Reds: A Revolutionary Timeline

Aelita

Aelita

Some Notable Events, 1905-1908*

March 4, 1905: Charles W. Fairbanks takes the office of President of the United States. General consensus among the Republican Party elite is that he will carry on the legacy of McKinley. He soon bears out this, authorizing the largest peacetime expansion of the US Navy in American history. More modest are expansions in the size of the US standing army, which is still pitifully small by European standards.

April 6, 1905: The New York state Supreme Court invalidates the state's 8 hour day law in the case Lochner v. New York. In a rare show of cooperation, both the local AF of L affiliates and the IWW affiliates agree to a combined protest and strike over the case.

February 28, 1906: Upton Sinclair publishes the novel The Jungle. In spite of the widespread clamor about the conditions of meatpacking plants, little is done by the government about it other than a few minor committee meetings.

April 18, 1906: San Francisco is ravaged by an earthquake on a magnitude unseen in American history. 3000 are killed, and over 200,000 left homeless in one of the worst natural disasters yet witnessed.

July 1907: The United Teamsters of America successfully forms a dual union, defeating the attempts of AF of L president Samuel Gompers to contain industrial unionist insurgency. This defection is a major victory in the IWW's "boring from within" strategy. The craft union International Brotherhood of Teamsters soon dissolves into the UTA after president Daniel J. Tobin resigns.

October 24, 1907: Everything is normal on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange

February 8, 1908: the International Union of United Brewery Workmen of America votes to affiliate with the IWW, in yet another defeat of the increasingly reactionary AF of L.

May 1908: Facing political oblivion, the Populists vote to fold into the surging Socialist Party of America.

The 1908 General Election

The Republican Party nominates Fairbanks to a second term. He faces off agains the Democratic Party's William Jennings Bryan in his third bid for the presidency.

Charles W. Fairbanks (R)...................7,093,132 (321)
William Jennings Bryan (D).................6,032,171 (163)
Eugene V. Debs (S)..........................1,432,400 (0)
Eugene Wilder Chafin (Proh)...............248,482 (0)

Congressional results

Republican Party.............213
Democratic Party.............176
Socialist Party.................1

When the votes are tallied, it becomes very clear that the rules of the game have changed. While the Socialists had earlier been met with scorn by nativeborn elections, this election resulted in a massive influx of new members into the Socialist Party base, as well as dramatic increases in industrial unionization. Notably, the Socialists gain their first entry into the US Congress, with the capture of the newly admitted state of Oklahoma's at-large district in a closely tied three-way race.

The Democratic Party's attempt to appeal to populist sentiments is once again rebuffed, and the party faired poorly outside of its strongholds in the South.

*Sorry, not very exciting I know. But nothing really interesting happened in this time period, even in OTL
 
Last edited:

The Red

Its ironic that it would be Oklahoma,I mean this was just 13 years after they first banned the red flag and the Hammer and Sickle from being publicly viewed.
 
Aelita

Aelita

pipisme said:
Eugene Debs more than doubled his vote in 1908 compared with 1904.
Click to expand...

Well, there are a lot of factors feeding into that. Without Teddy Roosevelt to bring progressive issues into the forefront of the political debate, a lot of Progressives have started defecting from the Republican Party in an attempt to bring voice to their cause. In OTL, and ITTL, there really wasn't much difference between the type of Milwaukee moderate socialism espoused by Victor Berger and the mainstream of the progressive political current.

This leaves the party heavily divided though, perhaps moreso than in OTL. While the decidedly reactionary bent of American politics have radicalized a lot of people, there are still a lot of moderates in the party that are chafing against the leftist leadership.

At least in the interim, they'll hit a wall in party membership and vote count in elections soon.

The Red said:
Its ironic that it would be Oklahoma,I mean this was just 13 years after they first banned the red flag and the Hammer and Sickle from being publicly viewed.
Click to expand...

Looking back, it does seem ironic. But historically, Oklahoma had one of the strongest socialist movements of any US state prior to WWI.
 

Jord839

Ah, finally. A fleshed out Communist America TL. For such a "cliche" I almost never see it. Which is kind of sad because if any nation can use its already existing national identity to embrace communism, it's america. I mean seriously, spreading the revolution, getting freedom for the common man from the manipulative upper classes. Why not just call it the Second American Revolution?

That said, I'll be interested in how your TL's American Communism shakes up. If I may make a suggestion, could not the Americans wrap their current republican ideals around(or in spite of) normal communist thought? In particular, I'm thinking that they argue it is not religion itself which is the opiate of the masses, but a state mandated one so they try to preserve freedom of religion. This could get a lot of support from other people suffering under the Gilded Age problems, but are deeply religious. Another thing is maintaining a focus on the bill of rights, which the Communists can argue has been flaunted and ignored by the bourgouise who've unlawfully taken control of the country.

All in all, I've always imagined Americanized Communism to be strangely similar to today: a relatively religious country that has tensions between pro-government(support the State, Trotskyists) and anti-government(Anarcho-communists) people.

Still, I look forward to the rest of your TL.
 
Aelita

Aelita

(Sorry for the overly long wait. I am hindered by the fact that very that is interesting/relevant happened before WWI.)

An excerpt from American political scientist Louis Hartz's work The Socialist Tradition in America[1]

"Unions and Robber Barons"

...The socialist tradition's triumph among the American proletariat was not, as it might appear, the Red May Revolution of 1933. Such a victory, bold and obvious as it is, would be entirely impossible without a far more subtle but ultimately more earth shattering development. That small but vital turning point can be found with the eclipse of Samuel Gompers and the AF of L, and the rise of "Big Bill" Haywood and Solidarity[2].

1912 would prove to be a year of revolutionary importance in the American socialist movement. February would bring Gomper's capitulation, with the AF of L craft unions voting to fold into the American section of the Industrial Workers of the World, which would soon reorganize itself into the modern industrial union Solidarity which we know today.

May's Socialist Party [National] Convention brought the attendance of not only the largest national delegation of working class socialists, but also included many of the nation's leading liberal egalitarian intellectuals[3]...The renomination of Debs also brought the ratification of the most coherent socialist platform yet seen, narrowly defeating the moderate factions conciliatory attempts to bourgeois respectability. The election turnout in the fall would be a high water mark for socialist turnout for years to come.

[1] Author real, but the work is fiction. Sort of a historical in-joke. OTL, Louis Hartz published a work The Liberal Tradition, which defended American exceptionalism and championed the triump of liberal democratic values in America.

[2] Officially named "International Workers' Solidarity Union", it's the successor organization to the AF of L and the American section of the IWW.

[3] ITL academic terminology describing the Progressives
 

poster342002

Jord839 said:
All in all, I've always imagined Americanized Communism to be strangely similar to today: a relatively religious country that has tensions between pro-government(support the State, Trotskyists) and anti-government(Anarcho-communists) people.
Click to expand...

I've always imagined a Communist USA would be a sort of "socialism with American charecteristics".
 
Aelita

Aelita

The Internationale

On August 1st, 1912, Solidarity and the Socialist Party of America adopted the an official lyrical translation of the French socialist anthem "L'Internationale". In time, the Internationale would come to be not only the anthem of working class struggles across the nation, but would eventually be enshrined in the 1934 Basic Law of the Union of American Socialist Republics as "the national anthem of the American workers, in solidarity with the workers of the world".

The adopted lyrics represent a compromise between different traditions and nationalities within the American working class. Immigrants from European countries, espescially Ireland or Scotland, were much more familiar with the British English version of the anthem, translated anonymously near the end of the 19th Century. However, native born Anglo-Americans tended to favor Charles H. Kerr's translation made famous by the Wobblie's Little Red Songbook. Naturally, the eventual compromise needed to strike a balance between the many ethnic groups within the American working class.

Lyrics

Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize.
Refrain
'Tis the final conflict
Let each stand in his place
The Internationale
shall be the human race.
So comrades, come rally
The last fight let us face
The Internationale
unites the human race
​
Behold them seated in their glory
The kings of mine and rail and soil!
What have you read in all their story,
But how they plundered toil?
Fruits of the workers' toil are buried
In strongholds of the idle few
In working for their restitution
the people only claim their due.
Refrain
​
No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.
Refrain
​
No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.
Refrain​
Click to expand...

​
 

Historico

Hmm...I wonder after 16 years of Republican Rule and dissastisfaction on the Progressive wing of the GOP, the Socialist should do really well in this ALT 1912 Election...esp if they nominate a Conservative Republican like Taft. But It should be a Democratic year...Champ Clark might be successful in clinching the nomination this time around. Any other potential Socialist candidates besides Debs?
 
Aelita

Aelita

Very much so. But more so than just giving the Socialists temporary support because of voter dissatisfaction, it has created a more enduring trend of class consciousness. The inexorable shift of the class conscious Northern worker into the Socialist Party camp has closed the door on the Democratic Party's national election chances. Historically, the only way the Democratic Party remained competitive on the national level between 1896 and 1928 was by exploiting class conflict issues among Northern workers.

Remember, though, the Democratic Party at this time was still predominantly a party of Southern, white elites, so the inclusion of Northern workers into the party was always unsustainable until the party dramatically reorganized its self image with the New Deal. Now that there is a powerful, thriving Socialist Party, the Democrats are once again relegated to regional party status. However, there still remains the potential that a Democratic Party presidential candidate might win the election because of the split among Northern workers. They will, however, be faced with a Congress that is overwhelmingly stacked against even if they manage to squeak in.

Eugene Debs is definitely the great animating leader within the Party, but conscious of his position, Debs historically removed himself from the internal conflicts in the party in order to remain the unifying persona that the Party needed to spread its message. Factionally, he tends to side with the party's left wing, along with leaders like Alfred Wagenknecht, Louis C. Fraina, and John Reed (though Reed wouldn't become prominent for several years). The moderate faction, which tended to center around Victor Berger and Morris Hilquit.

Berger, who was elected to the US House of Representatives OTL, has a shot at being a Presidential nominee. Fraina also might have the necessary persona, but his Italian descent would not sit well with the American public at large. Reed also could mature into a presidential candidate figure, but that would come later. Perhaps the best second to Debs is Allan L. Benson, who won the 1916 nomination for president in Debs' absence.

Hope that answers your questions adequately. Hopefully I'll have the 1912 election results up soon.
 
Aelita

Aelita

The 1912 General Election

Presidential Election

1912 proved to be a decidedly turbulent year at the conventions. The divisions within the Republican Party would prove to be irreconcilable. The arch-conservative Taft secured the nomination, which would prove to be the last straw for progressives within the Republican party. What had once been a steady trickle of progressives into the Socialist Party turned into a torrent after the defeat of Senator Robert LaFollete's candidacy. Though Taft won without trickery, LaFollete's supporters and other progressives within the party, having endured 12 years of domination by the conservative faction, finally quit the party outright.

After a long and bitter convention, the Democratic Party finally agreed to nominate House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri. Champ Clark, a noted liberal within the party had nonetheless managed to maintain unity within the Democratic Party during his short tenure as Speaker of the House.

Amidst much enthusiasm, the Socialist Party National Convention nearly unanimously nominated Eugene V. Debs once again for President. The sense of optimism at the convention was profound; many thought that Debs might even have a chance this time.

William H. Taft (R)...........................6,296,284 (306)
Champ Clark (D)..............................4,122,721 (173)
Eugene V. Debs (S)..........................3,486,242 (52)
 
Last edited:

Historico

Nice installment, I need to research all those candidates threw at me...The Progressive Era isn't really my speciality in American Political History...But I am learning to try to keep up with this tl...I couldn't figure out your electoral maps, but I made an electoral map based on Deb's best states from OTL 1912 election and tryed to match it with your numbers. Here is what I came up with.

genusmap.php


William Taft/Nicholas Butler: 306 Electoral Votes
Champ Clark/Woodrow Wilson: 173 Electoral Votes
Eugene Debs/Emil Seidel: 52 Electoral Votes
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top