A failure as a novelist and playwright, Corradini made his name as founder and leader of the Nationalist Party in the first decade of the century. On the pages of "Il Regno," which he founded in 1903, he led the attack on Socialism, as well as on Giolitti's Liberal Ministry ("The pacifistic and unwarlike Little Italy"). His support for the colonization of Libya (1911) drew the fire of Salvemini both in "La Voce" and later in "L'Unita'…." An aggressive interventionist during World War I. In the late 1920's Corradini was a minister under Mussolini, without ever achieving a major influence within the regime.

The Principles of Nationalism: (from Italian Fascisms, edited by Adrian Lyttleton)

There is one basic factor from which all other...factors conditioning Italian life derive, as the whole tree stems from its stump. We must find this stump, which is the seat of evil, and suggest a cure, in accordance with our nationalist way of thinking. Let us attack the heart of our argument without delay.

We are an emigrant nation, that is to say...in order to obtain work and our daily bread, we are obliged to leave the country of our fathers, and disperse all over the world...

We must start by recognizing the fact that there are prole- tarian nations as well as proletarian classes; that is to say, there are nations whose living conditions are subject...to the way of life of other nations, just as classes are. Once this is realized, nationalism must insist firmly on this truth: Italy is, materially and morally, a proletarian nation. What is more she is proletarian at a period before her recovery. She is weak not in the strength of her people but in her strength as a nation. Exactly like the proletariat before socialism came to its aid.

The workers' muscles were as strong then as they are today, but to what extent did the workers desire to improve their lot? They were blind to their position. So what happened when social- ism started talking to the workers? They roused themselves, they had the first glimmerings of their situation, they glimpsed the possibility of changing it. And Socialism carried them along with it, urged them to fight, and through that fight forged their unity, their weapons, their new rights, their will to win, their pride in abusing their victory; it freed them and enabled them to dictate their class law to other classes, to the nation and to other nations.

Well, my friends, nationalism must do something similar for the Italian nation. It must become, to use a strained comparison, our national socialism. Just as socialism taught the proletariat the value of the class struggle, we must teach Italy the value of the international struggle.

But international struggle means war.

Well, let it be war! And let nationalism arouse in Italy the will to win a war.

Let us not labor the point that our war is not a sudden call to arms and that winning our war is not a simple minded poetic statement but a moral imperative. In a word, we propose a `means of national redemption,' summed up concisely in the expression "the need for war." ...Acknowledging the need to make ready for war and to prepare ourselves for war is a means of national discipline. This is a means of creating an irresistible need to return to a sense of duty. The nationalists are most anxious that our schools as well as our railways should do their duty. (War is equally) a means of reviving a pact of family solidarity between all classes of the nation. For years the socialists, our masters and opponents, have been preaching to the workers that it was in their interests to show solidarity with the workers of Cochin-China or Paraguay, and to dissociate themselves completely from their employers and the Italian nation. We must drum it into the workers' heads that it is their own interests to maintain solidarity with their employers, and above all, with their own country, and to hell with solidarity with their comrades in Paraguay or Cochin-China.

To sum up, since Italy achieved freedom and unity, Italy has lost two wars and has not solved the problems of the Mezzogiorno. In her policy of alliances, she has succeeded in being the enemy of her allies and the friend of her allies' enemies and enjoys no credit with either. She has not even had the faintest idea that she could direct her emigration to further national ends, and her institutions are now worn out and her parties exhausted.

The sum is that our foreign and domestic policy are achieving poor results. What are the causes of this? There is need for a general reappraisal. Nationalism proposes to undertake this reappraisal. There is need for a change of system in order to find a better one. Nationalism wants to find such a system. Herein lies its justification.

(Report to the First Nationalist Congress: Florence, December 3, 1919)

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