Mussolini was a socialist. Benito Mussolini was the leader of the Socialist Party of Italy. Like many modern media Mussolinis, he was a socialist and a journalist. . .
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Between 1912 and 1914, Mussolini was the editor of the Socialist Party newspaper, "L'Avanti" (Avanti means "in front", "advance" or "forward" or even "come in"). In 1914 he started his own socialist newspaper "Il Popolo d'Italia" ("The people of Italy").
He was considered by socialists to be a great writer about socialism. He was a staunch proponent of revolutionary rather than reformist socialism, and actually received Lenin's endorsement and support for expelling reformists from the Socialist Party. He was in fact first dubbed "Il Duce" (the Leader) when he was a member of Italy's (Marxist) Socialist Party.
When Mussolini differed with some Socialists it was over participation in World War I, not over abstract theory, or economic doctrine. Many socialists were neutralists in the First World War, whereas Mussolini correctly foresaw that the Austro/German forces would not win the war and therefore wanted Italy to join the Allied side and thus get a slice of Austrian territory at the end of the war.
During World War I, Mussolini publicized what he admitted was his new brand of socialism. . . .
The swastika itself, although an ancient symbol, was sometimes used to represent overlapping S-letters for "socialism" under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. . . .
As German socialism's notorious flag symbol, the swastika was deliberately turned 45 degrees to the horizontal and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. . . .
On October 28, 1922, Mussolini led his "March on Rome", which brought him to power for 23 years.
In late 1937, Mussolini continued to work with other socialists, including a notorious member of the Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): the National Socialist German Workers Party (20 million killed); the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (60 million killed); the Peoples' Republic of China (50 million killed). Mussolini visited Germany in 1937 and pledged himself to support the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. In 1939, the National Socialist German Workers' Party joined as allies with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to invade Poland in a pact to divide up Europe, spreading WWII.
In 1938, Mussolini introduced his ‘reform of customs.’” Hand-shaking was suddenly banned as unhygienic: a salute was to be used instead - the right forearm raised vertically. He imposed a new march on the Italian Army which was simply the goose-step of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. According to the book “A Concise History of Italy” by Christopher Duggan, these reforms were introduced mainly to underline ideological kinship with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and to impress it’s leader. . . .