ABSTRACT
Fascism's modernity meant repression of political and civil liberties, reinforcement of class exploitation and domination, circumvention of the principles of equality, fraternity and justice. In fact, fascism represented a development of social productive forces, advanced industrial development, technological innovation, and increased the productivity of labour. Despite the adoption of Leninism and the conditions imposed by the International, the party lacked both a concrete political strategy and a sound ideology for dealing with fascism. According to Togliatti, since Fascism represented a further revolutionary advance in the development of social productive forces, it created conditions in which broad social strata, directly or indirectly, got increasingly involved in political and economic affairs. In particular, what had to be done was the implementation of a concrete economic strategy of reconstruction, which had also to include a concrete programme for agrarian reform, a very pressing problem particularly in the South.
