The Age of the Prophets and the Bloody Decade (1936-1948)

[Kurt_Steiner]

1. The road to the 1936 United States presidential elections.

The history of the Second American Civil War and its aftermath, along with the United States' role in the Second World War, is, considered by historians to have been one of the turning points of the 20th century, even if its legacy is studlled muddled by the controversy and the still ongoing debate. This conflict is often considered as a dress rehearsal for the Second World War, where both the United States itself and the Reichspakt, the Entente, and the Internationale tested out new doctrines, weaponry and technologies for the great clash that would engulf the world in the 1940s. Considered then as the last "romantic" war, it was seen, then, as the three-sided battle for Democracy, for Syndicalism’s global revolution, or for the order and stability craved by authoritarians of the far-right. It would have a lasting impact on the culture of the United States, as the shadow of the conflict still lingers in the music, literature, and the American psyche, as it can bee seen in countless films, shows, books, and games.

Hoover knew that, unless unemployment was curbed and the conditions and salaries of the workers raised, democracy in the United States may collapse. However, his reforms were an unmitigated disaster. He managed to lower national interest rates and tariffs by nearly half, sparking a surge in investment. However, the raise of taxes to fight the looming budget deficit hit the lower and middle classes hard. With unemployment hovering at approximately 28%, domestic consumption nose-dived and stock prices plummeted as countless businesses quickly became bankrupt, with banks trapped with the insolvent loans. Thus, as the situation deteriorated, new political forces began to appear. In the Red Belt of the Midwest and the Great Lakes, Bolshevik politicians openly demanded radical changes to the nation, while the Deep South and rural Great Plains brought ultra-nationalist authoritarians and populist demagogues determined to rebuild America as they saw fit.

By the beginning of 1936, it was clear that the November presidential election would be like no other. The fruits of the recession that had darkened the roaring Twenties and then plagued the United States in the Thirties were ready to be reaped. When three Senators and twelve House Representatives arrived in Washington after the 1934 midterm elections claiming to be Bolsheviks - not Socialists, Bolsheviks -, the country held its breath. Faced with sharp unemployment, low wages, and corporate greed, the reaction of American voters began to take a turn to the left. Inspired by the Syndicalist victories in France and southern Italy, the American Socialist and Communist Parties negotiated a possible merge of the two parties, but the constant bleeding of Socialists that left the party to become Communists ended the talks. Led by John 'Jack' Reed, a Harvard graduate and one of the few American witnesses to the failed October Revolution and bolstered by the abuses of America's capitalist system, the Syndicalist Party of America (SPA) threatened to end the dominion of the Democratic and Republican parties over American politics since the First American Civil War, but his radicalism was outright rejected by La Follete's Progressive Party and by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which caused a split in the trade union as John L. Lewis, Sidney Hillman, David Dubinsky, Charles Howard, Thomas McMahon Maxx Zaritsky broke away and created the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which then endorsed Reed.

As a reaction against Reed emerged Governor Huey Long of Louisiana. Technically a Democrat, Long won popularity throughout the South for his fiery condemnations of big business and upper-class 'parasites.' Considered a demagogue by his opponents, Long was seen by many as the defender of workers, particularly farmers and small-townspeople, against the yoke of big business corporations and government corruption. Thus, on September 8, 1935, several Democratic Congressmen united under Long's leadership and formed the National Populist Party. Both the Communists and Nationals gained substantial ground in the polls as 1936 began, having the advantage of fresh candidates and willing audiences, anxious to be offered a solution to their troubles. The last sixteen years had discredited the two major political parties, and the rise of the two new parties was read by many that if the United States was ever going to emerge from the economic quagmire, it would require radical, even revolutionary change from its past.

This only made worse the situation of President Hoover, who was in serious danger of losing the Republican nomination, while many wondered who would picked out as the Democratic candidate in June.

Huey Long and John Reed,
two men determined to shape the fate of the United States​

 

[Unknown]

How did Hoover win in 1932?

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

How did Hoover win in 1932?

By beating Al Smith , who, in turn and against all the odds, had defeated Charles Evans Hughes in 1928.

The presidents of USA (1920-1936)
1920-1928 William Gibbs McAdoo
1928-1932 Al Smith
1932-1936 Herbert Hoover.

After the disaster that Al Smith was, FDR, wisely, did refrain himself from attempting to replace him as Democratic candidate. No one wanted that poisoned chalice, more or less like with poor Hoover ITL 1936.

 

[Anarch King of Dipsodes]

If there is no October (Bolshevik) Revolution, then Bolshevism/Communism will not be a Big Thing for the radical left. With the October Revolution, the USSR became the first "revolutionary" state. As such it naturally claimed leadership of the world revolutionary movement, and inspired a host of imitators. If it fails, none of that happens. Anarchosyndicalism and social democracy will dominate the left.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

If there is no October (Bolshevik) Revolution, then Bolshevism/Communism will not be a Big Thing for the radical left. With the October Revolution, the USSR became the first "revolutionary" state. As such it naturally claimed leadership of the world revolutionary movement, and inspired a host of imitators. If it fails, none of that happens. Anarchosyndicalism and social democracy will dominate the left.

You will see why Bolshevism is still important in the next chapter. An advance: the revolution failed in Russia, but there were more revolutions.

I used the "Bolshevik" term because I feel more at ease than with "Communists" (too used), "Marxists" (too ambiguous IMO) or "Syndicalists" (I simply hate it). About anarchosyndicalism and socialdemocracy... you shall see.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

2. The Great War and its aftermath.

Germany emerged from the Great War as the clear military victor and the undisputed master of the continent. The truth was less glamorous as, after four years of fighting, the Second Reich was exhausted, deeply scarred by the ghastly amount of casualties suffered at the frontlines and by the Entente blockade. The mobilizations, the war economy and the blockade had wrecked the country, which had to deal with a huge national debt and rampant inflation. Peace had just arrived in the nick of time not only for Germany, but also to her allies, Austria-Hungary (with the Italian front stalemated after the battle of the Piave River -November 1917-) and the Ottoman Empire (which had barely survived the loss of Jerusalem in December 1917), even if the former would have to drastically reform its cumbersome and decaying structure and the latter had merely delayed its demise for a few decades.

With Russia and France in the throes of revolution and Britain on the verge of total economic collapse, von Hindenburg and Ludendorff pressed to impose a draconian peace upon the defeated Entente. However, Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg managed to remove the shackles of the military junta and persuaded Wilhelm II not to repeat the mistakes of 1871: there was no need to further humiliate France, as Eastern Europe was a worthy prize for the German Reich. This had an unexpected consequence: it temporarily appeased many American politicians and industrialists who feared that the German victory in Europe would result in a blatant German land-grabbing (even if this was proved right in the East) and political hegemony over the defeated opponents. The Treaty of Berlin signed in September 1918 was surprising for the reduced German territorial acquisitions (only Luxembourg). France remained untouched. This was the price, von Bethmann-Hollweeg argued, to end the British blockade that had caused so much suffering. Prime Minister David Lloyd George saved the honour of the Empire by insisting that Belgium had to remain free, even if von Hindenburg and Ludendorff pressed to have Belgium annexed up to the Meuse River for strategic reasons. However, von Bethmann-Hollweg, again supported by the Kaiser, had the upper hand on this matter and Belgium was spared. In this respect, the Treaty of Berlin deprived Cox of his most powerful political ammunition against William Gibbs McAdoo, allowing the Democratic candidate to win the election even if by a narrow margin.

It would take up to 1923 for Germany to drop her moderate mask and to reveal her real intentions. With France and Italy gripped by revolution and with the British Empire fighting a losing war against recession, they were incapable of defending their empires. Thus, Germany proceeded to absorb its former enemies' colonial holdings. French territory in Central Africa was annexed by the Reich to form the colossal 'Mittelafrika' along with the Belgian Congo, the prize for the Belgian independence. Japan, too far away, was conveniently forgotten and kept the Pacific islands and Shandong Peninsula taken during the Great War to Germany. Only the United States, with the world's largest and strongest industry, could hope to oppose global German hegemony. However, the German victory in the Great War had deeply damaged the US economy, as the country was unable to have their loans repaid, specially after the syndicalist revolutions in France and Italy of 1925, with their combined war debts still unpaid. Britain defaulted on its loans to the United States. The London Stock Exchange plummeted and thousands of British citizens desperately tried to withdraw their savings across the country. The London Panic almost brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.

The consequences of these events were catastrophic for the United States. With the war debts unpaid and the decline in exports, the American economy entered into a protracted recession. The situation only grew worse as Germany expanded her empire; having sided with France and Britain during the war, Berlin was determined to keep the United States out of her empire and of her areas of influence. By 1925 the United States had seen Europe closed to her goods, but for Britain, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. The North-African remnants of the French Third Republic, Liberia and the Union of South Africa, along with Central and South America were also open to the US goods, as Japan, which was still a willing trade partner, as was Canada, but it was not enough to keep the massively bloated American economy moving at a sustained pace. Though badly shaken, the New York Stock Exchange limped on, and the American economy slipped still further into recession and led to the US voters to turn towards Al Smith after eight years of Republican mismanagement.

However, Smith was even a worse administrator. The factors that had caused the crisis were still in place, but Smith's budget cuts and heightened tariffs only made matters worse; faced with hefty import duties, most Latin American countries turned instead to Germany. By 1930 Al Smith came under fire when he became involved in a corruption scandal, the Teapot Dome scandal (1931-1933). Only the defeat in the elections of 1932 avoided Smith from being impeached. The Hoover administration, as we have already seen, did not fare much better than its Democratic predecessor.

 

[suul'ken]

This is a Kaiserreich TL isn't it?
Nice beginning.

What are/will be the differences from official canon?

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

This is a Kaiserreich TL isn't it?
Nice beginning.

What are/will be the differences from official canon?

Thank you.

Right now, McAdoo instead of Borah, Bethmann-Hollweg having the last saying over Hindenburg and Luddendorff, the October Revolution not going as expected and ending in a shorter civil war that ends with the defeat of the Bolsheviks and the United Kingdom narrowly avoiding the revolution, plus a small deviation of the canon in the US elections of 36.

And, oh, Spain.

 

[suul'ken]

October Revolution not going as expected and ending in a shorter civil war that ends with the defeat of the Bolsheviks

One of the few realistic ways in which Bolsheviks could lose!

And, oh, Spain.

I always thought that with absence of soviet style Totalitarian Communism enabling broad alliances on the left and with a much stronger Internationale due to all the exiled socialist+ friendly French commune on the border Republicans or alt republicans should have won the ATL Civil war and be Syndicalist democrats based on a broad alliance on the left from syndicalists to Liberals and even Anarchists.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

3. The heated Summer of 1936.

As the Democratic and Republican conventions approached, the situation kept worsening, even if the stock market had finally recovered some of the ground lost during the months of continuous decline. However, the Hoover Administration seemed unable to put an end to the American people's hardships as the President devoted all his attention and political strength to his bid for reelection. The Congress was reduced to inactivity as the Firsters and Syndicalist Congressmen paralyzed each session with their endless interventions as they threw their rhetorical barrage against their political opponents and against each other. Tensions were running high and, on February 11, two union leaders (Walter Reuther and Richard Frankenstein) leading a strike in the Ford Motor Company in Detroit were brutally beaten by company-paid thugs. The brawl quickly grew out of control, culminating in an attack on a group of workers' wives handing out leaflets. It was the so-called "Battle of the Overpass".

The bloody incident gave new strength to John Reed, as his parts saw an instant rise in his recruitment drive and in their donation campaign. Reed himself used the incident to lambast the corporations for their greed, which led to nothing but sheer exploitation of the working class. to grow worse and more outrageous if something was not done. The Firsters, too, used the incident to their advantage. Society, Long insisted, was crumbling to the point that men had lost their honor; attacking defenseless women was unjustifiable, but so too was the Syndicalists' actions that had put them in harm's way in the first place. It goes without saying that Long's accusations were neither taken kindly by Reed nor helped to put down the anger. In his attack against Reed and his party, Long was supported by a Catholic priest, Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest, in his radio broadcast. His passionate and charismatic style had helped Coughlin to keep audiences bound to his speeches since 1933, and many more American joined him during the heated electoral campaign of 1936, mainly in the Midwest and South, attracting also more support to Long's AFP. It was Coughlin who coined the phrase "Long or Ruin" which entered common usage. Eventually, Coughlin attracted the attention of the Pope. Even if the Papal States, now in possession of central Italy following the syndicalist revolution in the south, had any friendly sentiment to the Bolshevik/Syndicalist revolutionaries, the Pope was even less pleased with having a Catholic priest raging on against the Jews.

After Coughlin refused to comply with direct Papal instructions to cease broadcasting, the Papal embassy in Washington appealed to the Hoover Administration. Even if he had wanted, Hoover's hands were tied, as Coughlin's right to speak was protected by the 1st Amendment. Then Catholic priest began to openly call in his broadcasts for the abolition of political parties and questioning the value of elections. However, Hoover still did nothing. Of course, this was a godsend to Reed, who accused the Republicans and Longists of conspiring to brainwash Americans with racism, earning the Syndicalist leader the appreciation of the Jewish and other minority communities. In the end, Long began to move away from Coughlin after the priest claimed that crisis and the recession was nothing else but a "cash famine" caused by Jewish conspirators. and proposed monetary reforms, including the nationalization of the Federal Reserve System, as the solution and the wealthy supporters of Long began to feel uneasy with the priest. Then, as Coughlin's superior—Bishop Michael Gallagher of Detroit, who had the canonical authority to curb him, refused to act as he supported Coughlin, Cardinal George Mundelein, archbishop of Chicago, issued a formal condemnation of Coughlin: "[Coughlin was] not authorized to speak for the Catholic Church, nor does he represent the doctrine or sentiments of the Church." It looked as if Coughlin's career was over.

As national unity against radicalism appeared as the only solution to face the rise of populism, there were talks, behind the scenes, between top Democratic and Republican leaders negotiating to form the National Unity Party to prevent Long or Reed from taking the presidency. However, nothing came out of it. Then Reed surprised friends and foes when he announced that he would be temporarily leave the country to travel to Paris, Commune of France, to take part in the Third International (May, 15-22, 1936), a week-long summit of all the world's major syndicalist leaders, something that made him to be accused on being on Paris' pay . Even if he was proclaimed in the summit as the new "Benjamin Franklin" and won the support of global syndicalism, at home he was now considered the Public Enemy No. 1 even by the most moderate Americans.

Then, on June 9, 1936, Democratic delegates from across the country gathered in Cleveland, Ohio to select the candidate for the presidency. They had to choose between John Nance Garner, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Henry A. Wallace, being the Texan politician the frontrunner, with Roosevelt in second and Wallace in a close third. The Republican Party met in Oklahoma City on June 15. Badly hurt by the crisis and the rise of extremism, and with Hoover fighting desperately to gain the party nomination, the GOP was forced to do something radical to change what looked as a clear disaster in the elections. Then, to the surprise of Hoover, his Vice-President, Charles Curtis, emerged as the front-runner, with Frank Knox, a Progressive Republican, following close.

After the beating: from left, Robert Kanter, Richard Frankensteen and Walter Reuther.
​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

4. The post-war British Empire (1919-1926)

Damaged by the war and the crisis that followed alongside with the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), the British Empire endured to adapt to the new world., but neither Lloyd George nor Bonar Law were able to keep the downward turn of the events, which finally exploded in the General Strike of 1925. Britain was by then ruled by an unstable three party system. The moderate turn that the Labour party took only helped to increase the disappointment and skepticism of the workers, which turned away from it and began to search for new leaders and new proposals. The found them in the Autonomists of Niclas y Glais, which had started as Welsh nationalists seeking a Commune of Wales; Horner and Snowden’s Federationists, Anne Kenney’s Congregationalists, originally a more militant form of the Suffragettes and the Maximists, which were by far the most violent of the revolutionaries and, from 1925, led by Oswald Mosley, who made himself a name with a series of fiery speeches, carrying huge crowds out to meet him. Some historians claim that among the Maximists there were many veterans of the July Days and the failed October Bolshevik Rebellion, but this claim has not been proved. Mosley would also be known by his jingoism, which he subtly included in his Maximists tirades. However, Mosley was considered too extremist by many workers, who turned their back to him.

The crisis had also affected the political influence of the Conservative and the Liberal Parties, as the most dynamic sectors of the British bourgeoisie began an offensive to renew the political system and, in addition, to confront the workers' militancy, battered by the inflation generated the Great War and the crisis that followed after the guns fell silent. The prices of common goods such as potatoes or sugar rose, which increased their price by more than 150% from 1919 to 1923, while wages only increased by 20 and 40%. Ironically, these efforts created a pre revolutionary climate that the speeches of Horner, Mosley, and Arthur Henderson trully invigorated. Henderson was the only Laborist MP who joined the common front of the Socialist and the Republican left and who participated in the assemblies of the summer of 1925 and, on the eve of the general strike in August, published the article "Soldiers!" - a bold shout asking the British soldiers to mutiny - while collaborating with what everyone believed was an imminent revolution. All of this would led to arrested by the police on August 15. Despite the charges that were brought against Henderson, he came out well and was only sentenced to three months in prison.

Finally, the General Strike took place on August 13. The publication of a joint manifesto by Snowden and Niclas y Glais on March 27 entitled "To the British workers" was the first warning: "The proletariat has thus come to the conviction of the need to unify their forces in a common struggle against the supporters of exploitation, established as a system of government (…); it is imperative that the British workers use the general strike, without a limited period of time, as the most powerful weapon it possesses to vindicate its rights". The tension eventually exploded in mid-August. The Birmingham railway union made strikes at the end of July, precipitating, ahead of time, the General Strike coordinated by the Strike Committee made up of Niclas y Glais, Horner, Henderson, Snowden and Kenney. The northern railway unions supported the strikes and prepared a new strike on August 10th, so they had to join in haste, mobilizing the working class in the big cities, which took to the streets in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and that paralyzed the Welsh mines. For almost a week, from August 13 to 17, much of the country was paralyzed. There were clashes in Wales and Manchester and in Cable Street, London, the soldiers fired at the barricades causing 32 deaths. An intense clash took place in the East End where barricades were put up. The protesters were joined by women and children carrying banners, which did not prevent the cavalry from charging. However, in small towns and rural areas the strike had little impact. Rail communications, a key sector, was little affected by the protest. On August 15, the Strike Committee was arrested by the police in its headquarters in London.

The balance of the strike was 71 dead, 156 wounded and 2,000 people jailed. Heavily criticized by his handling of the strike, Baldwin resigned (November 3, 1925) and Lloyd George was charged with leading a "National Unity Government". However, this government would collapse on March 11, 1926 and the Liberal leader would be replaced by Baldwin. The strike had frightened the Conservative and the Liberal leadership so much that both parties closed ranks and allied to isolate the Labourists. Thus, the strike ended as a complete disaster for the British moderate reformers. The results of the elections of 1926, which ended with the victory of the Liberals led by Austen Chamberlain, calmed down the British middle class voters who had sympathized in the past with the strikers, but MacDonald's Labour party distrusted the new prime minister. Chamberlain's government worked to restore the British economy but he was not willing to give in to the demands of the workers, this only served to reinforce Labor, whose membership tripled while Chamberlain was in office. Thankfully for Chamberlain, Chancellor Gustav Stresemann's conciliatory moves led to an important change in German foreing politics. Unwilling to see the United Kingdom going down like France, Streseman was willing to establish a “general settlement” for British-German relations, which included the cancellation of the payment of reparations worth three hundred million gold marks. When this was presented to the Reichstag in October, 1926, there was an outcry against it, but Chancellor Stresemann was able to have the proposal passed. Streseman would be lambasted by the right wing newspapers for tarnishing the German honour, but Stresemann ignored them.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

5. The post-war British Empire (1926-1933)

Despite the havoc created by the strike throughout the country and the Empire. the Chamberlain cabinet managed to weather it. For two years the United Kingdom was under martial law (1925-1927), which brought riots, strikes and violence to an end. The policy followed by Downing Street with the two great workers' organizations was very different from the pre-1925 ones. Chamberlain tried to bring the Labourists, something that caused a rift between those in favor of collaboration with Chamberlain's "National Unity" government, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and the opponents, led by Fred Jowett and John Wheatley. The position of the former won and MacDonald was even part of the government and became President of the Board of Trade, which caused some resentment among the opponents. On the other hand, Chamberlain's attitude towards the trade unions was one of distrust, and the relations with them were quite cold.

For Chamberlain, 1925 and 1296 were "the golden years". The rapprochement with Germany opened the Empire into the market now dominated by Germany which would culminate in the Churchill-Curtius Pact, named after the British and German Foreign Ministers. were both countries vowed to “renounce to war as an instrument of national policy.” Chamberlain, however, in spite of the good intentions of his German counterpart, doubted the real intentions of Germany as troubles arose in India after the Strike of 1925. Unrest had intensified there and Governor General Rufus Isaac was forced to declare a state of emergency. Thankfully, the rebels were disorganized groups and interests who fought against each other as much as against the British, as happened with the main rebel groups in Bengal and Central India. This changed in 1927, when the Indian National Congress formed a coalition that brought together Muslims, socialists, and nationalists, and with the blessing of spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. However, the widespread violence and the excesses of the radical left-wingers, as the Red Summer of 1928, brought the collapse of the coalition as its moderate elements, led by the princes to ask for British protection, which gave Chamberlain an opportunity to crush the rebels: the British offensive of 1929 cornered them in northeast India, where they created the Free India Republic, as Burma emerged as a de-facto independent country from both the British Empire and the Free India Republic.

In spite of the events in India, the British economy seemed to be heading back towards its pre-war position. Relations with the United States improved after a period of coolness following Washington’s decision not to go to war in 1917. Debt repayments over Great War loans were renegotiated and resumed, much to the relief of Al Smith and the US economy, even if the misgivings of the US president wasted this chance. Meanwhile, a cause of concern began to rise in London as coal began to run dry and the government began to look for an alternative source of energy. Oil seemed to be the answer, but as the vast majority of the oil market came from the (unstable) United States and newly-discovered fields in the Persian Gulf, secured thanks to the Mesopotamian campaign in the Great War and due to the German influence over the Ottoman Empire, which helped the peace in the area. All this caused a great feeling of insecurity in Downing Street, as there were many doubts about how long the Germany friendship would last, or even if it could be trusted. Thus, in 1926 Britain began to look for oil fields in British and Commonwealth territories.

Ironically, in the elections of 1930 both the Labour and the Conservative parties were absolutely sure that they would win. Chamberlain, who attempted to push the Tories against their Leftish rivals during his political campaign, only managed to discredit himself and to increase the political polarization of the United Kingdom into two opposite sides. Bearing in mind the unstable situation of Britain and the inability of its politicians to put aside their differences, that Chamberlain's second term as prime minister lasted as long as it did was a miracle. Ironically, Stanley Baldwin's Tories were the most voted force; however, MacDonald did not trust him and supported Chamberlain just to keep Baldwin ot of No 10., Thus, the Liberal leader formed a minority government, determined not to accept any Labourist pressure and to be the one who had the last word on the decisions of his cabinet. Ironically, Chamberlain was determined to restore order and peace in the United Kingdom after the heated electoral campaign. Ironically, the mere existence of his government was the cause of even more disorder, as MacDonald and Baldwin were too eager to see him fall to replace him. Thus, on October 4, 1932, MacDonald demanded to be part of the government he was supporting, something that Chamberlain was unwilling to concede.

The Tories were splitted between its monarchist faction and the moderate one. At the same time, MacDonald was having problems controlling the Laborist ranks as more and more Laborist voters seemed to be won by Horner's and Swonden's ideas. It was then when Chamberlain decided to create a new government with the moderate factions of the two parties, with him in control of them all. Thus, elections were called to take place on May 13, 1933. Apparently, behind the new elections there was King George V, who also wanted to have a "centered government" even if he was looking for a different prime minister. How much he contributed to the division of the Tories is lost to history. In the end Chamberlain saw the debacle of his party after he had miscalculated its own chances of victory. MacDonald, with 272 seats, was the winner of the elections, with Baldwin close at his heels with 247 seats. The Liberals, which had suffered a major defeat, were reduced to barely 84 seats. Baldwin, disgusted by Chamberlain's actions who resigned after the results were known and was replaced by John Simon, was supported by the new Liberal Leader to be the next prime minister. Baldwin attempted to create as a moderate government as possible (rumours have it that he offered MacDonald to join his cabinet, but the Laborist leader refused to do so, which was deeply criticised by an incensed Henderson, who accused MacDonald of wasting a great chance to undermine the government from within just due to his "childish jealousy"). Then, to add more confusion, Baldwin resigned and was replaced by Neville Chamberlain, who went to Buckingham palace to meet the king while the army took the streets to restore order and to stop the skirmishes between the angered followers of MacDonald and Henderson and the fanaticised mob led by Mosley, who happily joined the fray.

Tanks, again, on the British streets.​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

6. The US Presidential Elections (I).

The opening of the Democratic Convention (June 9, 1936) took place in Cleveland, Ohio, which began with the arrival of the delegates amidst boots and protests of hundreds of Syndicalist sympathizers. The Democratic Party was facing a complex situation, with its Southern fief, which had voted Democrat since the Civil War, being eroded by the Syndicalist and the Longist's propaganda . Many Democratic politicians had defected to Long's formation, the America First Party (AFP), which was officially born in the Spring of 1936. As the election neared closer, both the AFP and the Syndicalist Party of America (SPA) attempted to expand their influence outside of their regional strongholds. The Longists concentrated on winning Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia, and Long visited each state on a tour during the months of August and September, and gave rousing speeches there: when he became president “every man will be a king”. Reed, on his part, tried to expand outside of the Red Belt into industrial areas of the East Coast and into the Great Plains, promising to Native American to expand the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and to grant them the right of vote, independently of state statutes and constitutions.

There was a serious danger that areas in the South that had ben loyal to the Democrats for generations might change their vote. In this situation, Garner emerged as the most likely candidate to counter the populist appeal of Long and Reed. The first two ballots proved little: Garner did not have the majority to clinch the nomination. Even worse, Roosevelt managed to win more support than expected and, in the second ballot, he came too close to Garner for comfort. Thus, "Cactus Jack" attempted to persuade Roosevelt to join him and be his vice-president, but FDR rejected the offer and suggested in return that he, not Garner, should be the presidential candidate. Angered, Garner shouted the vice-presidency was ‘not worth a bucket of warm piss!’ and stormed out of the rum. After this, Roosevelt approached Wallace and the two quickly came to an understanding. The next day, the convention was startled by the announcement of a Roosevelt-Wallace ticket, which simply ruled the waves during the third ballot as all remaining delegates shifted their votes. Roosevelt became, thus, the Democratic candidate. One may wonder what would have happened if the Democratic Party had not been bleeded white by the siphoning of Southern Democrats to Long's Firsters.

The Republican Convention in Oklahoma City met on June 23 and were surprised by the events in Cleveland. Like the Democrats, the Republicans were met in Oklahoma by Syndicalist supporters, and, as it had happened with the Democratic Party, the GOP was badly hurt by the undermining of their influence over unions by Syndicalists and farmers by Long's "Firsters". Even worse, President Hoover was attempting to gain the party nomination against all odds. However, his endeavour came to a sudden end when Vice-President Charles Curtis, emerged as the front-runner. In third place was a Progressive Republican, Frank Knox. Even worse, the Republican elite turned his back to Hoover, who, humiliated and beaten, withdrew in the second ballot, leaving the way open to Curtis and Knox, who were nominated as the Republican candidates to the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency.

Thus, with four candidates, the 1936 election entered into full motion.

This situation created an enormous expectation towards the candidates, who toured the country, giving speeches in town after town. Quite often those meetings were followed by riots, be them caused by either Syndicalist or 'Firster' agitators, and street brawls became a constant feature of the political chronicles. When Reed incorporated his "Red Guard" into his tour as a "measure of protection", riots skyrocketed. With Long pointing to the threat of Syndicalism, Reed talking about how the American workers were oppressed, Roosevelt stating that radicalism had to be kept out of the White House and isolated before it would tear the country apart, and Curtis appealing to tradition while trying to distance himself from Hoover, the electoral campaign polarized itself as Long and Reed's speeches led to a rise in violent clashes as both sides grew more militant. Thus, in the Syndicalist controlled Midwest and Eastern cities, 'Red Guards' (or Reed Guards, as they were mocked by their enemies) began to arm themselves, just as Long's men did in the South and Great Plains, the so-called Minutemen' militias. Soon "military" drills and parades became part of the political meetings of the Firsters as Reed and Long were surrounded by heavily-armed bodyguards-

It was then, with pressure mouting on Hoover's desk, General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, who had been quietly watching the simmering tension grow during the "Red Summer" of 1936 decided to prepare for the worse. Aware that the Army was small, weak, politically unreliablel (from his point of view), and had not seen action since the Filipino Insurrection, MacArthur began to plan how to react in case that either Long or Reed were able to seize power. On August 1st, he ordered Generals Walter Krueger and Lucian Prescott to draw up plans if the worse took place. It was the so-called War Plan Blue. It included securing control of state National Guard units to quickly seize strategic locations such as armories, fuel depots, bridges, ports, and industrial centers (New York City, which were considered a top priority). In states where the governors’ loyalties could not be ensured, (like North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee or Mississippi), the US Army would attempt to seize state capitals and weapons depots without relying in the unreliable National Guard units, using police forces and Loyalist militias as an auxiliary force. In those states where rebel opposition was overwhelming (Illinois and Michigan), the army units would be evacuated as quickly as possible, destroying anything of value that they could not bring with them. MacArthur also placed Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge of Army units stationed around Washington DC to defend the capital against any offensives from Syndicalists or Firsters. With this phase concluded, the US Army would launch an offensive against the rebels and the Navy blockaded the Atlantic Coast to cut them access to supplies and volunteers from Europe. Apparently, MacArthur had the intention to crush first the Syndicalists while standing on the defensive against the Longists, leaving them to be dealt with after the defeat of Reed.

When MacArthur approached President Hoover on September 19 with his plan, Hoover was surprised by the daring of the General, and horrified when MacArthur suggested to suspend elections for the duration of the emergency, while martial law would be declared in the most restless regions, and the Constitution suspended until a unity cabinet of Democrats and Republicans could solve the crisis. To his credit, Hoover rejected the plan and sent MacArthur packing. This was the greatest legacy of the failed Hoover's administration: he rejected a military dictatorship for the country. When the meeting was known by the press, even if the details were kept secret for the next decades, wild speculations run across the country. As MacArthur and Hoover remained silent on the issue, the position of Curtis worsened, even if he insisted he had not been told the meeting and even excluded from it. Of course, Reed and Long were suspicious about the meeting. If it was so trivial, why was there no information about its content? Reed wasted no time to point out that the event reminded him of the meeting between Kerensky and Kornilov in 1917 to free the Czar, which directly led to the Russian Civil War.

And then, election day finally came.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

7. The US Presidential Elections (II).

November 3rd, 1936 was the most chaotic day for voters in all the history of the United States. Voter intimidation and sporadic violence occurred across the Red Belt and in the South especially, though there were incidents in nearly every state. As polls closed at 20:00 on the West Coast, the counting began.

According to the count of James Philip Fadely and Becky M. Nicolaides, since Hoover called for new elections until the election day there were a total of fifty fatalities and seventy-two wounded caused by different episodes of "political violence": street brawls between rival ideological groups (twenty-nine dead and eleven wounded); group clashes with law enforcement forces (four dead and thirteen wounded); assaults with various weapons (three dead and thirty-four wounded), etc. And of the fifty known cases of deaths and wounds, at least thirty-four victims belonged to Reeds' CPUSA, twenty-five to Long's AFP, nine were Republicans, seven were Democrats and eleven to the public order forces. However, Fadely and Nicolaides affirm that the violence was "high, but not generalized" and that it "did not prevent the democratic process." However, unlike what happened during the electoral campaign, the voting day of November 3rd, 1936 passed without serious incidents and, in a rare show of unanimity, at the end of the day, "the leaders of the various parties recognized that, in general, the vote had been held correctly."

New England was the first region to report in. There Roosevelt was leading by the widest margins in every state except Vermont and Maine, which went to Curtis. The industrial area around Boston had voted in mass to Reed, but Long had only managed to win a few New Englanders with his populist appeals. In fact, it seemed as if the inflammatory speeches of Coughlin had damaged the Firsters in New England. The rest of the East Coast had little surprises but a lot of electoral tension. In spite of his appeal to the workers, Reed was unable to take New York City from its native son, Roosevelt. Then, Long won in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, as it was expected and Reed gained Pennsylvania thanks to the sizable worker vote. The rest went to Roosevelt, just as Florida, much to everyone's surprise.

As the vote tallies poured in, Long secured his hold over the Southern states, crossing the Mississippi in victory and adding Louisiana and Arkansas, while Reed won in the Old Northwest by comfortable margins; only West Virginia and Kentucky remained Democrat while Roosevelt snatched Missouri away from Reed and Texas from Long. Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Rockies went Democrat too, with the Firsts winning Oklahoma by the narrowest of margins: even Curtis his home state of Kansas went to the Democrats. From there, the support to Long was almost non-existent and Reed's numbers dropped as Roosevelt continued to gain state after state but for the West Coast, the least affected area by the economic crisis of all the United States, where Curtis enjoyed his only major success.

​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

8. January days.

Though Roosevelt had the most electoral and popular votes, he had not managed to gain the necessary majority of 266 electoral votes needed to become president. Thus, the election was thrown to the House of Representatives as no candidate for president had a majority of the total votes, the House of Representatives.. The Twelfth Amendment required the House to choose from the three highest receivers of electoral votes: Roosevelt, Long, and Reed. It was the first time since 1824 that the House had been required to choose the president. During the electoral campaign, many members of the House, unsure about the situation or feeling the winds of change on the skin, had defected to Long or Reed's side while others waited for the dust to settle and then decide. Of course, many more remained loyal to the Republican and Democratic parties. Even then, it was obvious that Roosevelt had no cause for alarm. Neither Long nor Reed had managed to win enough Congressmen to break the old party system. In the end, a single ballot settled the matter and Roosevelt was the winner.

Not too surprised, Long grudgingly accepted the results, even if some of his supporters loudly protested on the streets. Reed, however, felt cheated. Apparently, he became obsessed with the idea that his victory in New York had been taken away from him in the filthiest possible way. He wasted no time to claim that the result in the most notoriously corrupt voting districts had been rigged. When this strategy backfired and some journalists began to talk about irregularities in Chicago, Reed became incensed. When he openly denounced the elections as being a farce, Hoover responded by quickly supporting Roosevelt and by stating that the American people had decided to back the best man for the job, and that casting doubts about the election was un-American and dangerous. The position of Reed did not improve when a failed Syndicalist coup took place in Norway and prompted a Germany intervention in the country after Oslo asked for help. On his part, Long hushed some complaints about the situation, but after Hoover supported Roosevelt, he remained strangely quiet. He only broke his silence after the victory of the National Populist Integralists in the Brazilian elections of December 9th, putting Gustavo Dodt Barroso into power. Huey Long wrote Barroso a letter congratulating him on his victory and expressing hope that there would be close ties and mutual support between the two. Thus, Barroso's victory played a role in the events that were to unfold in the United States, as, from then on, Long began to loudly claim that the elections were rigged, indeed. His chance came in December.

On December 17, New York Reed's Red Guards arrested several unidentified people while hurling ballot boxes into the East River. Although none of the men neither were related to the Democrats nor could be linked to Roosevelt, soon the Syndicalist press shouted murder: Tammany Hall was at work again, and the damning evidence pointed at Roosevelt. However, without the boxes -none of them were recovered- and with little prove other than his own bias, Reed launched a furious tirade on the radio where he claimed that the "reactionary forces allied with capitalism" were perverting the democratic parties, and then he ordered a general strike to be prepared. It goes without saying that Long jumped at the occasion and joined the fray, claiming Florida and the Great Plains states had been robbed from the Nationals. While Hoover remained steadfast against the pressure, he gave more reasons to complain to Reed and Long: there would be no investigation as no amount of corruption could have given Roosevelt's widespread support all over the country. Thus, the decision of the House of Representatives was final. Then, However added that there was no solid proof of corruption in New York, and no evidence to support neither Reed nor Long's accusations.

There were no constitutional means of changing the House's decision, and the dubious and circumstantial evidence brought by the Syndicalists was hardly convincing to make such a precedent. Long's claims were mocked all over the country; however, both of them were determined to have their own way. On December 31 Reed announced a general strike to take place the next day. 'Red Guards,' trade unions, and the recently created Soviets were charged with assuming administrative control of the cities and seeing to the needs of the strikers and their families. Federal and local authorities were immediately overwhelmed by the magnitude of the strike which began on New Year's Day 1937 in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and other cities. Reed announced that the strike would continue until Washington accepted his demands, and rendered mooth the House's decision. However, Reed moderated his demands in the end: he did not ask neither for a repetition of the elections nor to be named President of the United States, but to be given proportional representation in the Roosevelt Administration. The Federal answer to the strike was immediate. As it threatened to shut down the vital coal mines of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which barely remained operational, and with this the coal production, vital to the well-being of millions of Americans during the incoming harsh winter, extreme measures were to be taken. However, Hoover, even if he refused to accept Reed's demands, he did nothing. With his term just days from completion, he remained inactive. Roosevelt would have to take care of the issue.

On January 20th, 1937, Roosevelt was sworn in at his inauguration. History was made as the new president uttered the now mythical words: there was "nothing to fear but fear itself". However, with the chaos caused by the strike and the ongoing crisis, few people cheered up with Roosevelt's words. On the next day he announced that he would meet with Reed to negotiate an end to the strikes. MacArthur, of course, was worried by this turn of events, and began to plan to overthrow the government if too many concessions were made to Reed during the negotiations and they compromised the security of the nation, as he expressed to Eisenhower. However, he did not need to worry. Reed, with his hands tied after Roosevelt had refused any suggestion of a mixed cabinet and, from his followers' point of view, unable to accept any offer why the president that had been caught stealing the electoral vote away from them, promised that the general strike would go on. Roosevelt's plan of reconciling with at least one of his two main rivals had died before he could put it into action.

While the President spent the first several days of his term forming his cabinet and assessing the extent of the mess left by Hoover: the economy was paralyzed, the military awfully understrength and woefully equipped and half of the country was suddenly of dubious loyalty. In spite of the dark situation, Roosevelt was determined to solve the crisis. On January 26, Roosevelt authorized the deployment of federal and national guard troops to the cities affected by the strike to restore the order there. MacArthur jumped into action, but even then it took a full week to organize the forces for the task. Long, for a while, abandoned his complaints and offered his help two days later: he would send north unemployed factory workers from the South to man the abandoned factories, which would end the strike. The plan included the workers to be escorted by Long's "Minutemen" militia, which was unacceptable for Roosevelt, but Long was adamant on the issue and would not give in. When the press published Long's offer, Reed was understably alarmed by these events. He warned that violence would certainly erupt if the federal government went on with its plan. Roosevelt, however, refused to cave to such a threat and, on February 16, under armed federal escort, the workers arrived in cities all over the North. Long, who had received no answers about his offer, sent his "volunteers" to the North along with their "Firster" escort. Rooselved ordered the army to keep the forces of Long and Reeds apart at all cost.

The situation finally exploded on February 18. Reed's Red Guards and Firsters clashed in the streets of Chicago . Federal troops were thrown into the chaos to end it, but they only made it worse. When some National Guards were shot from nearby buildings, the reservists panicked and opened fire and thus the melée engulfed them. The arrival of reinforcements achieved little and by the end of the day Chicago was in Reed's hands, with the Firsters running south and the Army units trying to withdraw as the city was under control of Reed's followers, now organized into city militias. The next day, Jack Reed took to the airwaves and stated that the workers of America had to protect themselves against the repressive wave of the authoritarian Federal government and his Firsters thugs. The Syndicalist militias took control of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, assaulting the barracks and armories of the National Guards and began to distribute weapons among the workers. Something similar happened in Missouri on February 19, the Federal troops and Red Guard militias clashed in the Jefferson Barracks, but the militias were defeated and driven back with heavy casualties.

Members of the National Guard and a few civilians
take positions in the Scott Air Force Base​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

9. Revolution and counter-revolution in Spain (May-July 1936)

The Third International meeting (May, 15-22, 1936) held in Paris began with exciting news for the Left: The Partido Sindicalista Boliviano (Syndicalist Party of Bolivia) had won the local elections in the country even by the narrowest of the margins on May 7, However, it was a short-lived victory as, barely a week later, the Bolivian armed forces, supported by the Brazilian government, had crushed the new cabinet in a bloody coup d'etat which darkened the moods during the Inauguration Day of the International. From then on, the meeting was nothing but the repetition of an idea: to survive, the international proletariat had to utterly destroy the bourgeoisie by any means. Furthermore, as the Bolivian case had shown, it was agreed to increase the propaganda and subversive underground tactics in Latin America, where unemployment had given way to radicalism. Ironically, this had led to an unexpected turn of events, when Plínio Salgado and his Integralists became the most voted party in Paris. Salgado wasted no time in claiming his hatred towards the Left (even the Socialdemocracy) and closing ties with Germany, which, even by the standards left by Ludendorff and Hindenburg, was somehow ashamed of the manners of his new ally.

Ironically, the country that was most affected by the International was Spain, which had briefly figured in the meetings. Considered a too strong redoubt of the reactionary forces, Spain was sidelined. A reason for this disregard was the weak state of the main Leftish Parties (the Socialists had been labelled as traitors since the PSOE had decided to take part in the political system run by the "corrupted Spain bourgeoisie" and the Communist Party was almost non-existent), but for the Anarchists, which were led by Juan Peiró and Ángel Pestaña and were deemed too unreliable, in spite of Peiro's efforts to reinforce the links between his party, the Federación Sindicalista Libertaria (FSL - Syndicalist Libertarian Federation). The Spanish government led by the Conservative José María Gil-Robles became very worried by the presence of Peiro's men in Paris. However, the paranoia caused by the libertarios in Paris grew out of proportion, even more when the Servicio de Información Militar (SIM - the intelligence branch of the Spanish Army) reported that all the Leftish parties, PSOE included, were planning to launch a general strike against the government on early November, just one week prior to the General Elections.

In early June 1936, Gil-Robles met with General José Sanjurjo, the Chief of the General Staff of the Spanish Armed Forces, who assured the prime minister that the army was behind the king and the government. However, when Alfonso XIII met Sanjurjo in one of his usual meetings later that month, when the Chief of Staff repeated his promise, he left out the government and only assured his loyalty and the one of the armed forces to the king. Thus, the military began to plan to take matters in their own hands and, only later on, warned Gil-Robles about their intentions. The prime minister, surprised by the daring of the generals and angered by having been kept in the dark about their plans, once he discovered that the king supported them, decided to join them. The plans for the coup were quite simply enough: in each major city, the army would take the streets, read the proclamation of the state of war issued by the government and then they would proceed to arrest all the "subversive elements", including some leaders of the PSOE (chiefly Largo Caballero), which would decapitate the opposition parties and would leave the way open to Gil-Robles to win the elections by landslide. The army officers were not aware that dissent was running high among the ranks. This fact would play a decisive factor in what was to happen.

The coup was planned to take place on July 18, 1936. Had it been carried out in the age of the "pronunciamientos" it could have worked. However, in the changing conditions of 1936, it had not a chance. Even worse, some of the junior officers and the NCOs could not keep silent about it and bragged about it. Thus, Gil-Robles saw himself in the odd situation of being asked about the saber-rattling in the Spanish Parliament. Of course, his promises that everything was under control were met with incredulity among the opposition and both the left wing of the PSOE and the Anarchists began to plan their own "counter-coup". However, the Army was to strike fist, even if nothing happened as expected. The plan was quite simple: the garrisons of all the Spanish cities were to take control of the main buildings, then declare the state of war and arrest those politicians who opposed the takeover. However, troubles arose at once.

On July 18, the plan was put into action: the army units were to march in parade order and with live ammunition to seize the main buildings However, something happened. When the officers addressed their units and told them that they were going to save the country from a "Bolshevik revolution", some soldiers began to look at each other in a surprised fashion and some even protested about the non-sense. Then, immediately after the speeches, in most of the units what happened was this: the troops began to disperse spontaneously, in breach of discipline. Neither Sanjurjo nor Gil-Robles had wasted time to ponder about the state of mind of the soldiers. They had taken their loyalty for granted. On the morning of July 14, the Spanish Armed forces had 170.000 men in the ranks. By the end of the day only 40,000 remained.

The decomposition of the regime began at once. The spark began in Barcelona that very day. There, General Manuel González Carrasco, who had begun the day with 5,000 men under his command, could barely muster 400. Even worse, most of the Guardia de Asalto and a great part of the Guadia Civil had joined the Anarchist bands that then ruled over the city. The local authorities could have used the Guardia Civil and the Guardia de Asalto to force the workers to return the rifles and ammunition they ahd requisitioned during the failed coup, but its loyalty was, in the best of cases, quite doubtful. In any case, they had no time, as, in the morning of July 19, they were deposed and replaced by a temporary government led by Lluis Companys i Jover, which proclaimed the restoration of the Catalan government, the Generalitat. In Madrid, it was feared that Companys would proclaim the independence of Catalonia: they were not aware that Companys had even less power than his predecessor. Catalonia was in the hands of the Anarchists and its Comité Central de Milicias de Cataluña (Central Committees of the Militias of Catalonia).

In Valencia, the failed coup had given way to a strike in the city and the situation worsened faster than in Catalonia as, even before the local garrison was prepared to march into the city, most of the soldiers had deserted and left their barracks. By midday hardly a few officers and NCOs with a few dozens of soldiers were still under the command of General Fernando Martínez de Monge. When, on the afternoon of July 19, after the arrival of the first news about what had happened in Barcelona , thousands of citizens flooded the streets of Valencia, demanding orders and arms. A large contingent of armed civilians then marched throughout the city and organized the first Councils while Diego Martínez Barrio attempted to create a local government, hoping that Gil-Robles would be deposed, after which the proclamation of the Republic would follow. However, he soon discovered, as Companys did in Barcelona, that he had little control over the city.

Barcelona, July 19, 1936​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

10. The beginning of the Second Civil War (February 23-March 10, 1937).

Seeing that the crisis was completely out of control, Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to pull the troops out of the cities and to regroup in areas not already under Longist or Syndicalist control. Martial law was declared all over the country and the FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, was instructed to evacuate what federal property could still be salvaged from the rebel states. Meanwhile, Long gathered his faithful in New Orleans where he announced to them and to the country (via radio) that, as Roosevelt had utterly failed at defeating the Syndicalist and thus had endangered the safety of the United States, he would step forward to defend the country from "Reed and his foreign masters" and declared a "crusade" to save America's vey soul. At the same time Reed, in Chicago, accused Roosevelt and Long of the bloodshed (the former as being the one who started the fight and the latter as the one who could not avoid it) and placed on their heads the five thousand dead that the riots across the country had left. Then, he declared that "the time for revolution is now at hand [...] Let's take what is rightly the people's to join our brothers overseas in liberating all the world!"

Thus, after these statements, Roosevelt was not too surprised when Firsters and Syndicalists began to seize the control of a dozen states, storming and capturing the government buildings and arresting or shooting any Federal official they captured. Part of the National Guard units in Alabama, Mississippi, Michigan, and Ohio mutinied. By the morning of February 23rd, it was over: Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida joined Long, while Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia had followed Reed and risen in revolt against Roosevelt. Both sides immediately declared hostilities against one another. When the governor of Texas, James Allred, condemned the path taken by the Texas legislature, he was chased by armed Minutemen and was forced to flee to the south of the state, which was still under Federal control. The Governor of Missouri, Lloyd Stark, declared his support for Roosevelt and ordered the National Guard units to defend the Federal government. Violence then began to spread to Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, and Utah. The hopes of Reed of seeing the workers of the Southern states rising against their oppressors were dashed due to the fast and impressive military deployment of the Longists. The Syndicalist resistance was reduced to some firefights and the call of a general strike, but both actions were suppressed with ease. In the most rebellious neighborhoods the Longists resorted to blockade them and to keep food from entering in them. After a few days, the starving population surrendered.

In Mississippi, the Longist volunteers flooded the cities and joined the military to take control of the state. Soon several houses hoisted old Confederate "Stars and Bars" flags. Everything seemed to point to a peaceful takeover. However, in the afternoon, everything changed. Some snipers opened fire against the security patrols, but, by sunrise, most of the resistance was over. In New Orleans, the Longists stormed the headquarters of the SPA and used them as barracks. The success of Long in the state can be measured by the 11,000 volunteers that joined his militias between February 25 and March 9. However, of those only 7,5% joined the army and the rest formed new units in the Militia. On March 1 the first Longist column departed towards Texas to help with Stark, mainly made by two infantry battalions and an engineer company from the regular army plus some thousands of militians. A second one would follow five day later, made up of 1,200 militians.

With large parts of the country now seceding from the United States in all but name and street fighting occurring in every city and with an embarrassingly small Army, Roosevelt faced an uphill battle. However, amidst the chaos, Roosevelt has a reason to smile: Syndicalist and Firsters Congressmen had rushed to join their governments, leaving Washington in a sudden and massive exodus. Thus, the House of Representatives and the Senate in conjunction had barely enough members for a quorum, but this was enough: Roosevelt was able to secure the passing of several laws and decrees that gave him wide emergency executive powers to meet the crisis. The President could make and conduct war, as he had given the power to enforce his policy. Once he had this passed, Roosevelt repealed habeas corpus across the entire country and stripped all rebels of constitutional rights; then he placed Washington D.C. under martial law, and all the local law enforcement agencies were put under the control of the FBI "for the duration of the rebellion". The measures, while necessary, predictably caused an anti-federal backlash and, from March 3 to the 7th, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Virginia rose in rebellion and joined Long, but part of the National Guard units refused to give in, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York City also revolted from federal control to join the Syndicalist revolution. In the Midwest, the Army of the Mississippi was formed under the command of General Lucian Truscott to secure Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota and succeeded in holding off the Syndicalist attacks (February 25th-March 10th). In Texas, Governor Allred, with the Federal troops and the loyal units of the Texas Rangers and the state militias, fled to the south, to Laredo and Corpus Christi, and there they prepared to resist until the arrival of help from Washington.

Meanwhile, in California, Governor Frank Merrian, after being asked to mobilize the National Guard, seeing the troubles that Roosevelt was under going in the distant Washington, declared the state of emergency in his state, and persuaded the governors of Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Idaho (Richard Kirman, Charles H. Martin, Sr. Clarence D. Martin and Barzilla. W. Clark) to join him in the creation of a "defensive alliance" which, in a few weeks, became a de facto independent Republic in the West Coast. Washington's heavy-handed actions would give them another ally, Roy E. Ayers, the governor of Montana, which joined them on March 1st.

With conflict breaking out across the land, and army units defecting to the two rebel factions, the Navy also had to face widespread mutinies and desertions, as well as rebel militias seizing ships at port. The federal naval yards land the naval bases in South Carolina, and Florida either surrendered to, or were overrun by the Longist militias, yb the end of February while, in the north, the Red Guard militias began a siege of Brooklyn Navy Yard, defended by a small, ad hoc group of navy sailors, dockworkers, and NYPD officers the same day. Though the bulk of the Navy remained in the hands of the Federal government, the two rebel factions had greatly reduced the strength of the US Navy.

As the United States fell into disarray, so too, did its colonies and territories. Puerto Rico, which had long had a secessionist movement, was paralyzed by intense rioting and street fighting between secessionists and loyalists. On February 28th, Governor Santiago Iglesias Pantín declared the Popular Republic of Puerto Rico, but this was contested by Rexford Guy Tugwell, plunging the island into its own civil war. On its parts, the Philippines became de facto independent as American forces in the Pacific headed back to the mainland or disintegrated amidst chaos and rebellion.

US Guardsmen patrol the streets of San Francisco in late February 1937.​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

11. Early struggles (March 9-18, 1936)

Much to his credit, General Douglas MacArthur was not idle as the situation deteriorated across the United States. With the . Buttressed by the rush of reservists, volunteers, and conscripts, MacArthur, who was, since March 9 and Roosevelt's emergency draft response, the commander in chief of all the US forces on the field, rapidly organized put the US Army into a war footing: he ordered the creation of four principal federal armies, commanded by himself and Generals George Marshall, Malin Craig and Joseph Stillwell respectively. MacArthur was to lead the 1st Army, six divisions strong, deployed at Baltimore to defend the capital. Marshall's II. Army, also with six divisions, was south of the Potomac River, around Arlington, kept the last bits of Virginia still under federal control. Craig's III. Army was supposed with a daunting task: to hold eastern Kentucky from the Syndicalist and Longist armies. Finally, there was the IV. Army: deployed along the Louisiana-Texas border, Stillwell had under his command a ragtag group of different units made up by the remnants of the Army of Texas, and western state militias. Furthermore, there were two more armies on the field. In the West, an ad-hoc formation was being formed under the command of General Edwin F Harding to protect California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. However, when the Republic of the West Coast was proclaimed in late February, most of those units either deserted or joined Merrian. Reduced to a few thousand men, Harding moved east, to New Mexico, planning to join hands with Governor Allred in Texas. Finally, in New England, an Army of the Delaware was formed under General Omar Bradley to secure New England against widespread rioting across the region and to defend the border of New York and New Jersey from Syndicalist invasion. Even before its creation, the units of this army had seen some of the fiercest fighting, especially around New York.

Meanwhile, Roosevelt and MacArthur agreed on what to do next. They could not hold back the advancing rebels on all fronts, thus they were determined to gather all the forces at hand to launch a north-south offensive to secure the capital, retake land contact with New England while at the same time recovering vital military facilities such as Norfolk shipyards. Craig was to keep a defensive stance to avoid the enemy counter offensives against the Federal flanks. Finally, Stillwell was ordered to advance to link with Allred while Harding was ordered to dig along the New Mexico border and hold off whatever forces the Pacific states might send East. As the Syndicalist and Longist forces were still in the process of being organized and reinforced, Roosevelt hoped that a successful offensive would take the initiative out of them. However, the rebels were preparing their own offensives. In Chicago, the Syndicalist Commander in Chief, General Steve Nelson, persuaded Reed about the advantages of a Syndicalist thrust towards the heavily industrial New England and the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan region, where the Federals were still strong. A secondary attack would be carried out to expand the Syndicalist areas in Missouri. Hopes were high: the opportunity to cut Roosevelt from any Canadian intervention was too good to be missed; furthermore, taking the Eastern ports would ease the Syndicalist situation as it would give them access to foreign assistance, plus the industry of the region.

Steve Nelson (b. December 23, 1903, Subocka, Croatia,
then part of Austria Hungary).​

In Atlanta, opinions were divided. Long's 'Union State' was surrounded on all sides by hostile armies. Advancing on Washington was out of the question with Marshall's forces on the banks of the Potomac, and Texas was proving to be more difficult to occupy than previously expected. The Chief of Staff Henry A. Arnold, had not only to fight the Federal and Syndicalist enemies, but also he was busy trying to keep at bay Long's interferences in the military. In addition to this, he was also plagued by the grandiose plans of the Chief of the Army. Major General George Patton. Thus, while Arnold was in favour of seizing Tennessee and North Carolina, risking cutting off the Federal-held East Coast from the West, Patton preached for a massive, sweeping offensive through Texas and Oklahoma and into the Great Plains that would 'liberate' a huge bulk of territory and, more importantly, National sympathizers. However, the Longist forces had few cavalry and even fewer armored and mechanized units, and Arnold wasted little time to qualify the plan as ludicrously. Long, on his part, doubted about what to do next, but he was inclined to support Patton when, on March 15, a pro-Longist uprising took Charlotte without too many problems as the governor, John C. B. Ehringhaus, quickly defected to the Firsters. Thus, a sizable part of the Longist militias were sent to West Virginia, where they began to push out of the state the Federal and Syndicalist forces within two weeks. With this unexpected event plus the Syndicalist forces threatening to push south across the Ohio River and Federal troops massing for the inevitable offensive in Virginia it was quite clear that Patton would not have the troops he needed to make good on his ambitious war plans.

An unexpected event further complicated the Longist strategy. Major General Albert H. Blanding had little problems controlling Florida. He had under his command the 3rd Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 12th Engineer Battalion, from the Florida State Militia and the 6th Pioneer Battalion, an infantry and light engineer unit . Blanding, however, distrusted the commander of the Pioneers, Colonel Preston Ayers, but most of the officers were on Long's side. Blanding was further supported by the local security forces and thus Florida went quietly to the Longists. even if David Sholtz, the governor of the state, was to show a great passivity in the face of the events and, eventually, would be dismissed by Long. Part of this passivity would be held against him after March 18, when the local left-wing unions decided to mobilize their members, demanding that Scholtz handed over arms to their groups. By March 19 the Syndicalists had captured Miami, and the urgency of sending troops against them acquired greater urgency, as the Syndicalists were extending their control over the south of the state and were marching towards Fort Lauderdale. Even worse, in Pensacola, the security forces manifested their loyalty to Washington, with the exception of Colonel Chester Wilson, who was in command of the scattered National Guard companies in the west of the state and who remained a supporter of Long.

In this troubled situation, Ayers even came to position himself in favor of Roosevelt and rejected the orders of Long to declare a state of war in Florida. The following day, March 21th, Ayes was arrested. From that moment, Lieutenant Colonel Collins took control of the Pioneers, but the 6th remained completely passive as most of the officers did not support Long. Meanwhile, the workers' militias began to take control of Fort Lauderdale and Sarasola and organized themselves into communes, waiting for the sure arrival of reinforcements from the Syndicalist controlled areas.

Syndicalist militians hold a trench on the outskirts of Bradenton. They are armed with Spanish Mausers Modelo 1893
and at least one carbine Mauser Modelo 1895, probably bought in the Mexican black market.​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

12. International intervention.

On March 22, 1937, the US Army began its offensive. The 1st Army retook an almost unguarded Philadelphia, having little problem pushing back the scattered Syndicalist resistance that Reed mustered in a hurry. Roosevelt and MacArthur's gamble seemed to be paying off; as the Syndicalist attention was apparently worried with the thrust into New England. Then, the I Corps, under Major General Krueger, advanced to retake New Jersey. While Krueger did not find too many Syndicalist forces in his way, the I Corps was heavily attacked by every plane that Long could throw against the exposed infantry columns. In spite of the air attacks, the Federal troops pushed through New Jersey, taking Atlantic City on April 6 and arriving in Newark and at the New York City outskirts by April 15. By then, persistent Longist air raids had reduced I. Corps to barely 20% of its fighting strength. His sacrifice was not in vain, Henry Arnold redeployed the bulk of the Washington D.C. air defense forces to create a "big wing" to intercept the bomber formations as they retreated south. On April 16, the Longist bombers were ambushed by swarms of Federal Curtiss P-36 Hawks. The Longist air crews were most of them inexperienced or reservist bomber crews. In a matter of a few hours, the bulk of the bombers of the air force of the National Union State had been wiped out. This disaster gave rise to a political battle in Atlanta, as Charles Lindbergh fell in disgrace and was relieved of his command over the National Air Force. The authoritarian Fritz Kuhn and his cronies then attempted to replace Lindbergh and to seize control of the remnants of the air force, now reduced to a few fighter squadrons and attack units. However, they were fiercely opposed by General Henry Conger Pratt and Colonel Gerald C. Brant. Seeing the disaster that Lindberg had caused, Long, for the moment, decided to trust the military.

MacArthur meanwhile continued to advance north through Pennsylvania, meeting no more resistance in Scranton on March 28 than he had in Philadelphia. In a daring move, the general ordered his exhausted men to advance northwest, to Syracuse, New York and Lake Ontario. On April 12, Federal units reached the Great Lake, completing its entrapment of the Syndicalist armies. Repeated attempts at a breakthrough were foiled. Unable to breach MacArthur's lines, or send supplies up the St. Lawrence River due to Canadian intransigence, Reed was witnessing his first major defeat of the war.

All three sides, though not lacking manpower due to the large number of enthusiastic volunteers, instituted limited conscription as a precautionary measure, and the United States began ordering its overseas garrisons in China and the Panama Canal Zone home. Yet just as in the First American Civil War, the Second would not be fought by Americans alone and attracted significant foreign attention and manpower.

All three sides of the war had the backing of foreign powers, and tens of thousands of volunteers entered the country even before the war had officially begun₁ . Around the world, Left-wing sympathizers, who believed that the global revolution was to start in America, travelled far to help the Syndicalist Union of America in its struggle against the Federal government and the authoritarian Huey Long. The French Commune, Italian Socialist Republic and the Bharatiya Commune began to send organized brigades of "volunteers" along with military advisors, and equipment to Reed, while Syndicalists from countries like Spain, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Argentina, Brazil and Russia travelled at their own expense to fight on behalf of the SUA. Eventually, in America those volunteers would create the famous International Brigades such as the British Thomas Mann Column, the French Corps Lafayette, the German Thälmann Kampfgruppe, and so many others.

Long, on his part, was to have the short-lived support of several German businessmen (Krupp, Thyssen, Porsche, etc) before the German Empire put into motion the Non-Intervention Committee, after the Non-Intervention Agreement was signed in Berlin by Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire. However, by then, 70 Junker Ju 52 transport planes and 90 Heinkel He 51 fighters had arrived at the Union State and were soon used to rebuild the decimated air force, with most of the Ju 52 being transformed into bombers. Along with the 270 tons of military supplies were shipped from Germany to the Union State. However, his biggest supporter would be Gustavo Barroso, who would put Brazil to work to keep the Longist state alive. The first Brazilian help to arrive at the Union State were twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.M.81 of the (Força Aérea Brasileira (Brazilian Air Force), which had been bought in the black market₂. These planes would be followed by 14 Boeing P-26 "Peashooter" fighters bought in the 1930s and an air unit, 350 men strong (including 48 well trained pilots). By July, the first units (9,000 strong) of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Força Expedicionária Brasileira, FEB) arrived in Florida.

Brazilian destroyer Destroyer Maranhão, which would made several trips
to Florida to protect the convoys that brought the FEB to the Union State.​

₁ - Apparently, a delegation sent by Reed to Paris signed an agreement with the government of the Commune of France on December 1st, 1936. By this agreement, the Commune was to sell to Reed's "government" 40 airplanes, 10,000 bombs of 2 kgs, 2,000 of 50 kgs, fuel, machine guns, armor-piercing shells, etc.
₂ - The Italian Socialist Republic had been fooled to believe that the planes had been bought by México.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

13. The Federal offensives (March 17-May 2, 1937)

While the campaign of MacArthur in Pennsylvania and New York sent encouraging news to the country, General Marshall's II. Army hurried to carry out its part of the spring offensive, even if Marshall made a free interpretation of the original plan, and, instead launching a two pincered attack. he unified his forces into a single advance, and, even if it exposed the capital, by early March, the II. Army swept down the Shenandoah Valley. With no enemy force to stop the Federals' advance, Marshall then swung his army eastward and took Charlottesville on March 17. With the I. Corps defending his flank, Marshall pressed towards Richmond as the Longist forces pressed raw recruits into service to block the enemy advance. After several days of hard fighting, Marshall entered Richmond on April 14, where he paused for several days to reorganize his units and supply lines and to plan his next step. His hold on northern and central Virginia was quite shaky, as he was well aware. A strong and well-equipped garrison threatened his left flank in Norfolk, and more enemy divisions were gathering to the southwest for a counterattack into West Virginia that, if successful, could push back Marshall's right flank, not only leaving him isolated in Richmond, but also cutting off General Craig’s III. Army in Kentucky.

Gambling that the Nationals were simply moving troops up to block him, Marshall released the V. Corps in a daring thrust toward North Carolina while the bulk of the army remained at Richmond. Meeting again only sporadic resistance, the V Corps reached the Atlantic on April 29, isolating the Norfolk garrison. With the Union State navy unable to act as it was too small and too far off to be of any help, Norfolk was doomed. Even then, when Marshall launched his all-out assault against the naval base as the Longist forces began to pound the V. Corps's positions with all its strength. However, Marshall was faster and luckier, and the base was taken after a few hours of vicious fighting. Even worse for Long, the garrison that had surrendered was made by an entire division of National army regulars, one of the best equipped and trained in their army.

Meanwhile, Reed was seeing how his revolutionary dream was taking a different way from the one he had expected. The Syndicalist Forces were suffering from disorganization and internal rivalries between their various factions, especially between the Federalists (Radical Socialists) and the Unionists (Orthodox Syndicalists) whose units demanded that they be allowed to vote on any orders they received from higher ups. This was especially true on the Eastern Front where the Second Popular Army under Major General Herbert Charles Heitke was made by militias that Heitke attempted to form into a cohesive force. This disorganization allowed the Army of the Potomac under General McNair to launch an offensive to seize Philadelphia. Ironically, the advance of the Army of the Potomac took its units through the old battlefield at Gettysburg, easily sweeping aside the disorganized Syndicalist militias that it found on the way. Philadelphia was reached in two days. The city was defended by the Syndicalist militia “O’Donnell" Division, which was reinforced by the hurried mustering of several thousands of workers and volunteers who hurried to man the defences. McNair began the siege of Philadelphia and the city was subjected to heavy artillery bombardment as Federal troops repeatedly tried to break the Syndicalist lines to capture what had been the capital of the United States during the Revolutionary War.

At the same time, in Texas, Governor Allred and General Joseph Stillwell were still defending the south of the state. Stillwell had managed to form the IV. Army with a mixture of militiamen, Rangers and some Regular soldiers, but, for most of the time, he was forced into a defensive strategy, time he used to further shape the forces under his command, which was the most poorly armed force under Federal control. Only a single division had its standard number of field and heavy guns, but most of them were relics from the Great War period. Even if MacArthur had deemed lost the entire western half of the country, Stillwell thought otherwise and wrote to Roosevelt complaining that MacArthur was wasting manpower on a defensive line along the Pacific States border that made no sense. The President agreed and MacArthur finally ordered the defensive line to be abandoned and its defenders to fall back to safety. Those badly-needed divisions were to be shipped to Texas to assist IV. Army's defense of Texas. Just in time, as, with the Longist forces pushing into western Kentucky and the Syndicalist militias advancing south along the Mississippi River from St. Louis, the line of communication between Roosevelt and Stillwell was severed. For the immediate future, the IV. Army depended upon the torturous convoy lanes that ran down the East Coast and into the Gulf of Mexico. Both MacArthur and Roosevelt contemplated evacuating the entirety of IV. Army to assist in the eastern offensives.

However, Stillwell was determined to keep his semi-independent command of what was. When Long, tired of just reacting to the Federal attacks, supported George Patton's plan for a western offensive to relieve some pressure from Virginia. As Patton advanced unopposed into Oklahoma, leaving Louisiana to be defended by just the local Minutemen and reservists, Stillwell saw an opportunity in this. On April 22, he attacked. Even if some of the green units of the IV Army confused their march and became mingled, the bulk of the Federal forces pushed aside the militia units, opening thus the way to New Orleans. However Stillwell had pushed too far away and this gave Patton a chance to counter-attack. He dispatched a militia force under Major General Goodwin from the Oklahoma front into Texas. Taking Stillwell by surprise, the Longist forces entered Houston on the 28th. Even worse, they managed to stop the Federal counterattack, which was poorly coordinated. Goodwin, however, was not fooled by his success, had he was aware of his precarious position, as he had little chance of holding out in the long-term. On his part, Stillwell kept advancing on New Orleans and captured the city on May 2, barely a few days after the victory in Norfolk.

Now Roosevelt had good reason to remain confident even as the war continued and intensified.

Stillwell's mixture of regular and unexperienced soldiers storm
the defences of New Orleans.​