This makes a lot of sense.
In 1917 Italy was on the verge of a communist revolution.
When the Russian Bolsheviks rose in October, the Communists of Italy rose with them, occupying large swathes of the country, and, after extracting concessions, when it became evident they didn't have the infrastructure to hold them permanently, they got to organising, with the open goal of "Doing as in Russia". When they did rise again in 1919 it was with the strength of millions.
At this point, Benito Mussolini had already for two years been spearheading a force of reaction against Italian Communism. He ran three newspapers funded, by the Italian MIC (artillery manufacturers mainly)which were not only insidiously anti-communist but also supported Italy's entry to the war. He was an anti-Communist anti-German pro-Entente propagandist who had the support not only of the local Bourgoise but not also the military.
To the British (and French!) secret services Mussolini was a godsend, it would have been far more shocking if he did not have their full and unwavering support.
How would a single member of parliament unilaterally authorize something like this?
him being an mp wasn't related, he was an intelligence officer, specifically the highest rung on the ladder in rome
Yup and a member of the Anti-Socialist Union with loads of other British government and aristocratic bigwigs. To whom Churchill gave a 25th anniversary speech praising Mussolini and calling him "the Roman genius and the greatest lawgiver among living men".
We look on Mussolini today as an oaf and a clown, but in his day he was regarded as a genius. That was a real shock for me when I started investigating the history of fascism. People really believed in that shit.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/13/benito-mussolini-recruited-mi5-italy
no idea about the specifics of the years, but he was definitely on the payroll for a hot second
Reminds me of the CIA and the muhajadeen.
Does the west just fund all of it’s most reactionary enemies to make itself look better or what???
When your goal is to destabilize a country, you don't usually fund the dudes with the good intentions.
I thought he didn't invent fascism until after WWI. Until then he was a socialist, but had his disagreements and so he innovated his own brand.
Young Benito was an undistinguished member of the Socialist Party. He began to edit his own little paper, La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle), ferociously anti-capitalist, anti-militarist, and anti-Catholic. He took seriously Marx's dictum that the working class has no country, and vigorously opposed the Italian military intervention in Libya. Jailed several times for involvement in strikes and anti-war protests, he became something of a leftist hero. Before turning 30, Mussolini was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, and made editor of its daily paper, Avanti! The paper's circulation and Mussolini's personal popularity grew by leaps and bounds.
Mussolini's election to the Executive was part of the capture of control of the Socialist Party by the Marxist left, with the expulsion from the Party of those deputies (members of parliament) considered too conciliatory to the bourgeoisie. The shift in Socialist Party control was greeted with delight by Lenin and other revolutionaries throughout the world.
From 1912 to 1914, Mussolini was the Che Guevara of his day, a living saint of leftism. Handsome, courageous, charismatic, an erudite Marxist, a riveting speaker and writer, a dedicated class warrior to the core, he was the peerless duce of the Italian Left. He looked like the head of any future Italian socialist government, elected or revolutionary.
Without a full understanding of class (or if you're just a sociopath), it's easy to steer from anti-capitalism to anti-capitalist. Most self-proclaimed capitalists will look at the state of things and claim something is wrong, but their solution is inevitably "the right people just need to be in charge." Fascism arise amidst anti-capitalist backlash, and convinced enough people that things would improve if they were in charge (of the same system which got them into that situation).
Cuz he only cared about having power. That's it.
"Oh I can't believe that shady guy who wanted to be friends with me kidnap and ransomed me".
