Arditi del Popolo

People's Daring Ones
Arditi del Popolo
LeaderArgo Secondari
Dates of operation17 June 1921 (1921-06-17) – 1924 (1924)
Split fromArditi
Merged intoItalian resistance movement
Country Italy
MotivesOpposition to Italian fascism
IdeologyAnti-fascism
Factions:
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
Size20,000 (1921)
Opponents Fascist Italy
Logo of the Arditi del Popolo, an axe cutting a fasces

The Arditi del Popolo (English: "The People's Daring Ones") was an Italian militant anti-fascist group founded at the end of June 1921 to resist the rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and the violence of the Blackshirts (squadristi) paramilitaries.[1] It grouped revolutionary trade-unionists, socialists, communists, anarchists, republicans, anti-capitalists, as well as some former military officers, and was co-founded by Giuseppe Mingrino, Argo Secondari and Gino Lucetti[2] – who tried to assassinate Mussolini on 11 September 1926 – the deputy Guido Picelli and others.[3] The Arditi del Popolo were an offshoot of the Arditi elite troops, who had previously occupied Fiume in 1919 behind the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro. Those who split to form the Arditi del Popolo were close to the anarchist Argo Secondari and were supported by Mario Carli. The formazioni di difesa proletaria (Proletarian Defense Formations) later merged with them. The Arditi del Popolo gathered approximately 20,000 members in summer 1921.[4]

  1. ^ Gli Arditi del Popolo (Birth) Archived August 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (in Italian)
  2. ^ Working Class Defence Organization, Anti-Fascist Resistance and the Arditi Del Popolo in Turin, 1919-22
  3. ^ Giulietti, Fabrizio (2015). Gli anarchici italiani dalla Grande Guerra al fascismo. Milan.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Gli Arditi del Popolo: I numeri dell'organizzazione Archived May 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (in Italian)