Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 January 2016
A study of the history of the Italian Social Republic (1943–1945) reveals the importance of the experience of Fascist Syndicalism and above all National Syndicalism. During the preceding 20 years of Fascist rule, Fascist Syndicalism had faced notable difficulties, divided as it was between the need to defend workers and that of obeying the dictatorship; but following the fall of Mussolini and the military defeat of Fascist Italy, new opportunities appeared to present themselves. In 1943 Mussolini had called for ‘socialization’ as a means of fighting the anti-Fascist democratic forces. In this context, the ideology of National Syndicalism became the key feature of a project for the construction of a totalitarian state. In spite of the inevitability of defeat, the final phase of Fascism thus involved an attempt to win over the working classes in the industrial centres of northern Italy in order to establish them as the basis for a possible revival.