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{{Short description|Italian fascist manifesto}}

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"'''The Manifesto of the Italian Fasces of Combat'''" ({{langx|it|"Il manifesto dei fasci italiani di combattimento"|italics=no}}), also referred to as the '''Fascist Manifesto''' or the '''San Sepolcro Programme''' ("Programma di San Sepolcro") is the [[political platform]] developed from statements made during the founding of the ''[[Fasci Italiani di Combattimento]]'', held in [[Piazza San Sepolcro]] in Milan on March 23, 1919.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anonimo |title=Manifesto dei Fasci italiani di combattimento {{!}} ANPI |url=https://www.anpi.it/libri/manifesto-dei-fasci-italiani-di-combattimento |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=www.anpi.it |language=it}}</ref> 

It was the initial declaration of the political stance of the ''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento'' ("Italian Fasces of Combat")<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Italy: Rise of Mussolini|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=3432&HistoryID=ac52|access-date=2 February 2014}}</ref> the movement founded in [[Milan]] by [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1919 and it is an early expression of [[Italian fascism|fascism]] known as ''[[sansepolcrismo]]''. The manifesto was co-authored by [[National syndicalism|national syndicalist]] [[Alceste De Ambris|Alceste de Ambris]] and the [[Futurism (literature)|futurist poet]] [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]].

The manifesto was published in ''[[Il Popolo d'Italia]]'' on June 6, 1919, and it is divided into four sections, describing the movement's objectives in political, social, military and financial fields.<ref>{{cite web|title=Il manifesto dei fasci di combattimento|url=http://web.tiscalinet.it/regno76/testi/manifesti/Il%20manifesto%20dei%20fasci%20di%20combattimento.htm|access-date=2 February 2014|archive-date=20 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220075247/http://web.tiscalinet.it/regno76/testi/manifesti/Il%20manifesto%20dei%20fasci%20di%20combattimento.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Text ==
{{Quotation|text=
Italians!

Here is the program of a sane Italian movement.
Revolutionary because anti-dogmatic and anti-demagogical; strongly innovative because anti-prejudicial.
We place the valorization of revolutionary war above everything and everyone.
The other problems: bureaucratic, administrative, legal, educational, colonial, etc., we will chart when we have created the ruling class.

For this WE WANT:

On the political problem:

* Universal suffrage by regional list voting, with proportional representation, voting and eligibility for women.
* Minimum age for voters lowered to 18; minimum age for deputies lowered to 25.
* The abolition of the Senate.
* The convening of a National Assembly for the duration of three years, whose first task is to establish the form of the state constitution.
* The formation of National Technical Councils of labor, industry, transportation, social hygiene, communications, etc., elected by the professional or trade communities, with legislative powers, and the right to elect a General Commissioner with ministerial powers.

On the social problem:

WE WANT:

* The prompt enactment of a state law enshrining the legal eight-hour workday for all jobs.
* Minimum wages.
* The participation of workers' representatives in the technical operation of industry.
* The entrusting to the proletarian organizations themselves (who are morally and technically worthy) of the management of public industries or services.
* The speedy and complete settlement of the railroad workers and all transportation industries.
* A necessary amendment of the Disability and Old Age Insurance Bill by lowering the age limit, currently proposed at 65, to 55.

On the military issue:

WE WANT:

* The establishment of a national militia with brief educational services and exclusively defensive duty.
* The nationalization of all arms and explosives factories.
* A national foreign policy intended to enhance, in the peaceful competitions of civilization, the Italian nation in the world.

On the financial problem:

WE WANT:

* A strong extraordinary tax on capital of a progressive nature, having the form of true PARTIAL EXPROPRIATION of all wealth.
* The seizure of all property of religious congregations and the abolition of all diocesan benefices, which constitute a huge liability for the nation and a privilege of the few.
* The revision of all war supply contracts and the seizure of 85 percent of war profits.

|source=|author=Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Alceste de Ambris|title=''Manifesto dei Fasci italiani di combattimento''}}

== The manifesto in practice ==
The early positions reflected in the manifesto would later be characterized by Mussolini in 1932 "[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]" as "a series of pointers, forecasts, hints which, when freed from the inevitable matrix of contingencies, were to develop in a few years time into a series of doctrinal positions entitling Fascism to rank as a political doctrine differing from all others, past or present."<ref>The Doctrine of Fascism: Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, 1932. http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/reading/germany/mussolini.htm</ref>

Of the manifesto's proposals, the commitment to corporative organisation of economic interests was to be the longest lasting. Far from becoming a medium of extended democracy, [[Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy|parliament]] became by law an exclusively Fascist-picked body in 1929; being replaced by the "chamber of corporations" a decade later.

An eight-hour workday was introduced in 1925.<ref>Art. 1 comma 1 R.D.L. 15 marzo 1923 n. 692.</ref>

Fascism's pacifist foreign policy ceased during its first year of Italian government. In September 1923, the [[Corfu crisis]] demonstrated the regime's willingness to use force internationally. Perhaps the greatest success of Fascist diplomacy was the [[Lateran Treaty]] of February 1929, which accepted the principle of non-interference in the affairs of the Church. This ended the 59-year-old dispute between Italy and the [[Papacy]].

== See also ==
* [[Definitions of fascism]]
* [[Communist Manifesto]]
* ''[[Manifesto of Futurism]]''
* [[Constitution of Fiume]]
* "[[Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals]]"
* "[[Manifesto of Race]]"

== References ==
{{Wikisourcelang|it|Manifesto dei Fasci italiani di combattimento, pubblicato su "Il Popolo d'Italia" del 6 giugno 1919}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Fascism}}

[[Category:1919 in Italy]]
[[Category:1919 in politics]]
[[Category:1919 documents]]
[[Category:Italian fascist works]]
[[Category:Political manifestos]]