Before I get to my post proper, thanks
@GlobalHumanism for writing such a compelling timeline. I've learned a lot about leftist movements outside of Bolshevism both directly from the TL itself and the wider thread commentary. Hell, this TL convinced me to stop lurking and make an actual account here.
As far as my actual question, I've been wondering for a while about the "African Question," with the recent update on France bringing it to mind. If my screen name didn't make it obvious already, I'm a Cabo Verdean ~ albeit one born in Providence, RI ~ and I can't help some measure of curiosity concerning the fate of the African colonies owned by nations such as France. As France is wracked by revolution, certainly their restive empire will not be content to watch and wait for the dust to settle.
Though there were always some parts of the Empire where the colonial yoke rested somewhat lighter on the populace, like Senegal, the territory of Gabon and other sections of French Equatorial Africa were in a constant state of low-level revolt during this period until the outbreak of WW2. The brilliant rebel leader Abd el-Krim would be beginning the first large-scale moves in his war for the Rif soon IOTL, and I don't see why he wouldn't be even
more stunningly successful here with old Europe too desperate to fend off the Red Tide to worry about colonies overmuch. Algeria is a powder keg as always, even if it hasn't yet reached the fever pitch of our timeline's later Algerian War. Looking at the conditions, I think one would be hard-pressed to see a scenario where there aren't a number of new African countries born out of this age of revolutions. We all know the blue team is made up of a buncha imperialist fucks, so they won't be happy; what's going to be really interesting is how the
Reds handle African liberation. Though it's easy to pin the European left wing's waffling on decolonization on Stalin pushing his line on them, the hard truth is that a lot of communists and anarchists prior to Stalin had some screwed thoughts concerning what should happen to Africa in the event of world (read: Western) revolution. Even the ones who didn't advocate for any African breakaway nations being forced back into the fold at gunpoint tended to believe that the worker's state should be aggressive tutors instructing the obviously less class-conscious Africans in how to be modern. Y'know, "white man's burden" in pretty red and/or black paint.
Generally, I'm interested to hear a bit about what been happening in Africa all this while and where the major players of this TL currently stand on decolonization. In a lot of ways, the truest test of how authentically commited these new worker's democracies are to the cause of human freedom will be how they treat their black brothers and sisters still resisting the yoke of empire: it's easy to call a guy who looks like you "comrade," but if the French communists can look a Guinean in eye and say the same, there's hope yet for the revolution.
)
