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Liberal Party’s Luigi Facta set up another coalition govern- ment. In July, a national strike was called by the Socialist Party and a union representing railway workers. Mussolini declared that if Facta’s government didn’t break up the strike, his Fascist Party would. And that’s what happened. With the regular workers off the job, Blackshirts took over. They kept rail trans- portation and other essential services operating. Within a week, the strike was over. This won the Fascists much support among middle-class Italians. Italy’s troubles, however, only got worse. Worker unrest continued. There were riots in the cities. In the countryside, poor peasants battled wealthy landowners. Italy appeared to be sliding closer and closer toward chaos. Phantom March On October 24, 1922, the Fascist Party held a national meeting in Naples. At that meeting, Mussolini stoked fears of a coup . “Either the government will be given to us,” he declared, “or we shall seize it by marching on Rome.” Blackshirts were soon moving toward the capital—by train. But Mussolini’s threat to seize the government was a bluff. The Blackshirts were a ragtag bunch. Some were armed only with farm implements. And they numbered perhaps 20,000—one- fifteenth the total that Mussolini would later claim had partic- ipated in the March on Rome. The Blackshirts remained well outside the capital. They didn’t dare risk a direct confrontation with Italy’s army, against which they would have been badly overmatched.

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Fascism: Radical Nationalism