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Squadrismo
The organized paramilitary violence carried out by Fascist action squads (squadre d'azione) in Italy from 1919 onward. Members were often called Blackshirts (camicie nere). The squads attacked socialist organizations, trade unions, left-wing newspapers, and local government offices controlled by socialists. Funded by landowners and industrialists who feared socialist revolution, squadrismo was central to Mussolini's rise to power and the destruction of the Italian left.