Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline: (Special Edition)

(Co-Written with Jello_Biafra)

1936 General Election



On January 28th, Earl Browder announced that the United Democratic Front will be dissolved, and the Workers’ Communist Party would be facing the election alone. Thus, Secretary-General Upton Sinclair announces the new elections to be held on May 8th. The division of the UDF would make the 1936 election the first competitive election in the nation’s history


This new election would be conducted with the Law of Elections, among them voting franchise denied to landlords, capitalists and those connected with counterrevolution.


Four parties would contest the election: The Workers’ Communist Party (with its constituent groups, such the Independent Socialist Labor Party, the African National Congress, the Jewish Labor Bund, the American Indian Movement, the Asiatic Council, and the Women’s Revolutionary Union), the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, the Democratic-Republican Party, and the True Democratic Party

932cg3b1x0f01.jpg

Photo of the WCP Convention in Toledo.

Candidates

The Workers’ Communist Party of America went into the election with the biggest advantage, being the largest party. At their annual National Convention, it would endorse the continuation of the Foster government elected in 1934, and the policies enacted during that period. Behind the scenes, however, Browder would begin his own push towards removing Sinclair from the office of Secretary-General. Sinclair, already weary of the office, decided during the discussions to step aside when his term went up in 1938, allowing Browder and Foster to begin consolidating their own power.


The second largest party in the front, the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, would elect at their New Orleans Convention Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Party Chairman and Vice Premier under the UDF Government Robert M. LaFollette, Jr. as Congressional Party Leader. Roosevelt, a distant relative of former Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt, former Assistant Secretary of Navy under the Taft and Mann Presidencies, and New York politician, had been part of the “Progressive Bourgeois,” who had embraced the revolution, and accepted the new order once the dust had settled. “Young Bob”, the son of the Wisconsin governor turned Communist activist, was not as radical as his father, and joined the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in the 20’s, where he remained as it ascended into prominence before and after the Revolution.


The Democratic-Republicans would elect William Borah, who had been a Progressive Republican Idaho Senator, as their Congressional Party Leader, and Frank Knox as Chairman. Frank Knox’s previous life as a newspaper owner and publisher would become a point of controversy during the campaign.


The True Democrats, ironically, were the first to announce their candidates, due to their emergency National Convention that year. Martin Dies, Jr., a one-time Texas Congressman and firm supporter of the Old Republic, became Chairman, whilst the more populist conservative John Nance Garner was elected Leader, due to his willingness to compromise.


Platforms


The Workers’ Communist Party- The communist platform had never proved so contentious. Having taken power, the party would have to chart a course forward into the unknown. The 1936 platform represented a compromise between divergent tendencies within the communist movement, balancing immediate practical concerns with the lofty aims of world revolutionary transformation.


The platform stressed a continuation of existing recovery practices, with rational economic planning serving as the guiding force in combatting capitalist woes. The Workers’ Party pledged to build new railways, roads, and canals, new dams to light up the night, planned communities to balance work and leisure, an ambitious expansion of the public housing program, and to fill the cities and towns with parks, theaters, bathhouses, and libraries.


Beyond strengthening the syndicalist economy, a key plank of the platform focused on ensuring the security of the revolution. The Workers’ Party pledged to further strengthen the Armed forces, as well as expand efforts to root out internal fifth columnists and bring them to justice.


DFLP- The “New Orleans Program”, debated, refined, and ultimately endorsed at the Convention, would solidify the transition of the DFLP from reformist socialist to “Christian Communist”, as it states.


They would ultimately support the continuation of the current economic system, whilst pledging to continue further development. This largely matched the WCPA’s own economic promises.


Where they would define their differences with the Communists was in their social policy. They would denounce the growing liberalization of society and the upheaval of widely accepted norms as “moral degradation”, and would place emphasis on “traditional norms”, as a bid to appeal directly to the rural or conservative voters disillusioned by the new cultural policies. They also advocated the de-escalation of the security state, with the disarmament of internal security and a more friendly foreign policy towards Britain and France


DRP- The DRP represented the more market/Georgian part of the spectrum. Their immediate economic promise was the increased presence of “cooperatives” in the economy, arguing they could increase productivity more by reducing government intervention. They also argued for the expansion of market mechanisms.


In social issues, they placed themselves in between the Workers’ Party and the DFLP, arguing for some liberalization, but warning against “excesses”. They also back larger security measures, but state the crisis of counterrevolution is overblown.


TD- The True Democratic platform called for the steady restoration of capitalism and the US constitution c. 1932. They also advocated the immediate reversal of some of the policies of the Cultural Revolution, and restoring relations with the UK and France, though supported efforts against the growing Fascist threat by the government.


The Campaign


With this new election being competitive, the parties set out to appeal directly to the workers, within their factories, their collective farms, their workplaces, for votes for their parties.


The WCPA had the immediate advantage and apparatus to appeal to these voters, with its connections with their union. This, and the immediate track record done rebuilding the nation after years of turmoil, put them at an immediate advantage for urban and industrial voters.


So, the DFLP and DRP focused primarily on rural voters. Those who supported the economic practices of the government, but disliked their other policies, whether it was their policies on culture or internal security. However, they would have their own issues, which would allow the WCPA to seize the opportunities and make its own appeals in this field.


The DFLP had trouble with minority farming communities, particularly in the AFNR and the East Asian communities on the West Coast. With their communities benefiting from the dismantling of cultural and racist norms, they were not as receptive to the DFLP’s brand of cultural conservatism, and despite the vigorous efforts of its leaders like LaFollette to counter this, most were inclined already to the Communists, with caucuses like the ANC heavily promoting the alliance with the WCPA.


The DRP shared this issue (worse in their case, with some former Southern Democrats within their ranks), but had a bigger issue to deal with. Their chosen Chairman, Frank Knox, was a publisher and editor, and thus a former capitalist. Whilst some, like Railway Secretary Robert Taft (himself a DRP member) and former VP Theodore Roosevelt (with whom Knox had served with in the Spanish-American War) defended him, the WCPA found an easy target to attack, with posters asking whether their choice of Knox was befitting a socialist nation. Most candidates ended up trying to explain Knox than giving policy.


True Democrats faced a number of problems, from controversial statements from some of their reps to disputes over their legality to arrests from Public Safety for counterrevolutionary ties. They were largely ignored by all other parties and prevented from having any major platform, and most of their voters were cast out by the banning of counterrevolution, sealing any sort of representation.


The campaign season reached its crescendo on the May 1st, when workers across the country gathered around their radios that night to tune into a broadcast debate between the party leadership, moderated by academicians from America’s top universities. The clash between conflicting paradigms was immediately evident.


The DRP’s William Borah soon found himself trapped in an impossible position in the early exchanges, as both Foster and LaFollette grilled him over the rightward turn the party had taken. Borah would remark in his memoirs that participation in the coalition government proved to be a poison chalice. The campaign had unwittingly placed the party in opposition to the very institutions of the dictatorship of the proletariat they had helped erect, and thus they could only be seen as treacherous opportunists.


The real battle would be between Foster and LaFollette. Foster’s affinity with the language of class struggle shone through, whereas LaFollete’s attempts at adapting to the Marxian rhetoric of the workers came across as clumsy. Foster painted a picture of LaFollete’s party as petit-bourgeois dilettantes promising half-measures, separate from and lording itself over the proletariat. LaFollette countered by arguing that the Communists were amassing despotic power over the country through the state security service, and were using that power not merely to restructure the economy, but to criminalize everything that deviated from their party line, including adherence to the natural order of the family and religion.


Foster answered this charge provocatively, arguing that such appeals to the natural order had historically proven false in all cases, and that the Communist movement had already proven such natural orders false by taking power and turning the world upside down. Further, he argued, the DFLP placed itself as a rearguard action against the advance of history, no different from the “moderates” who aligned themselves with Planters to keep men in chains


Election Night



On May 8th, workers from all walks of life all over the nation, from the mines, the factories, the farms, the shops, cast their vote for their local soviets. From these local soviets, representing local workplaces and communities, the composition of the Congress of Soviets would be revealed, as would the composition of the government.


There was some anticipation for the results, but in the end, most predicted the result: The Workers’ Party ended up winning in most soviets, which meant they now had a massive majority within the Congress of Soviets, and the CEC. With that, the new Foster government was able to replace some of their secretaries who were concessions with coalition partners.


Behind the overwhelming majority of the Workers’ Party, the DFLP gained the second highest votes, making it the de facto opposition. The DRP had the biggest loss, with fewer votes from larger workplaces, and more from cooperatives. The True Democrats, effectively banned by this time, lost all representation.



Reactions and Upsets


The Daily Worker hailed the victory, with a front page showing Foster and Browder victorious, and full coverage of the event. (Browder later said they were “bigger than DiMaggio”, a reference to the Baseball player’s debut several days earlier). Other papers, such as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, also dedicated large chunks of their paper to coverage of the election, but were generally more objective in their evaluation. Roosevelt later stated that after their defeat, the party committee, realizing the new climate they were in, decided to refocus their strategy, towards more grassroots instead of larger campaigns. After the disappointing results, Knox was removed as Chairman and Borah retired as both as leader and Congressman. With his credentials firmly established from government service, former Railway Secretary Robert Taft (himself the son of former President William Howard Taft) became Chairman and George W. Jenkins, a prominent figure within the cooperatives that formed their base, was elected its leader in Congress.


One notable point of surprise for many was the DFLP, expected to have higher votes, as to challenge the Workers’ Party in terms of dominance. Their lesser showing has been speculated on, but most historians agree it was largely the loss of the coalition under the UDF and their inability to appeal beyond that, which lead to their defeat.


Amongst surprising showings was in upstate New York, where former Vice President Charles Evan Hughes, under the DFLP banner, won out, riding off his old political connections. He admitted that he wanted to get back into politics after the Revolution.


All-Union Congress of Soviets

III Congress (15 June 1936 to 14 April 1938)


Workers’ Party: 1202 seats

Democratic-Farmer-Labor: 541 seats

Democratic-Republicans: 145 seats

True Democrats: 45 seats

Independents: 62 seats


II Central Executive Council


Workers’ Party: 199 seats

Democratic-Farmer-Labor: 83 seats

Democratic-Republicans: 36


Central Committee (Foster II)


Premier: William Z. Foster

Deputy Premier: Benjamin Gitlow

People's Secretary for Foreign Affairs: John Reed

Attorney General: Crystal Eastman

People's Secretary for Defense: Martin Abern

People's Secretary for Labor: Emma Goldman

People's Secretary for Finance: Jack Stachel

People's Secretary for Foreign Trade: Vito Marcantonio

People's Secretary for Agriculture: Henry A. Wallace

People's Secretary for Education: John Dewey

People's Secretary for Public Safety: J. Edgar Hoover

People's Secretary for Railways: James P. Cannon

People's Secretary for Communication: Max Eastman

People's Secretary for Maritime Transport: Joseph Ryan

People's Secretary for Energy: Max Schactman

People's Secretary for Manufacturing: John Pepper

People's Secretary for Light Industry: Cyril Briggs

People's Secretary for Construction: Charles S. Zimmerman

People’s Secretary for Culture: Louise Bryant

People’s Secretary for Welfare: Antoinette Konikow

Chairman, State Planning Commission: L.E. Katterfield

Chairman, Academy of Arts and Sciences: Eugene O'Neill (Nonpartisan)

Chairman, Union Bank: Robert A. Brady

Speaker of the CEC: Jessica Smith

Chief Whip, CEC: Jay Lovestone



Excerpt from transcript of “21st July” in “This Week in History”, TV program on PBS-8, aired 21 July 1984


This Week in History is a weekly 2-hour television program centering on events that happened the week it aired, focusing on either interviews with historians or witnesses, or occasionally debates on the events in question. Starting on PBS-8 in 1975, during 1983-1984, the 50th anniversary of the Revolution and the beginning of the UASR, it would air programs dedicated to revolutionary events, and subsequent debates. This was one of the highest viewed episodes in the program’s history.


Svetlana Smirnova, Historian, Host: July 18th marked the 50th anniversary of the official formation of the African National Federal Republic, oft called “New Afrika”. Formed from portions of several Southern states and the entire state of South Carolina, the ANFR has since had a complicated legacy since. Whilst heralded in its formation as a realization of autonomy and self-management, the ANFR has been criticized, especially by the African revolutionaries of the 50’s and 60’s, for reinforcing the isolation of Africans and for simply creating a large segregated state. However, others have defended the intention, stating that, under the circumstances of the period and the conditions, the ANFR was the best possible version of what it could’ve been.


Today, to debate this issue, we have Professor Joseph Lemaire , sociologist and historian at the University of America, Columbia, and Janine Jennings, Professor of African History at Howard University


Thank you both for coming.


Joseph Lemaire: Thank you.


Janine Jennings: Thank you.


S: Let’s begin with Comrade Jennings. You’ve argued that the establishment of a African majority state was based on a fundamental miscalculation in how race relations were in America.


J: Yes, the concept originally emerged from the idea of “a Nation of Nations”, as Walt Whitman put it, and which became the policy under WCP Nationalities Secretary Langston Hughes. This idea, disseminated within Communist circles even before the Revolution was partially influenced by the Soviet policy on nationalities, i.e. the creation of separate republics for various ethnic groups. It was assumed that national delimitation would work for various American minorities the way it would for the minorities in the Russian Empire.


However, this solution, whilst successful for the indigenous peoples, could not be applied to the African. They weren’t as concentrated in one singular region. New Afrika was in Black-majority areas, but a significant portion of the population still lived outside that region.


It gave Africans the ability to self-govern, yes, but it also isolated them. Instead of giving equal power to Africans, it further separated them from their white comrades. Created homogenous (primarily impoverished) enclaves, which failed in the explicit mission of integrating whites and blacks, and advancing the position of blacks in society.


S: Comrade Lemaire, you disagree?


L: First and foremost, I’ll be the first to admit that the conception and early years of the Federal Republic weren’t perfect. There were systemic problems of poverty, continued tension, and corruption that needed to be addressed, and were addressed. Much of that originated from pre-Revolution conditions.


However, the fundamental idea of a self governing African state was not a bad idea in and of itself. We as a people have been oppressed, first as slaves, then under the repressive Jim Crow system in the Old Republic. Our fates were often controlled by the white planter bourgeoisie, who pitted the white proletariat against us as means of control. We were also at their complete mercy, with no help from law enforcement.


Now, with a state dedicated specifically to our people, we had the ability to control our own destinies, our own communities, and our own protection. We would no longer fear, and people specifically receptive to our interests could now represent and protect us.


I disagree with my comrade’s assertion of “ethnic enclaves”. Whilst there was tension, overall, relations between the black majority and the white minority were relatively okay. The era of the KKK and lynching was over, and interactions were cordial.


Once again, New Afrika was not perfect at the beginning. However, it was probably the best kind of society that could be, given the circumstances.


J: Well intentioned mistakes are still mistakes. I do not doubt the sincerity of Communists in 1934, led as they had been down a treacherous road. But the fact remains that New Afrika is one of the imprints of Stalinism in our revolution.


S: But surely it is a stretch to call this experiment Stalinist?


J: It is not. Stalin’s line on national questions was that national chauvinism would prevail even amidst those engaged in active, conscious class struggle. I do not share this pessimistic take. And while New Afrika today is a far cry from its impoverished origins, this road to progress has been a rocky road.


L: I do not think it is pessimistic, merely realistic. The ANC’s strategy in fighting against the legacy of slavery was to build an institution that could authentically represent African workers in a way that the existing state apparatus could not. And however flawed New Afrika had been historically with its overreliance on apparatchiks drawn from the black bourgeoisie, or the legacy of corruption and graft, it provided administration responsive to our concerns as Africans.


Coupled with the all-Union government’s radical initiatives in transforming America’s political economy, New Afrika brought schools, universities, paved roads, hospitals and modern industry into what had previously been among America’s poorest communities.


I might ask what alternative would you envision for us, but I suspect I know the answer.


S: You refer to Comrade Jennings’ work on the Red Terror in the Deep South?


J: I’m sure he does. But I feel no need to hide behind innuendos. New Afrika has taken credit for a lot of things, some undeserved. The breaking of the Jim Crow system did not come with peaceful separation into an ethnic enclave. Jim Crow had already been destroyed before the vote was held. The social transformation was a war, a murderous process. The Revolutionary Army smashed Jim Crow the way all wars are fought: with discipline, with terror, with firing squads. A process, I might add, that involved an alliance between whites and blacks uniting against the rentiers and the bourgeoisie.


The Workers’ Party, over the objections of men on the frontlines of this revolution like Haywood and Meyer*, accepted a half-measure and initiated a process that returned many of these recently overthrown lords back into “advisory” roles in the name of pragmatism, accepting from the start a bureaucratic deformation.


L: But that’s the word there. “Pragmatism”


They understood that the dismantling a system of oppression and bigotry was not an overnight process. That process required a lot of reconciliation and work towards ensuring self-autonomy than Comrade Jennings gives it credit.


I believe the cause of integration was helped by Africans having the ability to self-govern within their own interests. The partnership between the Black and White proletariat was better suited towards working and building this new Republic together. Wouldn’t it be more effective to show them as comrades in peace as well as comrades in war.


J: But that wasn’t nearly as effective as you claim. If you look at election charts, even to this day, the workplaces are often split upon racial lines. There may not be outright fighting, but if you go through any black or white town in New Afrika, you’ll find they rarely interact with one another.


Compare this to the number of urban areas, where Africans and their white counterparts, whilst having their issues, were ultimately, through their shared experience resisting the Fascists, well-integrated by the late 30’s, and neighborhoods there tend to be very integrated.


The formation of New Afrika was simply a step back for full integration and a step back for race relations in this country


L: Well I have gone to many towns in the Republic, and I can assure you, they interact well enough. Not to the extent of other parts of the nation, but to imply they are entirely separate is simply untrue. I’ve seen Africans living in white towns, and whites living in African towns.


Once again, I am not saying New Afrika was perfect from its conception, but it was in the end, an attempt to rectify 300 years of oppression and domination.


S: That is all the time we have. Thank you both for coming and speaking.


L: Thank You.


J: Thank You.
 
Last edited:
(Co-written by Aelita, Caesar_33, and LHB)
Notable Events of 1937


January 11th: The first issue of Look magazine is published in the UASR.

January 23rd: The “Moscow Trials” begin against 17 prominent members of the Communist Party, accused of plotting to overthrow the Soviet government. In spite of outrage within the UASR, journalistic coverage is restricted to avoid complicating relations.

January 29th: The Good Earth, adapted from Pearl S. Buck’s novel of the same name, is released in the UASR, co-produced by Micheaux Films and Culver City Collective. Starring Anna May Wong, it would be a massive box office success.

January 30th: Norwegian Ingrid Christensen is the first woman to land in Antarctica.

February 5th: Month-long flooding of the Ohio River devastates areas from Pennsylvania to Illinois. With many workers displaced and construction delayed, the Red Guards is sorely tested, but is able to send aid and support for those displaced.

February 6th: John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men is published.

February 8th: The Battle of Jarama River begins with an offensive by Republican forces against Nationalists on the other side.

February 11th: The nylon bristled toothbrush, the first commercial use of nylon, goes on sale in some markets.

February 21st: The Non-Intervention Committee commissioned by the League of Nations attempts to prevent foreign nationals from intervening in Spain. However, as with all directives from the League in regards to the Spanish conflict, this is ignored by both Comintern and the Axis. France does close its Spanish border to prevent fighters from entering.

February 22nd: Emma Goldman steps down as Secretary of Labor, citing health and age, though there are rumors of increasing disagreements between her and the leadership of the party. Eugene Dennis, deputy Chief Whip, is appointed in her place.

February 28th: The North Atlantic Defense District is established, a joint command tasked with the defense of the American North Atlantic coast in the event of war with Britain. The District units Army/Navy Coastal Batteries, Navy littoral craft, air defense troops, maritime strike aircraft, and local Red Guards/Militia forces under a single hierarchy. Additional districts, covering the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Coasts follow later.

March 1st: The first issue of the anthology comic book Detective Comics is published by the Syndicated Features. It features Slam Bradley, the creation of Cleveland-based Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

March 4th: KMT General Secretary Wang Jinwei openly raises the question of replacing Generalissimo Jiang Jieshi as commander-in-chief, following his bungled campaign against Guizhou, relying only on natively trained troops.

March 19th: The papal encyclical Divini Redemptoris is published, strongly condemning communism, and causing further alienation among American Catholics.

March 21st: The highly publicized marriage between King Edward VII and Wallis Simpson takes place, with some token opposition both from within the Royal Family and from many on the left. Simpson takes the title “Wallis, Princess Consort.”

April 1st: Aden becomes a British Crown Colony.

April 3rd: Pujie (the second-in-line to the throne of Manchukuo) and Hiro Saga, his Japanese fiancee, marry in Tokyo.

April 14th: Rodgers and Hart’s Babes in Arms makes its debut at the Shubert Theatre.

April 17th: Daffy Duck makes his debut in Porky’s Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for Termite Terrace’s Looney Tunes series.

April 25th: After four years of protest particularly from the Navy, the Revolutionary Military Committee partially re-establishes “bourgeois” military ranks in the Armed Forces. The revolutionary positional ranks remain official, but a new unified rank system is created as an approved form of address. This does not please the Navy.

April 30th: The merger of the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain is formalized, and the new party takes the name “The Commonwealth Workers’ Party”, holding their first Congress in Birmingham.

May 3rd: The Condor Legion undertakes a massive terror bombing campaign in the Basque Country.

May 8th: Red NRA troops under the command of General Zhang Guotao capture Chongqing, dissolving the Republic of China pretender regime there, and establish the Sichuan Soviet.

May 18th: In the midst of violent clashes between the British Union of Fascists and the newly formed Commonwealth Workers’ Party in London, outgoing Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin makes a final address denouncing both Communism and Fascism.

May 20th: The beloved children’s play Revolt of the Beavers is first performed at the Adelphi Theater. It would be praised for introducing the ideals of Marxism and class consciousness for a children’s audience.

May 21st: The North Pole-1 Station, co-managed by the UASR and USSR, becomes the first manned drift ice research stations in the Arctic Ocean.

May 23rd: John D. Rockefeller, one of the most notorious American industrialists and leading “Robber Baron”, dies at age 97 in London.

May 27th: The Golden Gate Bridge opens in San Francisco. Premier William Foster pushes a button in Debs, signaling the bridge as open for traffic.

June 1st: The Institute for Sexual Science opens in Metropolis, with Alfred Kinsey serving as its first director. The Institute is joined by academic students and colleagues of the late Magnus Hirschfield now in exile from Germany.

June 4th: The Imperial Japanese Army begins its attacks on Republic-held lands in China from Manchukuo, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.

June 8th: Jean Renoir’s anti-war film La Grande Illusion is released in France.

June 11th: A Day at the Races, featuring the Marx Brothers, debuts in American theaters.

June 14th: Flag Day begins celebration after four years of inactivity, celebrating both the old and new American flags.

June 16th: Marc Blitzstein's play The Cradle Will Rock, the “crown jewel of the Secretariat of Culture’s Theater Grants” debuts.

June 24th: The new building for the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal opens, and begins operations.

July 1st: A nation-wide anti corruption investigation ends with the arrest of several members of the WCP Party Congress, including the Central Committee member Leonard King*. The investigation, conducted by Party internal affairs in cooperation with the Proletarian Guard, implicates dozens of minor officials in rent-seeking and bribery in collective farms across the South and Midwest.

July 4th: Believing the country now in thrall to Soviet and American social imperialism, Jiang Jieshi bears what had been previously unbearable. He begins clandestine meetings with agents of the Japanese government and likeminded generals in the NRA.

July 7th: The Palestine Royal Commission, known as the Peel Commission for its lead, Lord Peel, releases its report on the Mandate of Palestine, recommending against dividing it into Arab and Jewish states.

July 11th: American composer George Gershwin dies of a brain tumor in Los Angeles at age 38.

July 15th: Pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan land in Oakland, completing a round-the-world plane trip. Earhart, a veteran pilot who had served with the Reds during the Civil War, is the first woman to circumnavigate the world.

July 24th: After Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard John Rankin announces in a speech that they will continue the struggle against “Judeo-Bolshevism and racial degeneration” on the mainland, a split occurs when a faction announce they will suspend their efforts and flee to Cuba. This split is rumored to have been facilitated by Section 9.

July 28th: Pablo Picasso finishes Bilbao, a depiction of the devastation wrought on the Basque city during its bombing by the Condor Legion.

August 17th: WCP Nationalities Secretary Langston Hughes sides with the Lakota in their dispute with architect Gutzom Borglum over the proposed “Mount Rushmore” monument in the Lakota’s sacred Black Hills. Borglum would later defect to Cuba, where he was given permission to create a new monument there.

September 1st: The Army of Africa under the command of Francisco Franco launches an offensive to capture Asturias, a region in the Basque country in northern Spain, currently under the control of the Republicans. The campaign involves heavy cooperation with the German and Italian militaries, in particular the German Condor Legion, infamous for the bombing of Bilbao.

September 11th: DRP Chairman Robert Taft makes a radio speech denouncing the Foster government, and alleging that the CSS has been monitoring members of his party. SecPubSafe refutes these accusations.

September 14th: The Nyon Conference is held, where various Mediterranean nations meet to address the issue of unrestricted submarine warfare. Britain and France are allowed to patrol the Western Mediterranean and Turkey, Yugoslavia, the USSR, Egypt, Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania agree to not patrol beyond their own seas. Despite being the largest proponents of unrestricted submarine warfare, Germany and Italy are notably absent.

September 21st: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is published in the United Kingdom, a short fantasy story centering on a short creature called a hobbit and his journey in a fantasy land.

September 23rd: Vittorio Mussolini, Benito’s second son, travels to Cuba to study filmmaking with Hal Roach.[1]

September 30th: With the “rampant intervention in the conflict,” the League of Nations announces that “non-Intervention” policy for the Spanish Civil War is under review for potential cancellation.

October 2nd: Alabama DRP Congressman Hugo Black resigns, after The Daily Worker reported on his ties with the KKK.

October 9th: Foreign Minister John Reed declines on behalf of the UASR an invitation for a League of Nations mediated conference on foreign volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. He states that the UASR will restrict volunteers when Germany and Italy agree to do the same.

October 11th: King Edward VII and Wallis, Princess Consort make a state visit to Berlin, where they are given a personal audience with Adolf Hitler. The meeting sparks considerable controversy.

October 12th: The German Condor Legion begins using incendiaries in large quantities on the frontlines in Asturias to flush out Republican positions and test the concept of carpet bombing.

October 27th: After almost two months of delaying the Nationalist advance, the Republican government orders an evacuation from Asturias. Many try to evacuate on the Republican destroyer Ciscar, but it is sunk by planes from the Condor Legion. Only high-ranking Republican officers manage to escape on gunboats and fishing vessels.

October 29th: Gijón falls to the advancing Nationalist forces. The Asturias Campaign and the main conflict in the Basque country is over, but guerilla warfare from Basque militias and Republican soldiers continues.

October 31st: Upon the expiration of his term, Upton Sinclair announces in a public radio address that he will not pursue another term as Secretary General, and will return to his first love of writing. Haim Kantorovich is elected to replace him.

November 7th: On the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, there are simultaneous parades in Moscow, Leningrad, Metropolis, Los Angeles, and Deleon-Debs. In Moscow, speeches are given by American Foreign Minister John Reed and Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin. Premier Foster handles the speech in Deleon-Debs, where he vows to continue the struggle for “the Spanish peoples.”

November 13th: The PBS Symphony Orchestra, under the tutelage of exiled Italian composer Arturo Toscanini, makes its debut across all PBS stations.

December 16th: The Nazi government restricts the giving of passports to Jews.

December 21st: Hyperion Animation’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first major feature length animated film, premieres in Hollywood. With its subversion of the traditional fairy tale and social realist retelling, it is both a critical and box office success.

[1] Actual event, though MGM ultimately forced Roach to dissolve the nascent partnership OTL
 
Last edited:
The Public Broadcasting Service


By the time of the Revolution, there were two national radio networks: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcasting Service (CBS), along with independent regional and local stations. Most of these stations were supported by advertising, made possible under the Wood and Hoover administrations, and to avoid interference with each other and with Canadian broadcasts, the Radio Act of 1927 established the Federal Radio Commission to regulate frequencies. One of their earliest achievements was General Order 40, which formed specific Clear, Regional, and local channels, and assigned AM frequencies to them, to prevent interference.

The first attempt at a post-revolution radio network was the Mutual Broadcasting System, formed in late 1934. An attempt at a cooperatively owned radio network formed from stations in Newark, Chicago, Boston, Detroit and Cincinnati, it had an early victory in acquiring the much of the NBC “Red Network”, which focused primarily on entertainment. In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, MBS would be the biggest radio network in the nation, with nationally syndicated shows. However, due to limited resources and increasing strain, they were unable to expand or collectivize much of the other stations, especially on the West Coast. There was a need for a larger radio network, that could handle the larger load.

After two years of negotiations between the Congress of Soviets and various stations around the country, the Public Broadcasting Act was passed on September 10th, 1936, formally establishing the Public Broadcasting Service, which would answer to a council with members elected by the Secretariat of Culture and the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Built primarily off the NBC “Blue Network”[1] and CBS, it would largely use the rules and zones established by General Order 40, and most station frequencies would remain as they were pre-revolution, (stations in the Southwest had to change to avoid interference from Mexican broadcasters).

Through its first few years of existence, PBS would focus on news, education, and culture. Exiled Italian composer Arturo Touscanini would lead an in-house Orchestra in regular broadcasts of “The PBS Symphony Orchestra” . The Mercury Theatre on the Air, lead by director Orson Welles, would produce adaptations of classic literary works, often with modifications for modern audiences. News was handled on a local level, though with a national broadcast recorded for all stations.

The biggest addition was the American School of the Air. Originally an Ohio State University program later acquired by CBS, under the PBS system, it would expand in terms of topics, with topics such as history, science, industry, and mathematics taught on the air. Music programs under Alan Lomax would help the Folk movement gain more currency. It would be heard in schools across the nation, and help guide the lesson plans. The IBF would rebroadcast many of its programs in South America (often translated).

Despite the new major PBS station, MBS would continue on, managing to gain some more stations. They sustained themselves by becoming the entertainment channel, producing a variety of programming, from adaptations of popular novels and films to long original serials. With advertising a non-factor, much of their entertainment was experimental and raunchy, often exploring a wide range of genres and deconstruction. As a result, a minor friendly rivalry emerged between the more sophisticated PBS and the entertainment driven MBS, with ribbing on both sides being common. Despite this, MBS would rely on PBS news and cultural broadcasts for some of its distant markets.


Excerpt from “American Environmentalism: From Thoreau to Bookchin”, Gennedy Valikov, 1996

“Article VII of the Fundamental Principles of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat states, “
Land, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife shall be common property. All private property in these areas is prohibited. Title shall be granted based on use, but all holders shall be protected from arbitrary revocation of this right.”

Based on this principle, the Land and Natural Resource Trust was established with ensuring the use of land for the purposes of the common good. It was the de facto successor to the National Park Service, in addition to other departments dealing with issues under its purview. As part of that legacy, it would co-manage the various national parks with local republic governments. This simple task would be complicated to some extent by the continued damage of the Civil War. Yellowstone still had damage from the last days of the war, as Red forces had tried to take White holdouts hiding in the forests. Yosemite had been damaged by gunfire and bombs.

During its first few years, there was a focus on cleaning up the damage. Removing bullets from trees, helping injured animals, and removing equipment away. They also designated a number of new national parks around the country, including Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole in Wyoming, the Petrified Forest in Arizona, and the Everglades in Florida, using the same criteria as the old National Parks Service.

However, the Land and Natural Resource Trust was also based on the idea of “the common good”, so several potential national parks were reduced in size from their initial proposals. Sometimes, proposals were rejected on the grounds that “resources can be used that necessarily have to disrupt the environment”, as was the case when the King Canyon region of California was in the middle of hydroelectric dam development.

Contamination became a silent problem in many of the natural parks, as pollution from new factories and pesticides from large farming initiatives gradually made their way into the rivers. Naturalists noted that many plants and animals had mysterious sicknesses, and early analysis showed pesticides had been consumed.

As a result of this and other factors, animals such as Bison and wolves began to experience population decline as the 30’s and 40’s went on. Ecological groups such as the National Geographic Society and the National Audubon Society documented this decline, as did individuals like former Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt, but the government and local soviets were largely inactive, aside from some minor laws regulating the use of animals and hunting.

However, these groups would prove persistent during this period, and others would take notice of the growing crisis in the coming years.



[1] OTL, in 1943, the Blue Network would be divested from NBC after an anti-trust suit, and renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
 
A Final Update (For Here)
Since the timeline recently got mentioned on an Alternate History Hub youtube video, I decided to make a final little update for the AH.com version of Reds!

A few years ago, some of my cowriters convinced me to begin cross-posting the timeline on the forum Sufficient Velocity to support the growing alternate history community there. I resisted, because I knew it would end up in an irresistible temptation to revise and rewrite. But when I accepted, and this has resulted in what I would consider the true, definitive edition of the timeline.

While for a time work continued on both sites, on WW2 here in AH.com, and on the rewrite on SV, this has become unfeasible. The timeline has many core writers and collaborators other than myself. And for one reason or another, many of them have decided to leave this site behind. Since there will undoubtedly be more people stumbling upon this, I've decided to make this final update.

So for any long-time readers or any new people coming to this, you can find more content for this long labor of love here . This is not the end, or even the beginning of the end. Rather, think of it as the end of the beginning. Thanks for all your support and comments over the years. See you beyond the barricade...

~Aelita
 
Top