This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Italian. (December 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Italian article. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Michele Bianchi]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|it|Michele Bianchi}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation. This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Michele Bianchi" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Michele Bianchi
Minister of Public Works
In office 12 September 1929 – 3 February 1930
Monarch	Victor Emmanuel III
Prime Minister	Benito Mussolini
Preceded by	Benito Mussolini
Succeeded by	Araldo di Crollalanza
Quadrumvir in the Grand Council of Fascism
In office 15 December 1922 – 3 February 1930 Serving with Italo Balbo (d. 1940),Emilio De Bono,Cesare Maria De Vecchi
Secretary of theNational Fascist Party
In office 11 November 1921 – 4 November 1922
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Nicola Sansanelli
Personal details
Born	(1883-07-22)22 July 1883 Belmonte Calabro,Kingdom of Italy
Died	3 February 1930(1930-02-03) (aged 46) Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Political party	National Fascist Party
Other political affiliations	Italian Socialist Party (1903–1914) Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria (1914–1919) Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (1919–1921)
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)[citation needed]
Spouse	Maria De Seta
Military service
Allegiance	Italy
Branch/service	Royal Italian Army
Battles/wars	World War I Italo-Austrian War 1915–1918

Michele Bianchi (22 July 1883 – 3 February 1930) was an Italian revolutionarysyndicalist leader who took a position in theUnione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL).^[1] He was among the founding members of theFascist movement. He was widely seen as the dominant leader of the leftist,syndicalist wing of theNational Fascist Party. He took an active role in the "interventionist left", where he "espoused an alliance between nationalism and syndicalism."^[2] He was one of the most influential politicians of the regime before his succumbing totuberculosis in 1930.^[3] He was also one of the grand architects behind the "Great List" (il listone) which secured theparliamentary majority in favor of the fascists.

Bianchi was born inBelmonte Calabro (Calabria), in southern Italy.

He studied law at theUniversity of Rome, and dedicated himself from early on to journalism. He became a member of theItalian Socialist Party (PSI), and editor of the Party newspaperAvanti!, presiding over the socialist branch in Rome.^[4] A delegate to theBologna Congress in 1904, he backed the syndicalist line enforced byArturo Labriola.

In 1905, Bianchi renounced his position atAvanti! and took over leadership of theGioventù socialista (paper of the Federazione dei Giovani Socialisti—youth wing of the PSI). Theantimilitarist campaign he led had him imprisoned, then forcibly settled inGenoa. Bianchi adapted to his new residence and became head of the Ligurian Labour Chamber, as well as editor of the revolutionary paperLotta socialista.

In 1906, after backing several workers' riots, Bianchi expressed hispacifism in front of the PSI leadership, and was not universally welcomed. Transferred toSavona, he played a crucial part in the events that led the syndicalists out of the PSI, between the PSI Bologna Congress of 1907 and the first Syndicalist Congress in July 1908 (inFerrara).

After being arrested several times and travelling throughout Italy, Bianchi became editor ofLa Scintilla in 1910; he launched the idea that PSI and syndicalists should reunite on electoral lists for the expected administrative elections. He was outvoted and resorted to expressing his views solely through the paper, which he turned into a daily, the backer of several localproletarian revolts in 1911.

However, Bianchi was forced by the tight budget to shut downLa Scintilla, not before he was yet again arrested inTrieste for attackingGiovanni Giolitti as instigator of theItalo-Turkish War. He benefited from anamnesty and returned to Ferrara, where he created and headed the paperLa Battaglia (a failed attempt to gain a seat in the elections of 1913). Bianchi moved toMilan, becoming a major figure of the Milanese Syndical Union and theUnione Sindacale Italiana (USI).

Michele Bianchi's attitude duringWorld War I mirrored that ofBenito Mussolini: he became an active supporter of Italy's entry into the conflict, and an advocate ofirredentism.

In 1915, when Italy joined theEntente Powers, Bianchi volunteered for service and became a junior officer, first in the Infantry, then in the Artillery. With the end of the war, Bianchi joined Mussolini'sFasci italiani di combattimento, and then theNational Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, or PNF). In 1921, he became the PNF secretary, and attempted to join the Fascists with other right-wing movements (while authorising the numerous violent raids carried out by theBlackshirts).

After stomping out a strike action against Fascist manoeuvres, Bianchi was one of theQuattuorvirate who led theMarch on Rome, the pseudo-coup d'état that brought Mussolini asprime minister (October 1922). In the newly formed government, he was general secretary of the National Fascist Party and considered "Mussolini's closest collaborator".^[5] In short time, Bianchi was dismissed as PNF leader in 1923, while joining theGrand Council of Fascism; in 1924, he was elected to theChamber of Deputies, but resigned from his government position on 14 March.

In 1925, he was given the position of undersecretary at the Ministry of Public Works, in 1928 the same position at the Internal Affairs one, and on 12 September 1929, he became Minister of Public Works.^[6] Again elected to the Chamber, and in failing health, he died soon after in Rome.

• Commemorative Medal of the March on Rome (Gold)
• War Merit Cross
• Commemorative Medal for the Italo-Austrian War 1915–1918 (four years of campaign)
• Commemorative Medal of the Unity of Italy 1848–1918
• Allied Victory Medal
• HonoraryCorporal of theVoluntary Militia for National Security

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMichele Bianchi.

• Riosa, Alceo (1968)."BIANCHI, Michele".Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 10: Biagio–Boccaccio. Rome:Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.ISBN 978-88-12-00032-6.
• Newspaper clippings about Michele Bianchi in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW

• 1883 births
• 1930 deaths
• People from the Province of Cosenza
• Italian Socialist Party politicians
• Members of the Grand Council of Fascism
• Government ministers of Italy
• Mussolini Cabinet
• Italian syndicalists
• Deputies of Legislature XXVII of the Kingdom of Italy
• Deputies of Legislature XXVIII of the Kingdom of Italy
• Italian male journalists
• National syndicalists
• Italian military personnel of World War I
• Recipients of the War Merit Cross (Italy)
• 20th-century Italian journalists
• 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
• Tuberculosis deaths in Italy
• Infectious disease deaths in Lazio
• Unione Sindacale Italiana members

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Biography articles needing translation from Italian Wikipedia
• Articles needing additional references from December 2018
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles with multiple maintenance issues
• Use dmy dates from May 2024
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2024
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• CS1: long volume value
• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)