Excellent. Still waiting on tenterhooks to find out what happened at Cripple Creek, but this was a fine update regardless. Thank you for this thread!
The Glowing Dream: A history of Socialist America
- Thread starter Iggies
- Start date
Well given that it was the Colorado state government calling in National Guard to break-up Union power in Cripple Creek, Colorado that precipitated the Colorado Labor Wars. I can only imagine that, given this timeline, absolutely nothing good.
A very good TL, well researched, tightly plotted and entertaining to boot. Subscribed!
Yeah wanting to repeat the benefits of the Spanish war would be likely.
The Mexican Revolution begins in 1910 (well I'm presuming that ITTL it will go as as OTL) so that falls within Frick's assumed presidency. I can see it being a similar situation to Wilmington, with ordinary white American workers not really caring about the status of Mexicans, but seeing the American government's interference as another example of the capitalist class' greed.
AeroTheZealousOne
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Caught up with this timeline, going to go back and like some posts after a while but I'm definitely subbed and looking forward to more as it comes along, especially considering my own... uh, sympathies. 
Interestingly enough, for those unaware the events in Wilmington in November of 1898, up to and including a Fusionist ticket of sorts, are very much based on events from OTL. Except here, they go considerably worse for the Democrats since they fail to overthrow the city's legitimately elected government.
Interestingly enough, for those unaware the events in Wilmington in November of 1898, up to and including a Fusionist ticket of sorts, are very much based on events from OTL. Except here, they go considerably worse for the Democrats since they fail to overthrow the city's legitimately elected government.
these were the songs I was singing along with, while reading the Battle of Wilmington.
should I make a playlist for this thread?
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Uh, what? North Carolina--- and the entirety of the South ---had an incredibly low level of foreign immigration, even in large cities, comparable to the rest of the country. Outside of New Orleans most whites in the South were native born, not recent Irish or German immigrants, and those with "Irish" ancestry were overwhelmingly Scots-Irish, whose families had been in the U.S since the 1700s. Most simply identified as 'American'. Even today on the census southern states overwhelmingly just tick 'American' when asked questions about ancestry compared to the rest of the U.S.
That's generally true of the south, but Wilmington was a fairly cosmopolitan city as far as the old south went, and did have an appreciable Irish community.
Wilmington sprinkled with traces of Irish throughout its history
Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day, and lots of Wilmington will be wearing green.
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Huh. Well, it is true that coastal port cities do tend to be slightly more diverse, if they're of a significant size, though I still don't know if that'd be enough for the entire community of white laborers in the city to be of Irish extraction. In the South especially with its low level of immigration, native-born labor was the majority, whether you're talking about cotton pickers in Louisiana or miners in Eastern Kentucky. Not to de-emphasize immigrant labor or anything, both natives and immigrants labored alongside each other in most of the country and fought alongside each other for the right to unionize, its just the south was … the south. Probably not as attractive a destination as the Midwest or West or Northeast for most immigrants I'd imagine given the higher level of destitution and the descendant of the planters having a stranglehold via the Democrat Party on politics.
I apologize if any of that came across as too nit-picky, by the way, this is a very well-written timeline thus far and I've enjoyed it! I hope you find the time to cover Appalachian mining strikes, as they could be particularly violent, and probably would even get more crazily violent ITTL than OTL given the graver situation organized labor is in; I expect the coal camp owners and operators would come down a lot harder on the miners, and the miners would respond quite viciously.
1919 is a few years too early for Matewan and Blair Mountain, but 1913 Paint-Creek-Cabin-Creek strike could serve as an impetus for a Blair Mountain like event, which OTL was the largest labor uprising in U.S history--- and one of the largest uprisings in U.S history in general (depending on if you count the Civil War as an uprising and excluding the War for Independence ofc).
Thanks for the good read!
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Here's an idea for a tipping point for revolution: Have the Tampico Affair escalate into a full blown war. In 1914 the Revolutionary armies are still at full strength, so you have Villa's Cavalry (with Felipe Angeles's genius leading them), plus Obregon and Zapata, and it could believably drag the war down for years until the US collapses.
I could see the populists picking up on that?
Potentially even the socialists, alcohol was a massive issue for workers' health.
There's no chance of the socialists supporting Prohibition. Their biggest constituency here (as in OTL) were ethnic immigrant workers in the Northeast and Midwest, who were pretty much as opposed to Prohibition as anyone. The populists on the other hand are probably going to be the driest party out there, lots of religious Western and Southern farmers. Could be a potential wedge point in the future.
No problem. I don't take it as nitpicking--constructive criticism is always welcome. I didn't mean to imply white workers in Wilmington were mostly of recent immigrant extraction. I don't have numbers, but I'm sure that wasn't the case. I only focused on the Irish to show how immigrant whites, an important Democratic constituency, were slipping away from the party.
I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far.
Maybe the Socialists take a temperance stance similar to the SPD at the time where they oppose hard liquor and seek to create a healthy drinking culture around beer and more moderate alcohol consumption. Whilst some of the Populists might be won over to this I could see the Republicans and mainline Populists forming an alliance to force through Prohibition as a way to undermine the Socialist Party's presence in pubs and bars as well as attack the heavily German-immigrant dominated, and therefore likely sympathetic to the Socialists, brewing industry.
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He simply formulated the official view of the communists on the issue and, indeed, they do not like the democracy. 🥱
That might be the view of Soviet communists, but not American socialists.