Sabotaged resistance crushed proletarian morale so completely that later calls for action failed
Evidence
In the summer of 1922, fascist violence broke out anew, and a general strike was finally called for 31 July; this was, however, effectively sabotaged by the C.G.L. leaders, and crushed by fascist counter-blows. This action was the last massive expression of popular resistance to fascism, and its defeat had a decisive negative impact on the morale of the proletariat. When Mussolini “marched” on Rome in October 1922, the P.C.I.’s call for a general strike found no response. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 132
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEFINE: A concrete mechanism for why organized resistance collapses: leadership sabotage plus defeat produces demoralization that then precludes future mobilization—the demoralization spiral.
- XREF: Provides the reader with the historical baseline for Gramsci’s later theorizing about hegemony and why a passive-revolutionary path becomes necessary when frontal assault has been discredited.