The Italian general strike of October 1922 was a

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

against

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

's power-grab with the

March on Rome The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fa ...

. It was led by

socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...

and ended in defeat for the workers. Mussolini famously referred to this as the "

Caporetto Kobarid (; it, Caporetto, fur, Cjaurêt, german: Karfreit) is a settlement in Slovenia, the administrative centre of the Municipality of Kobarid. Kobarid is known for the 1917 Battle of Caporetto, where the Italian retreat was documented by Erne ...

of Italian Socialism".

Rudolph Rocker Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German Anarchism, anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family. His father died when he was a child, and his mother when he was in his t ...

, an active

Anarcho-Syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in b ...

of this period, claimed the event in his book: "When in 1922 the general strike against Fascism broke out, the democratic government armed the Fascist hordes and throttled this last attempt at the defence of freedom and right. But Italian democracy had dug its own grave. It thought it could use Mussolini as a tool against the workers, but thus it became its own grave-digger."AnarchoSyndicalism, by Rudolph Rocker, Chapter 6, "The Evolution of Anarcho-Syndicalism." http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/rocker/sp001495/rocker_as6.html

References

General strikes in Europe 1922 in Italy 1922 labor disputes and strikes Anti-fascism in Italy Labor disputes in Italy Protests in Italy {{Labor-dispute-stub