When Benito Mussolini and his Fasci, or Fascists ascended to power in Italy, an estimated four million Italian immigrants lived in the United States. Mussolini's call for a rejuvenated, Fascist Italy and renewed sense of ethnic identity appealed to many Italian immigrants struggling in the United States.
Mussolini's regime quickly realized the potential value such organizations represented. Using such organizations as a channel of communication and influence, Mussolini's government hoped to sway American foreign policy in his favor. As early as 1921, Mussolini's fascist government sent a series of representatives to lead existing Italian-American organizations or create new ones.
Fascists Establish Ties With Italian-American Organizations
In May 1921, Agostino Di Biasi established the Fascio of New York. Following Mussolini's rise to power in 1922, Di Biasi established direct communications with Mussolini, who responded by stating “I send you my most recent photograph. I clasp your hands affectionately and ask that you also work for the triumph of Fascism in America.” Elated by the news of the Fascio of New York, Mussolini predicted the formations of hundreds of Fasci groups in North America that would “arouse, conserve, and exalt Italianita among the millions of fellow Italians dispersed throughout the world.”
Fascist Goals and Objectives
Di Biasi drafted a platform for the New York Fascio. Di Biasi state that fascists will, “adherence to the US Constitution, efforts to make Italy better known in the United States, the moral, political, economic, and intellectual elevation of the immigrants and their protection, commercial development between Italian and Italian-Americans, and the realization of the “Italian-American Entente.”
Di Biasi's primary goal called for diplomatic pressure on the American Government rather than party activism, using the Fascio as a source of Italian-American pressure to secure Fascist Italy's foreign policy goals. To legitimate such activities, the directorate of the Fascist Party in Italy passed a resolution stating that the Fasci abroad should act as “posts for the rescue of threatened Italianism.”
Fascist Consolidation in the United States
Italian fascists established new organizations in the United States or took control of existing ones in service of Mussolini's government. In June 1922, Giovanni Di Silvestro led the Order of the Sons of Italy and determined to make the Order the lead fascist organization in New York and the United States as a whole. Mussolini and Di Silvestro reached an agreement establishing that Order of the Sons of Italy as the representative body for relations between Italian-Americans and Mussolini's regime.
Establishment of the Fascist League of North America
In 1925, Mussolini sent Count Ignazio Thaon di Revel to the United States to establish the Fascist League of North America. Under the leadership of Di Silvestro, the Fascist League of North America amalgamated all the local fasci into one group for the purpose of better control and coordination. The Fascist League established lodges throughout the United States, including major industrial cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Detroit.
Within months of Mussolini's rise to power in Italy, fascist agents gained leadership positions in existing Italian-American organizations and agents of Mussolini's regime established new organizations indirectly led b y Italian agents. By 1925, The Order of the Sons of Italy and the Fascist League of North America served as important links between Mussolini's regime, Italian-Americans, and the United States Government.
Continue reading this series:
The United States and Fascist Italy
Sources:
Gaetano Salvemini, Italian Fascist Activities in the United States (New York: Center for Migration Studies: 1977), 12-15.
Philip V. Cannistraro, Blackshirts in Little Italy: Italian Americans and Fascism 1921-1929 (West Lafayette: Bordighera Press, 1999), 8-23.
Matthew Ferraton - Matthew Ferraton earned his Master of Arts in History at Cleveland State University in December 2008 and Certificate in Microsoft ...
