William.Z. Foster is a very complicated figure, and since I'm from Brazil ( a country that took hundreds of thousand of American refugees during and after the 2nd civil war) I cannot have a unbiased view on him since every American immigrant or refugee here hates him a lot, while in America the discussion is more 50/50. After the civil war the strongest faction on the Reed government were the totalists and due his age and health problems, John Reed decided that it was better to appoint Foster since not appointing a totalist would cause political chaos and the other option, Earl browder was a known crook and also supported the planned economy, something that just does not work.
Foster tool over in November of 1938 and was re-elected in 1940. On his government he did good and bad things, but all inside his very Bolshevik, even mosleyte logic of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the CIA was created and became quite infamous for using torture and intimidation, at the same time they successfully crushed the KKK and the guerrillas left over from the civil war bringing stability. He expanded the trade unions, focused on the production of cars and the automobile unions, but at the same time these unions leaders were appointed by the centralist faction of the Socialist Party of America, thus they didn't brought all the reforms the people wanted as the interests of the state had to be put on account. Foster ended segregation and refused his VP, mister Ford plan of creating autonomous Afro-American communes, believing that racism could die down not by segregation but by cohesistense, at the same time he also lifted all restrictions for women to get government posts and even allowed them to join the army. Foster allowed also some officers from both the south and the feds to join the continental army of the USAS allowing the reestructioration of the army into a modern combat force.
For the things I said above, it seems that Foster was a good person who did some questionable things, however now let's move to the things that his supporters try to hide:
Foster considered making the pioneers of America a obligatory organization, to force children to be conscripted into it and only gave up the idea after vice president Ford told him that the backlash would be too big. He cracked down on strikes in state owned factories and arrested their leaders, while also firing the union leaders who were unfriendly to his totalist ideology. He ordered the execution of Earl Browder solely due his rivalry with him, while also arresting most of the browderite faction into his forced labour camps. And about these camps they were filled with political prisoners, we all have traded the histories and seen the documentaries about the harsh life there and while it is true that some were far right activists, macArthurist officers and corrupt politicians, a lot of democratic oppositors and even syndicalists, socialists and Christian leftists were locked to do five, ten, even twenty years of forced labour. The absolute worst moment of Foster government was on may of 1942 when he brought a clearly tortured and starved Henry Wallace to the Congress in Chicago to testify against the progressive faction, I'm posting a video below of that momento (it is blocked on some.american states so you might need to pirate it through a blog or something)
--the video should be here--
Shortly after this disgracefull moment, Smedley Butler mobilised his armoured corps who had just returned victorious from the New England war and attacked Chicago. The city was locked in fight between Butler forces and the CIA along with the police and soldiers loyal to Foster, while the air force refused to take paet and bomb Americans. On April 1st of 1942 they broke into the Congress and Foster died resisting with his supporters after being shot multiple times, thus confirming himself as a matyr of the totalist cause and at the same time ending what the oppositors call his rule of terror. Butler spent the next month's lifting most of the repressive measures and changed the name of the country, while also allowing freer elections to take place in 1944 allowing the election of the first American female president, Elizabeth Flynn.
So I ask you: what do you think of the "short" presidency of William Z. Foster? Was he as bad as people say? Was him as good as his supporters say? Was Smedley Butler right on attacking his own capital to get rid of him?
Foster tool over in November of 1938 and was re-elected in 1940. On his government he did good and bad things, but all inside his very Bolshevik, even mosleyte logic of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the CIA was created and became quite infamous for using torture and intimidation, at the same time they successfully crushed the KKK and the guerrillas left over from the civil war bringing stability. He expanded the trade unions, focused on the production of cars and the automobile unions, but at the same time these unions leaders were appointed by the centralist faction of the Socialist Party of America, thus they didn't brought all the reforms the people wanted as the interests of the state had to be put on account. Foster ended segregation and refused his VP, mister Ford plan of creating autonomous Afro-American communes, believing that racism could die down not by segregation but by cohesistense, at the same time he also lifted all restrictions for women to get government posts and even allowed them to join the army. Foster allowed also some officers from both the south and the feds to join the continental army of the USAS allowing the reestructioration of the army into a modern combat force.
For the things I said above, it seems that Foster was a good person who did some questionable things, however now let's move to the things that his supporters try to hide:
Foster considered making the pioneers of America a obligatory organization, to force children to be conscripted into it and only gave up the idea after vice president Ford told him that the backlash would be too big. He cracked down on strikes in state owned factories and arrested their leaders, while also firing the union leaders who were unfriendly to his totalist ideology. He ordered the execution of Earl Browder solely due his rivalry with him, while also arresting most of the browderite faction into his forced labour camps. And about these camps they were filled with political prisoners, we all have traded the histories and seen the documentaries about the harsh life there and while it is true that some were far right activists, macArthurist officers and corrupt politicians, a lot of democratic oppositors and even syndicalists, socialists and Christian leftists were locked to do five, ten, even twenty years of forced labour. The absolute worst moment of Foster government was on may of 1942 when he brought a clearly tortured and starved Henry Wallace to the Congress in Chicago to testify against the progressive faction, I'm posting a video below of that momento (it is blocked on some.american states so you might need to pirate it through a blog or something)
--the video should be here--
Shortly after this disgracefull moment, Smedley Butler mobilised his armoured corps who had just returned victorious from the New England war and attacked Chicago. The city was locked in fight between Butler forces and the CIA along with the police and soldiers loyal to Foster, while the air force refused to take paet and bomb Americans. On April 1st of 1942 they broke into the Congress and Foster died resisting with his supporters after being shot multiple times, thus confirming himself as a matyr of the totalist cause and at the same time ending what the oppositors call his rule of terror. Butler spent the next month's lifting most of the repressive measures and changed the name of the country, while also allowing freer elections to take place in 1944 allowing the election of the first American female president, Elizabeth Flynn.
So I ask you: what do you think of the "short" presidency of William Z. Foster? Was he as bad as people say? Was him as good as his supporters say? Was Smedley Butler right on attacking his own capital to get rid of him?