Biennio Rosso
The “Two Red Years” were a period of mass strikes, factory occupations, land seizures, and socialist agitation in Italy from 1919 to 1920.
Factory occupation movement: A labor tactic in which workers take control of workplaces and continue or suspend production under their own authority. In September 1920, workers occupied factories across northern Italy, bringing the unrest to its peak.
Italian economic crisis of 1919–1920: A postwar downturn marked by inflation, unemployment, industrial disruption, and pressure on household incomes in Italy. Economic hardship intensified demands for wages, jobs, and control over production.
Antonio Gramsci: An Italian Marxist thinker, journalist, and politician who helped found the newspaper L'Ordine Nuovo. His advocacy of factory councils offered a distinctive strategy for Turin’s labor movement.
Fascist violence in Italy: The organized use of assault, intimidation, and destruction by Italian Fascist squads against political opponents and institutions. Squad violence grew as landowners and industrialists sought to suppress socialist and labor organizations.
Italian general strike of 1920: A nationwide Italian labor stoppage in April 1920, centered on a dispute over factory councils and workers’ control. The strike exposed divisions between industrial workers, unions, and Socialist Party leaders.
Italian demobilization after World War I: The return of Italian soldiers to civilian life after the 1918 armistice and the resulting strain on employment and public services. Returning veterans joined a society already struggling with jobs, prices, and political uncertainty.
Amadeo Bordiga: An Italian Marxist politician who led a revolutionary abstentionist current within the Socialist Party. His opposition to parliamentary participation marked one response to the reformist limits of the socialist leadership.
March on Rome: The October 1922 Fascist mobilization that pressured King Victor Emmanuel III to appoint Mussolini prime minister. It marked the political outcome of a crisis in which the left had failed to consolidate power.
Factory councils: Elected workplace bodies that represented workers and, in some cases, sought authority over production. Their growth in Turin gave the movement a proposed structure for workers’ control.
Italian Red Week: A wave of protests and strikes in Italy in June 1914, before the country entered World War I. It showed that mass labor unrest had precedents before the postwar Biennio Rosso.