I’ve always heard a thing that really helped Mussolini and his blackshirts seize power in Italy was the support of Italy’s business class who were afraid of the working class rising up in a socialist revolution. That makes sense that a class collaborationist ideology could be used as a means to prevent a working class revolt.
But Mussolini‘s specific form of class collaborationism entailed tripartism, where employers associations and labor unions collectively bargain under the state as the neutral judge. Was the employer class SO scared of a Marxist revolution that they were willing to give up a little bit of their control rather than lose all of it and potentially their lives?
I’m trying to learn more about Italian Fascism as I find it a really fascinating lesser known and unexplored aspect of World War II history.
A quick look at Giuseppe Bottai's Carta del Lavoro("Labour Charter) from 1927 tells us, that the "class collaborationism" and tripartism of the fascist corporatist model wasn't as collaborative nor tripartite as it may appear. This charter was a central piece of legislation in Mussolini's Italy.
What we should take a closer look at, is the third article:
III. L'organizzazione sindacale o professionale è libera. Ma solo il sindacato legalmente riconosciuto e sottoposto al controllo dello Stato ha il diritto di rappresentare legalmente tutta la categoria di datori di lavoro o di lavoratori per cui è costituito; di tutelarne, di fronte allo Stato e alle altre associazioni professionali, gli interessi; di stipulare contratti collettivi di lavoro obbligatori per tutti gli appartenenti alla categoria, di imporre loro contributi e di esercitare rispetto ad essi funzioni di interesse pubblico. (My emphasis)
Translating just the first line, it goes like this:
III. There is freedom of professional and union organisation. But only trade unions legally recognised by and subject to the control of the state has the right to legally represent the whole category of employers or employees which constitutes it; (My translation and emphasis)
So, as it turns out, the freedom mentioned in the very first sentence is nominal at best, taunting and mocking at worst. The state and bourgeoisie class didn't give up an ounce of wiggle-room to the workers. Quite contrary, the "freedom of organisation" and "negotiation" mentioned in the charter were rather expressions of further state control, of further totalitarianism in that disgusting system which is fascism.
Source:
"La Carto del Lavoro" from 1927, full legal text available here