Skip to main content
The British protest against fascism that nearly derailed Mussolini’s plans for the ‘March on Rome’
ALFIO BERNABEI looks back 100 years to a key turning point in the emergence of fascism
DARK DAY: The first contingent of armed Italian fascisti arriving in Rome in 1922; fascist leader Benito Mussolini

AS HE prepared to take control of Italy with plans already under way for the march on Rome, Mussolini warned the British government that he would unleash “maximum-degree” retaliations against British ships in Italian ports if an anti-fascist protest by the British unions was allowed to go ahead which threatened to embarrass him in front of the whole world. 

The protest, led among others by the British National Union of Railwaymen and the National Federation of Transport Workers, was the first major anti-fascist event outside Italian borders and was called at a time when Mussolini was sending out warnings that he was ready to advance, with up to 300,000 Blackshirts at his command. 

The march on Rome eventually took place on October 28 1922 and the Italian king appointed Mussolini prime minister. 

Donate to the Fighting Fund
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
DOOMED: Matteotti (centre) with fellow supporters during the
Features / 10 June 2024
10 June 2024
ALFIO BERNABEI presents evidence that it was the Italian Socialist MP’s attempt – weeks before his death – to build an anti-fascist platform in Britain that cost him his life, as he vainly sought to prevent Italy from falling into dictatorship
Features / 25 February 2023
25 February 2023
Historian ALFIO BERNABEI tells the remarkable story of how Sylvia Pankhurst and Silvio Corio railed against the fascist ‘camorra’ in Clerkenwell’s Little Italy in the aftermath of Mussolini’s seizure of power
Features / 2 November 2022
2 November 2022
ALFIO BERNABEI looks back to when emigrant Blackshirts openly paraded through London to Westminster Abbey, tolerated by the Tory government and accepted by much of the mainstream press as a legitimate political movement in power in Italy
Similar stories
TORPEDOED: The SS Arandora Star, and (below) a memorial to  those killed
Commemoration / 25 April 2025
25 April 2025

The annual commemoration of anti-fascist volunteers who fought fascism in Spain now includes a key contribution from Italian comrades

REPELLANT BUFFOON: Luca Marinelli as Mussolini
TV Series Review / 3 February 2025
3 February 2025
JOHN FOOT welcomes a depiction of the fascist dictator’s rise to power that points the finger of blame at his enablers
An aerial view of a migrant reception facility at the port o
World / 8 November 2024
8 November 2024
DOOMED: Matteotti (centre) with fellow supporters during the
Features / 10 June 2024
10 June 2024
ALFIO BERNABEI presents evidence that it was the Italian Socialist MP’s attempt – weeks before his death – to build an anti-fascist platform in Britain that cost him his life, as he vainly sought to prevent Italy from falling into dictatorship