On the 23 March 1919 after a series of Communist
demonstrations, the almost forgotten Mussolini decided to attempt to
revive his Fasci movement. A meeting was held in a hall in a Milan and
was attended by some fifty malcontents. From this seemingly small and
insignificant event the Fascio di Combattimento' (Combat Group) was
born. Initially, it would seem that the Fasci were destined for
failure with none of their candidates (including Mussolini) winning a
single seat in the 1919 elections. How was it that a party with no
clear programme, save a belief in action of some sort, became a ruling
dictatorship little more than ten years later? By the end of 1919,
Mussolini possessed hardly more than 2% of the vote in Milan, less
than 5000 votes against 170,000 for the Socialists. Was this a
complete disaster? At the time it seemed so; the Socialists were so
confident of their success that they staged a mock funeral in Milan
stopping outside Mussolini's house to......
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