AHC/WI: Communist Italy

After World War One Italy was a mess, quite chaotic. There was a noteworthy communist/anarchist movement that was ultimately syppressed by Mussolinis blqckshirts. Mussolini himself had been a socialist in his youth; even without him, would it be possible to have Italy go communist in the 1920s?

As for the effects, the Italian fascists were more significant than is often realized- the very name, after all, comes from them- having a substantial ideological impact on the rise of fascism in both Spain and Germany. In this case could we see the opposite- an Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil war (which, in fact, would not be as much of a civil war in this case, as without Fascist backing Franco would have been stuck in Morocco), or further Communist uprisings in central and eastern Europe?
 
After World War One Italy was a mess, quite chaotic. There was a noteworthy communist/anarchist movement that was ultimately syppressed by Mussolinis blqckshirts. Mussolini himself had been a socialist in his youth; even without him, would it be possible to have Italy go communist in the 1920s?

As for the effects, the Italian fascists were more significant than is often realized- the very name, after all, comes from them- having a substantial ideological impact on the rise of fascism in both Spain and Germany. In this case could we see the opposite- an Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil war (which, in fact, would not be as much of a civil war in this case, as without Fascist backing Franco would have been stuck in Morocco), or further Communist uprisings in central and eastern Europe?

My guess is no, that the Church simply would not have allowed it(whereas they had
no problems with Mussolini & co-existed
quite happily with him).
 
The factory occupations would have been defeated even without the Fascists; the established Socialist Party and trade union leaders saw the occupiers as misguided anarcho-syndicalists. (There were exceptions, notably the the Turin Socialists organized around the journal of Antonio Gramsci, the "Ordine Nuovo" but they were hardly numerous enough to dominate the Italian Left, let alone Italy.) And subsequently, the division of the Italian left between Socialists and Communists would make a left-wing takeover even harder to accomplish. (BTW, in the first election after it was formed, in 1921, the PCd'I got only 4.6 percent of the vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_general_election,_1921)
 
The factory occupations would have been defeated even without the Fascists; the established Socialist Party and trade union leaders saw the occupiers as misguided anarcho-syndicalists. (There were exceptions, notably the the Turin Socialists organized around the journal of Antonio Gramsci, the "Ordine Nuovo" but they were hardly numerous enough to dominate the Italian Left, let alone Italy.) And subsequently, the division of the Italian left between Socialists and Communists would make a left-wing takeover even harder to accomplish. (BTW, in the first election after it was formed, in 1921, the PCd'I got only 4.6 percent of the vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_general_election,_1921)
Hmm, that implies this is likely impossible in OTL.... maybe a WWI PoD. Have the war last a few months longer (no Zimmermann Telegraph -> delayed US entry into the war), the Germans decide, after the Caporetto Offensive, to try an knock Italy out of the war.
 
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