign will be given in the later chapter on the Third International.