Reds: A Revolutionary Timeline

[TNF]

The presence of the PSP has done enough to shake Americans' traditional backing of a wartime President twice now. That's interesting, for sure. The Democrats are essentially done for. Duverger's Law is likely going to be disrupted by the Revolution, but it looks like the twenties are going to be a series of battles between the Republicans and the PSP.

[Archangel]

The Democratic Party seems to be turning into a Southern Conservative Party, while the Republican Party is representing the Centre and Centre-Right.
Edit: Wood seems a moderate Progressive. He should be able to alleviate some of the tension for a while.

[Jello_Biafra]

Originally Posted by Historico

Nice Consice update...As a set up for TTL's Roaring Twenties, and how the Democratic Party will continue to fall and the Socialist Party remain viable. I made a Map as how I interperted it based on Debs' strongest states in OTL 1920 elections and LaFollette in OTL 1924 Elections...

Leonard Wood/J. Calvin Coolidge Jr.: 340 Electoral Votes
Woodrow Wilson/John W. Davis: 126 Electoral Votes
Eugene V. Debs/John Reed: 65 Electoral Votes

Close, but not quite.

Here's the actual election map, as I'd intended to make it.

[Jello_Biafra]

Excerpt from Storming the Gates of Heaven: A History of the Comintern, by Albert E. Kahn, Progress Publishers, Cambridge, Mass., 1962.

The Second World Congress of the Comintern laid out the basic doctrine of the international communist movement from early July to late August of 1920. To the modern eye, the decisions made at the Second Congress seem frightfully premature. While Lenin sent his 21 Conditions for approval by the Congress, he and his comrades were still bitterly engaged in the Russian Civil War. Yet the delegates prefaced their speeches with talk of the imminent world revolution, while all of the major capitalist powers had encircled Russia with bayonets, and threatened to strangle that very revolution in the cradle. Still, the deputies at the Congress maintained sufficient foresight to at least tackle the issues of the future of the movement.

...The severity of the 21 Conditions would prove too much for most delegations. The inability to compromise on certain areas of doctrine, such as the strict adoption of democratic centralism, or the requirement for the complete expulsion of members deemed to be reformist, would deepen the already disastrous rift in the international Left. This hardline of the First Period policies would be made all the more disastrous with the Third Period policy of denouncing moderates as "Social Fascists", but for now, it served to create two competing worker's party in nearly every advanced capitalist nation. And in the new Communist parties it molded, it created insidious weapons for internal witch-hunts and factional squabbles.

...The American delegation to the Comintern faced the same unenviable choice as the French Section. While the use of state terror had destroyed much of the Progressive Socialist Party's moderate faction, either by pushing them to the Left or out of the movement altogether, even many on the Left were hesitant to completely endorse the 21 Conditions. While many conditions were rather agreeable, the second, seventh and seventeenth conditions proved particularly worrisome. The party was simply in no shape for the internal purge necessary to put "tested communists" in every important decision. Similarly, a drastic restyling of the party was most unsavory at a time when the existing party name was finally gaining strength among the proletariat.

...In the end, the American delegation gave their unanimous recommendation to adopt the 21 Conditions and join the Comintern as a full member. However, that decision would ultimately be put to the test at the Progressive Socialist Party National Convention, to be held in the Chicago Commune in January of 1921. The debate would be heated, and threatened to split the party in two. The rump of the reformist faction, severely depleted of delegates and speakers, clustered around president of the former Typographical Union Max S. Hayes, and vehemently opposed joining the Comintern. The moderate Left, committed to revolutionary socialism in spirit, but facing many reservations with the 21 Conditions, also criticized the proposal. They centered around the leadership of famed academician Walter Lippmann, and the hero of the Manhattan Commune, Morris Hilquit. The hard Left, represented by the party leadership, fought back with just as much tenacity.

...In the course of the debate, Debs, in ill health, cast aside his traditional role as unifying leader figure, and gave his endorsement, with reservations, to the 21 Conditions. Comrade Reed, the boyish face of the future, personally presented Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin's personal remarks to the American proletariat, offering their reasons in favor of the Comintern and the conditions it imposed. He ended his speech with his own reflections of his time in Russia during the revolution, and the decisive moment the question of whether to strike in Petrograd was considered. "This decision," he argued, "Will be no less momentous than that fateful decision by the workers of the Pulitov Plant, in Petrograd, to consider their shivering and starving children's plight, throw caution to the winds and a spanner in the Pulitov works. That one decision [...] set off the chain of events that toppled an Emperor, ended a war, and established the first worker's republic the world has ever seen. Fortune favors the bold, my comrades."

...It was Lippmann who spoke after Big Bill Haywood. While he congratulated the stout Wobbly on his work organizing the industrial unions and fighting against the imperialist game of the First World War, he offered his own annotations to the late German communist Karl Liebknecht's criticism of the excesses of the Bolsheviks, relating them directly to the matter of the Comintern's conditions. The specter of a "red bureaucracy" just as sinister as the old, he argued, lay within this focus on doctrinal pieties and democratic centralism: "If Rosa Luxemburg, the fiery and defiant leader of the German Communist Party and seasoned revolutionary, finds herself deposed and purged from the very party she helped forge because the central committee felt her politics deviated from the program established by the Comintern, then how safe are any of we from internal bloodletting?" Indeed, his words would prove all to true over the next two decades. The purge would become the favored weapon of communist organizations the world over until the beginning of the Popular Front.

...Ultimately, what stole the show and sealed the decision was a speech by the most unlikely of party members. Former Senator LaFollette arrived at the convention fashionably late, excusably so. Recently pardoned by President Wood for conviction under the Sedition Act, the former Republican and moderate fellow traveller of socialism came to the convention a broken man. Freshly divorced, penniless and emaciated from his stay in federal prison, LaFollette proved to be another strange convert to the Left. He spoke of how his trust in the American dream had been shattered by the events of the last six years, half-cursing the naivete of his past. As a pariah now, he accepted his fate handed down from on high, but did not shrink from fighting against. Shocking everyone, he spoke in favor of the Comintern and endorsed the 21 Conditions. In the end, the Left prevailed. The moderate Left agreed to ratify the conditions, though they urged solidarity and fairness in their application. And the majority of the Right, though they voted against acceptance of the 21 Conditions, agreed to abide by them and to not quit the party. On February 15th, 1921, newly rechristened Workers Party of America formally joined the Communist International.

[Jello_Biafra]

Lol, I should probably not follow up my updates so closely to my other replies

[Thinker1200]

I want more Red TL plz.

[Historico]

Originally Posted by Jello_Biafra

Lol, I should probably not follow up my updates so closely to my other replies

Lol, I could see where you were going with your map, I assume that Hillquit''s Mayoral Presence was able to swing enough votes to the PSP way. Interesting involved look at the Cominterm...Where could I find all the points of the 21 Conditions JB? I assume a look at the Wood Presidency should be coming fairly soon? Keep it comming

[Jello_Biafra]

Originally Posted by Historico

Lol, I could see where you were going with your map, I assume that Hillquit''s Mayoral Presence was able to swing enough votes to the PSP way. Interesting involved look at the Cominterm...Where could I find all the points of the 21 Conditions JB? I assume a look at the Wood Presidency should be coming fairly soon? Keep it comming

Basically. The state and federal government's attempt to crackdown on the New York Communes backfired tremendously. Tammany Hall's part in the affair for the most part destroyed the New York State Democratic Party, and the majority of Republican voters strongly disapproved of the actions, even though they had no taste for labor radicalism or socialism, and quite a few stayed home on election day.

You can find the 21 Conditions here. They're essentially identical ITTL.

Yeah, I'm going to be looking at Wood's Presidency (and James Mann's first government, in the parliamentary sense of the word) soon. But first, I will be making a final retrospective on the First World War, most likely written in character.

[Kate]

Great TL. One of the best socialist America scenarios I’ve seen.

Two SF novels-“All Times Possible” by Gordon Ecklund. FDR is defeated by one vote. A fictionaql CP leader, “Tommy Bloome” ousts Browder. The Depression becomes much worse and a revolution breaks out in the late 30s.

“Fire On the Mountain” by Terry Bisson-John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry succeeds leading to a drawn out slave uprising. The resultant new country-Nova Africa embraces socialism. In the 1950s the remnant of the US Has a socialist revolution and becomes the USSA.

A few suggestions for Where Are They Now?

Max Schactman
James Burnham

Jay Lovestone
John Garfield
AJ Mustie

Elvis Presley

Joe McCarthy (the CP actually briefly supported him on a slate of new candidates)

[Kate]

An article Trotsky wrote for Liberty magazine in the 30s. Supposedly there are 2 versions of this. In the unpublished version Lev Davidovich says something like “in the third year of Soviet rule no one will chew bubblegum” This was supposed to be a sarcastic dig at Stalin who earlier said the bubblegum was counterrevolutionary.

http://trotsky.org/archive/trotsky/1934/08/ame.htm

[Jello_Biafra]

Originally Posted by Kate

Great TL. One of the best socialist America scenarios I’ve seen.

Two SF novels-“All Times Possible” by Gordon Ecklund. FDR is defeated by one vote. A fictionaql CP leader, “Tommy Bloome” ousts Browder. The Depression becomes much worse and a revolution breaks out in the late 30s.

“Fire On the Mountain” by Terry Bisson-John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry succeeds leading to a drawn out slave uprising. The resultant new country-Nova Africa embraces socialism. In the 1950s the remnant of the US Has a socialist revolution and becomes the USSA.

A few suggestions for Where Are They Now?

Max Schactman
James Burnham

Jay Lovestone
John Garfield
AJ Mustie

Elvis Presley

Joe McCarthy (the CP actually briefly supported him on a slate of new candidates)

Thanks Kate. I'll definitely check out those novels when I can. They sound quite interesting.

The "Where Are They Now" suggestions are quite cool. Some of them were going to show up in the TL as major players, but others are simply impossible to ignore.

Originally Posted by Kate

An article Trotsky wrote for Liberty magazine in the 30s. Supposedly there are 2 versions of this. In the unpublished version Lev Davidovich says something like “in the third year of Soviet rule no one will chew bubblegum” This was supposed to be a sarcastic dig at Stalin who earlier said the bubblegum was counterrevolutionary.

http://trotsky.org/archive/trotsky/1934/08/ame.htm

Thanks for the article, and I'll definitely keep it in mind for the future. In trying to set up the policies that would define the formative years of the UASR I've been reading William Z. Foster's Towards a Soviet America, as well as the papers of Norman Thomas and James P. Cannon. Since Trotsky will likely have a following, I'll see how I can incorporate some of the ideas presented by Trotsky.

[Sean Mulligan]

I want to know what happens to FDR.

[Archangel]

It would also be interesting to see what happens to Dewey and Landon.

[TNF]

Saul Ailinsky, too.

[Jello_Biafra]

Well, it's the week before finals week here, and I have a ton of projects to do. So the next major update, which will cover both a war retrospective and the early years of the Woods Presidency and the Mann Government, won't be posted until Friday night at the earliest.

But, to tide you over, I do have some general flavor stuff to share. Someone asked earlier about the UASR flag, and I believe I am finally done tinkering with it:


While it could certainly use a little clean up, I'm happy with the result. As you might guess, I cheated a bit, and combined some elements from the flag of OTL German Democratic Republic (the hammer & sextant, along with the ears of grain), and the flag of Angola (the gear in the background)

Still need to figure our a proper seal/coat of arms, some how incorporating the hammer, sextant, gear and wheat figure in it. Any suggestions would be awesome.

And a short little peek into the future:

Union of American Socialist Republics
Motto: Workers of the world, unite! (official), E Pluribus Unum (traditional)
Anthem: "The Internationale"
Capital: Debs, D.C.
Official languages: English, Spanish, French, several dozen recognized native languages
Demonym: American
Government: Federal socialist republic
- Head of State: President David McReynolds (SPA)
- Head of Government: Premier Alix Olson (SEU)
Legislature: Federation Assembly
- Lower house: Congress of People's Deputies
- Upper house: Council of the Union
Formation
- Declared: May 1, 1933
- Recognized: August 8, 1933
- Current constitution: February 24, 1934
Area
- Total: 11,445,211 km2 (2nd)
- Water (%): 6.76
Population
- 2009 estimate: 338,361,574 (3rd)
- Density: 29.5/km2 (175th)
GDP (PPP): 2008 estimate
- Total: $16.051 trillion (1st)
- Per capita: $47,440 (6th)
Gini (2007): 12.1[1] (1st)
HDI (2007): ▲ 0.981[5] (very high) (2nd)
Currency: American dollar ($) (UD)

[TNF]

Holy fuck, America has a Gay President!
...And a Lesbian VP!

I suppose this means that the LGBT Rights movement is kickstarted much, much earlier.

[Thinker1200]

Well i must say i am impressed. I mean the UASR is an Anarcho-Communist state?
How does it have a Constitution then?

[Jello_Biafra]

Originally Posted by The New Freedom

Holy fuck, America has a Gay President!
...And a Lesbian VP!

I suppose this means that the LGBT Rights movement is kickstarted much, much earlier.

I'm glad someone noticed Yeah, that would be the natural implication. But strictly speaking, the Premier/First Secretary is not equivalent to a VP. If anything, she's more important than the President. The President is merely the elder statesmen who has largely ceremonial powers, sort of like the German president. It's the Premier, who heads the Congress of People's Deputies, that is the most important political figure.

Originally Posted by Thinker1200

Well i must say i am impressed. I mean the UASR is an Anarcho-Communist state?
How does it have a Constitution then?

Not anarcho-communist, but it definitely incorporates a much more libertarian socialism, in spite of its fairly Marxist-Leninist roots.

[TNF]

Yeah, I noticed my misstep last night when I re-read the thread. Cheers anyway, though. This timeline is heading in the right direction, that's for sure.

I'm really interested in seeing how Civil Rights is going to be handled in this timeline. With hints about Gay Rights being far, far advanced compared to IOTL, I expect the same kind of developments with regard to race and gender, as well. Will the Revolution itself spurn on the Civil Rights movement? How will the South develop under the UASR?

Another note: I think I've figured out the symbolism within the flag itself. Hammer/Gear for the industrial workers, stalks of wheat for the farmers, and the sextant/compass for the intellectual elements of the Revolution. The red, of course, symbolizes socialism, while the black symbolizes a sort of anarchism, and the both combined would be anarcho-communism/libertarian socialism. :]

[President Al Bundy]

So 1933 will be the year of the revolution. Maybe the great depression gets much much worse.

But if there is "Libertarian Socialism", it makes me wonder what will happen to people like Ron Paul or Jesse Ventura.