Staging Work in the Corporatist State. Visual Propaganda in Fascist Italy and Peronist Argentina (1922-1955)

Starting in 1922, Benito Mussolini (1922-1943) reformed Italian labour relations by adopting corporatism. As such, he served as a model for many other heads of state in search of ways out of economic crisis. When the corporatist model spread throughout Latin America in the 1930s and 1940s, the Argentine president Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955) drew significantly on the Italian precedent. Adhering to an aestheticised concept of politics and making use of modern mass media, both regimes advertised corporatism in their respective visual propaganda, in which the worker came to play a prominent role. The article analyses parallels and differences in the formation of political identities in fascist and Peronist visual media that under both corporatist regimes centred around work. Comparing different role models as they were designed for different members of society, I argue that – apart from gender roles where Peronism resorted to similarly traditional images – Peronist propaganda messages were more future-oriented and inclusive. Racist exclusions of parts of the population from the central worker identity that increasingly characterised fascist propaganda over the course of the 1930s were not adopted in Argentina after 1945. Instead, in state visual media the category of work in its inclusionary dimension served as a promise of belonging to the Peronist community.

Futurismus a fašismus

The article maps the relationship between the Italian Futurist movement and fascism from a general perspective. It deals with the relationship between the leader of Futurism F. T. Marinetti and Benito Mussolini from the beginning of their cooperation in 1915 to the end of the Second World War. Throughout its era, Futurism identified itself with Italy’s social and political climate. Futurism was one of the ideological sources for fascism and it was one of the movements that formed Fasci di Combattimento in 1919. But after Mussolini came to power, fascist cultural politics aesthetically preferred traditionalism, order, and a return to the achievements of history, a contemporary rappel à l’ordre, and Futurism found itself in cultural dissent. Marinetti thus spent the rest of his life trying to improve the position of modernist artists in fascist Italy, which would earn Futurism recognition of the official state art of the fascist regime.

OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM in Italy: it is time for change

Ophthalmia neonatorum (ON) refers to any conjunctivitis occurring in the first 28 days of life. In the past Neisseria gonorrhoeae was the most common cause of ON. It decreased with the introduction of prophylaxis at birth with the instillation of silver nitrate 2% (the Credè’s method of prophylaxis). Today, the term ON is used to define any other bacterial infection, in particular due to Chlamydia Trachomatis. Currently, the WHO reccomends topical ocular prophylaxis for prevention of gonococcal and chlamydial conjunctivitis for all neonates. On the contrary, several European countries no longer require universal prophylaxis, opting for screening and treatment of pregnant women at high risk of infection. And what about Italy? Have a look on Italian history of prophylaxis, starting by the first decree issued in 1940, signed by Benito Mussolini. In the following decades the law has undergone many changes. At the moment, legislation is unclear, therefore careful consideration is required in order to draft the correct appoach.

The Conflation of Race and Propaganda in the Mobilization of Africans for the Second World War

The primary focus here is to accentuate the competing roles of race and propaganda in the enlistment of Africans and African Americans for the Second World War. Among other things, the discussion captures on the interwar years and emphasizes the subtleties of African American Pan-Africanist discourses as a counterweight to Black oppression encountered in the racialized spaces of Jim Crow America, colonized Africa, and the pugnacious infraction that was the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1935–1936. Tying up the implications of these events into the broader global politics of 1939–1945 establishes the background in which the Allied Powers sought after Black people’s support in the war against the Axis Powers. Recalling that Italy’s fascist leader Benito Mussolini attacked Ethiopia in 1935 with poisonous gas while the League of Nations refused to act, points to the barefaced conflation of race and propaganda in the Great War and the centrality of African and African Diaspora exertions in the conflict.

Giovanni Pastrone’s Cabiria, Gesture, Modernism

Giovanni Pastrone’s epic Cabiria—not least because of its most famous technical innovation, the tracking or “Cabiria shot”—is a film preoccupied by gesture. In Cabiria the stylizations of human movement are central to the film’s establishment of a modernist vision of Italy in the context of an increasing technological interest in the analysis of human movement. Where modernism across all genres attends to gesture, from Edgar Degas’s dancers to the gait of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Cabiria does so with a modernist technology of the gaze that is now able to represent gesture in “real time.” Cabiria—which introduced both the lateral movement of the camera and the gesture later adopted by Benito Mussolini as the fascist salute—explores how such gestures situate the historical subject, and the historical crowd, in relationship to structures of political power.

Status kombatanta z tytułu uczestnictwa w Istriebitielnych Batalionach (rozważania historycznoprawne i dogmatycznoprawne)

Artykuł został poświęcony ukazaniu genezy powstania i działalności tak zwanych Istriebitielnych Batalionów (IB) — batalionów niszczycielskich funkcjonujących na terenach Wołynia i Galicji Wschodniej — formacji militarnych, które jako służba pomocnicza Armii Czerwonej, często dowodzona przez oficerów totalitarnej formacji NKWD, walczyły z oddziałami Organizacji Ukraińskich Nacjonalistów (OUN), frakcja Bandery oraz Ukraińskiej Powstańczej Armii. Główny ideolog OUN Dymytro Doncow był zafascynowany ideologią faszystowską rozwijającą się w Europie, dlatego też — idąc za swoim ideologiem oraz wraz ze swoim rozwojem — OUN i jej największa grupa: frakcja Bandery (OUN-B) przybrały charakter faszystowski. Również kierownik referatu wojskowego OUN Mychajło Kołodzinśkyj, po opuszczeniu więzienia w II Rzeczypospolitej, został wysłany przez OUN do faszystowskich Włoch, gdzie Benito Mussolini wyraził zgodę na utworzenie obozów szkoleniowych dla nacjonalistów ukraińskich, jak również dla chorwackich ustaszy. Tam tworząc ukraińską doktrynę wojenną, zapowiadał krwawą rozprawę z Polakami, Żydami i Rosjanami. Te zapowiedzi spełniły się w czasie II wojny światowej, a tragiczne wydarzenia na Wołyniu i Galicji Wschodniej opisane w niniejszym artykule ewidentnie wyczerpują znamiona lemkinowskiej definicji genocydu, która znalazła się w Konwencji o zapobieganiu i karaniu zbrodni ludobójstwa przyjętej przez Zgromadzenie Ogólne ONZ 9 grudnia 1948 roku. W tekście nie zostanie poruszona kwestia działalności Istriebitielnych Batalionów na terenie Litwy i Białorusi, gdyż ich działalność była zgoła odmienna. Nie broniły one tam zazwyczaj ludności polskiej, a zwrócone były głównie przeciwko podziemiu niepodległościowemu, wspomagając totalitarną NKWD. Druga część opracowania to dogmatycznoprawna analiza orzecznictwa sądów polskich w sprawie przyznawania osobom służącym w opisywanej formacji statusu kombatantów. Zgodnie z obowiązującym prawem uczestniczenie obywateli polskich w Istriebitielnych Batalionach na dawnych ziemiach polskich w województwach lwowskim, stanisławowskim, tarnopolskim i wołyńskim w latach 1944–1945 w obronie ludności polskiej przed ukraińskimi nacjonalistami stanowi działalność kombatancką. Jednak po 1989 roku nie było to takie oczywiste. Kierownik Urzędu do spraw Kombatantów stał konsekwentnie na stanowisku, że uprawnienia kombatanckie nie przysługują z mocy art. 21 ust. 2 pkt 3 ustawy o kombatantach osobie, która służyła w totalitarnych formacjach NKWD albo w innych organach represji ZSRR, działających przeciwko narodowi i państwu polskiemu. W orzecznictwie Naczelnego Sądu Administracyjnego istniała też duża rozbieżność w kwestii stosowania przepisów ustawy o kombatantach w odniesieniu do uczestnictwa w walkach w ramach Istriebitielnych Batalionów. Dlatego też, ze względu na złożoność problemu, wydaje się jak najbardziej zasadne prześledzenie tej procedury z punktu widzenia historycznego i jurydycznego.

Los trotskistas bajo el terror nazi. Una historia de la IV Internacional durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial

El estudio de los orígenes y primeros años de la IV Internacional adquiere una especial relevancia al considerarlos como parte del proceso de construcción y de crítica de las herramientas organizativas y políticas de la clase trabajadora que continúa hasta la actualidad. Desde sus orígenes, la IV Internacional estuvo marcada por las disputas políticas en el seno de la Internacional Comunista, por los primeros posicionamientos como Oposición de Izquierda, por la persecución de los simpatizantes trotskistas y por el asesinato de León Trotsky. Así, este libro se apoya en la necesidad y en la importancia de investigar la historia de las Internacionales Socialistas en clave de una historia internacional del socialismo, en la medida en que las expresiones locales y regionales de dicha corriente pueden comprenderse de manera integral a través de análisis comparativos y transnacionales. Los trotskistas bajo el terror nazi. Una historia de la IV Internacional durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, desarrolla un análisis histórico de la perspectiva política llevada a cabo por la IV Internacional en Europa durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial mediante el estudio comparativo de las secciones francesa, norteamericana, belga y británica. Tomando como uno de los ejes centrales el resurgimiento de la discusión sobre la cuestión nacional en Europa, se observa cómo la crisis de la IV Internacional no comenzó con el debate sobre el entrismo en 1953 sino diez años antes, debido a las dificultades de la organización para adaptarse al nuevo escenario europeo inaugurado a mediados de 1943 con la deposición de Benito Mussolini y el comienzo de la “contrarrevolución democrático-burguesa” a partir de la intervención de Estados Unidos durante los últimos años del conflicto bélico.

The goals and objectives of Italy in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War: position in the League of Nations and propaganda

This article gives an assessment one of the most notable episodes of the interwar period in the history of international relations – the development of Italian foreign policy in the context of the Italo-Ethiopian war. In the early 1935, Italy was ruled by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. One of the cornerstones of his foreign policy paradigm was the creation of the “New Roman Empire”. One of the initial targets of his expansion were Ethiopia and the Mediterranean. Italy replenishes its military and economic resources; however, it was deficient to achieve the set foreign policy goals. Therefore, the war in Ethiopia became one of the key vector of Rome’s official diplomacy. The warfare also unfolded in the ideological context – propaganda, politics within the League of Nations, and interlocutory instructions to the diplomats. The scientific novelty is defined by the absence of comprehensive research on the topic. The relevance of lies the fact that the Russian historiography did not give due attention dedicated to the secret plans of Italy during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. However, namely the plans of Cesare De Vecchi and Emilio De Bono that shed light on the crucial nuance of the Italian diplomacy of this period, and allow to properly stress topic and priorities with regards to foreign policy. This the article analyzes the ration between the objectives in Ethiopia and the Mediterranean basin –the cornerstone task within the framework of building a New Roman Empire.

Mystic in a Morning Coat

This chapter investigates how fascist sympathizers saw Benito Mussolini as a man who could simultaneously navigate modernity while moderating its worst effects. Constructed as the austere administrator with a deep soul, sympathizers drew attention to all that Americans had sacrificed in their race to the future and provided recompense for those who felt lost, lonely, or left behind by change. As a model, Mussolini countered the pessimistic notes that inhered in criticisms of American masculinity in contemporary society, to offer the promise of change. Part of the change seemed to rest on policy actions — for instance, in the area of education and youth training — as suggested by Herbert Schneider and Richard Washburn Child. And part seemed to require a shift in attitudes toward Italian-Americans, as argued by Generoso Pope.

Introduction

This introductory chapter discusses how the representation of fascism as a machine with a soul explains why Italian fascism appealed to some Americans in the interwar years. Although Richard Washburn Child, a former ambassador to Italy, and other fascist sympathizers echoed their contemporaries in their critiques of American modernity, they parted ways with most other Americans in their interpretation of Benito Mussolini and his government. In their telling, fascism was an effective system for managing contemporary challenges because it delivered the material benefits of the machine age while protecting Italians from its emotionally draining effects. These observers claimed that the fascists had intentionally reformed democratic institutions to create a government that was more receptive to the needs of ordinary people. In each case, they asserted that fascism produced a different kind of modernity from that which prevailed in the United States — one that upheld traditions, restored connections between government and the governed, and rebalanced the relationship between men and machines. The chapter then provides a background of the four individuals selected for the in-depth study of fascist sympathies: Richard Washburn Child, the diplomat and writer; Anne O'Hare McCormick, the New York Times journalist; Generoso Pope, the Italian-American community leader; and Herbert Wallace Schneider, the professor of moral philosophy.