ABSTRACT
Although essential for consolidating the Fascists’ recently acquired power, the violence perpetrated after the March on Rome took on new forms compared to the pre-March days. The chapter considers how the expression of Fascist violence changed, underlying the interplay between the coherence between ways of thinking and actions within the squadristi’s community, as well as the metamorphoses that Fascist violence underwent in the first years after the March. Sometimes, old action squads survived and operated as if nothing had happened; other times, old squads became units of the newly established Volunteer Militia but continued to perpetrate the same violent acts of intimidation; finally, some old squads took on the guise of sport teams, party circles or even mutual aid associations (e.g. in Turin). The chapter argues that in order to understand the nature of the squadristi’s acts of violence in the post-March period, it is necessary to take account of the context in which they were perpetrated, and of the fact that these acts were also made possible by the extended impunity which most of the culprits enjoyed. For all these reasons, the squadristi’s actions cannot be interpreted as the product of criminal backgrounds and social or behavioural deviances.
