Blackshirts vs Leftists

Years 1920 1922 Battle deaths 3,300 In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the first Italian Combat League (Fasci Italiani di Combattimento) at the beginning of the two red years (biennio rosso). He suffered a defeat in the election of November 1919. But, by the election of 1921, Mussolini gained entrance to Parliament. Out of his Fascist party the Blackshirts (Squadristi) were formed. In August 1920, the Blackshirts were used to break the general strike which had started at the Alfa Romeo factory in Milan. In November 1920, after the assassination of Giordana (a right wing municipal counsellor in Bologna), the Blackshirts were used as a repression tool by the state[citation needed] to crush the socialist movement (which included a strong anarcho syndicalist component), especially in the Po Valley.Trade unions were dissolved while left wing mayors resigned. The fascists, included on Giovanni Giolittis National Union lists at the May 1921 elections, then won 36 seats. Mussolini then withdrew his support to Giolitti and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the socialists by signing a Pacification Pact in summer 1921. This provoked a conflict with the most fanatical part of the movement, the Squadristi and their leaders the Ras. In July 1921, Giolitti attempted without success to dissolve the squadristi. The contract with the socialists was then broken at its turn in November 1921, Mussolini adopted a nationalist program and founded the National Fascist Party, which boasted 700,000 members in July 1922. In August, an anti fascist general strike was triggered, but failed to rally the Italian Peoples Party (Partito Popolare Italiano) and was repressed by the fascists.