1903: Q1 and Q2 Actions
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
AN: These actions happened in the first half of the year, consisting of half + 1 of each org. Many actions were only partially completed and so I counted as half actions, allowing organizations to partially do most of their actions. This is the first of three posts before the next plan vote.
In the wake of fateful decisions made during the northern arms strike, battle lines would be drawn between the two sides. But before that, the many organizations that represented most of America's non-electoral politics had gotten much done.
With poverty rising due to the civil war, welfare programs across the country saw a vast increase in need. As industries shut down due to supply chains falling apart, newly unemployed people lined up at soup kitchens across the country and networked with their fellow men and women for mutual aid. They received political education and with it both who to blame and a solution to this crisis.
Congress has begun talks of starting a draft, reneging on their earlier promise. Such an action was very controversial and would likely take months to even start in Congress, but may be necessary to win the war.
With the strike heading into a fight in May, plans for the rest of the year had to be abandoned. There was no time to finish setting up newspapers or policy, though in Idaho and Wyoming all the previous state militia had left so at least were neutral there.
Negotiations for a merger with the Idaho Populists were still ongoing, though going well. Many of them were disappointed at the rest of the Populists siding with the Democrats who disenfranchised many poor men across the south and had a major business wing, and so saw the SLP as better allies. Still, they were in the minority of the party, with most Populist farmers fearful of their land being forcibly seized as right-wing media claimed the SLP would do.
The Possibilist faction of the ACUA and their aligned SLP representatives almost split, with open talks of it after the federal crackdown. When the rest of the SLP and LLRP left Congress after the RFAA was attacked, prominent socialist Victor Berger stayed in Philadelphia to negotiate with McKinley to avoid further repression of the union. He was arrested the next time he tried to step onto the Congress floor and put in jail on charges of treason.
With that, there was no hope of negotiating a stay of the SLP as loyal opposition under McKinley. The Possibilist's great hope of winning the 1904 election was gone and revolution was at hand.
While the rest of the Possibilists were still wary of the Revolutionary Government in the South and tales of large scale violence, they were mollified by the LLRP joining the Provisional Government of states, the clear successor to the government in the event they win. They would stay cohesive as a faction in favor of maintaining the US constitution with amendments such as abolishing the Senate, but much discredited. Any changes to the constitution, then, should be by the proper process. The LLRP and Left-Populists would join them in forming a minority Constitutionalist block within the Provisional Government.
Wartime coalition: 68
The new House needed a new Speaker, and the Republicans couldn't do it alone. While the Populists drifted towards the Democrats and the SLP remained opposed to the Republicans, the LLRP had room to maneuver. After months of negotiations before the new Congress was inaugurated they came to a deal. This would end with all the south using the Land Value Tax should the North win, a great victory for Georgists across the country.
Streets agitators: 125d20 = 1250 / 2 (half year) = 625
(62.5% increase in recruitment for next turn)
Throughout the year the LLRP spent effort on speaking to the people on the streets. They sought active party members, those who would campaign for and support the party with dues. They found thousands of new supporters, average men and women wanting to do something about the collapsing situation but not convinced by the radicalism of the other active groups.
Rhode Island Branch: 35 + 5 (omake) = 40
LLRP Leadership bagn talks with the Georgist Lucius Garvin, newly elected Governor of Rhode Island as a Democrat since the beginning of the year. Although normally a Republican state, Georgists and other progressives had long done well running against Republicans as Democrats in many northern and western states, allowing him to take the governorship even as the state qent majority Republican otherwise.
But Garvin was highly opposed to remaining associated by the Democrats to the Neo-Confederacy, and so proposed to join the smaller but ideologically aligned party. These talks were interrupted by further events in the north, Garvin lacking control of his government, but could be resumed should the situation in the North-East stabilize.
Minnesota Land Tax: 44 + 10 (Land Tax Studies) = 54
With the aid of their progressive allies in the Senate, the LLRP began a tax reform campaign in Minnesota. Their lack of a majority in the state did mean they had to compromise on the bill, not entirely eliminating other taxes, but at last: an entire state had the Land Value Tax. The next few years would be bad for seeing how it goes, being extraordinary times, but establishing their trademark policy gave relief to their voters.
The Michigan Land Tax failed to pass, party infighting over scandals and radicalism preventing any progress. Even by June no progress had been made. Despite being their longest held state, the Land Value Tax would remain unpassed.
Automobile factory: 36
A number of funds were diverted from normal party activities to a hobby and hope of the party leadership: an automobile factory in Detroit. A previously rising industry, the civil war has caused sales in luxury civilian goods such as cars to plummet. The LLRP hoped to both take over the industry and research with it, potentially even for military uses, though that was many years away.
Moreover their competition was already on thin margins, with Cadillac, Olsmobile, and Ford all losing money, the latter already filing for bankruptcy while the former two could coast on former profits. The LLRP's factory was just finishing, but it was expected they'd have to do similar, keeping it running through party dues. The supporters of the plan claimed that profits would soar after the war ended, helping supplement the party budget. All the better that the other automobile companies were in danger of bankruptcy, as theirs would them become more profitable.
Opponents were mad at what they claimed was misuse of party funds for personal hobbies, an equivalent to dues from ten thousand people. Their poor farmer and worker support base resented a "toy factory for the rich, throwing our dues down a hole". This was made worse from ARM funds being dedicated towards it, but the LLRP budget never actually used the funds, disappearing in the corruption scandal that followed. Existing tensions in the Michigan Party (which had been holding up the LVT reform) exploded as everyone chose sides.
It seemed their close collaboration with the Republican Party, deeply corrupted to the point such a scandal wouldn't even phase them, had gotten much of the party used to such things. Huge amounts of money had disappeared in addition to spending money on the ill-timed automobile factory.
The Detroit Agreement came close after, the LLRP committing to siding with the SLP over the federal government should the army use violence against civilians on strike. This caused mass defections from the party, whether they be party officials used to working with the Republicans preferring them over socialists (consequently joining that party) or supporters disillusioned from the cause due to the scandal.
Loyalty: 50
(200-50-20=130% of faction size leaves, meaning 14.3% of the organization)
The Orthodox Georgist faction almost entirely split off, including some of the LLRP's elected representatives. The other Congressional representatives either fled or were arrested, the LLRP fully committed to the Provisional Government with the SLP. This break meant the Labor Reformers had more or less taken over the party, its overall ideology and support base shifting more towards them.
Luckily, with some of the more reactionary senators and representatives fleeing LLRP held states, they maintained their majorities.
The RFAA mainly focused on their combative activities these first few months, but that's not all they finished. With open conflict erupting, their protests and attacks were transformed into full scale revolt.
Agitators streets: 100d20 = 1110 / 10 (progress mostly on other things) + 10 (school of journalism) = 121
(12.1% increase in recruitment for next turn)
Small numbers of agitators were on the streets, talking to the people. They especially talked to casual protesters who supported their messages but weren't further involved, pulling them into the organization in a more active manner.
As per the Detroit Agreement in May, they stopped actively having organizers agitate in the streets in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, but their mutual aid efforts continued as normal and so they continued to recruit.
Rail Sabotage: 50d20 = 740 / 10 (progress mostly on other things) = 74/400
The Missouri Rail Lines were only partially prepared, with most of the effort planned to be completed in the next half of the year. But they did prepare enough to potentially try a shock effort the next few months, hopefully cutting off half of the McKinley Government's army.
Already the General Strike has severely hampered the army's ability to receive supplies, but armed forces were capable of forcing them to run. Only physical sabotage can stop them from running until they can get repairs.
Artillery: 55 + 5 (MAN) = 60
The light artillery factory did not yet finish construction, being half done by the time of the revolt. It was placed in New York City, allowing it to be easily finished and start producing should supply lines open up. Until then it will lay idle, New York City alone not having the correct supplies for artillery production.
Although overshadowed by the revolution, internal politics within the Forty Acres Movement had become more divisive. The United Left faction was ascendant over the increasingly discredited Jeffersonians, with the latter's ideal of a democratic party restoring rights falling entirely out of favor with the overt repression of the south and the bright future of revolution. Instead they represented just the original ideal of forty acres to a family, that ideal small farm agrarian lifestyle. This made them the most popular among sharecropping workers outside the Forty Acres Movement who still yearned for that failed promise from the civil war and the name of this organization itself.
The United Left split among urban and rural lines, although the two factions tended to cooperate against the more moderate Jeffersonians. The Urbanist Left wanted an prosperous and industrialized south with major cities like the North, often viewing the urban proletariat as more socialist. This would involve massive investment in creating planned cities (either by a central government or planned by a city council) designed for a good quality of life alongside industry. Meanwhile the Agrarian Socialists considered the communal agrarian lifestyle to be ideal, with any industrial production decentralized in towns rather than centralized cities. Unlike the Jeffersonian small farms, theirs would be communal land farmed by all those living on it. The Agrarian Socialists were immediately the largest faction by far, their ideals a culmination of the Forty Acres Movement's efforts so far, including most agricultural workers and FAM owned industry workers, while the Urbanist Left was primarily union workers.
Armaments and Munitions manufacturing: 40 + 5 (mutual aid) + 5 (industrial planning commission) = 50
The active repression against the United Front and wholesale slaughter of majority black villages necessitated arming up. The Forty Acres Movement more than tripled their production of armaments and munitions, necessitating the new logistical network of the United Front to ship vast quantities of steel and other industrial products for the factories to use. Doing this in complete secrecy was no longer possible. While the North ignored it, the South sought to find the individually small shipments and destroy them, only stopped due to being so distracted by the United Front militia attacks this year.
Light Artillery Factories: 46 + 5 (mutual aid) + 5 (industrial planning commission) = 56
Along with weapons for infantry, they also made factories for artillery. This would double their artillery production, an important asset in the developing war.
None of these factories would start producing by the time of the Revolution in May, but would serve to great effect afterwards.
Military training facility: 52 + 5 (mutual aid) + 5 (industrial planning commission) = 62
Trains: 40 + 10 (training procedures) + 5 (Minutemen trainers) = 55 * 20 (funds per turn) = 1,100 regular militia per turn
This time they built the training facility near Baton Rouge, the former capital. As the third largest city in the state, it had a good location should the Northern Government turn on them; it was neither by the army west and north of Louisiana like Shreveport nor vulnerable to a naval bombardment like New Orleans. It would be finished just as the Revolution began, over a thousand volunteers beginning their training for war.
Eminent domain: 41
The Forty Acres Movement finally made good on their promise for an entire state; the government of Louisiana used eminent domain on all land used for sharecropping. With excuses such as the Boll Weevil Infestation and deliberately biased inspectors they valued the land at just a few cents an acre, similar and opposite to when the federal government sold land at a cost to settlers to move west. The sharecroppers protested, and called the White Union Army and forming new militia to protect their land, but the WUA was under vast assault by the Spartacists across the South and minor militia were easily dealt with by the Louisiana State Militia.
The Forty Acres Movement stuffed the courts and ignored them, proceeding as they chose. The case would be taken all the way up to the Supreme Court, who ruled in June (after the Revolution) that such a massive seizing of land was illegal—but by then other events had made that irrelevant.
The process was not yet complete by May,
but already hundreds of thousands of families were liberated. There were currently around five million acres of improved farmland in Louisiana (and the potential for more than twice that number) two million of which were under a hundred acres and thus generally not seized. Therefore there were around 75,000 forty acre sized farms, split evenly, given to sharecroppers and tenants. There were 200,000 rural families in Louisiana, around half of which were tenants or sharecroppers rather than owning their own farm. To fulfill the promise of 40 acres a family quite a few had to be on unimproved farmland, a harder position as they had to develop it themselves.
They were given the choice of land distributed forty acres to a family, or large plots of land owned by the government but self-managed with agrarian workers councils. Around one in six families opted for the latter, primarily sharecropping workers who were active in the FAM or SPA.
Dispossessed young white men whose family had owned plantations joined the White Union Army or Southern Government army in droves, seeking revenge for the loss of their property.
Agitators factories: 10d20 = 149 + 10 (school of journalism) = 159 / 3 (low time) = 53
Mining towns: 10d20 = 86 + 10 (school of journalism) = 96 / 3 (low time) = 32
Farmworkers: 10d20 = 102 + 10 (school of journalism) = 112 / 3 (low time) = 37
(12.2% increase in recruitment for next turn)
While their full efforts didn't finish in the first half year, the FAM agitated for their causes among factory workers, in mining towns, and among farmworkers. They especially found new recruitment among factory workers, convincing many to join the May General Strike for their rights and very lives. The May Revolution resulted in hundreds of thousands more people within Revolutionary Government territory joining The Forty Acres Movement, wanting to be part of the liberatory and politically powerful group.
Convert newspapers: 61
It was planned to vastly expand the black belt newspapers, but they did not have enough time this year. Instead they simply moved them to print underground and standardized the Mississippi one with the rest.
The first half of the year was filled with militia supply, training, and action.
Outreach committee: 53
Besides that, they began preparing for outreach. They established the Outreach Committee, which would be in charge of reaching out to more churches across the country.
The futurists continued lending the Military Strategy Committee's assistance to the Minutemen. They also offered their help to Louisiana, but found Louisiana much more experienced than them in these matters.
They also considered affiliating with the Americans for American Culture, but when McKinley's government cracked down on the United Front they decided to side with them, making such an affiliation counterproductive.
The Vanguard: 61 + 5 (military strategy committee) = 66
They set up The Vanguard as a professionally run militia, based on the US army but rationalized according to futurist scientific principles. While the most pro-war of the futurists had already split off, here they saw a resurgence, eager for battle to improve science and bring themselves into the future.
Stockpile guns: 6d20 = 70 - 6 (low supply) = 64
In the first few months of the year, The Vanguard stockpiled on more guns and ammunition. This would let them fully arm their militia, a fact that would be critical in late May.
Invest in steel industries: 29 + 5 (technocratic institute of planning) = 34
The APFA attempted a large investment in steel industries, testing vertical integration in a planned manner. They had these factories use Taylorist management from the start, with the hope that having it always be that way rather than a change would prevent another strike. These hopes did not pan out, and when the ACUA called for a general strike and seizure of all industry in May the workers rose up. The factories were seized and put under democratic management of the workers in cooperation with the Provisional Government.
The position of the factories on a river leading into the Mississippi made them ideal for supplying The Forty Acres Movement's new arms factories, and shaped steel was sent straight away on a solidarity rather than profit basis.
The Yellow Scarves anarchists had long dominated the left wing of the Friends of Huddled Masses, but more statist socialists had always existed within it. Now they have coalesced into a distinct faction, the socialists, pulling membership from the other factions. Leftists who have been influenced by Dr. Sun or various Marxist writings such as Voight switched to the faction alongside those workers in the industrialist faction disillusioned by the civil war into thinking peaceful economic means for equality was no longer possible. While the smallest faction for now, they were quickly growing into their own block.
This came at a time where many in the industrialist faction considered leaving, not wishing to be party to a civil war against the federal government as it cracked down on east coast anarchists. But with most fighting happening on the other side of the country, doubts about being spared should McKinley or Tillman win, and the state of California being firmly SLP (and thus actively splitting off would mean going against the local government), nothing concrete happened yet.
Prospects for tin mines have begun, but haven't found any new good locations yet.
Send aid: 53
(40 funds / 2 (half year) = 20 funds)
The Friends continued to send civilian aid to China, helping mitigate the after effects of their civil war.
Improve arsenal: 61 + 5 (FMC) = 66
Sun's revolutionaries have reunited most of China, with the remaining war a contest of taking Russian occupied territory. So rather than directly send weapons to China, the Friends have moved towards helping China develop their own weapons by sending engineers and machinery to modernize the Hanyang Arsenal and nearby steel foundries. This would give them a large and reliable source of modern weaponry, a much needed resource in their fight against the imperialist powers.
Immigrant family program: 37 + 5 (mutual aid networks) = 42
While it came to a rough start last year, the Immigrant Family Program resumed this year to the protests of reactionary white men. It would help Asian immigrants' families find them and aid in the moving process, now helped by the lapsing of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Communal housing California: 57 + 5 (MAN) = 62
Communal housing Washington/Oregon/Hawaii: 65 + 5 (MAN) = 70
Across the West Coast and Hawaii, the FHM established communal housing. They bought and built houses and apartment buildings, giving the spaces to poor and homeless supporters. The program would allow for communal living within these spaces, equal rather than split up and under a landlord, for large numbers of people. These efforts went quite well and inspired a number of artists and architects who began designing new types of apartments made for communal living rather than repurposed for it.
Their other welfare efforts were cut off by the civil war in May, to be finished later.
Equal rights bill: 68
California finally passed the Equal Rights Amendment, guaranteeing public accommodation, non-legal disability, wage, employment, right to serve on a jury, and suffrage rights for adults 21 years and older regardless of race, color, sex, or creed, as well as designated election day as a state holiday. This was especially important for the Friends of Huddled Masses, as the old anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese laws were fully wiped off the books, and no more could be made. For the majority of Chinese-Americans they were finally legally equal to the white man.
Patrols: 50
The Yellow Scarves continued to patrol for the White Union Army this year, but failed to find their hideouts. The impending revolution interrupted their search, as they fought for control of the west instead.
Military training facility: 43 + 5 (MAN) + 5 (FMC) = 53
Trains: 40 + 8 (training procedures) + 5 (Philippine Army Connections) = 53 * 10 (funds per turn) = 530 regular militia per turn
They established a military training facility near San Francisco for the Yellow Scarves, to soon begin training hundreds more militia. This was the final part of their shift from aiding China to preparing for their own revolution, and would be critical for the time ahead.
Due to an accounting error the Orange Disciples budgeting more funds than they had this year, making most actions underfunded.
Covert organizational activities: 56
The Southern Government declared The Orange Disciples illegal and cracked down, forcing them underground. They had to establish new methods of meeting under the table. Churches officially ignored or condemned them while trusted people were let in on backroom meetings. They also met outside of churches, organizing clandestine meetings in coffee shops and other places supporters would frequent.
This experience would come in useful as violence broke out across the north. McKinley's administration considered them only a low threat while the United Front considered them tentatively friendly, so they faced nowhere near the opposition they did in Virginia, but were still caught up in the crossfire.
WV Suffrage: 60 + 33 (funds) + 5 (committee for universal suffrage) - 2 (overspent funds) = 96
A brand new slate of Progressive Republicans entered West Virginia's legislature this year, now a majority of the party. They already forced the governor to leave the Pact to Secure Democracy, ending the recent repression of civilians. After some consideration they decided not to impeach him, instead waiting to get him out in the primary of the next election now that there was nothing urgant. Now they worked to convince the rest of the party to pass a constitutional amendment giving universal suffrage, a rising cause for women. These talks to begin a vote were going well but taking a long time, being interrupted in May to not yet complete.
Public campaign: 85d20 = 570 / 2 = 285 - 2 (overspent funds) = 283
(Slightly reduced popularity of Pact)
The Orange Disciples attempted to run a campaign defaming the Pact to Secure Democracy, but found their media connections busy or under attack. They did manage to spread the message on the ground, and citizens, especially in both West Virginia and Virginia which had been part of the Pact, were encouraged to speak and act out against them.
There was not time in the year to finish their new literacy program and the Ohio election had not yet happened, so those would have to wait.
When violence broke out in May between the federal government and anarchists they announced a statement condemning the Pact, the greedy industrialists, McKinley's administration, and the anarchists, hoping for an end to the violence and restoration of the union.
NAP reacted immediately to the war, pivoting most of their actions to it.
Dues: 42
They began requesting dues from their membership, just small ones and allowing delinquency. This would keep them from losing members while substantially filling their coffers, increasing their income by a half.
Massachusetts: 46
They set up a new chapter in Massachusetts, notably in Boston. This would let them spread their reach and programs to that densely populated state.
Wartime correspondents: 60
NAP put together a team of journalists with small WSG bodyguard teams and cameras to go behind enemy lines and document Confederate atrocities. They found villages entirely wiped out, clear signs of armed struggle and usually several decaying corpses still there. They also interviewed survivors of the attacks as well, many towns still standing after the raids.
They also went to Arkansas and D.C., places with recent fighting. While the damage in Arkansas was relatively light, D.C. was now the site of several battles and a majority of artillery on all fronts. The previous population of almost 300,000 people had mostly left, returning in trickles now that the front line had moved away. Buildings were destroyed by stray artillery, including many important historical ones. The small industrial district was still operating, poor workers living in quickly constructed shacks when their own houses or slum apartments had been destroyed. The Capital was, without a doubt, the most damaged city in America, and would need a complete rebuilding afterwards.
Encourage field medics: 57
During the first round of volunteers this year, the NAP encouraged their supporters to become field medics. Many did, having the education to be quickly trained if they didn't already have medical training. Most of the rest became officers. NAP also planned to send assistance to Red Cross, but failed to find time before May.
Training facility: 35
Trains: 40 - 5 (low roll) = 35 * 2 (funds per turn) = 70 regular militia per turn
They decided to build a training facility for Winter Security Group guards in Sacramento, allowing for a steady expansion. These efforts would be hampered by their integrated gun factory, Dark Winter Tools, being seized by reactionary militia in May.
The Ohio election had not begun by the time the ACUA called for a general strike. So instead the SLP's gubernatorial candidate, Marguerite Prevey, visited the armor in Akron, Ohio, speaking to them and encouraging them to rise up. While they succeeded there and in occupying a large part of Ohio, it did lead to the question: would they run the election as normal when the time came?
Industry owned by SUS: 41
To avoid the Anti-Trust Act being used against them, SUS had legally transferred ownership of its industries to Voight. Now that the Act was repealed this legal fiction was no longer needed, and so it was transferred back under SUS as a whole. This also gave the Workers Planning Council more legal control over the industries rather than being so informal.
Pay for tractors: 78 + 5 (amalgamated credit union) = 83
SUS committed to spending a small part of its budget for paying for tractors, mills, and other large equipment that small farms couldn't afford and which worked best on large agricultural properties. These were given to SUS cooperatives, increasing their efficiency and encouraging other farms to collectivize. This was an extremely popular program among the farmers, making many more join and the cooperatives themselves fully on board with the ideological nature of the project.
They also planned to buy out some farms which were in danger of being bought by large landowning capitalists, but didn't have time. Still, this program made SUS extremely popular, with small farmers across the country beginning to favor SUS and thus the SLP over their traditional Populist and Democratic parties.
Farm Workers Council: 68 + 5 (paying for equipment synergy) = 73
These cooperatives were then integrated with each other in the Farm Workers Council, which had representatives from each cooperative. Now rather than many cooperatives competing against each other they acted as a single entity, able to work on a vast scale and not competing with each other on the market. It would plan to use surplus value to improve and buy land and capital, as well as expand its membership. More importantly for the Society for Universal Suffrage, it was the successful next step of proletarianization and communization of American agriculture, now a great revolutionary force in itself. This would be important in the coming revolution, as the urban areas of much of the Northeast were filled with soldiers.
Expand armaments and munitions complex: 60 + 5 (MAN) + 3 (ethnic clubs) + 5 (WPC) = 73
Large light artillery factory: 62 + 5 (MAN) + 3 (ethnic clubs) + 5 (WPC) + 5 (omake) = 80
Plans to expand the construction company were put off for later, with military relevant industries deemed more important. The main armaments and munitions factory complex was expanded to twice its current size, soon spitting out truly vast quantities of guns and ammunition, from small arms to machine guns.
Nearby they built a large light artillery factory. Many of the workers came directly from Germany as imported industrial expertise, Europe having much more experience in making and developing new artillery.
The workers innovated here, adopting the 3-inch field gun, a rapid firing artillery, especially compared to the older models the federal government was using. This arsenal was the largest in the country by far, by itself producing almost as much as the rest of the nation combined and at a high quality.
Plans to found new gay bars on the west coast fell through, not having the time. Too, Indiana and Wisconsin planned to pass new budgets with greater funding for the state militia as well as bills to expand it, but drafts didn't finish by May.
The Minutemen finally divided into distinct factions this year, the divide long existent but low key beforehand. The Stalwarts faction was leftist and pro-UF, having radicalized through their experience working alongside the SPA and FAM. They were the more militant side that wanted to put all their effort into the war. Meanwhile the Enthusiast faction wanted to put their main effort into continuing their military and business research efforts, and hoped to use that for reform. They were also the more civilian oriented side.
Send militia south: 52
Early in the year the Minutemen went south, aiding in battles against the White Union Army once more. This time only a single Minuteman died, a good attempt for them. But by May they had returned, preferring short expeditions so they could return to their civilian lives. This put them in rural Pennsylvania, where most Minutemen activities were held, when the revolution came north.
Training camp: 61 + 5 (combat engineers) = 66
Trains: 40 + 10 (war game committee) + 3 (TFAM/SPA trainers) = 53 * 2 (funds per turn) = 106 regular militia per turn
The Minutemen established a training camp for their volunteer supporters who do the best in the normal war games. This would allow them to recruit over a hundred new professionally trained men every year for proper fighting.
Bulk orders: 54
They set up bulk orders of guns and ammunition from associate gun shops, letting them arm themselves. This suddenly became considerably more difficult when the revolution came north, much industry being seized for use by one faction or another. Still after months of negotiation, they managed to keep some orders going through at a high mark-up.
Invest in startup companies: 44
They also invested in several new startup companies, albeit small ones. These would try out new and old dismissed theories of management as part of research. Only time would tell how this turns out.
The underground network didn't have time to finish being built before May.
This year they branched out their membership from mostly farmers to people in cities across the south on an anti-war basis, plus the railways.
Plans to expand mutual aid networks across the south were not completed by May, and would have to be finished sometime else in the future.
The Appalachian Brotherhood had a tough decision as the country plunged into revolution, but ultimately decided not to merge back with the RFA quite yet.
WV factory workers: 65d20 = 871 - 65 (NCA) - 65 (business fears) = 741/350
The Appalachian Brotherhood put huge amounts of effort into unionizing West Virginia factory workers. In cities across the state they helped the factories form unions, primarily supporting the mining industry. From these they even helped more mining towns unionize as a whole, there being little separation in practice.
Newspapers: 45 + 10 (school of journalism) = 55
With the law enforcement repeatedly cracking down on Appalachian newspapers, they had to spread them in secret. They finally succeeded this year and they bloomed in popularity. The details and perspectives of their cause and their ideology spread across the mountain range, with most every town having a local publication shared among comrades.
They also planned to build up a construction company and to move anarchist cops from NYC to start infiltrating local departments, but ran out of time. Instead they heard the call for revolution in both the south and north, joining the Revolutionary Government in the south and the North-East Revolutionary Front in the north, a scattershot alliance of communes.
With full on revolution across Appalachia, there was no more need to develop procedures for civilians to hide, especially since the northern government did not attack them in the same way.
Armaments and munitions manufacturing: 22 + 5 (MAN) + 5 (omake) = 32
They had just started shipping capital to mountain villages to develop armaments and munitions manufacturing by May. These would be relatively quick and easy to finish next month.
Expand mountain bases: 59 + 5 (MAN) = 64
The existing mountain bases were expanded, serving as important bases for the RDC. These would let them have secure areas to hide and strike from, important things when dealing with a larger army. Even past a guerrilla war they would serve as important hardpoints, making an enemy offensive into the mountains much more difficult.
They also began paying the RDC as full time, allowing them to spend their whole efforts defending Appalachia.
The AdP began by vastly expanding their armed forces, we aware that they were dwarfed by the two armies in Texas.
CLA: 70
The AdP began working with the Cuban Liberation Army to train both American and Mexican volunteers. A large part of the cost was on Cuba, their army volunteering for aiding their continental allies. This let the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) begin professionally training militia for their own war against their government. The PLM continued to expand their activities in Mexico, gaining popular support against the autocratic president while their Mexican Libertarian Army prepared for a guerrilla war. The AdP also began sending people to be trained, the now professional but guerrilla experienced army providing the perfect training for their goals. This would prove to be essential in the times to come, large armies marching through Mexico that they needed to fight but were still too weak to defeat on the field.
Stockpile guns: 33d20 = 390 - 33 (business fears) - 33 (low supply) = 324 / 2 (half year) = 162
Train militia: 66 + 8 (FAM trainers) + 3 (CLA training) = 77 * 30 (funds) / 2 (half year) = 1155
In the first half of the year they trained over a thousand new militia, establishing a sizable force in the American southwest. They were still far outnumbered by the bourgeois armies in Texas, but no longer so much that they would be irrelevant in the fight. And they were only growing, training more and more all the time.
Northern miner unions: 70d20 = 1050 / 2 (half year) = 525, 961/1000
The miner unions in northern Mexico continued to expand, now including membership in the majority of mines. Many of these mine workers worked for William Greene, an American businessman with control over essential mines, land, cattle, lumber mills, and railroads. The American employees in the town of Cananea were talking of a strike and were soon invited into the union for a united front against Greene. Seeing the successful revolutionary actions of the ACUA in America, they affiliated, becoming the Mexican branch of the Mine Workers Union.
There were now talks of a strike this year or the next, the miners feeling confident with their support among the northern populace.
Uruguay Union Federation: 69 + 10 (extra funds) = 79
Much like Argentina, Uruguay had a rising leftist movement, and this translated to strong support for a union. The RFAA and local Argentine union organizers and anarchists worked to help them set up the Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation based on the Argentine Workers' Federation model. It would accept both statist socialist and anarchist unions, but was majority syndicalist, seeing the union as the main organizational body for leftists in the small and undemocratic country.
NM SA clinics: 52 + 5 (commissions for mutual aid and welfare) + 5 (mutual aid networks) = 62
California clinics: 81 + 5 (commissions for mutual aid and welfare) + 5 (mutual aid networks) = 91
The AdP also set up free health clinics in New Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern California. These served most of the Mexican population in the United States, helping where they could not afford doctors or doctors simply weren't even there in the sparse lands.
These programs were so successful that other UF mutual aid organizers began to set it up clinics across California, helping many more people.
They also planned to establish more constant contact with the Argentine RFAA for sharing information and tactics, but didn't finish setting that up yet.
Protests: 38
(+1 radicalism)
The CIA organized protests across the country against the continuing effort to slowly annihilate indigenous people. While these were overshadowed by other protests this year, they began bringing their cause to the attention of city leftists, often completely unaware of it.
New headquarters: 55
The CIA once again established a new headquarters, this time in Philadelphia. It had the advantage of an easy to meet location and was in a city with strong UF support. But the crackdown on the UF by the federal government caught them in the crossfire, forcing them to move again.
They also planned to buy more branch offices across the country, but dedicated funds from ARM never arrived, perhaps because they would have been sent later, but many in the COA suspected it was corruption. They rose questions and protests about the apparent embezzlement of funds for LLRP industrialists as well as the exclusion of CIA leadership from ARM planning discussions. The alliance of organizations was having growing pains, poor communication and individual pet causes causing it to get nothing done this year.
They tried to purchase land around the Minnesota Objiwe reservations, but the logging companies banded together to stall negotiations, making only a little land bought. Worse, when fighting broke out between the United Front and Northern Government local settler militia armed up and forcibly occupied most of northern Minnesota, forcing the tribes to retreat to reservation borders. Their people were mostly fine for now as the LLRP aligned part of the state militia distracted the settlers, but were growing increasingly concerned of more attacks. They had limited weapons, and so were forced to hope their white allies would be reliable for once.
Merge land: 9d20 = 121, 600/600
The CIA finished negotiating and planning with remaining indigenous holders of land in the Indian Territory, merging them under the stewardship of the CIA to be used communally by the local tribes as was their traditions. They managed to save over half of the land freed up to white settlers, preventing further forced relocations.
The Commissions for Mutual Aid and Welfare expanded the rural mutual aid efforts to several more states. Originally this would have included Texas in the latter half of the year, but their plans were interrupted by the May revolutions.
Arkansas: 68 + 5 (CMAW) = 73
West Virginia: 47 + 5 (CMAW) = 52
Farmers in Arkansas and West Virginia joined the program, connected to other farmers by the vast network across the south. This proved especially important to the farmers of Arkansas who found themselves occupied by a large army and put under increasing pressure to feed and supply them as half the Midwest was cut off from the army. Increasingly civilians found themselves with fewer rations and empty shelves as food went to the soldiers plates and factories were retooled for war, though they were not yet starving due to the bountiful great plains still sending food by rail. While many turned to reactionary organizations like the White Union Army, many others looked to the United Front for relief.
They, along with the Missouri anarchists, began to organize against the occupiers to support a UF liberation campaign in the area.
They also established an electoral apparatus in Ohio, preparing to campaign there. Much of the budget also planned to pay for the SLP's electoral campaign, but the Ohio election itself wouldn't happen for another few months.
They gave the Cuban Socialist Party some funds, helping them compete against the bourgeoisie American funded parties.
(Cuban election will be in the Foreign Reactions post)
Interstate coordination commission: 31 + 5 (economic and political analysis commission) = 36
Finally, they established an Interstate Coordination Commission, which was to organize efforts between controlled SLP states. Primarily relevant in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana, it helped organize state owned railways and public communication across state boundaries, militia deployment (as state governors could legally request neighboring state militia to enter), and other interstate matters.
As the SLP declared a Provisional Government, no longer recognizing McKinley's authority, the ICC took a greater burden in managing the states. It was now acting as an executive, ensuring that the necessary things got done in these early days of revolution. But it was not made to handle that much, openly requesting to be replaced with a proper legislature and executive when possible.
The United Front voted to adopt the San Francisco Points, assisting in the war effort but defending their own political freedoms. Several organizations wished to amend it, but the original passed with a majority. This would be especially important during the arms strike in May, the United Front refusing to back down in negotiations.
Along with that, they chose to keep state militia in their own states, not merging into the army to directly fight the confederacy. This gave them some bad press, but with most opposing news outlets temporarily destroyed, there was little public outrage.
Coalition: 52
Despite the anarchist organizations voting against it, the US agreed to ask the SLP to form a coalition for Speaker of the House with the Republicans for the war effort and concessions to the socialist movement. These attempts to form a coalition broke down, the Republicans preferring to partner with the more moderate LLRP. The amendment to the Militia Reform Act of requiring proof to a majority of a a Conference Committee of the Whole (i.e., the entire Congress) of substantial and detrimental noncooperation with federal authority before the President could federalize a state militia was soundly rejected and ignored. They also rejected directing General Merritt to hold elections in Arkansas to reconstruct their constitution as soon as possible, considering a full reconstruction of the entire South when the war was won to be acceptable.
Filibuster: 44
Teddy Roosevelt's original Militia Reform Act was filibustered by the SLP, but nonetheless passed in late April. It would allow the President to federalize state militia, incorporating them into the army in order to repel invasion, to suppress rebellion, or enforce federal laws. It would also require state militia to conform to regular equipment and training standards. The latter would immediately go into effect, with McKinley waiting to federalize SLP and Michigan's militia until they could be smoothly integrated.
Their first year of activity began, with many funds from ARM organizations to be distributed. But none of the funds actually reached anything. The LLRP didn't spend the funds sent for their industrial project, instead being embezzled away. The NAP did spend the funds sent to them, but some of their own donations were used for personal activities by some leadership, a scandal in both organizations. Blame was thrown around and demand for internal reform intensified.
The CIA was caught in the crossfire, the newcomer organization not being privy to discussions about funds, and didn't even receive their allotted share.
With chaos came demands for reform, either removing the required funds sent to ARM, or establishing a more executive governing body for it with safeguards for corruption.
In the wake of fateful decisions made during the northern arms strike, battle lines would be drawn between the two sides. But before that, the many organizations that represented most of America's non-electoral politics had gotten much done.
With poverty rising due to the civil war, welfare programs across the country saw a vast increase in need. As industries shut down due to supply chains falling apart, newly unemployed people lined up at soup kitchens across the country and networked with their fellow men and women for mutual aid. They received political education and with it both who to blame and a solution to this crisis.
Congress has begun talks of starting a draft, reneging on their earlier promise. Such an action was very controversial and would likely take months to even start in Congress, but may be necessary to win the war.
All-Continental Union Association:
With the strike heading into a fight in May, plans for the rest of the year had to be abandoned. There was no time to finish setting up newspapers or policy, though in Idaho and Wyoming all the previous state militia had left so at least were neutral there.
Negotiations for a merger with the Idaho Populists were still ongoing, though going well. Many of them were disappointed at the rest of the Populists siding with the Democrats who disenfranchised many poor men across the south and had a major business wing, and so saw the SLP as better allies. Still, they were in the minority of the party, with most Populist farmers fearful of their land being forcibly seized as right-wing media claimed the SLP would do.
The Possibilist faction of the ACUA and their aligned SLP representatives almost split, with open talks of it after the federal crackdown. When the rest of the SLP and LLRP left Congress after the RFAA was attacked, prominent socialist Victor Berger stayed in Philadelphia to negotiate with McKinley to avoid further repression of the union. He was arrested the next time he tried to step onto the Congress floor and put in jail on charges of treason.
With that, there was no hope of negotiating a stay of the SLP as loyal opposition under McKinley. The Possibilist's great hope of winning the 1904 election was gone and revolution was at hand.
While the rest of the Possibilists were still wary of the Revolutionary Government in the South and tales of large scale violence, they were mollified by the LLRP joining the Provisional Government of states, the clear successor to the government in the event they win. They would stay cohesive as a faction in favor of maintaining the US constitution with amendments such as abolishing the Senate, but much discredited. Any changes to the constitution, then, should be by the proper process. The LLRP and Left-Populists would join them in forming a minority Constitutionalist block within the Provisional Government.
The Land and Labor Reform Party:
Wartime coalition: 68
The new House needed a new Speaker, and the Republicans couldn't do it alone. While the Populists drifted towards the Democrats and the SLP remained opposed to the Republicans, the LLRP had room to maneuver. After months of negotiations before the new Congress was inaugurated they came to a deal. This would end with all the south using the Land Value Tax should the North win, a great victory for Georgists across the country.
Streets agitators: 125d20 = 1250 / 2 (half year) = 625
(62.5% increase in recruitment for next turn)
Throughout the year the LLRP spent effort on speaking to the people on the streets. They sought active party members, those who would campaign for and support the party with dues. They found thousands of new supporters, average men and women wanting to do something about the collapsing situation but not convinced by the radicalism of the other active groups.
Rhode Island Branch: 35 + 5 (omake) = 40
LLRP Leadership bagn talks with the Georgist Lucius Garvin, newly elected Governor of Rhode Island as a Democrat since the beginning of the year. Although normally a Republican state, Georgists and other progressives had long done well running against Republicans as Democrats in many northern and western states, allowing him to take the governorship even as the state qent majority Republican otherwise.
But Garvin was highly opposed to remaining associated by the Democrats to the Neo-Confederacy, and so proposed to join the smaller but ideologically aligned party. These talks were interrupted by further events in the north, Garvin lacking control of his government, but could be resumed should the situation in the North-East stabilize.
Minnesota Land Tax: 44 + 10 (Land Tax Studies) = 54
With the aid of their progressive allies in the Senate, the LLRP began a tax reform campaign in Minnesota. Their lack of a majority in the state did mean they had to compromise on the bill, not entirely eliminating other taxes, but at last: an entire state had the Land Value Tax. The next few years would be bad for seeing how it goes, being extraordinary times, but establishing their trademark policy gave relief to their voters.
The Michigan Land Tax failed to pass, party infighting over scandals and radicalism preventing any progress. Even by June no progress had been made. Despite being their longest held state, the Land Value Tax would remain unpassed.
Automobile factory: 36
A number of funds were diverted from normal party activities to a hobby and hope of the party leadership: an automobile factory in Detroit. A previously rising industry, the civil war has caused sales in luxury civilian goods such as cars to plummet. The LLRP hoped to both take over the industry and research with it, potentially even for military uses, though that was many years away.
Moreover their competition was already on thin margins, with Cadillac, Olsmobile, and Ford all losing money, the latter already filing for bankruptcy while the former two could coast on former profits. The LLRP's factory was just finishing, but it was expected they'd have to do similar, keeping it running through party dues. The supporters of the plan claimed that profits would soar after the war ended, helping supplement the party budget. All the better that the other automobile companies were in danger of bankruptcy, as theirs would them become more profitable.
Opponents were mad at what they claimed was misuse of party funds for personal hobbies, an equivalent to dues from ten thousand people. Their poor farmer and worker support base resented a "toy factory for the rich, throwing our dues down a hole". This was made worse from ARM funds being dedicated towards it, but the LLRP budget never actually used the funds, disappearing in the corruption scandal that followed. Existing tensions in the Michigan Party (which had been holding up the LVT reform) exploded as everyone chose sides.
It seemed their close collaboration with the Republican Party, deeply corrupted to the point such a scandal wouldn't even phase them, had gotten much of the party used to such things. Huge amounts of money had disappeared in addition to spending money on the ill-timed automobile factory.
The Detroit Agreement came close after, the LLRP committing to siding with the SLP over the federal government should the army use violence against civilians on strike. This caused mass defections from the party, whether they be party officials used to working with the Republicans preferring them over socialists (consequently joining that party) or supporters disillusioned from the cause due to the scandal.
Loyalty: 50
(200-50-20=130% of faction size leaves, meaning 14.3% of the organization)
The Orthodox Georgist faction almost entirely split off, including some of the LLRP's elected representatives. The other Congressional representatives either fled or were arrested, the LLRP fully committed to the Provisional Government with the SLP. This break meant the Labor Reformers had more or less taken over the party, its overall ideology and support base shifting more towards them.
Luckily, with some of the more reactionary senators and representatives fleeing LLRP held states, they maintained their majorities.
The Revolutionary Federation of American Anarchists:
The RFAA mainly focused on their combative activities these first few months, but that's not all they finished. With open conflict erupting, their protests and attacks were transformed into full scale revolt.
Agitators streets: 100d20 = 1110 / 10 (progress mostly on other things) + 10 (school of journalism) = 121
(12.1% increase in recruitment for next turn)
Small numbers of agitators were on the streets, talking to the people. They especially talked to casual protesters who supported their messages but weren't further involved, pulling them into the organization in a more active manner.
As per the Detroit Agreement in May, they stopped actively having organizers agitate in the streets in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, but their mutual aid efforts continued as normal and so they continued to recruit.
Rail Sabotage: 50d20 = 740 / 10 (progress mostly on other things) = 74/400
The Missouri Rail Lines were only partially prepared, with most of the effort planned to be completed in the next half of the year. But they did prepare enough to potentially try a shock effort the next few months, hopefully cutting off half of the McKinley Government's army.
Already the General Strike has severely hampered the army's ability to receive supplies, but armed forces were capable of forcing them to run. Only physical sabotage can stop them from running until they can get repairs.
Artillery: 55 + 5 (MAN) = 60
The light artillery factory did not yet finish construction, being half done by the time of the revolt. It was placed in New York City, allowing it to be easily finished and start producing should supply lines open up. Until then it will lay idle, New York City alone not having the correct supplies for artillery production.
The Forty Acres Movement:
Although overshadowed by the revolution, internal politics within the Forty Acres Movement had become more divisive. The United Left faction was ascendant over the increasingly discredited Jeffersonians, with the latter's ideal of a democratic party restoring rights falling entirely out of favor with the overt repression of the south and the bright future of revolution. Instead they represented just the original ideal of forty acres to a family, that ideal small farm agrarian lifestyle. This made them the most popular among sharecropping workers outside the Forty Acres Movement who still yearned for that failed promise from the civil war and the name of this organization itself.
The United Left split among urban and rural lines, although the two factions tended to cooperate against the more moderate Jeffersonians. The Urbanist Left wanted an prosperous and industrialized south with major cities like the North, often viewing the urban proletariat as more socialist. This would involve massive investment in creating planned cities (either by a central government or planned by a city council) designed for a good quality of life alongside industry. Meanwhile the Agrarian Socialists considered the communal agrarian lifestyle to be ideal, with any industrial production decentralized in towns rather than centralized cities. Unlike the Jeffersonian small farms, theirs would be communal land farmed by all those living on it. The Agrarian Socialists were immediately the largest faction by far, their ideals a culmination of the Forty Acres Movement's efforts so far, including most agricultural workers and FAM owned industry workers, while the Urbanist Left was primarily union workers.
Armaments and Munitions manufacturing: 40 + 5 (mutual aid) + 5 (industrial planning commission) = 50
The active repression against the United Front and wholesale slaughter of majority black villages necessitated arming up. The Forty Acres Movement more than tripled their production of armaments and munitions, necessitating the new logistical network of the United Front to ship vast quantities of steel and other industrial products for the factories to use. Doing this in complete secrecy was no longer possible. While the North ignored it, the South sought to find the individually small shipments and destroy them, only stopped due to being so distracted by the United Front militia attacks this year.
Light Artillery Factories: 46 + 5 (mutual aid) + 5 (industrial planning commission) = 56
Along with weapons for infantry, they also made factories for artillery. This would double their artillery production, an important asset in the developing war.
None of these factories would start producing by the time of the Revolution in May, but would serve to great effect afterwards.
Military training facility: 52 + 5 (mutual aid) + 5 (industrial planning commission) = 62
Trains: 40 + 10 (training procedures) + 5 (Minutemen trainers) = 55 * 20 (funds per turn) = 1,100 regular militia per turn
This time they built the training facility near Baton Rouge, the former capital. As the third largest city in the state, it had a good location should the Northern Government turn on them; it was neither by the army west and north of Louisiana like Shreveport nor vulnerable to a naval bombardment like New Orleans. It would be finished just as the Revolution began, over a thousand volunteers beginning their training for war.
Eminent domain: 41
The Forty Acres Movement finally made good on their promise for an entire state; the government of Louisiana used eminent domain on all land used for sharecropping. With excuses such as the Boll Weevil Infestation and deliberately biased inspectors they valued the land at just a few cents an acre, similar and opposite to when the federal government sold land at a cost to settlers to move west. The sharecroppers protested, and called the White Union Army and forming new militia to protect their land, but the WUA was under vast assault by the Spartacists across the South and minor militia were easily dealt with by the Louisiana State Militia.
The Forty Acres Movement stuffed the courts and ignored them, proceeding as they chose. The case would be taken all the way up to the Supreme Court, who ruled in June (after the Revolution) that such a massive seizing of land was illegal—but by then other events had made that irrelevant.
The process was not yet complete by May,
but already hundreds of thousands of families were liberated. There were currently around five million acres of improved farmland in Louisiana (and the potential for more than twice that number) two million of which were under a hundred acres and thus generally not seized. Therefore there were around 75,000 forty acre sized farms, split evenly, given to sharecroppers and tenants. There were 200,000 rural families in Louisiana, around half of which were tenants or sharecroppers rather than owning their own farm. To fulfill the promise of 40 acres a family quite a few had to be on unimproved farmland, a harder position as they had to develop it themselves.
They were given the choice of land distributed forty acres to a family, or large plots of land owned by the government but self-managed with agrarian workers councils. Around one in six families opted for the latter, primarily sharecropping workers who were active in the FAM or SPA.
Dispossessed young white men whose family had owned plantations joined the White Union Army or Southern Government army in droves, seeking revenge for the loss of their property.
Agitators factories: 10d20 = 149 + 10 (school of journalism) = 159 / 3 (low time) = 53
Mining towns: 10d20 = 86 + 10 (school of journalism) = 96 / 3 (low time) = 32
Farmworkers: 10d20 = 102 + 10 (school of journalism) = 112 / 3 (low time) = 37
(12.2% increase in recruitment for next turn)
While their full efforts didn't finish in the first half year, the FAM agitated for their causes among factory workers, in mining towns, and among farmworkers. They especially found new recruitment among factory workers, convincing many to join the May General Strike for their rights and very lives. The May Revolution resulted in hundreds of thousands more people within Revolutionary Government territory joining The Forty Acres Movement, wanting to be part of the liberatory and politically powerful group.
Convert newspapers: 61
It was planned to vastly expand the black belt newspapers, but they did not have enough time this year. Instead they simply moved them to print underground and standardized the Mississippi one with the rest.
The Society of Friends of All Faiths:
The first half of the year was filled with militia supply, training, and action.
Outreach committee: 53
Besides that, they began preparing for outreach. They established the Outreach Committee, which would be in charge of reaching out to more churches across the country.
American People's Futurist Alliance:
The futurists continued lending the Military Strategy Committee's assistance to the Minutemen. They also offered their help to Louisiana, but found Louisiana much more experienced than them in these matters.
They also considered affiliating with the Americans for American Culture, but when McKinley's government cracked down on the United Front they decided to side with them, making such an affiliation counterproductive.
The Vanguard: 61 + 5 (military strategy committee) = 66
They set up The Vanguard as a professionally run militia, based on the US army but rationalized according to futurist scientific principles. While the most pro-war of the futurists had already split off, here they saw a resurgence, eager for battle to improve science and bring themselves into the future.
Stockpile guns: 6d20 = 70 - 6 (low supply) = 64
In the first few months of the year, The Vanguard stockpiled on more guns and ammunition. This would let them fully arm their militia, a fact that would be critical in late May.
Invest in steel industries: 29 + 5 (technocratic institute of planning) = 34
The APFA attempted a large investment in steel industries, testing vertical integration in a planned manner. They had these factories use Taylorist management from the start, with the hope that having it always be that way rather than a change would prevent another strike. These hopes did not pan out, and when the ACUA called for a general strike and seizure of all industry in May the workers rose up. The factories were seized and put under democratic management of the workers in cooperation with the Provisional Government.
The position of the factories on a river leading into the Mississippi made them ideal for supplying The Forty Acres Movement's new arms factories, and shaped steel was sent straight away on a solidarity rather than profit basis.
The Friends of the Huddled Masses:
The Yellow Scarves anarchists had long dominated the left wing of the Friends of Huddled Masses, but more statist socialists had always existed within it. Now they have coalesced into a distinct faction, the socialists, pulling membership from the other factions. Leftists who have been influenced by Dr. Sun or various Marxist writings such as Voight switched to the faction alongside those workers in the industrialist faction disillusioned by the civil war into thinking peaceful economic means for equality was no longer possible. While the smallest faction for now, they were quickly growing into their own block.
This came at a time where many in the industrialist faction considered leaving, not wishing to be party to a civil war against the federal government as it cracked down on east coast anarchists. But with most fighting happening on the other side of the country, doubts about being spared should McKinley or Tillman win, and the state of California being firmly SLP (and thus actively splitting off would mean going against the local government), nothing concrete happened yet.
Prospects for tin mines have begun, but haven't found any new good locations yet.
Send aid: 53
(40 funds / 2 (half year) = 20 funds)
The Friends continued to send civilian aid to China, helping mitigate the after effects of their civil war.
Improve arsenal: 61 + 5 (FMC) = 66
Sun's revolutionaries have reunited most of China, with the remaining war a contest of taking Russian occupied territory. So rather than directly send weapons to China, the Friends have moved towards helping China develop their own weapons by sending engineers and machinery to modernize the Hanyang Arsenal and nearby steel foundries. This would give them a large and reliable source of modern weaponry, a much needed resource in their fight against the imperialist powers.
Immigrant family program: 37 + 5 (mutual aid networks) = 42
While it came to a rough start last year, the Immigrant Family Program resumed this year to the protests of reactionary white men. It would help Asian immigrants' families find them and aid in the moving process, now helped by the lapsing of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Communal housing California: 57 + 5 (MAN) = 62
Communal housing Washington/Oregon/Hawaii: 65 + 5 (MAN) = 70
Across the West Coast and Hawaii, the FHM established communal housing. They bought and built houses and apartment buildings, giving the spaces to poor and homeless supporters. The program would allow for communal living within these spaces, equal rather than split up and under a landlord, for large numbers of people. These efforts went quite well and inspired a number of artists and architects who began designing new types of apartments made for communal living rather than repurposed for it.
Their other welfare efforts were cut off by the civil war in May, to be finished later.
Equal rights bill: 68
California finally passed the Equal Rights Amendment, guaranteeing public accommodation, non-legal disability, wage, employment, right to serve on a jury, and suffrage rights for adults 21 years and older regardless of race, color, sex, or creed, as well as designated election day as a state holiday. This was especially important for the Friends of Huddled Masses, as the old anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese laws were fully wiped off the books, and no more could be made. For the majority of Chinese-Americans they were finally legally equal to the white man.
Patrols: 50
The Yellow Scarves continued to patrol for the White Union Army this year, but failed to find their hideouts. The impending revolution interrupted their search, as they fought for control of the west instead.
Military training facility: 43 + 5 (MAN) + 5 (FMC) = 53
Trains: 40 + 8 (training procedures) + 5 (Philippine Army Connections) = 53 * 10 (funds per turn) = 530 regular militia per turn
They established a military training facility near San Francisco for the Yellow Scarves, to soon begin training hundreds more militia. This was the final part of their shift from aiding China to preparing for their own revolution, and would be critical for the time ahead.
The Orange Disciples:
Due to an accounting error the Orange Disciples budgeting more funds than they had this year, making most actions underfunded.
Covert organizational activities: 56
The Southern Government declared The Orange Disciples illegal and cracked down, forcing them underground. They had to establish new methods of meeting under the table. Churches officially ignored or condemned them while trusted people were let in on backroom meetings. They also met outside of churches, organizing clandestine meetings in coffee shops and other places supporters would frequent.
This experience would come in useful as violence broke out across the north. McKinley's administration considered them only a low threat while the United Front considered them tentatively friendly, so they faced nowhere near the opposition they did in Virginia, but were still caught up in the crossfire.
WV Suffrage: 60 + 33 (funds) + 5 (committee for universal suffrage) - 2 (overspent funds) = 96
A brand new slate of Progressive Republicans entered West Virginia's legislature this year, now a majority of the party. They already forced the governor to leave the Pact to Secure Democracy, ending the recent repression of civilians. After some consideration they decided not to impeach him, instead waiting to get him out in the primary of the next election now that there was nothing urgant. Now they worked to convince the rest of the party to pass a constitutional amendment giving universal suffrage, a rising cause for women. These talks to begin a vote were going well but taking a long time, being interrupted in May to not yet complete.
Public campaign: 85d20 = 570 / 2 = 285 - 2 (overspent funds) = 283
(Slightly reduced popularity of Pact)
The Orange Disciples attempted to run a campaign defaming the Pact to Secure Democracy, but found their media connections busy or under attack. They did manage to spread the message on the ground, and citizens, especially in both West Virginia and Virginia which had been part of the Pact, were encouraged to speak and act out against them.
There was not time in the year to finish their new literacy program and the Ohio election had not yet happened, so those would have to wait.
When violence broke out in May between the federal government and anarchists they announced a statement condemning the Pact, the greedy industrialists, McKinley's administration, and the anarchists, hoping for an end to the violence and restoration of the union.
The New American Patriots:
NAP reacted immediately to the war, pivoting most of their actions to it.
Dues: 42
They began requesting dues from their membership, just small ones and allowing delinquency. This would keep them from losing members while substantially filling their coffers, increasing their income by a half.
Massachusetts: 46
They set up a new chapter in Massachusetts, notably in Boston. This would let them spread their reach and programs to that densely populated state.
Wartime correspondents: 60
NAP put together a team of journalists with small WSG bodyguard teams and cameras to go behind enemy lines and document Confederate atrocities. They found villages entirely wiped out, clear signs of armed struggle and usually several decaying corpses still there. They also interviewed survivors of the attacks as well, many towns still standing after the raids.
They also went to Arkansas and D.C., places with recent fighting. While the damage in Arkansas was relatively light, D.C. was now the site of several battles and a majority of artillery on all fronts. The previous population of almost 300,000 people had mostly left, returning in trickles now that the front line had moved away. Buildings were destroyed by stray artillery, including many important historical ones. The small industrial district was still operating, poor workers living in quickly constructed shacks when their own houses or slum apartments had been destroyed. The Capital was, without a doubt, the most damaged city in America, and would need a complete rebuilding afterwards.
Encourage field medics: 57
During the first round of volunteers this year, the NAP encouraged their supporters to become field medics. Many did, having the education to be quickly trained if they didn't already have medical training. Most of the rest became officers. NAP also planned to send assistance to Red Cross, but failed to find time before May.
Training facility: 35
Trains: 40 - 5 (low roll) = 35 * 2 (funds per turn) = 70 regular militia per turn
They decided to build a training facility for Winter Security Group guards in Sacramento, allowing for a steady expansion. These efforts would be hampered by their integrated gun factory, Dark Winter Tools, being seized by reactionary militia in May.
The Society for Universal Suffrage:
The Ohio election had not begun by the time the ACUA called for a general strike. So instead the SLP's gubernatorial candidate, Marguerite Prevey, visited the armor in Akron, Ohio, speaking to them and encouraging them to rise up. While they succeeded there and in occupying a large part of Ohio, it did lead to the question: would they run the election as normal when the time came?
Industry owned by SUS: 41
To avoid the Anti-Trust Act being used against them, SUS had legally transferred ownership of its industries to Voight. Now that the Act was repealed this legal fiction was no longer needed, and so it was transferred back under SUS as a whole. This also gave the Workers Planning Council more legal control over the industries rather than being so informal.
Pay for tractors: 78 + 5 (amalgamated credit union) = 83
SUS committed to spending a small part of its budget for paying for tractors, mills, and other large equipment that small farms couldn't afford and which worked best on large agricultural properties. These were given to SUS cooperatives, increasing their efficiency and encouraging other farms to collectivize. This was an extremely popular program among the farmers, making many more join and the cooperatives themselves fully on board with the ideological nature of the project.
They also planned to buy out some farms which were in danger of being bought by large landowning capitalists, but didn't have time. Still, this program made SUS extremely popular, with small farmers across the country beginning to favor SUS and thus the SLP over their traditional Populist and Democratic parties.
Farm Workers Council: 68 + 5 (paying for equipment synergy) = 73
These cooperatives were then integrated with each other in the Farm Workers Council, which had representatives from each cooperative. Now rather than many cooperatives competing against each other they acted as a single entity, able to work on a vast scale and not competing with each other on the market. It would plan to use surplus value to improve and buy land and capital, as well as expand its membership. More importantly for the Society for Universal Suffrage, it was the successful next step of proletarianization and communization of American agriculture, now a great revolutionary force in itself. This would be important in the coming revolution, as the urban areas of much of the Northeast were filled with soldiers.
Expand armaments and munitions complex: 60 + 5 (MAN) + 3 (ethnic clubs) + 5 (WPC) = 73
Large light artillery factory: 62 + 5 (MAN) + 3 (ethnic clubs) + 5 (WPC) + 5 (omake) = 80
Plans to expand the construction company were put off for later, with military relevant industries deemed more important. The main armaments and munitions factory complex was expanded to twice its current size, soon spitting out truly vast quantities of guns and ammunition, from small arms to machine guns.
Nearby they built a large light artillery factory. Many of the workers came directly from Germany as imported industrial expertise, Europe having much more experience in making and developing new artillery.
The workers innovated here, adopting the 3-inch field gun, a rapid firing artillery, especially compared to the older models the federal government was using. This arsenal was the largest in the country by far, by itself producing almost as much as the rest of the nation combined and at a high quality.
Plans to found new gay bars on the west coast fell through, not having the time. Too, Indiana and Wisconsin planned to pass new budgets with greater funding for the state militia as well as bills to expand it, but drafts didn't finish by May.
The Minutemen:
The Minutemen finally divided into distinct factions this year, the divide long existent but low key beforehand. The Stalwarts faction was leftist and pro-UF, having radicalized through their experience working alongside the SPA and FAM. They were the more militant side that wanted to put all their effort into the war. Meanwhile the Enthusiast faction wanted to put their main effort into continuing their military and business research efforts, and hoped to use that for reform. They were also the more civilian oriented side.
Send militia south: 52
Early in the year the Minutemen went south, aiding in battles against the White Union Army once more. This time only a single Minuteman died, a good attempt for them. But by May they had returned, preferring short expeditions so they could return to their civilian lives. This put them in rural Pennsylvania, where most Minutemen activities were held, when the revolution came north.
Training camp: 61 + 5 (combat engineers) = 66
Trains: 40 + 10 (war game committee) + 3 (TFAM/SPA trainers) = 53 * 2 (funds per turn) = 106 regular militia per turn
The Minutemen established a training camp for their volunteer supporters who do the best in the normal war games. This would allow them to recruit over a hundred new professionally trained men every year for proper fighting.
Bulk orders: 54
They set up bulk orders of guns and ammunition from associate gun shops, letting them arm themselves. This suddenly became considerably more difficult when the revolution came north, much industry being seized for use by one faction or another. Still after months of negotiation, they managed to keep some orders going through at a high mark-up.
Invest in startup companies: 44
They also invested in several new startup companies, albeit small ones. These would try out new and old dismissed theories of management as part of research. Only time would tell how this turns out.
The underground network didn't have time to finish being built before May.
Southern People's Alliance:
This year they branched out their membership from mostly farmers to people in cities across the south on an anti-war basis, plus the railways.
Plans to expand mutual aid networks across the south were not completed by May, and would have to be finished sometime else in the future.
Appalachian Brotherhood:
The Appalachian Brotherhood had a tough decision as the country plunged into revolution, but ultimately decided not to merge back with the RFA quite yet.
WV factory workers: 65d20 = 871 - 65 (NCA) - 65 (business fears) = 741/350
The Appalachian Brotherhood put huge amounts of effort into unionizing West Virginia factory workers. In cities across the state they helped the factories form unions, primarily supporting the mining industry. From these they even helped more mining towns unionize as a whole, there being little separation in practice.
Newspapers: 45 + 10 (school of journalism) = 55
With the law enforcement repeatedly cracking down on Appalachian newspapers, they had to spread them in secret. They finally succeeded this year and they bloomed in popularity. The details and perspectives of their cause and their ideology spread across the mountain range, with most every town having a local publication shared among comrades.
They also planned to build up a construction company and to move anarchist cops from NYC to start infiltrating local departments, but ran out of time. Instead they heard the call for revolution in both the south and north, joining the Revolutionary Government in the south and the North-East Revolutionary Front in the north, a scattershot alliance of communes.
Revolutionary Federation of Appalachia:
With full on revolution across Appalachia, there was no more need to develop procedures for civilians to hide, especially since the northern government did not attack them in the same way.
Armaments and munitions manufacturing: 22 + 5 (MAN) + 5 (omake) = 32
They had just started shipping capital to mountain villages to develop armaments and munitions manufacturing by May. These would be relatively quick and easy to finish next month.
Expand mountain bases: 59 + 5 (MAN) = 64
The existing mountain bases were expanded, serving as important bases for the RDC. These would let them have secure areas to hide and strike from, important things when dealing with a larger army. Even past a guerrilla war they would serve as important hardpoints, making an enemy offensive into the mountains much more difficult.
They also began paying the RDC as full time, allowing them to spend their whole efforts defending Appalachia.
Amigos del Pueblo (Friends of the People):
The AdP began by vastly expanding their armed forces, we aware that they were dwarfed by the two armies in Texas.
CLA: 70
The AdP began working with the Cuban Liberation Army to train both American and Mexican volunteers. A large part of the cost was on Cuba, their army volunteering for aiding their continental allies. This let the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) begin professionally training militia for their own war against their government. The PLM continued to expand their activities in Mexico, gaining popular support against the autocratic president while their Mexican Libertarian Army prepared for a guerrilla war. The AdP also began sending people to be trained, the now professional but guerrilla experienced army providing the perfect training for their goals. This would prove to be essential in the times to come, large armies marching through Mexico that they needed to fight but were still too weak to defeat on the field.
Stockpile guns: 33d20 = 390 - 33 (business fears) - 33 (low supply) = 324 / 2 (half year) = 162
Train militia: 66 + 8 (FAM trainers) + 3 (CLA training) = 77 * 30 (funds) / 2 (half year) = 1155
In the first half of the year they trained over a thousand new militia, establishing a sizable force in the American southwest. They were still far outnumbered by the bourgeois armies in Texas, but no longer so much that they would be irrelevant in the fight. And they were only growing, training more and more all the time.
Northern miner unions: 70d20 = 1050 / 2 (half year) = 525, 961/1000
The miner unions in northern Mexico continued to expand, now including membership in the majority of mines. Many of these mine workers worked for William Greene, an American businessman with control over essential mines, land, cattle, lumber mills, and railroads. The American employees in the town of Cananea were talking of a strike and were soon invited into the union for a united front against Greene. Seeing the successful revolutionary actions of the ACUA in America, they affiliated, becoming the Mexican branch of the Mine Workers Union.
There were now talks of a strike this year or the next, the miners feeling confident with their support among the northern populace.
Uruguay Union Federation: 69 + 10 (extra funds) = 79
Much like Argentina, Uruguay had a rising leftist movement, and this translated to strong support for a union. The RFAA and local Argentine union organizers and anarchists worked to help them set up the Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation based on the Argentine Workers' Federation model. It would accept both statist socialist and anarchist unions, but was majority syndicalist, seeing the union as the main organizational body for leftists in the small and undemocratic country.
NM SA clinics: 52 + 5 (commissions for mutual aid and welfare) + 5 (mutual aid networks) = 62
California clinics: 81 + 5 (commissions for mutual aid and welfare) + 5 (mutual aid networks) = 91
The AdP also set up free health clinics in New Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern California. These served most of the Mexican population in the United States, helping where they could not afford doctors or doctors simply weren't even there in the sparse lands.
These programs were so successful that other UF mutual aid organizers began to set it up clinics across California, helping many more people.
They also planned to establish more constant contact with the Argentine RFAA for sharing information and tactics, but didn't finish setting that up yet.
Committee for Indigenous Advocacy:
Protests: 38
(+1 radicalism)
The CIA organized protests across the country against the continuing effort to slowly annihilate indigenous people. While these were overshadowed by other protests this year, they began bringing their cause to the attention of city leftists, often completely unaware of it.
New headquarters: 55
The CIA once again established a new headquarters, this time in Philadelphia. It had the advantage of an easy to meet location and was in a city with strong UF support. But the crackdown on the UF by the federal government caught them in the crossfire, forcing them to move again.
They also planned to buy more branch offices across the country, but dedicated funds from ARM never arrived, perhaps because they would have been sent later, but many in the COA suspected it was corruption. They rose questions and protests about the apparent embezzlement of funds for LLRP industrialists as well as the exclusion of CIA leadership from ARM planning discussions. The alliance of organizations was having growing pains, poor communication and individual pet causes causing it to get nothing done this year.
They tried to purchase land around the Minnesota Objiwe reservations, but the logging companies banded together to stall negotiations, making only a little land bought. Worse, when fighting broke out between the United Front and Northern Government local settler militia armed up and forcibly occupied most of northern Minnesota, forcing the tribes to retreat to reservation borders. Their people were mostly fine for now as the LLRP aligned part of the state militia distracted the settlers, but were growing increasingly concerned of more attacks. They had limited weapons, and so were forced to hope their white allies would be reliable for once.
Merge land: 9d20 = 121, 600/600
The CIA finished negotiating and planning with remaining indigenous holders of land in the Indian Territory, merging them under the stewardship of the CIA to be used communally by the local tribes as was their traditions. They managed to save over half of the land freed up to white settlers, preventing further forced relocations.
United Front:
The Commissions for Mutual Aid and Welfare expanded the rural mutual aid efforts to several more states. Originally this would have included Texas in the latter half of the year, but their plans were interrupted by the May revolutions.
Arkansas: 68 + 5 (CMAW) = 73
West Virginia: 47 + 5 (CMAW) = 52
Farmers in Arkansas and West Virginia joined the program, connected to other farmers by the vast network across the south. This proved especially important to the farmers of Arkansas who found themselves occupied by a large army and put under increasing pressure to feed and supply them as half the Midwest was cut off from the army. Increasingly civilians found themselves with fewer rations and empty shelves as food went to the soldiers plates and factories were retooled for war, though they were not yet starving due to the bountiful great plains still sending food by rail. While many turned to reactionary organizations like the White Union Army, many others looked to the United Front for relief.
They, along with the Missouri anarchists, began to organize against the occupiers to support a UF liberation campaign in the area.
They also established an electoral apparatus in Ohio, preparing to campaign there. Much of the budget also planned to pay for the SLP's electoral campaign, but the Ohio election itself wouldn't happen for another few months.
They gave the Cuban Socialist Party some funds, helping them compete against the bourgeoisie American funded parties.
(Cuban election will be in the Foreign Reactions post)
Interstate coordination commission: 31 + 5 (economic and political analysis commission) = 36
Finally, they established an Interstate Coordination Commission, which was to organize efforts between controlled SLP states. Primarily relevant in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana, it helped organize state owned railways and public communication across state boundaries, militia deployment (as state governors could legally request neighboring state militia to enter), and other interstate matters.
As the SLP declared a Provisional Government, no longer recognizing McKinley's authority, the ICC took a greater burden in managing the states. It was now acting as an executive, ensuring that the necessary things got done in these early days of revolution. But it was not made to handle that much, openly requesting to be replaced with a proper legislature and executive when possible.
The United Front voted to adopt the San Francisco Points, assisting in the war effort but defending their own political freedoms. Several organizations wished to amend it, but the original passed with a majority. This would be especially important during the arms strike in May, the United Front refusing to back down in negotiations.
Along with that, they chose to keep state militia in their own states, not merging into the army to directly fight the confederacy. This gave them some bad press, but with most opposing news outlets temporarily destroyed, there was little public outrage.
Coalition: 52
Despite the anarchist organizations voting against it, the US agreed to ask the SLP to form a coalition for Speaker of the House with the Republicans for the war effort and concessions to the socialist movement. These attempts to form a coalition broke down, the Republicans preferring to partner with the more moderate LLRP. The amendment to the Militia Reform Act of requiring proof to a majority of a a Conference Committee of the Whole (i.e., the entire Congress) of substantial and detrimental noncooperation with federal authority before the President could federalize a state militia was soundly rejected and ignored. They also rejected directing General Merritt to hold elections in Arkansas to reconstruct their constitution as soon as possible, considering a full reconstruction of the entire South when the war was won to be acceptable.
Filibuster: 44
Teddy Roosevelt's original Militia Reform Act was filibustered by the SLP, but nonetheless passed in late April. It would allow the President to federalize state militia, incorporating them into the army in order to repel invasion, to suppress rebellion, or enforce federal laws. It would also require state militia to conform to regular equipment and training standards. The latter would immediately go into effect, with McKinley waiting to federalize SLP and Michigan's militia until they could be smoothly integrated.
American Reform Movement:
Their first year of activity began, with many funds from ARM organizations to be distributed. But none of the funds actually reached anything. The LLRP didn't spend the funds sent for their industrial project, instead being embezzled away. The NAP did spend the funds sent to them, but some of their own donations were used for personal activities by some leadership, a scandal in both organizations. Blame was thrown around and demand for internal reform intensified.
The CIA was caught in the crossfire, the newcomer organization not being privy to discussions about funds, and didn't even receive their allotted share.
With chaos came demands for reform, either removing the required funds sent to ARM, or establishing a more executive governing body for it with safeguards for corruption.
