II.
NATIONAL SYNDICALISM AND THE CORPORATIVE FASCIST STATE
“…the pressure of destructive forces continue, and it is clear that democracy must end in socialism.”
EDMONDO ROSSONI
NATIONAL SYNDICALISM, not to be confused with National Socialism. Georges Sorel, father of revolutionary syndicalism (Imagining the Worker’s Revolution: The Case of Georges Sorel), greatly influenced Benito Mussolini (see this Abstract for a primer on the influence of Sorelism on the young Mussolini).
In relation to the introduction, the concept of National Syndicalism (see Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, The Creator of National-Syndicalism, Antonio Medrano, Totalité – Issue 13) and the model of Corporativismo is relevant to what Palmieri is saying, because in the section on the Fascist State, we find the different contrasting points from the American Conservative view of the State. Palmieri critiques the concept of individualism, and advocates Corporativism as the organizer of social life, transferring power to the State.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FASCISM: CHAPTER VIII THE FASCIST STATE, THE LEGACY OF ROME
“This manifestation of the Italians of all classes, all professions, all trades and all creeds into the framework of one enormous and far-reaching organization, which has for its end the material welfare of the whole, is called National Syndicalism.
This National Syndicalism represents the first attempt made to bring the egotistic claims of the individual under the discipline of the Sovereign State; for the realization of an aim which transcends the welfare of the individual and identifies itself with the prosperity of the whole nation.
To make this discipline possible, and the sovereignty effective in practice as well as in theory, Fascism has devised the “Corporazione,” an instrument of social life destined to exercise the most far-reaching influence upon the economic development of Fascist States. (The Italian word “Corporazione” which is currently translated into English by the apparently analogous word “Corporation,” means, more exactly in the Italian language, what the word “Guild” means in English; that is: associations of persons engaged in kindred pursuits. We shall nevertheless follow the general usage to obviate the danger of misunderstandings.)
Within the Corporations the interests of producers and consumers, employers and employees, individuals and associations are interlocked and integrated in a unique and univocal way, while all types of interests are brought under the aegis of the State.
Finally, through these corporations the State may at any time that it deems fit, or that the need requires, intervene within the economic life of the individual to let the supreme interests of the nation have precedence over his private, particular interests, even to the point where his work, his savings, his whole fortune may be pledged, and if absolutely necessary, sacrificed.”
DEFINITION OF SYNDICALISM
“Syndicalism developed out of strong anarchist and antiparliamentary traditions among the French working class. Greatly influenced by the teachings of the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and the socialist Auguste Blanqui, it was developed as a doctrine by certain leaders of the French trade-union movement toward the end of the 19th century. In France, syndicalism is known as syndicalisme révolutionnaire (the word syndicalisme means only “trade unionism”). Syndicalist tendencies manifested themselves with increasing strength during the 1890s in the two main French labour organizations of the period—the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Fédération des Bourses du Travail. The secretary of the latter, Fernand Pelloutier, did much to work out the characteristic tenets of syndicalism and to spread them among his workers. When these two organizations joined forces in 1902, trade unionism, and syndicalism in particular, gained an immense accession of strength.
The syndicalist, like the Marxist, was opposed to capitalism and looked forward to an ultimate class war from which the working class would emerge victorious. To the syndicalist, the state was by nature a tool of capitalist oppression and, in any event, was inevitably rendered inefficient and despotic by its bureaucratic structure. As an appendage of the capitalist order, then, the state could not be used for reform with peaceful means and must be abolished.” (Syndicalism, Britannica)
The American Minervan 
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