An approved submission by yours truly. Fair warning, while nothing too graphic occurs, this chapter includes slavery, brutality against slaves, and brief mentions of rape.
People's Republic of the Antilles
République Populaire des Antilles
The man at the counter next to me at the airport, a Ghanaian on vacation, glares at me as I pick up my ticket. I cannot blame him, the country I am now visiting is despised by nearly everyone else in the universe. I do not blame them, even coming here stretches me to my limits, especially as I am to be a guest of the government.
When I arrive at the Marx-Engles Airport in the former city of Le Cap, now called Liberty, I am greeted by my official People’s Republic of the Antilles guide. His name is Henri, and he gives me a warm smile as I approach. A slave tries to take my luggage, but I insist on carrying it myself. There are some lines I will not cross, even to be courteous to my hosts. Henri looks puzzled.
“Monsieur, that is what they are for.” He says.
I tell him I am capable of carrying my own luggage for a bit. Henri smiles in a patronizing way.
What was once the colony of Saint Domingue was settled by Frenchmen over the course of the 1500s-1700s. Eventually, it developed a plantation economy exporting sugar, coffee, and indigo back to Europe. To sustain itself the colony used a hideously brutal system of chattel slavery wherein nearly 90 percent of the population was enslaved people of African descent. When the Kingdom of France lost most of its American colonies, Saint Domingue was kept and made the transition with France to constitutional monarchy in 1791. The vast slave economy continued paddling along, with the French government bribing their way into an exception to the British led banning of the slave trade.
However, in 1859 a group of reform-minded liberals took power in Paris and voted an abolition of slavery through the legislative assembly. This was naturally unacceptable to the plantation owners, who quickly declared independence as the Republic of Saint Domingue. The whites took advantage of the opportunity to reenslave or expel all of the Free people of color in the country, ending what had once been a vibrant community. France was sucked into a war with Austria at the same time, and so by the time they turned back east, Saint Domingue was firmly established. The Republic was largely supported by the Empire of Brazil, one of the few other slave states still existing. But even after the end of slavery in Brazil, Saint Domingue kept the institution. Most other nations found it distasteful, and the nation was cut off from the slave trade, but in an era of racist colonialism little was done. The heinous slave republic continued on for several decades until 1923.
The poor whites of Saint Domingue had always envied the powerful slave owners, a mix of whites and free blacks, and viewed themselves as the true oppressed class in the region. By 1923 poor whites outnumbered the plantation owners 4 to 1 (collectively both groups were outnumbered by the slaves nearly 9 to 1). They also made up the vast majority of the army. In April they struck in what was more of a coup than a revolution. It was quick and managed to avoid triggering a slave uprising. The conspirators took inspiration from Marxist ideals and declared a People’s Republic. Saint Domingue was dropped for being “too Catholic” and the Antilles was inserted instead. The property of the wealthy was seized by the government to be put to use by “the people”. This “property” included the slaves.
It is a credit to the international Marxists of the day that they instantly condemned the new state as anti-communist in every way. However, in the wake of the Great Communist War of the 1940s, the Worker’s Russian Republic was the enemy of most of the world. The new generation of leaders had far fewer scruples and the PRA was brought into the fold. For propaganda purposes, the blacks of the island (free blacks had been enslaved after the revolution) were now “wards of the state”, although there was no way to escape that status and they remained enslaved for plantation labor. In 1978 however, this partnership came to an end. Russian allies in Africa, led by Nigeria and Katanga, presented an ultimatum. Drop the Antilles, or lose their allegiance. The Antilles entered into awkward partnerships with The Unitary Republic of the Congo and Apartheid South Africa, who both professed hatred to communism but in the end, hated their minorities more. This unlikely Axis of racism was the basis for the PRA's small but deadly nuclear program, a last resort in case of insurrection. Yet these allies fell as well. The PRA stands alone.
The formal structure of the People's Republic of the Antilles is not terribly extraordinary for a Communist State. It is headed by a President, who is also the General Secretary of the Antillian Communist Party. Currently, the President is Antoine Cabannes. In terms of support, he has more of it than some Communist Leaders. As only whites can be party members, the party is popular with the whites who are terrified of mass insurrection.
But these members make up less than one percent of the population.
The vast majority of the population of the PRA is black and enslaved. Like all "property" they are under the control of the Central Planning Committee. They are forced to work in brutal conditions on plantations. They grow mostly food, as the PRA's isolation makes foreign trade difficult. Local whites proudly speak of working on "communal farms" which is in fact simply overseeing the slaves. Conditions are brutal, with death rates highest among young men.
The central square of Liberty has a tall pillar where a slave market once stood. It commemorates the freedom the Antilles now enjoys from the rich capitalists, who once hoarded the wealth. Government slaves play in a band. Henri sneers.
"They are not festive enough." He notes. "I will have them whipped later."
As we continue our propaganda filled tour, I ask how these men are not part of the "workers of the world" the PRA claims to protect and serve.
"The slaves? Why they are capitalists, not fit to participate in the dictatorship of the proletariat. They were as much a part of the old system as the big whites."
Most wealthy landowners had actually transferred seamlessly into the new system.
Control is maintained through a brutal system of physical abuse and propaganda designed to dehumanize the people held captive by the state. Idleness is punished by whipping and disobedience is a capital offense. With the international slave trade banned by the other, far better states, the PRA has tried to force birth rates to rise to keep up with the high death rate. Contraception is banned for blacks and, as any child with a black mother is a slave, rape is encouraged by the government. Recently the PRA has been moving towards less deadly, but still cruel and horrific methods of punishment.
But isn't a higher population of blacks more likely to rebel?
"Rebel against what?" Henri asks. "Their humane and just treatment?"
I know for a fact that an uprising a few years ago in the far southwest was suppressed via judicious use of chemical weapons. And while officially the People's Republic's first nuclear test was carried out on an uninhabited mountain, there have long been rumors that a community of escaped slaves lived there.
The merciful end of the disgusting tour is at a furniture factory, where slaves are forced to meet quotas or be shocked with electricity. In the factories, weapons for the all-white People's Guard (and the international arms trade) are the most common product, along with inferior copies of outsider luxury goods.
"You see, before the revolution, the proletariat was forced to labor here. The bourgeois hoarded the means of production for themselves. But now the slaves are available for all."
The American State of Santo Domingo also sits on Hispaniola. It is not paradise, but it is a welcome relief after the PRA. The border is heavily militarized, although I do not visit. Santo Domingo City is home to a large number of escapees, such as Dominique Martel. The tall, thin woman greets me in the Grant Memorial Library downtown to discuss the PRA.
"Some of us snuck across the land border. Personally I fled across the Windward Passage in a bus that was refurbished into a boat. Some sought asylum in the embassies. The Irish were expelled, Lord bless them for their aid, but there are still a few smuggling people out. I can't tell you which ones you understand." She says.
I ask what life was like, although I can guess somewhat.
"Terrible. I worked on an indigo farm initially, before I was transferred to a rubber plant in Equality. I was beaten regularly. I have been torn from three sons. One by a lover and two by...forgive me I don't wish to speak about that."
I nod.
"I do some work at the local refugee camps, you know? Help who I can, do what I can. A little arms smuggling on the side just got my first wanted poster, or so I've heard. Hopefully, we can bring it down, and complete the long work of liberation."