The defeated 1922 general strike crushed proletarian morale before Mussolini’s march.

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

• XREF: This defeat-and-demoralization mechanism—how a decisive lost battle reshapes a class’s capacity for collective action—connects to Gramsci’s theory of hegemony as dependent on subjective readiness and to how demoralized communities internalize subordination.