This paper is about surveillance under Italian Fascism, but I chose this title because the sheer lengths that the Fascists went to monitor untrustworthy Italians is arguably the most disturbing revelation.
However, in the [Central Political Records] there are records on Italian migrants who lived in non‐European countries such as Australia, the USA and Canada, proving that the fascist espionage machine functioned all over the world.
According to Iacovetta and Ventresca (1996), the [Central Political Records] contains, for instance, at least 111 dossiers on Italians who resided in Canada in the interwar era. The information contained in the biographical files includes the year and reasons for leaving Italy as well as occupation, physical description, political affiliation, etc.
As mentioned earlier, the rôle played by consular officials in implementing the surveillance apparatus outside the country was significant. It is worth noting that the prefects of the provinces, namely the direct agents and representatives of the Italian provinces, were also particularly important as the [Central Political Records] officials turned to them in order to obtain information about the expatriates’ political affiliations before leaving Italy.
[…]
Migrants attracted the attention of the authorities for reasons that were not always related to anti‐fascist activities (i.e. anarchist clubs, proselytism of communist ideas, activities as agitators, etc.). Whoever did not take part in the Consular’s celebrations was classified as ‘subversive’ based on a generalized suspicion that led to mass political surveillance even in very remote regions.
(Emphasis added. On a side note, it may be worth reminding everybody that Karl Marx himself was a victim of police surveillance.)
[Notes]
Also of importance is this system’s international influence:
The fascist society of surveillance was so sophisticated that in the 1930s some Ovra specialists went to Portugal, Bolivia and Peru to share their skills. Several successful operations, above all against communist groups and organizations, made the Ovra appealing to police officers who, from the 1930s, were increasingly politicized.
Not only communists, but homosexuals and Jews likewise suffered police surveillance:
[T]he anti‐Semitic legislation and the repression of homosexuals were ‘congruous products of the same set of ideological and programmatic priorities’ of the duce in order achieve one of his most important goals, namely the strengthening of the real Italian stock.
Several thousand homosexuals were victims of the regime and the repression of what was considered gender deviance was carried out on a regular basis by the police through surveillance and political confinement. While it is true that the phenomena in question are not identical, it is worth noting the link between police state surveillance and forms of social control which go far beyond the repression of ‘political enemies’.