From the Glorious to the Failed Revolution: A British story.

12. The September Rising (1): London
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12. The September Rising (1): London

The British army and Churchill's Volunteer Corps wasted no time reconquering the blocked streets and buildings of London. For that they used heavy guns and a few Medium Mark A Whippet and Mark V tanks, against which the rebels had no possible defense. The sudden attack led to many of the insurgents to surrender, to the surprise of the government, of the commanders of the Volunteers Corps and of the leaders of the rebellion. Some of the volunteer units then moved to take revenge on the prisoners, and a small battle among loyalist forces ensued. Since its very creation, some volunteer units were nothing but death squads that had been used to terrorize some villages. Then, on October 5th, just as the main strike was reconquering London, when some buidlings were cleared, their occupiers were shot on the spot.

When those executions took place again on the following days, the officers and soldiers of the regular army units that were fighting in London were shocked by the sheer brutality and ferocity of the executioneers and, in a few occasions, they reacted by confronting the death squads. In one of those incidents, Captain Oswald Mosley, a veteran of the trenches, was executed along a few dozens of his men after the regular forces discovered the madness that Mosley's volunteers, the Mosley Brigade (around 600 men), had unleashed in the East End of London. According to some witnesses, Mosley's men had rampaged through the streets, killing and plundering allown the way, slauthering those unfortunate enough to be in their path. So, Mosley and some of his men were put against a wall in Cable Street and executed there by a firing squad. All in all, around fifty members of the Brigade were either shoot or beaten to death by the enraged soldiers that witnesssed the horror.

As a few more incidents similar in nature to this one took place, Churchill`s Volunteers Coprs were withdrawn from the cities and the regular army ended the supression of the revolt that, by that time, was broken and finished. The political career of Winston Churchill, who just before the events had stated that "Someone has to be the bloodhound. I won't shy away from the responsibility", was not to recover from this and by 1932 he had completely withdrawn from politics (1). His memory is still stained today by those events.

The "September Rising" (even if most of its events took place in October) claimed 156 lives in London. Among them was John Mclean. His body, which was found floating on the Thames, was delivered to a morgue on November 1st.

(1) He would die in 1946 from a stroke.
 
13. The September Rising (2): the Luton Soviet Republic.
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13. The September Rising (2): the Luton Soviet Republic.

The events of London had a direct consequence. After them, the political differences between the two branches of the divided Labour party grew even more irreconcilable (1) to the benefit of the Tories. Then MacDonald turned his eyes to the Luton Soviet Republic, where a worker's council had been established and elected just just before the abdication of the King (August 8, 1919). This council had managed since then the affairs of the city as if it were a small independent state.

On 10 September, the worker's council declared the republic setting up the Soviet of People’s Representatives within the city, which was dominated by several Leninist politicians and intelectuals. After its formation, the council passed much reformist legislation including the requirement to equal pay, and moved next to nationalise the economy of Luton by the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat, while sending apprisals to other cities to follow its example.

After defeating the revolutionaries in London, the government felt strong enough to move against Luton to make an example from it. So, to get rid of the Volunteer Corps, the bulk of those forces were sent to Luton and the Soviet was violently suppressed on October 29th 1919. Approximately 400 people were killed in the ensuing fights. However, a spark of revolts and an eruption of mass strikes around the country were triggered by the events of Luton. Members of the newly formed Independent Labour party and even some members of the Labour party itself called for a general strike that started on November 21st. In spite of its leaders, the strike escalated into street fighting in London, Birmingham and Glasgow. Again the Volunteer Corps were used to quell the rebellion and by the end of the fighting on December 2nd, they had killed approximately 1,200 people, many of them unarmed and uninvolved in the strikes.

Meawnhile, the situation in the Middlands was very much like a civil war, while the Cornish Soviet Republic, which had been declared on September 5th, refused to stand down in spite of the events of Luton, much to the changrin of a Ramsay MacDonald that was beginning to fear the power of the Volunteer Corps.

(1) The healing of those differences was to take a long time and the final re-union of the party was not to happen until 1956.
 
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14. The September Rising (3): the Scottish Soviet Republic.
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14. The September Rising (3): the Scottish Soviet Republic.

The Scottish Soviet Republic had an outstanding feature: it was led by a woman, Sylvia Pankhurst. It all began on 3 September 1919, when protests erupted in Glasgow and, on the following day, on Edimburgh, demanding the end of the wartime measures that were still on force and, specially, the rationing an the food shortages. On the afternoon of 7 September, Pankhurst, a suffragette and a promiment left communist who had joined the Independent Labour Party, addressed a crowd estimated to have been about 30,000 on the Glasgow City. In addition to the end of the rationing, she also asked for an eight-hour workday, relief for the unemployed and proposed the formation of workers' and soldiers' councils. The crowd then marched to the army barracks and won over most of the soldiers; those who didn't join the revolution were too war-weary to mount any resistance to it and some of them deserted. The combined group, more than 50,000, began to ocupy the official building anb, by the end of the day, they controlled the city.

The next day, Pankhurst proclaimed the "Free State of Scotland" with the support of the local revolutionary workers' and soldiers' councils plus the Scottish section of the Workers Socialist Federation, by communist groups from Aberdeen, Edimburgh and Glasgow, and even by the short-lived Manchester Soviet and the Labour Abstentionist Party, Pankhurst formed a provisional government, but soon it began to move away from the Bolshevik models. The Provisional State Constitution, promulgated on 7 November, stated that it would protect the owner rights, for instance.

The new state was soon hit by several strikes from both sides. Pankhurst's attempts to create a "fair and just" state failed in front of the situation and soon there was an organized campaign for removing her from office. By late November the government was on the verge of collapse, as it was unable to provide basic services. Then, on 21 November, Pankhurst called for a special meeting of the government where she was to annouced her resignation. However, this was not to take place. The meeting was cut in half when armed soldiers and civilians entered the hall and arrested all those gathered there. At once, a Central Council led by William Gallacher, a Scottish trade unionist, activist and Communist, held governmental power.

It barely lasted fot two weeks, as it was deposed too and replaced by the People's State of Scotland, led by David Kirkwood. An attempt by Gallacher's followers to mount a counter-coup led to a small civil war within Glasow itself, being specially vicious the fights around George Square. Twelve people died in the fighting. On December 8, the British army and the Volunteer Corps moved north. At first the government troops were kept at bay in a serie of border skirmishes, but by December 21 the loyalist troops overcame the enemy resistance and reached Glasgow. The People's State was over.

The British Left itself had been neutralized after the demise of the two socialist states, but the revolution was not still over.
 
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Interesting and I will be looking forward to it.
But I have a doubt: Why the organized workers and/or Leninist unions would try to block or avoid that ships would be sent to fight in Russia if had been stated at start that Great Britain had been supporting to the Russian (or Soviet?) revolutionaries against the Imperial German backed faction?
 
But I have a doubt: Why the organized workers and/or Leninist unions would try to block or avoid that ships would be sent to fight in Russia if had been stated at start that Great Britain had been supporting to the Russian (or Soviet?) revolutionaries against the Imperial German backed faction?
Because they don't trust the people in charge to not "accidentally" leak their itenaries to the Germans, thereby allowing a U-boat to sink them.

They say they sent support but it got sunk, and at the same time, lot less revolutionaries. Win win in their minds.
 
Interesting and I will be looking forward to it.
But I have a doubt: Why the organized workers and/or Leninist unions would try to block or avoid that ships would be sent to fight in Russia if had been stated at start that Great Britain had been supporting to the Russian (or Soviet?) revolutionaries against the Imperial German backed faction?

As Knightmare says, because there's a mixture of mistrust towards the ones in control but also a huge anti-war feeling.

Because they don't trust the people in charge to not "accidentally" leak their itenaries to the Germans, thereby allowing a U-boat to sink them.

They say they sent support but it got sunk, and at the same time, lot less revolutionaries. Win win in their minds.

Mmmmm... that reminds I should take a look on the events outside the British islands...
 
15. The General Elections of 1920 and the Empire
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15. The General Elections of 1920 and the Empire

On January 19, 1920 the Conservative party won the General Elections by default. Narrowly 22.4% of the popular vote and 208 seats in the parliament made them the winners, as the divided Labour party led by William Adamson only mustered 16.2% of the votes and 98 seats. On his part, the reformed Liberal Party led by Lloyd George achieved better results than expected (15,8% of the votes and 151 seats) as the Asquitian faction had rejoined the party, fearing the worst of the mutinieers and hoping for a democratic return to the old order. A Coalition government was, again, in order.

The Revolution had further damaged the social structure of the Empire, and just as the Home Islands were rocked by strikes and riots. For instance, Australia and new Zealad were outraged by the return of New Guinea to Germany, which was met with outrage in the local press. Meanwhile the British hold over India was, at beast, quite shaky. The news comming from Britain only helped to fuel the discontent in India and soon princes, rajahs, nationalists, imperialists and Leftish revolutionaries began to conspire to further their goals. By the beginning of 1920, the Indian powderkeg was ready to explode.

Canada, on its part, was divided. The Union Liberals left the government and rejoined their fellow party members in the opposition and the government, but both sides wee united in their common hatred towards the United States, as they deemed Washington as a guitly part in the misfortunes of the Empire.

Germany was busy carving herself an Empire in the East while keeping an eye on the stormy France and on the south of Europe, as Italy had exploded as soon as peace was declared. Just as the guns felt silent, the anger of the incensed Italians went againt the king and the institution that had brought them into war, and they proclaimed the Republic of Italy. Since August 1919 a civil war was consuming the country. The Republic of Italy was soon split itself when the Socialist revolutionaries, with French support, attempted a take over in late 1919. The weak Austrian Empire, which was nothing but a shell of itself after being reduced to its German Danubian and Alpine provinces plus a loosy and shaky alliance with the much shaken Kingdom of Hungary an a Bohemian kingdom too afraid of its neighbours, joined the war on the side of the king and the government that they had so viciously fought not so long ago. By early 1920, the war was still raging, even if it had become a stalemate, with neither side able to defeat its enemies. It was the nightmare of the trenches all over again.
 
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Bomster

Banned
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14. The General Elections of 1920 and the Empire

On January 19, 1920 the Conservative party won the General Elections by default. Narrowly 22.4% of the popular vote and 208 seats in the parliament made them the winners, as the divided Labour party led by William Adamson only mustered 16.2% of the votes and 98 seats. On his part, the reformed Liberal Party led by Lloyd George achieved better results than expected (15,8% of the votes and 151 seats) as the Asquitian faction had rejoined the party, fearing the worst of the mutinieers and hoping for a democratic return to the old order. A Coalition government was, again, in order.

The Revolution had further damaged the social structure of the Empire, and just as the Home Islands were rocked by strikes and riots. For instance, Australia and new Zealad were outraged by the return of New Guinea to Germany, which was met with outrage in the local press. Meanwhile the British hold over India was, at beast, quite shaky. The news comming from Britain only helped to fuel the discontent in India and soon princes, rajahs, nationalists, imperialists and Leftish revolutionaries began to conspire to further their goals. By the beginning of 1920, the Indian powderkeg was ready to explode.

Canada, on its part, was divided. The Union Liberals left the government and rejoined their fellow party members in the opposition and the government, but both sides wee united in their common hatred towards the United States, as they deemed Washington as a guitly part in the misfortunes of the Empire.

Germany was busy carving herself an Empire in the East while keeping an eye on the stormy France and on the south of Europe, as Italy had exploded as soon as peace was declared. Just as Vienna began to prepare to divide Italy and to have a part of it ruled by the Austrian Kaiser's infant son, the incensed Italian nationalists proclaimed the Republic of Italy, and, since August 1919, a civil war was consuming the country. The Republic of Italy was soon overtaken by the Socialist revolutionaries with French support since late 1919, and fought a vicious war against the Italian Federation created by Vienna. By early 1920, the war was still raging, even if it had become a stalemate, with neither side able to defeat its enemies. It was the nightmare of the trenches all over again.
Feels very Kaiserreich, I like it!
 
Just read through this, looking amazing so far!

I am confused about something. In the first post you said Austria-Hungary was on the entente side yet lasted against an alliance of Germany, Italy, and Russia for four years, which I find highly unrealistic to say the least. Then in the last update you mentioned the Austrians trying to install their emporer’s son on the Italian throne, which implies not only that Austria didn’t collapse but that it was on the winning (german) side.

Who was on which side in the war?
 
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Feels very Kaiserreich, I like it!

It was my inspiration, indeed. It's, perhaps, my beloved HOI mod...

Well that's rather bleak.

Yes, my TLs end up having always a quite awful turn of events for the worse...

Just read through this, looking amazing so far!

I am confused about something. In the first post you said Austria-Hungary was on the entente side yet lasted against an alliance of Germany, Italy, and Russia for four years, which I find highly unrealistic to say the least. Then in the last update you mentioned the Austrians trying to install their emporer’s son on the Italian throne, which implies not only that Austria didn’t collapse but that it was on the winning (german) side.

Who was on which side in the war?

I know it was unrealistic, but I wanted to keep them fighthing a bit longer or the Great War would be simply too short. The twin Caporetto offensive gives me the crips, as it goes a bit too long asking for the readers' suspension of belief, as a big part of the prologue, but it was a necessary evil.

About the last emperor... my fault and my mistake... you're right. My apologies, I've rewritten that part...
 
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15. Afterword
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15. Afterword

With the Coalition government, Britain returned to "bussines as usual", just in time as the troubles with the Empire began to crackle. The reforms introduced during the chaos that followed the end of the war remained in place. The Agricultural Labour Act and the Factory ACt passed on March 1919 raised the minimum working age to 16 and introduced legislation regarding education of children, meal times, and fire escapes. A decree on 23 August 1919 established committees (composed of workers’ representatives "in their relation to the employer") to safeguard the rights of workers, even if this drecree was later on modified on February 1920 and the power of the comittess was much reduced.

The Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919 continued and extended the provisions of the Aliens Restriction of 1914 (1). The Government of India Act, 1920 provided a dual form of government for India, but it came too late to stop the wave of nationalism that would end in the Riots of 1922, when India came close to break under the political tensions that threatened to unleash a civil war in the subcontinent. Also, a Ministry of Health was established that year, with Alfred Moritz Mond as its minister.

Following the end of the "Revolution", the situation of Britain remained dire. Food shortages only began to fade out in 1924, even if the the naval blockade was removed in June of 1920. An example of that is meat consumption in the country had not increased since the war era, that had not increased since the end of the war and would not begin to improve until 1925. Also, the burdens of the war reparations were still in place, and would become a torn in the side of the British government for a long time and were to be the main cause of the crisis of 1925, when the government, still under attack for the defeat and the peace treaty clauses from the left and with the powrful right and its para-military organizations, would struggle to survive until the mentioned crisis of 1925.

But that, for now, is a different story.


The end.

(1) It would be repealed by the British Parliament on 1953.
 
Also, the burdens of the war reparations were still in place, and would become a torn in the side of the British government for a long time and were to be the main cause of the crisis of 1925, when the government, still under attack for the defeat and the peace treaty clauses from the left and with the powrful right and its para-military organizations, would struggle to survive until the mentioned crisis of 1925.
Is this a sequel implied? Given how this TL unfolded, I'd certainly like the sequel.
 
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