That ignores the possibility of him pulling an FDR though, and with a civil war removing the votes of several states and polarizing many voters to one side or another, it still seems plausible
The Fire Never Dies: Labor's Star Ascendant
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Not to mention the Alien Enemies Act could easily be used to terrorize immigrant communities that would contain many socialist supporters
Pretty much. Haywood is planning on running for Governor in 1916.
dentista campora
Banned
If all the states you mention fall like that, then it's gonna be interesting.
I don't think Wilson is going to be either healthy nor popular enough to "pull an FDR". I won't comment on the latter factor, because indeed I was assuming it.
That… sounds pretty plausible, especially the latter nuanced position
19. The Mayors
…The election of Emil Seidel and Bill Haywood as mayors of Milwaukee and Seattle offered an opportunity for socialists to put their ideals into action. Their mayorships also offer an interesting contrast between the moderate Seidel, who hoped to use his position to promote socialism at the ballot box, and the radical Haywood, who was primarily interested in strengthening socialist power in advance of the revolution[1]…
…Both quickly brought the police under their control. Seidel appointed Joseph Klein as Milwaukee’s police chief, but he kept many of the cops on the payroll. By contrast, Haywood purged the entire Seattle Police Department, and handed the job of police chief over to Britt Smith[2], head of Seattle’s Committee of Public Safety. As had happened in smaller towns under SLP control, police now protected striking workers and routinely arrested strikebreakers for trespassing. The fact that the charges were almost invariably dismissed or dropped was irrelevant, as strikebreaking became effectively impossible in these cities…
…Inevitably, some businessmen chose to leave Seattle and Milwaukee, and local papers accused Haywood and Seidel of making the cities hostile to business. However, the IWW in both cities had the resources to actually buy out factories and mills, often covertly, so they could prevent the previous owners from taking the equipment as well. These would then reopen as worker-run co-ops under the “Sollie Shop” model, derived from the common nickname for IWW members[3]…
…Both mayors, as expected for socialists, were strongly favorable towards immigration. After all, the IWW and SLP drew much of their strength from immigrants. This was particularly significant in Seattle, where the Seattle police intervened to break up an anti-Japanese race riot in 1913. This contributed to stronger ties between nativists and anti-socialists…
…The success of Seidel and Haywood inspired other campaigns. In 1913, Morris Hillquit ran for Mayor of New York, with Leon Bronstein as his campaign chair. The SLP organized a massive campaign that rivaled the energy of the prior presidential campaigns. After incumbent mayor William Jay Gaynor died in September[4], the Democrats chose not to field another candidate, instead endorsing the Republican John P. Mitchell. It did them no good. Hillquit won with 53% of the vote, becoming the 95th mayor of New York City[5]…
- Socialists of America Unite! A History of the Socialist Labor Party by Aaron Sorkin
[1] IOTL, Haywood was opposed to electoralism entirely. ITTL, the SLP’s successes have convinced him and other radicals that winning elections is possible and can be used to prepare for the revolution.
[2] IOTL, Smith was an IWW leader who was involved in the Centralia Massacre of 1919.
[3] IOTL, IWW members are known as Wobblies. However, the origin of this nickname is uncertain, although it probably has something to do with the acronym. ITTL, they are instead known as “Sollies” derived from their anthem “Solidarity Forever”.
[4] OTL.
[5] IOTL, Mitchel won in a landslide (although Hillquit was not a candidate). Hillquit did run for mayor in 1917, earning 100,000 votes.
…Both quickly brought the police under their control. Seidel appointed Joseph Klein as Milwaukee’s police chief, but he kept many of the cops on the payroll. By contrast, Haywood purged the entire Seattle Police Department, and handed the job of police chief over to Britt Smith[2], head of Seattle’s Committee of Public Safety. As had happened in smaller towns under SLP control, police now protected striking workers and routinely arrested strikebreakers for trespassing. The fact that the charges were almost invariably dismissed or dropped was irrelevant, as strikebreaking became effectively impossible in these cities…
…Inevitably, some businessmen chose to leave Seattle and Milwaukee, and local papers accused Haywood and Seidel of making the cities hostile to business. However, the IWW in both cities had the resources to actually buy out factories and mills, often covertly, so they could prevent the previous owners from taking the equipment as well. These would then reopen as worker-run co-ops under the “Sollie Shop” model, derived from the common nickname for IWW members[3]…
…Both mayors, as expected for socialists, were strongly favorable towards immigration. After all, the IWW and SLP drew much of their strength from immigrants. This was particularly significant in Seattle, where the Seattle police intervened to break up an anti-Japanese race riot in 1913. This contributed to stronger ties between nativists and anti-socialists…
…The success of Seidel and Haywood inspired other campaigns. In 1913, Morris Hillquit ran for Mayor of New York, with Leon Bronstein as his campaign chair. The SLP organized a massive campaign that rivaled the energy of the prior presidential campaigns. After incumbent mayor William Jay Gaynor died in September[4], the Democrats chose not to field another candidate, instead endorsing the Republican John P. Mitchell. It did them no good. Hillquit won with 53% of the vote, becoming the 95th mayor of New York City[5]…
- Socialists of America Unite! A History of the Socialist Labor Party by Aaron Sorkin
[1] IOTL, Haywood was opposed to electoralism entirely. ITTL, the SLP’s successes have convinced him and other radicals that winning elections is possible and can be used to prepare for the revolution.
[2] IOTL, Smith was an IWW leader who was involved in the Centralia Massacre of 1919.
[3] IOTL, IWW members are known as Wobblies. However, the origin of this nickname is uncertain, although it probably has something to do with the acronym. ITTL, they are instead known as “Sollies” derived from their anthem “Solidarity Forever”.
[4] OTL.
[5] IOTL, Mitchel won in a landslide (although Hillquit was not a candidate). Hillquit did run for mayor in 1917, earning 100,000 votes.
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We'll see how it works in the long run, but for now I'll say both Seidel and Haywood made the right choice with regards to the police. I'll be curious to see if the SLP can win any Governor's races before the it all hits the fan.
Windows95
Banned
How very Paris Commune, and municipal socialistic.
Did you know there are socialist mayors who use municipal ownership and purchasing agencies to make food cheaper (bulk purchasing) for the workers?
What about the consumer cooperatives, were they also a part of the programs?
Will credit unions/or union banks like the Amalgated Banks would be a model for lending capital to new and existing cooperatives and other ventures?
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It even happened under a Republican mayor, and recently!
How very Paris Commune, and municipal socialistic.
Did you know there are socialist mayors who use municipal ownership and purchasing agencies to make food cheaper (bulk purchasing) for the workers?
Consumer co-ops aren't favored by the IWW, as that still denies power to the workers.
I don't know much about those, but they are probably active. However, the IWW's rather meteoric rise has left it scrambling to set up proper institutions. These operations tend to be funded directly by IWW branches. Fortunately most IWW branches are very open about their finances, otherwise there would probably be massive corruption.
20. Segregating the Government
…In the last decades before the Revolution, civil service jobs were often the best available to educated black men. However, the Taft administration had begun to place limits on where black civil servants could be appointed, refusing to appoint them to positions where there was likely to be local pushback (generally speaking, this meant the South). Wilson, however, greatly expanded this. Barely a month into office, he received Postmaster General Albert Burleson’s plan to segregate the Railway Mail Service, and soon the entire United States Postal Service. Wilson did not segregate the entire federal government, but allowed his Cabinet secretaries to do so on their own. In addition to humiliations like separate washrooms and drinking fountains, most blacks working for the federal government found their careers abruptly stalled or even ended. Many government facilities enacted de facto whites-only hiring policies, claiming they had no facilities for black employees[1]…
…One department which resisted segregation was the Navy. The United States Navy had been integrated since the Civil War and drew a disproportionate number of its officers and crew from the northern states. Discrimination and racism remained widespread, but many saw the imposition of formal segregation by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels as a step too far, or simply an inconvenience when aboard ships[2]. Eugene Debs brought the issue to the attention of Congress, in a speech that called the segregation of the federal government as “spitting on Abraham Lincoln’s grave” and came just short of calling President Wilson a Confederate sympathizer. At the suggestion of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, Daniels buckled, although he did implement segregation at most naval bases as well as blocking the commissioning or promotion of black officers. However, enlistment in the Navy remained an attractive career for many black men, including those who had been forced out of civil service positions…
- From The Last President by Aviva Chomsky
[1] OTL.
[2] IOTL the Navy was swiftly segregated, and by the time the US entered World War I, black sailors were largely relegated to mess and custodial duties.
…One department which resisted segregation was the Navy. The United States Navy had been integrated since the Civil War and drew a disproportionate number of its officers and crew from the northern states. Discrimination and racism remained widespread, but many saw the imposition of formal segregation by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels as a step too far, or simply an inconvenience when aboard ships[2]. Eugene Debs brought the issue to the attention of Congress, in a speech that called the segregation of the federal government as “spitting on Abraham Lincoln’s grave” and came just short of calling President Wilson a Confederate sympathizer. At the suggestion of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, Daniels buckled, although he did implement segregation at most naval bases as well as blocking the commissioning or promotion of black officers. However, enlistment in the Navy remained an attractive career for many black men, including those who had been forced out of civil service positions…
- From The Last President by Aviva Chomsky
[1] OTL.
[2] IOTL the Navy was swiftly segregated, and by the time the US entered World War I, black sailors were largely relegated to mess and custodial duties.
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I haven't decided which ships exactly, but yes, this is setup for a large portion of the US Navy to side with the Revolution. The whole affair has also rankled a lot of Yankee officers, if only that segregation aboard warships, where space is at a premium, would be a hassle. They're not so much principled anti-racists (most of them are at least somewhat racist) but they find the prejudice of many segregationists rather odious and unprofessional, similar to how a lot of people in this time saw the more virulent anti-Semites. It's less "You shouldn't be oppressing those poor Negroes!" and "For the love of Farragut would you just SHUT UP about Negroes and let us get on with our jobs?" On the surface, it isn't much, but a wedge is being driven between the segregationists and moderates.
Suffice it to say that that isn't the plan. I haven't nailed down the exact timeline for the Revolution, but I was planning on it wrapping up before we get to a presidential election. That said, we will face a mid-term election during the war. And that will be a major indicator of where things are. This civil war won't be like the first one, with most of the country solidly under control of one faction or the other. This will be a lot messier. Where in the Civil War most Southern congressmen left to join the Confederacy, there will be a lot of congressmen here who are supporting Wilson but whose districts are either in chaos or under Red control (although the SLP will obviously have left).
At this point, Wilson and Congress will face a choice. Either they try to hold an election when half the country is out of their control, leading to absurd levels of election fraud and an incredibly tainted outcome, or they postpone the election and risk being seen as illegitimate and trampling on American values. And that's while they're in the midst of purging suspected socialist sympathizers, dealing with a [REDACTED], trying to keep the Army supplied when the other side controls most of the nation's industry, and debating whether or not to move the capital somewhere safer because they can hear goddamn artillery in the distance.
Yeah, theres no way postponing an election would look good, particularly because there's no precedent for it as far as i know; elections were held even when the American homeland was under threat during the war of 1812 and the civil war.
How are the revolutionaries going to fight the US Army and National Guard if they do? Otherwise, this is bound to end up being the Spartacist Uprising BUT IN 'MURICA. You will need a competent army. I don't expect them to make it without some decent support from the US Army, but perhaps if they're strategic and hard-hitting enough early on with their Navy assets they can win the war.
Oh, god, imagine the USS Wicke or some destroyer sailing through the Potomac, trying its best not to run aground by sticking within the deep water channel. Then it makes it to a sufficient distance where it can rain hell upon the White House and Congress.
Oh, god, imagine the USS Wicke or some destroyer sailing through the Potomac, trying its best not to run aground by sticking within the deep water channel. Then it makes it to a sufficient distance where it can rain hell upon the White House and Congress.
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With much of the setup mentioning the Navy I wonder if this’ll be a bit more like the Brazilian naval revolts?
dentista campora
Banned
I feel the socialists will control the national guards of at least four states, plus large non military but armed contingents like the New York Police Department, by the time it hits the fan