Debs Lived, Debs Lives, Debs Shall Live Forever!

[CosmicAsh]

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"He was an inspiring leader, he cared for the people"
-Susana Taylor, Washington City (Debstown) resident

"I saw him speak as a child, he had such a passion"
-Paul Lavallee, Patriotic War veteran, Worker's Army (1931-1946)

"His movement was unmatched, his appeal inescapable, truly the man of his time"
-Zinovy Butusov, USAS Historian, University of Tsaritsyn

"Nothing short of a butcher, a tyrant, a brute, who inaugurated hell on earth"
-Robert Welch, Jr., Former USAS political prisoner and peace activist

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​

Universally known, hated by the right, adored by the left, and generally revered by Americans of all spectrums, Eugene Debs forged the way forward for International Socialism, led the Revolution of 1907, and presided over the world's first Communist country. The Union of Socialist American states existed from 1907 to 1998, ninety one years, and saw some of the most seismic events in world history. The American Union, as it was known, was locked in a titanic struggle during the Cold War against the Empire of Russia, the world's remaining Superpower. The American Union and Russia had never fired a shot at each other during their struggle, but their allies waged war and guerrilla fighting against each other in the battlegrounds of Africa, southern Europe, and Asia. After the Patriotic War, the Bogota Pact bound America's allies together, and economically isolated them from the world, drawing the American Union away from her then allies of Germany and Russia, which had been fighting against the British Empire. This documentary shall expose, in many ways as it can, the history of this lost nation from its rise to prominence, all the way to the collapse and return of America to a regional power player.

This documentary has been graciously funded by the Ministry of Media and Mass Communication of the American Federation, and has been produced and broadcast by the station America Today. This work, "Debs Lived, Debs Lives, Debs Shall Live Forever!" is narrated by Brooke Baldwin, host of "News Hour" on America Today.

 

[Orville_third]

Interesting...

 

[Japhy]

There's really no way to trigger a revolution in 1907 with a Post-1900 point of divergence to be honest.

Even if Roosevelt does get frozen out, McKinley's administration was tinted Progressive as the movement was making inroads already and there's no way an outright reactionary could win with either party's support in 1904.

Even if you go with a Bryanite triumph in 1900 or 1904, which in turn would really strangle Progressivsim it would take years for the urban and labor populations of the country to recognize that no, they were not really welcome in the Populist tent and that Populism was not in any meaningful way going to solve their problems. And of course in that case odds are you'd see even more conservative backing for the Progressive Movement in reaction.

Thats not to say its impossible, but I'm generally of the view one has to go back to the 1870's to get it done by 1907, and its not an odds on favorite there. At the very latest to be decently plauseable in time to have Debs be the man at the top, you'd at least have to go back to the Panic of 1893.

 

[CosmicAsh]

The actual PoD is well before 1900, but I won't be writing on that, only a vague reference towards it. The actual story will take place between the 1907 revolution and the collapse of the American Union.

 

[Japhy]

The actual PoD is well before 1900, but I won't be writing on that, only a vague reference towards it. The actual story will take place between the 1907 revolution and the collapse of the American Union.

Carry on then.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Bloody Tuesday​

He was the man that shook the old regime to its core, and watched it crumble to the ground. He was there to pick up the pieces, and reshaped America into a vision of his own. Today he remains a revered figure, statues of him dot the landscape of our country. His monument in Washington City towers over the reflecting pool, which sits opposite of what was once the Marx Memorial, now since replaced by a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Without him, many contend that America never would have risen as high as she did, and that he is still to thank for the country's favourable position to this day. When he spoke, he moved crowds to action. He was seen as an agitator, thrown in jail several times over, and saw as comrades of his were slaughtered by the Capitalist business owners of his day.

Eugene Debs stands as the most important American of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and revolutionised the world. He fought against injustice as he saw it, wanted bread for the workers, and inspired a mass movement that would topple what some had called the greatest experiment in the World. We shall look into the Revolution of 1907, and the entire lifespan of the Union of Socialist American States, to try and offer an understanding of our complex nation, as well as a look at how socialist and communist movements worldwide still look towards this great American leader for inspiration.

The Revolution of 1907 was sparked by a miscommunication between the internal offices of the Indiana Revolutionary Worker's State, with what was an ideological message by Chairman Debs was taken to be an order. The uneasy peace that existed between Indiana and the rest of the United States was one that was bound to fail at some point, as ideology on both sides reached and fever pitch. Anti-socialist brigades formed across the southern United States, slaughtering workers accused of being socialist, and murdering the socialists' main support base in the South, African-Americans. In the Midwest and the North, the socialists' stronghold, factories were burned and strikes common, often paralysing the country. Debs, who had talked about shaking the Capitalist world to the ground and to "set fire to their homes, destroy their estates, destroy them in their cradle." Several in attendance took this to be all all out call for war with the Capitalist class, which existed in an uneasy peace within Revolutionary Indiana. Only a day after his inflammatory speech was spoken, cadres of the Red Guard had entered into the homes of prominent Indianapolis businessman and killed them and their families. Strikes were called across Indiana, and a further call across the Midwest to band together to rise up against the evils of the Capitalists.

When the word reached Washington, President Nelson Miles immediately ordered the Army to the state, confirming the worst fears many anti-Socialist Americans held about Debs and his revolutionary state. By the time Debs had found out about the orders being carried out, he knew that it was already too late to stop them, and instead ordered for thousands of men to be called up to protect the Revolution fostered in Indiana. The Red Guard would act as the core of the new Army being formed by Debs, which found highly favourable recruitment rates among unions, and the rural poor, who found the mixed agrarian-socialist reforms appealing. The Capitalists found their support amongst the middle class, shopkeepers, lawyers, the urban professional class, and they were outnumbered by and far by most accounts. Indiana's middle class had collapsed under Deb's rule, as many were forced into Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. This meant very little recruitment was available for the counterrevolutionaries, making the state almost completely unable to be flipped.

The news of the military being shipped in to Indiana was met with nationwide railroad strikes, limiting the ability for the Federal Government to respond to the crisis, and destroying economic activity. The southern United States was the only part of the country able to escape unscathed by these strikes, due to their strong counterrevolutionary zeal, and nearly complete lack of union organising. From New York to California, industrial work was crippled, and President Miles declared an emergency, allowing the military to take control of the railroads, removing workers by force if they did not comply with the military's orders. Banners of red and gold were unfurled through the streets of many industrial towns across the Midwest. In Washington, socialists marched through the streets, only to be meet by the guns of the military, resulting in the infamous "Bloody Tuesday" of October 1907, where unarmed demonstrators were cut down by rapid fire weapons, the streets in front of the White House being stained red from their blood, all the while none of them had been convicted of any crime, or even held a dangerous weapon.

The news of Bloody Tuesday spread like wildfire across the country, destroying a great deal of support the government held with the moderates, who held no strong opinion on the socialists, and drove a lot on the fence to the socialist side. A large chunk of support for the socialists came from Democrats from the west and the northeast, while southern Democrats remained wholly opposed to the idea. The country had been on an uneven ground even before Bloody Tuesday, and open threats of southern secession from anything that sought to destroy the United States would be undertaken and fought for. Despite the abysmal failure of the south's first attempt to leave the United States, changing the tune to a counterrevolutionary call seemed far more appealing. Militias began to form from Virginia to Texas, as even former Confederates were paraded out for the counterrevolutionaries to cheer for. Riots broke out in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Richmond, and Austin, although they were quickly quelled. The federal government condemned southern adventurism and the call for Revolution all at once, while simultaneously fighting its way across railroad strikes to Indiana.

What was once characterised as the uneasy peace was soon about to boil over into the start of the second American experiment. For many, Bloody Tuesday was a confirmation that the struggle between the Capitalist class and the Working class would be one that could not be safeguarded by trusting the government, or brokering deals between the two camps. For both sides, it proved that they saw each other as dangerous radicals, and the only solution to this problem would be the complete eradication of the other ideology, unleashing a devastating war on American soil that made the attempted secession of the southern states seem as if it was little more than a minor skirmish. Upon hearing of the massacre in the capital, Eugene Debs made yet another speech, calling this the greatest struggle the Worker has ever faced, pledging to led their cause to victory, or to death.