Deja Vu, anyone?

"People are tired of liberty. They have had a surfeit of it. Liberty is no longer a chaste and austere virgin…. Today’s youth are moved by other slogans…Order, Hierarchy, Discipline."

-Benito Mussolini

One of the favorite tactics of the Socialist Liberal Left in both America and Europe is to accuse those who oppose them of being "fascists." They count on the fact that people lacking in a well-grounded knowledge of history consider fascism to be simply the extremist right wing movement in any given society. In point of fact, it isn't. To understand the Leftist nature of fascism, one must understand its roots.

The word "Fascism" comes from the Italian word "fascio" which means bundle of sticks, the idea being that it is much more difficult to break sticks when they are gathered together than singly. The original Italian Fascist movement believed in using State power to unite the various elements of society into a single cohesive unit in order to strengthen the State. Naturally, individual rights were an unacceptable obstacle to those who held such beliefs.

The founder of the Fascist Movement (later the Italian Fascist Party), Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, was born into a family of staunch Socialists. His parents named him, respectively, for Mexican Socialist Benito Juarez and Italian Socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani. Mussolini's parents were both Socialist activists. He and his sister were members of Marx and Engels' First Socialist International and he became one of the top leaders of the Italian Socialist Party by the age of 30.

Mussolini fled military service in Italy by escaping to Switzerland, where he again became deeply involved in Socialist activism. He was almost deported from Switzerland, but for the intervention of Socialist members of Parliament. He soon found work in Austria-Hungary, in the ethnically Italian city of Trento, where he became the editor of a Socialist newspaper, L'Avvenire del Lavoratore ("The Future of the Worker"). Again, he began working on behalf of the local Socialist Party and soon switched to another Socialist newspaper, Il Popolo ("The People").

After being deported from Austria-Hungary back into Italy, Mussolini joined the staff of yet another Socialist paper, Avanti! ("Forward!"), which called itself the "Central Organ of the Socialist Party."

In 1919, Mussolini formed what became known as the Fascist Movement and was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1921. In October of 1922, he was elected the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history. In 1925, all semblance of democratic freedom was dropped and a complete dictatorship ensued throughout Italy.

Mussolini's policies included direct attacks on private property ownership through the establishment of 5,000 government owned farms and the settlement of peasants on "redistributed" land. He introduced a program called "Gold for the Fatherland" in which the people were called to "donate" their gold jewelery (including wedding rings) to be melted down into ingots. In exchange, they received steel armbands inscribed with the "Gold for the Fatherland" slogan.

By 1935, Mussolini made the claim that 3/4 of all Italian businesses were under government control. He instituted wage and price controls and forced Italians to give up any shares they owned in foreign businesses.

Il Duce, as he became known (meaning "The Leader"), undertook a propaganda campaign early on. Using any and all organs of communications, he sought to convince the Italian people that Fascism was the only true philosophy for the Twentieth Century. Anyone who opposed the Fascist way of thinking was belittled as being backwards and part of a very small minority which was trying to stop progress.

Italy entered world War II as one of the three major Axis powers, but was patently unsuccessful in most of his military campaigns, leading to abandonment of Italy by German forces and an American invasion. In 1943, he was deposed and arrested. He was moved around for several months to keep the Germans from rescuing him but was eventually taken into German custody. In 1945, as he was on his way to board a plane to Austria, he was captured by Italian partisans and executed. His body was taken to Milan, where it was hung from a meathook in a public square, where it was left for days for the people to abuse and spit on.

Fascism was clearly a Socialist, Left Wing philosophy. There is very little on which Mussolini and modern day Socialist Liberals actually disagree. Both in Italy and in Nazi Germany, the persecution of Bolsheviks and Communists of all types was not a struggle between Right and Left. It was sibling rivalry. For American Liberals and Socialists to call their opponents Fascists is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy, considering that they themselves are the philosophical brethren of Mussolini and his cadre.

Many of the the principles espoused by and tactics used by Benito Mussolini sound suspiciously like the goals set forth by the Rochester Town Board and the means they are using to achieve them. History has proven, however, that such philosophies can only win out through the ruthless annihilation of individual civil rights. It has also proven that, eventually and inevitably, human rights will win out and dictatorships will fall.

Fortunately, we have a far more peaceful way of ridding ourselves of our local despots. We have the ballot box and the great American tradition know as "Throw the scoundrels out."

Come this November, the people of the Town of Rochester will rid ourselves of those who believe a bundle of sticks is more important than the rights of the people.