Italian Nationalist Association

The ANI was founded in Florence on 3 December 1910 as the political-organisational expression of nationalism in Italy under the influence of Italian nationalists such as Corradini and Giovanni Papini. Upon its formation, the ANI supported the repatriation of Austrian held Italian-populated lands to the Kingdom of Italy and was willing to endorse war with Austria-Hungary to do so.^[1] The ANI had a paramilitary wing called the Blueshirts.^[2]

The ANI supported Italian irredentist,^[3] corporatist,^[4] monarchist, and militarist positions.^[5] The authoritarian nationalist faction of the ANI would be a major influence for the PNF of Benito Mussolini formed in 1921. As a result, it is described as proto-fascism,^[6] and is placed on the far right of the political spectrum.^[7] In 1922, the ANI participated in the March on Rome with an important role but was not completely aligned with Mussolini's fascist party.^[8] Nevertheless, the ANI merged into the PNF in March 1923.^[9]

The ANI's ideology remained largely undefined for some time other than it being nationalist. The ANI was divided between supporters of different kinds of nationalism – authoritarian, democratic, moderate, and revolutionary.^[10] Corradini, the ANI's most popular spokesman, linked leftism with nationalism by claiming that Italy was a "proletarian nation", which was being exploited by international capitalism, which had led to Italy being disadvantaged economically in international trade and its people divided on class lines; however, instead of advocating socialist revolution, he claimed that victory against these oppressing forces would require Italian nationalist sentiment to succeed.^[1]

We are the proletarian people in respect to the rest of the world. Nationalism is our socialism. This established, nationalism must be founded on the truth that Italy is morally and materially a proletarian nation.^[11]

We must start by recognizing the fact that there are proletarian nations as well as proletarian classes; that is to say, there are nations whose living conditions are subject ... to the way of life of other nations, just as classes are. Once this is realized, nationalism must insist firmly on this truth: Italy is, materially and morally, a proletarian nation.

Corradini occasionally used the term "national socialism" (Italian: socialismo nazionale) to define the ideology which he endorsed. Although this is the same term ("National Socialism", Italian: nazionalsocialismo) used by the Nazis, no evidence exists to indicate that Corradini's use of the term had any influence.^[1] In 1914, the ANI began to tilt towards authoritarian nationalism with its endorsement of the creation of an authoritarian corporate state, a radical idea created by Rocco, who was a law professor.^[12] Such a corporate state would be led by a corporate assembly rather than a parliament, which would be composed of unions, business organisations, and other economic organisations that would work within a powerful state government to regulate business-labour relations, organise the economy, end class conflict, and make Italy an industrial state that could compete with imperial powers and establish its own empire.^[12]

Many of the ANI supporters were wealthy Italians of right-wing authoritarian and conservative-authoritarian nationalist background, in spite of efforts by Corradini and left-leaning nationalists to make the ANI a nationalist mass movement supported by the working class.^[12] As a result, it is described as a national-conservative and right-wing party.^[13]

• Francesco Coppola
• Enrico Corradini
• Luigi Federzoni
• Roberto Forges Davanzati
• Ezio Maria Gray
• Maurizio Maraviglia
• Giovanni Papini
• Alfredo Rocco