It was initially intended to be such. Benito Mussolini had gotten his start in politics as a Socialist writer and theorist, but he broke with the Italian Socialists during World War I. After the war, he was one of the major founders of Fascism, and, while Fascism was decidedly right-wing (in many ways, the opposite of Socialism), he nevertheless brought with him some of the Socialist pro-labor ideas.
However, in practice, Fascism wound up not being very pro-labor. It created a system called "corporatism"- in short, this system set up amalgamations of big businesses and government agencies that would work together to control the Italian economy. In this system, the workers wound up having very little power or rights, and unions were either abolished or replaced with new unions under the control of the corporatist agencies.
To keep the working class under control, extensive Propaganda efforts and powerful police agencies kept things in line. A cult of personality tried to make the people practically worship Mussolini. Italy began attacking other countries, such as Albania and Ethiopia, to try to conquer them and create a new Roman Empire. These early successes made Mussolini's government popular, despite Mussolini eliminating the people's freedom.
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