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   BACKGROUND OF THE LONDON CONFERENCE     341

its own working class, yet in the struggle against Italian imperialism, France permitted Anti-Fascists carry on their activities against the Mussolini regime from France.
   Not making too much headway in the redivision of the French colonial empire, Italian imperialism turned its face to the Balkan countries and to the Adriatic. But here again Italian fascism is meeting the opposition and resistance of French imperialism. Between Italy and the other countries in the Balkan, there lies Jugo-Slavia, which is today a close ally and under the complete domination of France. Italian fascism is being greatly aroused by the French and Jugo-Slavic naval alliance, by the navy which France built up for Jugo-Slavia, which today serves as an impassable strait for the penetration of Italian fascism and influence over the Balkan countries. Only when we take these questions into consideration, only when we see the imperialist ambitions of Italian fascism, which is meeting with resistance from French imperialism, can we understand the policy that the Italian delegation is pursuing today at the London conference and its demand for parity.
   Italian fascism, being unable to solve the contradictions of capitalism, being unable to quiten the discontent of the masses, is advocating imperialist expansion as a means to solve its contradictions and its crisis. As far back as 1927, the Italian fascist press demanded: 1) the recognition of the dominant position of Italy in the Mediterranean; 2) Italy's participation in the administration of Tangier; 3) the recognition of the statutes of Italians in Tunis; 4) the straightening of the border of its colonies in Africa; 5) the recognition of the privileged position of Italy in the Adriatic and the Balkans; 6) to get markets in accordance with the growth of the Italian population and the needs of Italian industry; 7) to reconsider the question of the mandates in Africa and in the Near East; 8) to take measures against the political prisoners of France; 9) to preserve the nationality of the Italians living in France and in the French colonies. That this is the policy of Italian fascism is definitely proven by the statement of on of the closest friends of Mussolini, Francesco Coppel, who writes in one of the leading organs of Italian fascism, the following: "Our slogan must be: our own materials from our territories which must be produced thru the labor of our own population, and this means to have colonies, a colonial empire as have England and France." He further writes: "The fate of Italy is connected with the equilibrium in the Mediterranean Sea, the position of Italy in this equilibrium depends in the decisive moment her greatness, riches, reedom [[freedom]] and security."
   Fascist Italy therefore knows that with its present naval strength