The red week

Question 1

What was the initial spark for red week on the 7 June 1914?

Answer 1

70 policemen tried to prevent 200 workers from marching into the centre of Ancona. A clash broke out wich ended in the death of three demonstrators

Question 2

What did Mussolini urge the socialist party to do?

Answer 2

Call a general strike throughout Italy

Question 3

What was the response in subversive central areas, like Romagna?

Answer 3

The response was so violent that both trade union leaders and the authorities lost control

Question 4

What happened on June 10 in the small town of Fabriano?

Answer 4

They proclaimed a republic and hoisted the red flag

Question 5

What had happened just two days after the outburst?

Answer 5

All the agitation had ceased and the leaders of both the forces of order and the leaders of the popular parties had been sedated

Question 6

What was the size of the electorate at the turn of the century?

Answer 6

3 million, out of a population of 32 million

Question 7

Where was most of the electorate located?

Answer 7

In the Northern and central areas

Question 8

Why can the events of red week be reconstructed at such remarkable detail?

Answer 8

Thanks to transcripts of telephone conversations between the leaders of the PSI and the CGL, tapped by the police and preserved in the state archives

Question 9

What do the telephone transcripts reveal about the revolutionary leaders?

Answer 9

The extent to which they were taken by surprise and unprepared to capitalise on the revolutionary situation

Question 10

What had the CGL and PSI already agreed in January 1913 that made red week almost inevitable?

Answer 10

They had agreed on strike action if more deaths occured

Question 11

Why was there so much ambiguity over strike action?

Answer 11

The majority of CGL organisations had voted for a formal strike over a limited time period, whereas the maximalist leaders of the party wanted an indefinite strike

Question 12

What were the maximalists worried about?

Answer 12

That the syndicalists would precede them in announcing strike action

Question 13

What did the maximalists do on the morning of the 8th June?

Answer 13

Persuaded the party driectorate to announce a strike without mentioning where it would end and waiting for the decisions of the CGL leaders, who were to meet at Genoa on the 9th

Question 14

Why did maximalists leader Vella refuse to communicate with the CGL?

Answer 14

He didn’t even telephone the CGL secretary, as had been arranged, and the telegram he sent instead was bolcked by the police

Question 15

How did Rigoli, the general secretary of the CGL, learn about the strikes?

Answer 15

He learned of the strike through the party newspaper office on the afternoon of the 8th of June

Question 16

Which two groups proclaimed a general strike, on the same day as the maximalists?

Answer 16

The USI and the republican party

Question 17

Which was the only union that delayed their strikes until the next day, and why did they do this?

Answer 17

Only the railwaymen’s union, the most verbally aggresive union arousing accusations they did this to give time for army and police reinforcements to arrive in Ancona.

Question 18

Why were railway strikes so ineffective?

Answer 18

• 104 of its telegrams to local groups were blocked
• Only two of the five personal messengers reached their destinations without delay
• Thus, the railway system was interrupted, but never brought to a standstill

Question 19

How long did the general strike last for?

Answer 19

It lasted two days, as it was called off by Rigola on the evening of the 10th of June at the pressing invitation of many local federations

Question 20

What had happened even before Rigola had sent out his order to cancel the general strikes?

Answer 20

The revolutionary syndicalist headquaters in Parma had ordered its end, as the strikes had failed to paralyse the country

Question 21

What had local leaders failed to do during the two day general strike?

Answer 21

Proved incapable of offering purposeful direction where the most violent demonstrations had broken out

Question 22

What had happened by the second day of the general strike?

Answer 22

Counter-demonstrations of nationalist students and bourgeois citizens threatened further bloodshed

Question 23

Where was the strike most successful?

Answer 23

In areas where unions had developed most strongly. In central Italy, especially areas like Emilia and Romagna

Question 24

In what city were the strikes relatively limited?

Answer 24

Rome

Question 25

Where did strikes break out with violence?

Answer 25

Terni, Florence, Bologna and Parma, and many of the smaller towns

Question 26

Where did demonstrations and clashes in the north mainly occur?

Answer 26

Milan and Turin

Question 27

In which city did 30,000 workers come out on strike?

Answer 27

Turin

Question 28

In which places were the effects of the strike more limited?

Answer 28

In Liguria, the strike only affected the port of Genoa and the shipyards of Sampierdarina
- In Veneto, only the city of Venice was affected

Question 29

To which regions were the strikes limited in the south?

Answer 29

Naples, Palermo, Apulia and the important port of Bari

Question 30

How did Salandra respond to the strikes?

Answer 30

He handled it carefully, only too conscious of the dangers of repeating the authoritarian tactics of 1898

Question 31

How was Salandra rewarded for his careful handling of the strikes, and why was this ironic?

Answer 31

He was rewarded with an impressive vote of confidence in the chamber of deputies, 254 votes against 112. Ironically, during these very hours the strikes developed into a mass insurrection in the province of Ravenna

Question 32

How many strikers bicycled to Ravenna, for a meeting on the morning of the 10th?

Answer 32

18,000. This meant that it was only thanks to a well-bicycled population that insurrection coould occur

Question 33

What were the consequences of the meeting on the 10th of June?

Answer 33

The speakers at the meeting, a socialist, republican and anarchist, incited the peasants, who returned to the country side spreading rumour that revolution had occured in Ravenna, Milan, Flornece and Rome

Question 34

What had happened by the morning of the 11th of June?

Answer 34

The roads and railway lines had been blocked and telephone lines had been cut

Question 35

By when had the insurrection ended?

Answer 35

By the evening of the 12th, as republican deputies and the editor of a republican newspaper travelled around the countryside, breaking news that the strike had ended

Question 36

Why city had been taken over by the evening of the 11th?

Answer 36

Ravenna

Question 37

What did the red week act as?

Answer 37

A reality check for the ‘subversives’ who had been advocating for an Italian revolution

Question 38

Which groups resolved to prepare more seriously for a revolution after red week?

Answer 38

Revolutionary socialists, republicans, revolutionary syndicalists and anarchists

Question 39

What was the only group who had their anti-militarist sentiments strengthened by red week?

Answer 39

The socialists, as they remianed determined not to intervene in a bourgeois, inperialist war