“IN TIME PAST AS IN TIME PRESENT, WOMAN HAD ALWAYS A PREPONDERANT INFLUENCE IN SHAPING THE DESTINIES OF HUMANITY”
Speech delivered at Padua at the first Women’s Fascista Congress, on 2nd June 1923.
Ladies,—If I am not mistaken, this, which is inaugurated here to-day, is the first Women’s Fascista Congress of the “three Venices.” The title and the field covered by this first Congress of yours are full of profound significance. Fifty years ago one could not speak of the “three Venices”! Venice herself, after the magnificent years of heroism of 1848 and 1849, was still held by the shackles of foreign slavery. In 1866 we liberated Venice, one of the Venices. Fifty years afterwards we liberated the other two—that which has as its boundary the devoted and impregnable Brenner, and the other which has as its boundary the not less devoted nor less impregnable Nevoso.
Fascisti do not belong to the multitude of fops and sceptics who mean to belittle the social and political importance of woman. What does the vote matter? You will have it! But even when women did not vote and did not wish to vote, in time past as in time present, woman had always a preponderant influence in shaping the destinies of humanity. Thus the women of Fascismo, who bravely wear the glorious “black shirt,” and gather round our standards, are destined to write a splendid page of history, to help, with self-sacrifice and deeds, Italian Fascismo.
Do not trust the little stuffed owls, the yelling monkeys or, indeed, any representative of the lower zoological orders, who believe they practise politics, but could be called by a more infamous name. Do not believe those who talk of crises within the ranks of Fascismo;—these are details, mere episodes in the great event, and they, after all, concern men, not masses. When Fascisti have not to strike the enemy, they can well afford themselves the luxury of internal quarrels. But if the enemy should begin to raise his head again and intensify the character of his more or less stupid opposition, then Fascisti will again become solidly united. Then “Woe to the vanquished!” (Applause.) And since the opportunity is propitious, I would like to tell you, women of Fascismo, and the Fascisti of all Italy, that the attempt to sever Mussolini from Fascismo or Fascismo from Mussolini is the most useless and grotesque attempt that could be conceived. (Applause.) I am not so proud as to say that I who speak and Fascismo are one; but four years of history have now clearly shown that Mussolini and Fascismo are two aspects of the same thing, are two bodies and one soul or two souls in a single body. I cannot forsake Fascismo, because I have created it, I have reared it, I have strengthened and I have chastened it, and I still hold it in my fist, always! It is, therefore, quite useless for the old screech-owls of Italian policy to pay me their foolish court. I am too shrewd to fall into this ambush of the commercial mediocrities of village fairs. I can assure you, my dear friends, that all these little vipers, all these cheap politicians will be bitterly disillusioned.
To think that I could become brutalised in Parliamentary bureaucracy is to believe an absurdity. Although I come from the working class, I have a spirit too aristocratic not to feel disgust for low Parliamentary manœuvres. We shall continue our march vigorously (added the Hon. Mussolini, raising his voice), because this has been imposed on us by destiny. We shall not turn back, nor shall we even mark time. I have already said that we did not want to push matters to extremes only to see ourselves driven back by the swing of the pendulum. I prefer, as I wrote in an article, which aroused some interest—I prefer to march on continually, day by day, in the Roman way, in the way of Rome who is never reconciled to defeat; of Rome who welcomed Terentius Varro coming from Cannæ, although she knew that he had given battle against the opinion of Consul Paulus Æmilius and was, in a certain degree, responsible for the defeat; of Rome who after Cannæ forbade matrons to sally forth, so that their grief-stricken bearing should not shake the strength of the citizens; of this Rome who re-wrote continually the chapters of her history, who found in every ill-success the incentives to endurance, to steadfastness, to strengthen her spirits, to harden her nerves, to light the flame of passion! This is the Rome of whom we dream; the Rome in whom all hierarchies are respected, those of strength, beauty, intelligence, and human kindness; the Rome who struck hard at her enemies, but then raised them up again and made them share her great destiny; the Rome who left the utmost liberty to the beliefs of her subject-peoples, provided only that they obeyed her!
Giuseppe Mazzini used to say that power is but the unity and perseverance of all efforts put together. Well, Italian power, Fascista power, the power of all the new generations which expand in this superb spring of our life and history, will be the result of the unity of our efforts, of the tenacity of our work. After all, what do Fascisti ask for? They are not ambitious or factious. They have the sense of limitation and of their responsibility. And I am sure of interpreting your thought, the deep craving of your soul, if I say that Fascisti, from the first to the last, from the leaders to the led, ask only one thing: To serve with humility, with devotion, with steadfastness, our beloved Mother Country, Italy! (The speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause.)