The American Experiment (Riot Quest)
- Thread starter Physici
- Start date
- Alt. History
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
So your telling me that players shouldn't be compensated for their labor in that league?
How capitalist of you
(It's a joke it's just how I read that made it kinda funny that prompted the statement, not meant to be taken seriously)
So…
Whose going to start this fire?
Unions and the United Front
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Unions and the United Front
Partially by fortunate coincidence, but far moreso by deliberate design, the history of the United Front soon became intrinsically tied to that of the labor unions within the United States. To the American leftist movement, the labor union was seen as the ideal vehicle for both organizing and mobilizing the working class, and from reformists to revolutionaries, Marxists to Anarchists, creating new unions and aligning existing ones would be a great priority.
Revolutionary Federation of American Anarchists
From its inception, the RFAA tied itself to the cause of revolutionary industrial unionism, centering much of their initial base around the urban factory, dockyard, and ship workers of New York City. Their subsequent actions in supporting the organization of RFAA-affiliated unions would leave much of the city's workforce positively inclined to the Anarchist movement, but their earliest notable success came not from New York, but Illinois.
There, RFAA members met with the Order of Railway Conductors in 1890. Formerly a railway union that had been viewed as collaborationist to the point of earning the hatred of many other railway unions (with an entire rival organization having been founded specifically to oppose them), the Order was now going through a ferocious leadership upheaval that saw virtually the entirety of its old leadership thrown out. The RFAA was quick to step into this vacuum, managing to propagandize a slight majority of the ORC to their cause.
Though the main focus of the RFAA remained in New York, this would have effects reaching well beyond what any of their members at the time could have predicted. The now-radicalizing Order would become a founding member of the American Railway Union, a new Industrial Union founded specifically to unite all branches of the railroad workers, previously divided along craft lines even within unions, under one banner. And when the ORC joined, they brought with them the Anarcho-Collectivist rhetoric of the RFAA. From there, Anarchist sympathies would steadily spread across the union as a whole. Aside from political rhetoric, many within the ARU were intrigued by the ORC's combining of union activism with mutual aid for members, with union president Eugene V. Debs stating a desire to expand such a network to incorporate the entirety of the American Railway Union.
The ARU's association with the Anarchist movement, or at least the perception thereof, would continue into 1894 during the Pullman Strike, with the Pullman company denouncing the entire ARU as Anarchist terrorists, while RFAA-aligned unions across New York City joined in solidarity strikes. Though not as famous as those around Chicago (and in some cases, not even as meaningful in terms of contributions), the New York strikes would be seen to some as another sign of the increasingly close relationship between the ARU and the RFAA.
West Coast Union Association
While all of the United Front members supported or affiliated with unions to some extent, the WCUA was the only one that existed from the start as a union federation, beginning as a coalition of small migrant worker unions that had radicalized and begun to pool their resources. From these origins, the WCUA would slowly but steadily grow to encompass more of the West Coast's rural labor workforce with every passing year, eventually becoming the official Union Federation for the entire United Front (an action which caused some noticeable friction with the Anarchist members of the United Front, owing to the WCUA's more Marxist leanings.)
In 1893, the WCUA went further, expanding from being a largely rural and migrant worker-based union federation by affiliating the Western Federation of Miners. Other attempts to associate non-farmer unions had also been made that year, but that had been a slow and troubled process, and largely limited to the service industry.
1893 also saw the WCUA take an unprecedented step among American unions. Before, most unions, including those within the WCUA, excluded Asian immigrants, who were seen as at best unwelcome competitors and scabs, and at worst outright invaders. However, the WCUA would find itself approached by the Friends of the Huddled Masses, a large and growing advocacy group for East Asian immigrants in March. The FHM delegation, spearheaded by Chou Hsien-liang, leader of the Central Pacific Tracklayers Guild, spoke of the hardships of the Asian immigrant worker, and how the difficulties they faced were no different than those of any white worker, except with the added misery of racism and lower pay. Arguing at length that their shared hardships could and should outweigh any racial divide, Hsien-liang finished his speech with a statement that if so many cursed the Asian immigrant as a scab, strikebreaker, and enemy of the white worker, why did those same men turn away from the easiest method to put a stop to such things?
It was, at least to a majority of the WCUA, a persuasive enough argument to sway them. Though some members would quit the Association in disgust over the decision, the West Coast Union Association would allow and even support Asian membership within its own associated Unions, and allow all-Asian guilds(which were effectively labor unions under a different name) to join the WCUA outright.
The following year would prove equally defining for the WCUA as a strike wave rippled across the nation. While the SUS and RFAA participated in the Pullman Strike, the WCUA was called upon by its recent and largest affiliate: the WFM, to support it in a strike to protest an increase in work hours. The Association agreed, and a general strike across all of Colorado was declared, with service and rural workers joining with the miners of the WFM, and soon other strikes erupted all across the US West Coast, even from unions not affiliated with the WCUA.
Though the main WFM strike suffered heavily at the hands of corporate-sponsored deputies, it was largely successful in its goals thanks to a sympathetic governor. In the meantime, the WCUA expanded rapidly in the aftermath of the strike, incorporating many of the other West Coast industrial unions that had participated in the strike, from railroads to manufacturing, and officially joined the United Front, eventually reforming into the main United Front union federation in 1895, rebranding itself as the All-Continental Union Association.
Society of Universal Suffrage
Compared to its other work, the Society of Universal Suffrage's union activities went almost unnoticed, as, at least in its early years, it had little direct interaction with labor unions, instead focusing on other socialist and intersectionalist activities. While the sheer size of the SUS and its presence within Chicago meant that many of its members were also members or supporters of one union or another, the SUS made few moves on an organizational level to directly sponsor or support unions.
The Pullman Strike in 1894 saw the SUS's first large-scale action towards Unions, albeit again indirectly. The Society's national newspaper, The Valkyrie, had launched its first publication, and the Pullman Strike was the front-page entry. Not only did it depict the conditions the Pullman workers suffered under in grisly detail, but it also called for solidarity strikes across the country and for unions to break the race and sex barriers that had divided them.
While not every union, even among those affiliated with the United Front, answered the call, the sheer amount of the Red City's population that supported the SUS, nevermind their allies elsewhere, meant that many unions did, most notably the ARU itself, which had previously been a whites-only union. The fact that the AFL had nigh-universally refused, going so far as to attempt to interfere with the strike in its early stages, also showcased the increasingly deep divide between the AFL-aligned craft unions, and the largely intersectional industrial unions of the United Front, a fact that would bring the United Front as a whole into increasingly hostile relations with the AFL as the former's influence over the labor movement grew.
Forty Acres Movement
The Forty Acres movement, as a rural-focused land distribution movement, had little interaction with labor unions compared to its allies. It was only in 1893, over three years after the Movement's founding, that it began to interact with unions in any significant way by approaching the unions of New Orleans after the 1892 General Strike, having been impressed by the willingness of the unions to cross racial lines that so heavily divided the rest of the South.
The Unions of New Orleans at the time had primarily been formed with the assistance of, and were members of, the American Federation of Labor. This placed them in an awkward position when the Pullman Strike came, along with The Valkyrie's first issue calling for a general strike across all lines in solidarity. The AFL as a whole had condemned the Pullman Strike, with Samuel Gompers himself having worked to organize opposition to it before his untimely incapacitation. Yet through its connections with the FAM, the unions of New Orleans were members of the United Front. A vote was called across all unions to decide on a course of action, and a decision was made according to the majority. As May turned into June, the unions of New Orleans launched a city-wide general strike in solidarity with the workers of the ARU and their fellows across the United Front.
This action would signal a breaking point between the New Orleans unions and the AFL, with the latter furiously denouncing the former and threatening total ejection from the federation. While this fate was avoided in 1895, the FAM-aligned unions of New Orleans would continue drifting away from the AFL core, especially as the formation of the All-Continental Union Association as the official Union Federation of the United Front gave them another, increasingly tempting option.
---
A/N: Another omake I've been working on for some time and that I think has gotten all the kinks worked out and enough feedback from the mentioned-faction players and the GM that it's canon. If any faction mentioned in the omake has problems with parts of the lore here, tell me and I'll edit.
My requested reward for this omake would be further pushing the American Railway Union into affiliation with the RFAA, taking advantage of their pre-existing connections all the way back from the Order of Railway Conductors.
If that isn't valid, I suppose it'll be banked as a boost to whichever RFAA action would involve affiliating unions/the ARU in the future.
Partially by fortunate coincidence, but far moreso by deliberate design, the history of the United Front soon became intrinsically tied to that of the labor unions within the United States. To the American leftist movement, the labor union was seen as the ideal vehicle for both organizing and mobilizing the working class, and from reformists to revolutionaries, Marxists to Anarchists, creating new unions and aligning existing ones would be a great priority.
Revolutionary Federation of American Anarchists
From its inception, the RFAA tied itself to the cause of revolutionary industrial unionism, centering much of their initial base around the urban factory, dockyard, and ship workers of New York City. Their subsequent actions in supporting the organization of RFAA-affiliated unions would leave much of the city's workforce positively inclined to the Anarchist movement, but their earliest notable success came not from New York, but Illinois.
There, RFAA members met with the Order of Railway Conductors in 1890. Formerly a railway union that had been viewed as collaborationist to the point of earning the hatred of many other railway unions (with an entire rival organization having been founded specifically to oppose them), the Order was now going through a ferocious leadership upheaval that saw virtually the entirety of its old leadership thrown out. The RFAA was quick to step into this vacuum, managing to propagandize a slight majority of the ORC to their cause.
Though the main focus of the RFAA remained in New York, this would have effects reaching well beyond what any of their members at the time could have predicted. The now-radicalizing Order would become a founding member of the American Railway Union, a new Industrial Union founded specifically to unite all branches of the railroad workers, previously divided along craft lines even within unions, under one banner. And when the ORC joined, they brought with them the Anarcho-Collectivist rhetoric of the RFAA. From there, Anarchist sympathies would steadily spread across the union as a whole. Aside from political rhetoric, many within the ARU were intrigued by the ORC's combining of union activism with mutual aid for members, with union president Eugene V. Debs stating a desire to expand such a network to incorporate the entirety of the American Railway Union.
The ARU's association with the Anarchist movement, or at least the perception thereof, would continue into 1894 during the Pullman Strike, with the Pullman company denouncing the entire ARU as Anarchist terrorists, while RFAA-aligned unions across New York City joined in solidarity strikes. Though not as famous as those around Chicago (and in some cases, not even as meaningful in terms of contributions), the New York strikes would be seen to some as another sign of the increasingly close relationship between the ARU and the RFAA.
West Coast Union Association
While all of the United Front members supported or affiliated with unions to some extent, the WCUA was the only one that existed from the start as a union federation, beginning as a coalition of small migrant worker unions that had radicalized and begun to pool their resources. From these origins, the WCUA would slowly but steadily grow to encompass more of the West Coast's rural labor workforce with every passing year, eventually becoming the official Union Federation for the entire United Front (an action which caused some noticeable friction with the Anarchist members of the United Front, owing to the WCUA's more Marxist leanings.)
In 1893, the WCUA went further, expanding from being a largely rural and migrant worker-based union federation by affiliating the Western Federation of Miners. Other attempts to associate non-farmer unions had also been made that year, but that had been a slow and troubled process, and largely limited to the service industry.
1893 also saw the WCUA take an unprecedented step among American unions. Before, most unions, including those within the WCUA, excluded Asian immigrants, who were seen as at best unwelcome competitors and scabs, and at worst outright invaders. However, the WCUA would find itself approached by the Friends of the Huddled Masses, a large and growing advocacy group for East Asian immigrants in March. The FHM delegation, spearheaded by Chou Hsien-liang, leader of the Central Pacific Tracklayers Guild, spoke of the hardships of the Asian immigrant worker, and how the difficulties they faced were no different than those of any white worker, except with the added misery of racism and lower pay. Arguing at length that their shared hardships could and should outweigh any racial divide, Hsien-liang finished his speech with a statement that if so many cursed the Asian immigrant as a scab, strikebreaker, and enemy of the white worker, why did those same men turn away from the easiest method to put a stop to such things?
It was, at least to a majority of the WCUA, a persuasive enough argument to sway them. Though some members would quit the Association in disgust over the decision, the West Coast Union Association would allow and even support Asian membership within its own associated Unions, and allow all-Asian guilds(which were effectively labor unions under a different name) to join the WCUA outright.
The following year would prove equally defining for the WCUA as a strike wave rippled across the nation. While the SUS and RFAA participated in the Pullman Strike, the WCUA was called upon by its recent and largest affiliate: the WFM, to support it in a strike to protest an increase in work hours. The Association agreed, and a general strike across all of Colorado was declared, with service and rural workers joining with the miners of the WFM, and soon other strikes erupted all across the US West Coast, even from unions not affiliated with the WCUA.
Though the main WFM strike suffered heavily at the hands of corporate-sponsored deputies, it was largely successful in its goals thanks to a sympathetic governor. In the meantime, the WCUA expanded rapidly in the aftermath of the strike, incorporating many of the other West Coast industrial unions that had participated in the strike, from railroads to manufacturing, and officially joined the United Front, eventually reforming into the main United Front union federation in 1895, rebranding itself as the All-Continental Union Association.
Society of Universal Suffrage
Compared to its other work, the Society of Universal Suffrage's union activities went almost unnoticed, as, at least in its early years, it had little direct interaction with labor unions, instead focusing on other socialist and intersectionalist activities. While the sheer size of the SUS and its presence within Chicago meant that many of its members were also members or supporters of one union or another, the SUS made few moves on an organizational level to directly sponsor or support unions.
The Pullman Strike in 1894 saw the SUS's first large-scale action towards Unions, albeit again indirectly. The Society's national newspaper, The Valkyrie, had launched its first publication, and the Pullman Strike was the front-page entry. Not only did it depict the conditions the Pullman workers suffered under in grisly detail, but it also called for solidarity strikes across the country and for unions to break the race and sex barriers that had divided them.
While not every union, even among those affiliated with the United Front, answered the call, the sheer amount of the Red City's population that supported the SUS, nevermind their allies elsewhere, meant that many unions did, most notably the ARU itself, which had previously been a whites-only union. The fact that the AFL had nigh-universally refused, going so far as to attempt to interfere with the strike in its early stages, also showcased the increasingly deep divide between the AFL-aligned craft unions, and the largely intersectional industrial unions of the United Front, a fact that would bring the United Front as a whole into increasingly hostile relations with the AFL as the former's influence over the labor movement grew.
Forty Acres Movement
The Forty Acres movement, as a rural-focused land distribution movement, had little interaction with labor unions compared to its allies. It was only in 1893, over three years after the Movement's founding, that it began to interact with unions in any significant way by approaching the unions of New Orleans after the 1892 General Strike, having been impressed by the willingness of the unions to cross racial lines that so heavily divided the rest of the South.
The Unions of New Orleans at the time had primarily been formed with the assistance of, and were members of, the American Federation of Labor. This placed them in an awkward position when the Pullman Strike came, along with The Valkyrie's first issue calling for a general strike across all lines in solidarity. The AFL as a whole had condemned the Pullman Strike, with Samuel Gompers himself having worked to organize opposition to it before his untimely incapacitation. Yet through its connections with the FAM, the unions of New Orleans were members of the United Front. A vote was called across all unions to decide on a course of action, and a decision was made according to the majority. As May turned into June, the unions of New Orleans launched a city-wide general strike in solidarity with the workers of the ARU and their fellows across the United Front.
This action would signal a breaking point between the New Orleans unions and the AFL, with the latter furiously denouncing the former and threatening total ejection from the federation. While this fate was avoided in 1895, the FAM-aligned unions of New Orleans would continue drifting away from the AFL core, especially as the formation of the All-Continental Union Association as the official Union Federation of the United Front gave them another, increasingly tempting option.
---
A/N: Another omake I've been working on for some time and that I think has gotten all the kinks worked out and enough feedback from the mentioned-faction players and the GM that it's canon. If any faction mentioned in the omake has problems with parts of the lore here, tell me and I'll edit.
My requested reward for this omake would be further pushing the American Railway Union into affiliation with the RFAA, taking advantage of their pre-existing connections all the way back from the Order of Railway Conductors.
If that isn't valid, I suppose it'll be banked as a boost to whichever RFAA action would involve affiliating unions/the ARU in the future.
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- Location
- America
*Sneezes*
*sniffles*
Huh. Sounds familiar but I can't quite put my finger on it.
After reading three pages of this quest, it looks suspiciously a lot like history and politics, two of the most boring subjects known to man. Further study required.
Don't worry, we also have some religion involved.
The Orange Disciples would probably be quite onboard with this.
Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
Well, I know @Godwinson has an idea on this new Baseball league. and expanding it is something I will significantly support in the coming days.
Hopefully, it will be something everyone can agree on, that the American League is an asshole and needs to be reminded that a significant portion of the fanbase and player base of Baseball happens to be African-American.
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- Location
- America
Close off the market, have snooty rich white people sympathetic to the cause declare it a delicacy, jack up the prices. Bilk money from all of the white people with more money than sense while developing an industry friendly to leftist causes from the ground up.
And really, unlike most "delicacies" it actually tastes alright so it is in fact value for money.
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The problem is how fucking tiny they are. Though I guess we could do a thing for Lent with em...not sure if crabs count but a good crab bisque could go a long way.
Edit: as i was wiki walking i ran upon more knowledge that is intreging, airguns and bike pumps currently exist IC and they are just...perfect for a mob of people to (relatively) quietly harrass some folk...seems like something to purchase in the future
Edit: as i was wiki walking i ran upon more knowledge that is intreging, airguns and bike pumps currently exist IC and they are just...perfect for a mob of people to (relatively) quietly harrass some folk...seems like something to purchase in the future
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- Location
- America
Shrimp, Lobsters and Crabs are fine for Lent yes.
And the fucking tiny thing? That's not really a problem. Most "fine dining" generally comes as a smaller meal anyway.
The flavor is described as "complex and delicate and lingers on the palete" which seems like something you would eat on its own or in noticeable chunks.
Air guns hmm? I'm wondering if those could be used for combat training.
Low charge weapons firing pressed powder chalk projectiles to allow it to mark a target.
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- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Canon and reward accepted.
Little Recipe
(Little Recipe Omake)
Yapon* Drink: A Energizing drink made from the rigorous and quite beautiful yapon holly tree (not to be confused with the possumhaw which dies in the winter) is first prepared setting a pot of water to boil, and the pick the leaves or stems, thought never the fruit, and washing quite thuroughly. Then taking a goodly amount of leaves within a clean clothe and tie them into a pouch, place said pouch into the cup of your choosing then pour the already boiling water atop the pouch. A good amount of time for the leaves to steep would be around the time it takes to bless the meal eaten with the drink, finally remove thr pouch from the water and the tea should be ready to enjoy!
The flavor of this wondrous drink is something likened to tea, though luckily without the stamp of the King's Tyranny upon it as an American drink. This evergreen is best consumed roasted to deal with it's more grassy notes. Unlike the bean of coffee who is also energizing, yapon is nowhere near as bitter and thus much better suited for those of more delicate palate. I personally prepare it for the family during the winter months to avoid unneeded trips into town for a cupa joe**. Best eaten with friends and familly!
AN:
*actually spelled yaupan but who cares when ur trying to save space in whatever cookbook/flash card this was writen on
**there is alot of debate where this phrase came from and some believe it was some time in the early 1900s while others believe it to be in the lste 1800s, either way fun!
Edit: ah! Right i wanna make a minor timeline altercation, stop yaupon from falling out of favor in The South (it was used during the civil war insted of tea or coffee due to the blockades)
Yapon* Drink: A Energizing drink made from the rigorous and quite beautiful yapon holly tree (not to be confused with the possumhaw which dies in the winter) is first prepared setting a pot of water to boil, and the pick the leaves or stems, thought never the fruit, and washing quite thuroughly. Then taking a goodly amount of leaves within a clean clothe and tie them into a pouch, place said pouch into the cup of your choosing then pour the already boiling water atop the pouch. A good amount of time for the leaves to steep would be around the time it takes to bless the meal eaten with the drink, finally remove thr pouch from the water and the tea should be ready to enjoy!
The flavor of this wondrous drink is something likened to tea, though luckily without the stamp of the King's Tyranny upon it as an American drink. This evergreen is best consumed roasted to deal with it's more grassy notes. Unlike the bean of coffee who is also energizing, yapon is nowhere near as bitter and thus much better suited for those of more delicate palate. I personally prepare it for the family during the winter months to avoid unneeded trips into town for a cupa joe**. Best eaten with friends and familly!
AN:
*actually spelled yaupan but who cares when ur trying to save space in whatever cookbook/flash card this was writen on
**there is alot of debate where this phrase came from and some believe it was some time in the early 1900s while others believe it to be in the lste 1800s, either way fun!
Edit: ah! Right i wanna make a minor timeline altercation, stop yaupon from falling out of favor in The South (it was used during the civil war insted of tea or coffee due to the blockades)
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- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Canon, and sure, it'll stay as a drink but not replace coffee and tea.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Yeah, the particular issue with yaupon tea is that it's so abundant that it can't be easily controlled so it became associated with poverty and thus stigmatized. Historically speaking, this era is precisely when it started to fall heavily out of favor in North Carolina, having already fallen out of use throughout the rest of the South rapidly after Reconstruction due to its association with the hardships of the Civil War and blockade.
With all the other things we've been doing to change the timeline, having it cling to life better makes a lot of sense. Perhaps it catches on through the United Front after SPA farmers join up and bring it along with them? "Get your morning drink from your fellow comrades, rather than through the tools of imperialism," would certainly be quite the selling point for a dedicated consumer-base.
With all the other things we've been doing to change the timeline, having it cling to life better makes a lot of sense. Perhaps it catches on through the United Front after SPA farmers join up and bring it along with them? "Get your morning drink from your fellow comrades, rather than through the tools of imperialism," would certainly be quite the selling point for a dedicated consumer-base.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Oh, I'm not arguing that it doesn't have a wide range.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
No worries! Thank you for bringing the idea forward!
Before the turn of the century the Forty Acres folk should switch from making steam tractors to diesel tractors
Edit: omg early diesel engines ran on biodiesel! We def should have our tractor factory switch engine types ASAP then we can market them to farmers as a "grow your own fuel" product
Edit: omg early diesel engines ran on biodiesel! We def should have our tractor factory switch engine types ASAP then we can market them to farmers as a "grow your own fuel" product
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- Location
- America
There's also pretty decently mature wood gas engine technology by 1900. Biogas and anaerobic digesters to produce methane from waste is also a well known if primitive technology.
Diverting sewage into a biogas plant rather than rivers could be viable.
Wood gas engines are also evidently good enough to drive cars as well, and not even as a stopgap measure, as in good enough you can rely on it.
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Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
Yeah it's one of the many reasons I hate him.
Besides starting a war due to his blatant lies to sell papers
DracoDracul
Transbian Communist
- Location
- Austin
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] The Revolutionary Federation of American Anarchists
[X] The Forty Acres Movement
[X] The Forty Acres Movement