Jitterbug into my brain goes bang bang bang until Germany does the same.
The smurf is this Comrade Mosleythough? I thought old Ossie was a good ol' fashioned jackbooter, not one of these "B-B-BUT THE WORKERS!
" sorts
Jitterbug into my brain goes bang bang bang until Germany does the same.
The smurf is this Comrade Mosley
He ended up that way in the '30s, but the British Revolution happened in the mid-20s - right around the time Mosley was an ardent socialist and a member of the ILP. He was never going to get very far by becoming more reactionary than the King and, which is more, socialism had taken control in Britain, meaning he was never given the incentive to look for a new ideology after his OTL defeat in 1931. (And ITTL Mussolini never became a fascist but also remained red, so Mosley wouldn't have had a fascist example to draw on and inspire the BUF).Originally Posted by Psychotic
Jitterbug into my brain goes bang bang bang until Germany does the same.
The smurf is this Comrade Mosley
A Day in September
President Hoover sighed, got up to look out of the window, then sat down again instead. The stack of papers on his desk were a mix of mundane and unwanted. The mundane was the usual minutiae of any President. Recognitions, recommendations, diplomatic niceties, meetings with various politicians, letters from citizens. The unwanted was more dramatic and, by far, more difficult to deal with. Riots, protests, the latest speeches by foremost Populists and Reds. With the election approaching fast, and now only seven weeks away, things were coming to a head. Despite a few hopeful spots during the summer, the cooling weather was not cooling heads any. Speeches were becoming more radical and firebrand, and both the far-left and the far-right were taking more and more local powers into their own hands without regard to the Constitution.
There was a sharp knock at the door. Hoover looked at his watch – 4.00pm on the dot. General MacArthur had arrived punctually, and Hoover had a wrenching feeling in his gut as he contemplated what it might be about.
“Come.” He called. His aide opened the door and announced General MacArthur, who didn't wait before brushing past and striding into the room. “Thank you, make sure we aren't disturbed.”
“Yes Mister President” his aide said.
“General, please sit.” He gestured to a comfortable looking couch. General MacArthur stood statue-still and said,
“Thank you Mister President, I prefer to stand.”
“Suit yourself. I understand you've got an issue of some importance to discuss.” MacArthur nodded.
“Mister President, I'll cut right to the chase. The election is two months away and our country is beset by liberals, pacifists, and communists of all stripes. Now I've looked at Governor Long's policies and I tell you that whatever he says, the kind of control he wants to impose is as red as England.” Hoover looked at MacArthur right in the eyes as the general went on. Neither man wavered but the tension was palpable. “Sir, I, and a great number of other loyal men in this country's military, believe that it is in the best interests to cancel this election until such time as we can ensure the country will not fall to the radicals.”
These are dark, dark times.
The President looked at the General's impassive face with a narrow glare, but one that hid a stunned expression. Hoover had feared some radical suggestion like nationwide martial law, but suspending the Constitution entirely? Madness! After a long moment he replied.
“General, even during the Civil War, the government in D.C. only abridged the Constitution in such ways as was necessary for fighting. Our country is not at war at this time, not with any foreign or internal force, and until it is I will not countenance such a suggestion.” He spoke with a firmness and a fire he didn't know he possessed, and which judging from his briefly surprised expression, MacArthur hadn't counted on either.
“Mister President, I realize the suggestion is irregular, but it is imperative to avoiding a second civil war. Now I can assure you that action would only be taken against the radicals in this country, and that as soon as the situation was safe we would restore the Constitution in full.”
“Sir, I am afraid I must question your state of mind. I can think of no greater way to ensure that the country will descend into mass chaos or outright civil war than to suspend our democratic principles. I hope I don't need to go into the moral arguments here, but quite aside from all that you know as well as I do that the only thing keeping half a lid on this is that everyone reckons they're going to win the election.”
MacArthur pounded a balled up fist into an open palm as he began to respond.
“Mister President, I can assure you we've thought of that and we are already ready to move against any such actions. Hellfire sir, you yourself have put our boys in place for just this. As for the election, what do you think will happen when Charles or Garner win? Reed and his boys will be up in arms, they'll say the thing was rigged, and they'll be out in the streets like you've never seen before. And frankly I don't trust Long not to do the same.”
“Then I will trust you to put them down for Mister Garner or for Vice President Curtis.” He pronounced the latter's name and title with emphasis, the unspoken and you will address him as such quite clear.
MacArthur was growing agitated by this point. He had expected the President would accede without a fight, even gratefully. Both men were surprised by the fire in Hoover's belly.
“And what if, Mister President, Reed or Long win it?”
“Then I pray for this country. But not as much as I pray for it today, when one of its highest soldiers and supposedly most loyal sons declares that the Constitution is just a silly old piece of paper to be discarded whenever it seems useful!”
“Mister President, I-” The President cut him off mid-sentence, almost roaring by now.
“GENERAL MacArthur. I am the President of these United States and I have rejected your proposition. I am frankly sickened by it and if I could get away with it, I'd have you out of a career by dinnertime. If this country falls to anarchy, populism, or communism, so be it, but Hell will freeze over before I am the man who tears up our Founder's sacred documents. As it stands, I don't expect you will be seeing the inside of this building again until January at the earliest; you will receive new orders soon.”
“Sir I must protest, the country needs to be secured from-”
“Get out.” He spoke in two short, clipped words, with a dangerous tone. The General bowed curtly, turned, and stomped out of the room. The tension suddenly felt, Hoover collapsed into a chair, his heart beating rapidly and sweat suddenly rolling down his face. As he dabbed at it he thought for a moment, then called for his aide.
“Sir?”
“Get me the Vice-President and General Craig. I want them in here as soon as possible. Then make sure everyone is coming in tomorrow, it's going to be a hell of a day.”
“Yes sir.”
General Craig was soon installed as Chief of Staff, and Vice-President Curtis was warned against General MacArthur. They were unsure of where Craig's loyalties lay but had little alternative. General MacArthur, meanwhile, was not a man who could simply be quietly fired, but he was quickly reassigned to the Panama Canal Zone, with the excuse that the increasing danger posted by the United Provinces meant the canal needed a man of his caliber to keep safe. Media speculation exploded but the General and whoever his allies were stayed silent and did not feed the flames of it; soon enough it became just another background event in the most serious American political contest for almost a century.
General MacArthur paid the price for his suggestion.
Relegated to a sleepy backwater. But will he stay there?
The USA, October-November 1936, and the 1936 Presidential election.
October was, for most of the world, a fairly quiet month. The Entente, minus National France, agreed to create the Imperial Scientific and Academic Council, an initiative which presumably aims to give the Entente a technological advantage to make up for their comparatively poor manpower and industry. The IDEC parallels other bodies such as the Imperial Development and Economic Council and all are geared by Canada to helping the cause of retaking Britain and France.
Working together for the benefit of all.
The Kingdom of Spain was rocked by a terrorist bombing, though the volatile situation in the country means that identifying the culprit has been impossible, with various groups either claiming responsibility or blaming others.
Tensions in Iberia might be even higher than in the US.
Wrangel's Russia, meanwhile, faces considerable worker's strikes. Despite his autocratic rule, Wrangel seems wise enough to realize that pushing too hard could be disastrous; Bolshevism remains a force in Russia and could quickly capitalize on unrest. The strikers are convinced to go back to work on the strength of promised economic reforms; political and social ones were seemingly off the table.
Can Wrangel keep Russia together and free of revolution with appeasement?
Towards the end of the month, and little noticed in the US, where the election was at fever pitch, the Union of Britain's CTU wrangling and backroom dealing finally came to an end. Mosley was ultimately unable to take control and implement his Totalist charter, with the pacifist, anti-war speaking Tom Mann ending up in charge. Nevertheless, Mosley's influence at the Congress of the Trade Unions is clear and evident; Britain is a far more strictly controlled society than it was just bare months ago, and has, like France, moved sharply towards oppression and control. The new government immediately proposed a friendship with Norway, believing the Nordic country ripe for socialism, but this willingness to risk foreign entanglements raises questions about Mann's power.
Thoroughly unBritish, what.
Friendship is all well and good, but how will the Kaiser react?
Of course, the eyes of much of the world were turned to the United States at this time, and no other news took the attention away from this in the two weeks between Mann's ascent and election day. America had long had a two party system, only occasionally and temporarily disrupted, but on this occasion that seemed to have gone out of the window. There were now four major and credible parties who campaigned for votes up and down the country, barring the Pacific Coast, where only the traditional Democrats and Republicans campaigned in earnest, with Long and Reed recognizing that the relative lack of unhappiness there left it a poor choice for their often scarce resources.
The four parties were the Democrats, who fielded John Nance Garner, the Republics, whose candidate was Charles Curtis, the America First-Union party, which was led by Huey Long, and the Combined Syndicalists of America, with John 'Jack' Reed at the top.
Spoiled for choice.
The result was dramatic and for many, unexpected. It had been anticipated that the new parties would become forces of note in Congress, perhaps fading away after a few years when the economic situation improved or as the parties and their positions morphed and realigned into new bodies. Few had expected that either Reed or Long would triumph in the election; but triumph one of them did. Jack Reed took 270 Electoral College votes, a bare majority but enough to put him into the White House without needing to resort to the provisions of the 12th Amendment.
This took me forever so you better appreciate it even if it is crappy quality.
As was predicted by many, Long dominated in the South, which voted for him with overwhelming solidarity. Though he came third in the overall race, the states which supported him did so with huge percentages, indicated just how convinced the Southern states were by his ideas. He made some headway in the Midwest but nowhere managed to secure a majority, except in Nebraska, which reportedly surprised Long himself as much as anyone else. Reed, meanwhile, dominated across the Rust Belt and the entire Northeast, winning states he was not predicted to take, including New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and even Kentucky.
Curtis and Garner split the remainder of the states between them, those in the West of the country, most of New England, and the states of Virginia and Maryland.
The breakdown of Electoral College votes is as follows:
Reed: 270
Curtis: 110
Long: 97
Reed: 54
As can be seen, even if Curtis and Reed combined their electoral college votes they could not topple Reed. Had the Democrats and Republicans formed a single party, and presuming that party got the same individual votes combined as the two separately got (that is to say, that any vote for the Republicans OR the Democrats would have gone to the D-R), however, that party would have prevented Reed's majority, giving him only 229 EC votes while the D-R alliance would have had 212 (Also taking Nebraska from Long). Despite still being second, this would have forced the issue into Congress, where the D-R party would have had an advantage due to taking the most states. This was not, of course, to be; the people spoke and Reed was their choice. With almost 50 million people voting, turnout was over 70%, the second-highest to date in the 20th century, though at the lower end of most elections in the 19th century.
Hearts of Iron doesn't account for the time spent as President-Elect. You go into office on November 4th.
What the future holds for America cannot yet be seen, but life will never be the same with a Red victory in the Presidential elections.
Transition and Reed's first moves.President Hoover rubbed his eyes wearily, feeling the tension and stress behind them relieved slightly, but only slightly. He opened them again and read over the documents before him. With hesitation, he signed them, ordering the creation of more militia units for rapid deployment. He was deeply torn by this; the units would be used by Reed for his Syndicalist agenda. But he had seen the reports before anyone else who didn't have a hand in writing them. Reed's victory was creating huge dissent across the country. Whilst the factories in the Northeast were rapidly returning to work in force, and the country's industrial output had sharply risen in the days since the election, across the South Long's supporters were agitating with increasing fire and thunder.
With a heavy heart, Hoover helps Reed keep the country together.
Things got serious before Hoover even expected. Historians have since debated at great length whether the Harney Basin Rebels fired the first shots of the Second Civil War. In southereastern Oregon, a sparsely populated region with no particular notability, a small alliance of towns declared themselves seceded from the “Communist government of the USA” and established a supposedly legitimate successor government with the principles of the US Constitution at their heart. Hoover was reportedly shocked so greatly that he locked himself in his office and admitted nobody for over a day.
November 8, 1936 – It begins.
Hoover took a long time about it, but he eventually found it within himself to order the use of arms against his fellow Americans. He was determined to keep the Union intact no matter what else, and he resolved to do so regardless of the cost to his soul. He ordered the 3rd Army Corps based out of Los Angeles to move north and deal with the rebellion. Mj. Gen. Collins J.L. was authorized personally and directly by the President to use any means he deemed required against the rebels.
A dark task for these soldiers.
In the Far East, meanwhile, Japan faced an uprising of its own, far more serious than the disturbance in Oregon. Half the Korean Peninsula was in the hands of revolutionists who demanded independence for the Korean state as hundreds of thousands of people joined in the popular effort to expel the Empire of Japan.
Japan would likely be brutal in suppressing this.
In the South, Long began to make serious moves against the election results. He founded the Minutemen, or more accurately formalized and unified the various militias which had been growing rapidly for years in the South, making them as official as quasi-seditious, independent military units could be. With that done and a feeling of confidence that his words were backed with arms, he publicly condemned the election results as fraudulent and demanded a recount.
The Second Amendment proves its worth to Long and his boys.
Dissatisfaction is reaching an increasingly dangerous level.
Before even Hoover could respond, Reed condemned Long and volleyed a series of invectives towards him and his cadre. Hoover appealed for calm at first, but when Reed made some extremely stern demands about how to use the power he had won, but not yet been given, Hoover felt forced to take an unprecedented step. In a noisy and chaotic press conference, he condemned the uprising in Oregon and Long's rabble-rousing, but was most severe by some distance in his criticism of President-Elect Jack Reed, who he had come to believe was unfit to govern the country. He called on the Congress to resist Reed at every step and for the press to invigilate him with a critical eye.
It seems nothing can restore order to the United States.
Developments in the American hemisphere, though almost unnoticed due to the commotion at home, strongly suggested further international issues in the future. In Brazil, a popular uprising forced the previous government to cave, and a syndicalist government was instituted. In Mexico, meanwhile, the young junta unsurprisingly identified the military as the chief recipient of investment and development.
Reed immediately congratulated the revolutionaries and predicted close ties.
Will the Mexicans take advantage of American weakness to recover lands lost for almost a century?.
Two disasters occurred in the course of under 72 hours. The Harney Republic, as it styled itself, had sent its 'military' to advance south into the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and had established a network of camps. The 3rd US Army Corps made first contact with the rebels at 0600 local time on November 16th, and it was quickly established that a peaceful settlement could not be reached. Fierce fighting broke out between the army's forward elements and various rebel camps. Unfortunately for the US Army, they were at a severe disadvantage. The enemy had arrived first and had set up camp, allowing them to take the lie of the land and to form good defensive positions. Meanwhile, the Army Corps had been moving for weeks and was disorganized and in little condition to fight, less still to assault a frozen, fortified mountain range. Despite their valiant attempts it became clear that the Army could not yet prevail; the order was given to halt the attack at 1000 local time, Nov. 18th
I'll explain the combat window briefly: The forces are represented by the soldier icons; different kinds of units have different pictures and numbers to show, for instance, that you've got a regular Infantry division with 1936 tactics and equipment, as on the left, or a tier I militia, as on the right, or for example, a 1945 Light Tank unit accompanied by an Artillery brigade. In the icon boxes, you can see the orangish and green bars. The orange one represent unit strength, that is, how many men and machines are still fighting fit and in usable condition. The green represents morale; when it reaches zero, the unit is defeated and withdraws from combat. If they were attacked and are defeated, they will try to retreat to another province.
Nobody could expect this humiliation.
The red-green bar shows who is winning the fight; it moves as the fight progresses and it's your best bet for following a battle overall. I called the attack off once it reached this point, because there was no way they were going to recover and win after this. The little icons above that represent combat modifies. In this instance, the medal shows that the commander is giving a bonus due to one of his traits, the mountains represent the terrain (Mountains create a whopping 80% malus to armies attacking into them AND provide a significant bonus to defenders at the same time). The white stuff is a patch of ice, which further benefits defenders; I think the little portrait dude shows up because the rebels don't have a commanding officer, which decreases their fighting ability; finally, the moon and stars show that the current phase of combat is at night, which decreases fighting ability on both sides, but harms attackers more unless you have certain doctrines and technology like night vision.
(Do feel free to ask questions you might have, by the way! Hearts of Iron is a fairly complex game so I'm happy to explain stuff.)
An infamous day for the US Army. Worse, a sure boon to other rebels and militias.
Hoover immediately changed the deployment orders for one of the newly created militia units. He had not expected that they would be used so soon, but they were ferried to Sacramento by rail and deployed there under darkened skies; he also dispatched the entire 1st US Army Air Force Bombardment Wing to the region. Having overcome his initial shock, Hoover had still wanted to preserve lives where possible. With the ignominious defeat just encountered, he lost any such qualms, and he felt overwhelmingly impelled to stamp out the seeds of rebellion in the minds of anyone else in the country. Hoover became obsessed with keeping the union intact in the final days of his presidency, roaming the White House at all hours and, it was rumored, speaking to portraits and busts of Lincoln.
Meanwhile, in the great white north, Canada had very suddenly found itself facing a new security situation, one which was perhaps the worst one they could ever imagine. The USA had turned to radical leftism and elected an avowed Red as President. Even as the Oregon rebels humiliated the US Army, Canadian military thinkers were quick to warn of the dangers America could pose if she put her house in order. The British very quickly came to agree with the Canadians that Canadian security was paramount; there could be no liberation of Britain if Canada fell to Syndicalism.
A grim mood reigned in Ottawa since the American elections, and Canadians across the country were training with firearms.
The relatively small and scattered airfields in the Sacramento region were barely able to handle the large air fleet which had been brought in, and the process of reorganizing them was taking a long time. Hoover waited as long as he felt able, but soon ordered the bombings to commence; fortunately, the rebels had no anti-aircraft capabilities.
Give 'em hell!
The new militia unit was similarly slow to organize, but they were just about able to contribute to the 3rd Army Corps' new offensive. D.C. would never admit to it, but on the ground the rebels were able to best the army units in engagement after engagement. It was only thanks to the relentless air bombardment that they were defeated; the partisans had not expected any kind of air assault and had made no preparations against it. They were wide open to the round-the-clock bombing runs that boomed through the mountains.
Observe the difference in the rebel unit's strenght. Bombing takes a heavy toll.
Finally! But with too much effort required, too much blood shed. Hoover would be denounced across the country as criminally violent in putting down the rebellion.
Huey Long, unsatisfied with the vague response from Washington over his accusations of electoral wrongdoing, took to the streets the day after victory over the Oregon partisans was reported. He incited a massive rally across the South, denouncing Hoover and Reed in equal measure. He cited the difficulties in the west and the supposedly fraudulent election outcome as evidence of the corruption and weakness of the Washington government, and spoke at length about the need for a strong government to preserve the American tradition.
The anger just keeps building. Where will it end?
Abroad, events of December and January were largely overlooked in the US;
France began to gear her industry for the war she planned with Germany
Russia's Wrangel was convinced to pursue a new concept of warfare which they envisioned as a rapidly-moving mechanized army that could keep the enemy off balance and unable to respond to Russian advances
Norway became a formally socialist state, to the unease of her Nordic neighbors
The death of Pope Pius XI made Julius IV head of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Italian Federation; a war of words erupted between Rome and Naples.
And finally, Japan identified Germany as her main rival and the force which must be removed to create a Japanese-dominated Asia.
President Hoover, in one of his final acts before leaving office, ordered the creation of a second US Cavalry unit. Recent research had improved the potential of cavalry, and the problems in the west were, he was convinced, caused by the slow response of the military. A second cavalry unit could do a great deal to put down future rebellions quickly.
Hoover was convinced the cavalry would remain loyal to the United States' principles, not just its President.
And, on January 20th, 1937, after a muted Christmas and New Year's, with the rebels cleared out of Sierra Nevada but with Harney Basin maintaining its claim on independence, with The Kingfish rallying people across the South to his cause, the Presidency of Herbert Hoover came to an end as President John 'Jack' Reed was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol Building's East Portico. What the future would hold could not be seen, but with thousands of Americans already killed or maimed, the situation could not look bleaker...
Washington, D.C.
12:03pm, January 20th, 1937
President John 'Jack' Reed.
“My fellow Americans” The President began, looking out across a fervent sea of American flags; and flags proclaiming loyalty to various syndicalist and other radical leftist philosophies. “My fellow Americans, let no man doubt that we have made a choice at the greatest crossroads our land has ever faced. We have been subject to the forces of unfettered capitalism, of foreign corporate selfishness, and of a despite economic situation worldwide, one in which all our brother and sister workers have suffered terribly. In the Union of Britain and the Commune of France, workers have for over a decade now taken control of their own lives, their own industries, their own farms and factories; and the economies which have weathered the crisis of today best are those of our socialist siblings.”
“America has arisen! The hard and decent workers of this land, a land of boundless potential, have been awoken by the desperation of our situation and we have, collectively, demanded a new system. The inevitable course of history is playing out before us, within us. But how could we not have demanded a new system when there are those in the country who have endured the greatest of privations; not the privations of not being able to afford a radio, or of seeing a talking picture, but the privations of starvation and the deepest, most shameful poverty. America, we will not stand for this any longer. I have already begun drafting legislation, in concert with my advisors and with the input of the workers' unions across our land, which will put food in the stomachs of all our citizens.
“We were not directly touched by the war of imperialist powers across the sea, but the outcome of that conflict has certainly guided the course of history and has deeply changed our own fates. We Americans must band together as socialist workers not only for our own sake but for the future of the world, and for the sake of our comrades across the globe. I will say again what I have said a thousand times over the past months, that my goal, the goal of any true socialist, is and must always Peace among Men. I will never let our experiment be controlled by the whims of kings or corporations but I will never seek warfare as a solution to our differences. I say to the King of Canada that we do not need the armed border he seems intent on establishing, that if we cannot be friends, we can at least be good neighbors. We will be prepared for foreign interference, but we will never initiate interference of our own in foreign lands.
“Let us not mince words, my friends, for these is no doubt a dark and brooding reactionary movement within our country which is a far graver threat than any outside force. These are powers who would see a legitimate election overturned because they do not like the results, who are arming reactionary militias with the intent on terrorizing American workers into obeying the old system. Well Americans are no fools, and the workers of this country have shown they won't be intimidated. Within these borders as well as without we will always seek peace, but do not be fooled; I shall tackle uprisings such as the Harney rebellion with all the force available to me. I am here because of democratic choice and though I seek to make changes, I will protect and uphold the Constitution of these United States, as I swore to do scant moments ago. I will not pretend that my beliefs, that the philosophy of Syndicalism and of the left in general, do not rouse fear and anger among some. There are those who call me anti-American. To them I ask one thing, one question only. Is it American to take up arms against your duly and constitutionally elected government, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? The American worker has been ruled by Presidents who have no common cause with them for a hundred and forty years, and has never opposed it with violence. If you oppose us now, then I ask that you let us have these four years, and that if we do not fulfill the mandate we were given, if we betray the American people, I will be ousted as many before me have been. I do not doubt in my heart that we have begun today a hundred and forty years and more of socialist leadership in these United States, but I believe this because the fair policies we institute will sustain our support, because the American worker will hark to our call and will arise to ensure his own security and that of his brother and neighbor.
“My fellow Americans, my comrades-in-arms against poverty and injustice, we go now to begin the work of restoring this country to her deserved glory and to instituting a system of fair government and fair economics that will leave no man, woman, or child behind. Thank you.”
President Reed waved to the cheering crowd, then turned and hurried to the White House, where he immediately began the work he had been sent to Washington to do. He was joined by Vice-President Shachtman; he was not Reed's first choice, but the new President was wise enough to know that changes would have to be somewhat gradual at first, with the country so unstable.
Though not as extreme as Mattick or Foster, Shachtman still provided plenty of radical ideas.
Reed and his cabinet.
Within days, the situation across the country was becoming intolerable. Though the factories of the Northeast had returned to work, that was strongly counterbalanced by the refusal of workers in the South to abide by President Reed's government. American industry enjoyed a sharp increase in output, but it still fell vastly short of her potential.
More seriously still, the city of St. Louis was the site of severe violence just a couple of days after Reed's speech. St. Louis was seen by many as one of the most volatile places in the USA, being a nexus where Syndicalists, Southern Populists, and the Democrats and Republicans all enjoyed overwhelming support among particular sections of the population.
Reed was forced to send a National Guard unit to restore order when treasonous, reactionary local government would not.
Reed's first major concern was the resource industries of the country. He had long believed they were among the most exploitative of all commercial concerns, because they could and did hold everyone and everything else to ransom. He declared that the time of the common man being beholden to “oil robber-barons” was at an end, and signed into law sweeping legislature that nationalized industries such as oil, steel, coal. Unfortunately many resisted this change, most notably the oil industries of the Pacific coast; Reed pushed ahead nevertheless, and was undaunted by the threats of reaction from California.
Reactionary forces would not stop American syndicalism!
Pretty open for a dictatorship.
The Beginning
Reed sighed, looked at the documents again, and sighed again. The brief spike in productivity had quickly eroded as factories across the country shut down in protest of Reed's inauguration. The Northwest ostensibly remained open for business, but so much of what they needed came from elsewhere that their output was drastically reduced as well. Before he even began the reforms, reactionary elements were stalling him and, more important, were stymieing the democratically elected syndicalist movement.
---
I'll give a brief explanation of this now
Left to right, these icons represent manpower (1 = 1000 men), Nukes (Which need a huge investment of research and industry to create, but are hilariously destructive), Dissent (High dissent is very bad. It reduces your industry, and thus your income, supplies, and production of units. It also makes provinces rebel, and inflicts a penalty on your soldiers in combat. 55% is absolutely crippling.), Supply efficiency (The left number is the amount needed given your armed forces and their actions. The right number is what you have. This basically means that my men are getting less than three percent of what they need, so it takes forever to reorganize after a fight.), and Industrial Capacity or IC (Left to right, Wasted IC, which means the amount being spent on nothing at all, Effective IC, which is your IC after modifiers like dissent and technological breakthroughs, and Actual IC, which is simply the number of factories you have in your country.)
As you can see, we're in the devil's own pickle right here. Manpower is good, but dissent is so huge that it has utterly crippled our IC, which in turn means we can't invest into reducing dissent, which is primarily done by building consumer goods.
---
There's little to do except keep an even keel while the country slowly recovers. Reed was confident that this would accelerate in time as people outside his heartland saw the wisdom of syndicalist leadership. He pushed the stack of papers aside for the moment, to study another communique, one which was not immediately relevant but which distracted him slightly from the country's troubles. To the south of Russia, the Don-Kuban Union and Alash Orda had come to blows over the Don-Kuban Union's attempts to stir up separatism among Alash Orda's cossacks. It was obvious to all but the two belligerents that this left them both open to Russian revanchism.
A small war for now, but if it gives Russia the chance to regain her glory, it could prove a momentous event.
Within hours, things had taken a turn Reed had hoped to avoid, at least for a little while. Frantic reports came in and it was soon clear that two more uprisings had occurred in the continental United States. Tacoma and Fargo, and their respective environs, were in open, armed revolt against the US government, claiming electoral fraud and the failure of the authorities to investigate it; effectively they thought a left-wing coup had occurred.
Reed knew he had to act fast if he was going to retain any credibility.
As Reed was overseeing the deployment of the US Army and USAAF to deal with the miscreants who threatened the peace of the nation, it became clear to him that others were resisting, if less violently, no less wholly. The laws of the land were being flouted by a consortium of resource businesses based mainly in California. In their eyes, the wealth of the Pacific states depended on being able to trade freely, not handing the oil over to D.C.; in reality, of course, the whole thing was an excuse for corporate fat cats to pocket obscene amounts of wealth while their workers went hungry and cold. Proclaiming “Solidarity throughout the nation”, Reed ordered an internal embargo of California, to force the rogue state to comply with the government's edicts.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions.
As he waited for the army to reach their positions, and for California to heel, Reed turned his attention to the South. If the Southern trade unions could only gain their rightful positions of power, Reed and his cabinet agreed, the whole country could be put back on track. Huey Long was having none of this, and had whipped up feverish dissent and disobedience throughout the South, intimidating the trade unions and promising that the South would not brook the aggression Reed showed California. Reed ordered militia volunteers of the CSA, rather than the US proper, into the South to provide protection and escort for the trade unions, to help establish their power so that they could begin to properly represent the Southern worker.
It is hard to see a peaceful resolution now.
With the economic situation as dire as it was, the Army petitioned Reed for a significant increase in resources. What little industry the US had operational and under the control of Washington was dedicated to keeping the population happy, so Reed spoke to Syndicalist states with the goal of importing military supplies in exchange for some of America's huge raw resource abundance. International brotherhood was not high on the agenda of anyone; Britain and Georgia agreed to one-sided deals, whilst the French offer was so palpably unfair that the American delegation left in a storm of invective.
You would expect better from fellow travellers...
When he received news via wireless that Army elements had secured the town hall in Burns, Oregon, without a fight, Reed was quick to capitalize on it. The fighting had been done under Hoover's term in office, but Reed claimed it as a demonstration of his own determination to keep the country intact, and warned that other traitorous elements would be destroyed with great vengeance.
Every day in Washington was tense. Every hour brought a report of a new strike, a new speech, a new newspaper article. The cabinet wondered aloud, even knowing the minds of reactionary capitalists, that an elite so quick to proclaim itself democratic would so overtly turn against a democratic government. The days passed, and no good news crossed Reed's desk. Indeed, the reports from the South made it increasingly clear that the militia units were not able to restore order. Reed ordered the deployment of the US military proper in place of the CSA militias, to crush Long and his so-called 'Minute Men'.
Sadly, Southwest Oregon would hardly boost American industry.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The deployments created the worst wave of dissent yet. Three seperate uprisings took place during the night of and morning after Reed's order to deploy the military to the South. Two were no particular threat, but the uprising in Delaware and Maryland was a terrific blow to the Reed government. This was more now than dissenting mountain folk; this was a serious threat to the very heart of the federal government. Who knows how many institutions of government would be threatened if this was allowed to persist? Reed ordered every soldier in D.C. to fight the rebels immediately, and to their credit they crushed them in short order. Nonetheless the damage would be done, and compounded by persistent rumors that Jack Reed and his cabinet had fled D.C. in fear.
If this keeps up, the rebels will outnumber the army.
The emergency legislation which followed was quick to be enacted. Washington assumed unprecedented powers, consolidating Reed's legislation of the past few weeks, and the palpable threat of rebellion convinced those Republican and Democrat lawmakers who still attended the Congress that this legislation may be necessary to maintain the union's integrity.
Reed and his cabinet now have power which Mosley and Mussolini envy. Of course, this is only on paper; the US government's authority has less practical impact with every passing hour.
The blockade of California had proven futile. In amongst all the other problems, it had almost been forgotten, but reports of excessively harsh handling of a smuggling ring over the California-Nevada border propelled it back to the front page. California was doing just fine thanks to their trade with countries throughout the Pacific, such as Japan, Australasia, and the various Chinese states. The solution was obvious: the blockade must be extended to include a naval element. Nothing would enter or exit California until the illegal cadre of businessmen who had seized the state's apparatus were made to obey the rules which the people's government had wisely instituted.
No need to worry about their welfare if they wish to be selfish and not worry about the rest of America's.
And then, just like that, it happened. President Reed was reviewing a number of high-ranking military personnel for disloyalty, and top of the list was General Douglas MacArthur, who had recently absconded from his post in Panama and was reportedly speaking with politicians of the Democratic and Republican persuasion in secret. That alone was enough to see him dishonorably discharged, but before Reed could even sign the papers, William Aalto and a number of stern looking young men burst into his office. They bustled him out of the city with barely a word of explanation; Macarthur was on the march, and the knowledge of his had sent the local army units into complete and overt disobedience. They would not be stopping the rogue general's coup, they would be supporting it.
Contrary to the statements of the bourgeoisie, this was an actual coup, in modern America.
Within hours, MacArthur had siezed control of the US government, citing exceptional circumstances and a treasonous President installed under the most dubious of circumstances. Claiming that only the military could ensure the safety of the country now, he instituted severe measures to curb rebellious elements. Many in the Midwest and West were greatly mollified by this. The Northeast and South were another matter; though MacArthur was clearly more concerned with the CSA, he had little love for Huey Long, and the America Firsters knew it.
Despite the general's best efforts, Reed and his cadre escaped the capital and retreated to Chicago, where they were met with unmatched celebration. Thousands of American flags were burnt; the flag of the Combined Syndicates of America was flown from every building, even the governmental ones. Reed made a short speech in the early morning of March 1st;
“My friends, the reactionary enemies of the people and of democracy have overthrown us. It was our belief and our hope that the change this country needs would come from peaceful means, but we have not been allowed to do this. If anyone doubted it before let them see now that we tried our hardest, as democratically elected equals, to guide this land into the future, and that our attempts were met at every turn by dissenters, by reactionaries, by the forces of big business who care only for their profits, and who have overthrown an elected President and torn this country apart in their lustful greed! My legitimate election to the Presidency was overthrown; your votes have been trampled on, as your lives have been for so long. It was to be hoped that it never came to this, but our hands have been forced; the workers of this country have been forced. The United States of America is a dead nation, fit only to hide the reactionaries behind their false proclamations. The worker's state exists here, now, I have in my hand the articles of secession and we are as of this moment independence of the United States of America. Workers, Arise! Our time has come!”
The Second American Civil War has begun.
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