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So I've finally found a topic I have the knowledge to work with. The Red Britain timeline will be put on hiatus as I do more reading, the period is simply too complex without more knowledge, especially for an American. That said...


Taft-Hartley ended the American Labor movement. It limited it and it forced out anyone left of center and all those who had some strange "foreign" taste for such archaic concepts as free-speech. Most importantly, it lead directly to the collapse of the CIO. However, what if John Lewis had remained? What if the CIO was more entrenched? What if Lewis had decided to accept Coolidge's offer and become Secretary of Labor? And what if this had opened his eyes to the nature of politics, "the struggle," and what must be done? And as a result what if the CPPA had actually succeeded in building a "Labor Party?" What if Taft-Hartley never happened? What if the CIO instead became the dominant union, driving the AFL like the Knights and countless others before them into the history books? What if the labor movement survived?

These are the questions among others I hope to explore in this timeline. As stated above the POD is 1924 and the idea that a young(ish) John L. Lewis had accepted Coolidge's offer and become Secretary of Labor. The events from there on out are meant to paint a realistic portrait of the development of an American labor party. I stress the idea is to be realistic. Utopian timelines are fun, but this is meant to be a psuedo-academic exploration of what could have been. The goal is to create a realistic alternate world.

I'd like to credit Dan McCollum who inspired me with his story of Wisconsin Progressives and whose format I've co-opted as I found it quite readable and effective.

Without further ado, "There is Power in A Union."
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