From the article:
“Fascism is an outgrowth of Marxism and of socialism. At the end of the 19th century, a lot of intelligent Marxists were scratching their heads because a lot of the prophecies of Marx weren’t coming true. Marx had predicted the outbreaks of communist revolutions in countries like England and Germany, and this just wasn’t happening. So the smart Marxists said: ‘Something is wrong with Marx. We need to modify Marx. We need a kind of new Marxism, if you will, for the 20th century.’
Out of that, he said came two offshoots, Leninist Bolshevism, itself a revision of Marxism, and Mussolini’s fascism.
“Mussolini was in fact a Marxist, the most famous Marxist in Italy along with Gramsci, and Mussolini was the editor of the Socialist Party magazine,” D’Souza noted. “So when Mussolini became a fascist, it was seen as a leftist move. Shortly after Mussolini’s march on Rome establishing the first fascist regime in the world, Lenin sent a telegram of congratulations. Why? He recognized Mussolini as a fellow revolutionary of the left.”