To Struggle and Strive: The Combined Syndicates of America in 1932. A Kaiserreich Quest

The 4 and the 65 are errors and should be ignored.

Condemn Reactionary Judges: 1 influence, 39

The courts in Chicago have seen better days. The once proud and stately buildings have had their facades desecrated with graffiti, their proud statues hacked down and crushed into rubble, their occupants turned into furtive, scampering creatures who came in in groups and kept their heads low to avoid the anger of the Red Guards. They no longer had the power and majesty they once did, not when the police refused to serve the warrants issued and the juries listened to socialist agitators before the instructions of the judges.

Judge Smith peered out one of the upper-level windows with a bitter smile on his face. Despite his relative youth, he moved with the careful gingerness of an ancient, decrepit man. One arm was in a sling.

There, in the streets below, a mob of young men gathered. He could hear their angry shouts, at each other and at the courthouse, and he let out a sigh.

Some months ago he struck down a law requiring all businesses to give their workers free meals. He had feared the precedent such a law would make, he had feared that many of Chicago's fragile businesses would collapse and leave people worse off than before, even as he had recognized the reason the law had been passed, even as the amount of money he spent on his meals also went to running the soup kitchens that fed them.

After a moment, he let out a sigh. The shouting was only getting louder, and fiercer, and more vicious. They would break in soon enough, but maybe...

He trudged down like a condemned man to his hanging, making his way outside.

"YOUNG MEN! YOUNG MEN!!" he bellowed, straining to be heard over the sounds of their fury.

They halted and turned to him, and whatever words he had in mind fled.

"I-If you have grievances, surely there's a better way to air..."

He found himself cut off, a vicious tide of insult and invective flowing over him. And then he felt something hard smash into his chest, and a stone fell to earth. And then he felt nothing at all.


You decried the court system, calling it undemocratic and reactionary, pointing out unjust sentences and judicial corruption. You list dozens of injunctions against laws to see the hungry fed and the naked clothed while laws to steal the bread from their mouths and the shirts from their backs passed through their courtrooms with nary a whisper. You stop just short of advocating for their tarring and feathering, instead noting "if the courts continue to defy the will of the American people, the American people will turn to other ways to make their will known."

Some judges find their opinions on controversial rules changing. Some choose to retire, and more pliable replacements are selected. Some stand and defiant, and fall defiantly. But sometimes the reactionaries have victories.

Los Angeles was not a city where unions ruled. Here the police were dominant, the police and the Concerned Citizens Groups who worked with them. "But," Shi thought, "the working class is still mighty."

Twenty thousand men and women had joined the march, of all peoples. He saw Koreans and Chinese and even a few Japanese marching alongside the white workers, united and defiant. The police and their running dogs were struggling to respond, having not heard a word of the march before it began. Such was the benefit of ignoring the rules of the capitalist state when needed.

The twenty thousand marched on, while those who had not joined fled, sheltering in buildings or cowering on the sidewalks. A few police tried to form a line but were swept aside and clubbed down.

They were getting closer and closer to their destination, and still there was no organized resistance. Shi let out a whoop of excitement. "Faster, comrades, faster! Nothing can stop us, nothing can slow us!" he cried, barely audible over the slogans of his marching companions, but the tramp of their feet began to move swifter.

And then it all went wrong. He would piece it together later, but in the moment all he knew was a cry of "Company, halt!" and then there were a hundred cracks of thunder and they were running, their fierce unity shattered in an instant. Some charged forth, others ran away, but all were cut down.

And Shi stood there, paralyzed, blessed and cursed with seeming invincibility until a pair of Concerned Citizens grabbed him and dragged him off to jail.


But such failures were few and far between.

Result: Many recalcitrant judges are either no longer recalcitrant or no longer judges, passing laws will be easier, minimal backlash.

Integrate Farmer-Labor: 1 influence

The Dust Bowl has radicalized many members of Farmer-Labor, but not in any truly ideological sense. They do not reject capitalism or the toxins it creates, but they know they want change and they want it now, and they aren't too particular about the form it will take. You suspect that is why such a large portion of the people you hoped to poach joined the American Farmers Party instead.

But many have chosen the cause of socialism instead, and you do not wish to neglect them. Making room for them in the party is a delicate process, and the CSA refuses to grant seats to any of them unless they have a union backing them, but they do vote to offer assistance to those who wish to organize, and Farmer-Labor uses what weight they have to try and prevent those organizers from being abused.

The cooperation this requires seems to have built some degree of bridges between the various factions and their new comrades, and already more plans are being made.

Result: Cost and DCs reduced, effects increased, new actions unlocked.

Create Mobile Aid Teams: 1 Influence, 72+10 = 82

The mobile aid teams are one of the first beneficiaries of Farmer-Labor experience. The teams, since they are recruited from SPA strongholds, are largely unfamiliar with both Midwestern manners and the sheer terror of the dust storms. Advice on how to handle both is indispensable, and the groups are sent out in trucks piled high with food, dust masks, and clothing. They drive off into the Dust Bowl, offering their assistance, meeting the caravans of refugees and sharing out their supplies and hearing people's opinions.

While the charity is doubtless appreciated, the political impact it has is questionable. Even with the preparation and refinement done to suit your propaganda to American sensibilities, the hostility the aid teams report is immense, and some of them don't report back at all.

This news has radicalized some members of your own party and of Farmer-Labor, pushing them closer to the center.

And the teams that concentrate on states with friendly governments do report success. The people in states controlled by the SPA are much less inclined to attack SPA representatives, and are more inclined to listen. They are still frequently hostile, but the recruiting in the rural areas of New York and Indiana, among other states, has increased.

Result: Anemic popularity gains in the Midwest, more significant gains in the rural areas of states with existing SPA presences.

Credit to the Unions: 1 Influence, 22+10 = 32

The National Worker's Credit Union is at last formally established. Headquartered in New York City, but with several regional branches already appearing in major cities, it will doubtless serve as a vital resource for many. Many new accounts are being opened, including one for you - most of your finances have been transferred from your old bank to this union. You solemnly cast the first vote for the Bank Manager to thunderous applause.

And as you cast it, schemes for how to use this bank to finance vital operations and formally take over enterprises for the benefit of the workers. race through your mind.

Result: Credit union established, new options unlocked.


Integrate the VFW: 1 influence, 96+10 = 106

Not every soldier in the VFW is an out-and-out socialist, and even fewer want to take up arms against their country. Butler was willing, but you expected him to be an outlier, to have to argue and persuade and convince, and then even then you thought at least half the VFW would walk out.

Instead, your recruiters find chapter after chapter busily arguing politics and morality, having grown increasingly incensed with the government and disillusioned with the way the world works. And when they are offered an alternative, a viable one that has triumphed in Britain and France and Mexico, a possibility to truly fulfill the American dream...they grab it like a drowning man snatching at a lifeline.

Hundreds are formally inducted into the Red Guards the first night, and even as their comrades introduce them to Marxist theory, teaching them of exploitation and alienation and the means of production, they teach lessons learned in hard and bloody fights over many years of battle.

Of course, not all of it goes so smoothly. Some refuse, some hesitate, and there are inevitable conflicts. You and your assistants and agitators will have to spend some time "greasing the wheel" you expect.

Result: Significant increase in size and skill of the Red Guards, action will continue for one more month.

Supporting Left-Farmer-Labor: 1 Authority + 1 Influence, ?+81+10+10 = 116

That will have to wait till later though. There are battles to be fought and won, not just in the city strongholds or the scattered towns so many of these veterans left at the behest of your aid teams, but in the chaotic, grit-choked, bloodsoaked fields of the Great Plains. Lurid tales of atrocity and counter-atrocity, of feuds being settled under the guise of patriotism, of entire refugee columns being gunned down, have poured out, leaving every American incensed and horrified.

Of course, the worst stories, the ones of marauding cannibal hordes and warlords taking over entire towns, are never quite confirmed, but that doesn't decrease the tension people are feeling. You are not the only one who remembers the events in Kansas just a few years before the Civil War.

The initial movements are careful and cautious. Sections of the Red Guards, led by the Blair Brigade, take train rides as far into the Dust Bowl as they can before traveling on foot to picked towns, ones controlled by Left-Farmer-Labor or your new recruits.

You barely hear of what happens, but you can imagine it.

A bullet slammed down into the doorframe of the home he had dived into, as the town's militia rallied to drive them off. He snapped a shot off in the general direction of the church as the woman in the house broke free from her stunned shock. "Out, you damned Red!" she shrieked, brandishing a knife.

"Shut up, bitch!" he spat back, turning and bringing his rifle to bear on the new target..."

"Comrade Kirkgard, I regret to inform you that we arrived too late. Reactionary militias had already attacked your family. Your wife is still alive, although she is badly hurt, and we were able to recover your son's body before it was desecrated."

The refugee column hadn't been their initial target, but they were honest workers and the area was thick with bandits and other predators. A sympathetic farmer had tipped them off that Longist gangs were roving the area, shooting anyone who refused to make a "contribution" with whatever they had. So he had picked half the Red Guard and led them with the column, but so far their presence seemed to be a sufficient deterrent.

He patrolled along the edge of the place they had chosen to camp for the night, where he placed guards. Frowning, he noticed one wasn't visible. Advancing, he stepped in something wet. He looked down, his eyes widened, and -

You do hear of many successes though, as towns east of Des Moine and north of St. Louis are secured by the efforts of your Red Guards. Reactionaries are purged, workers are protected, and the potential for labor organizations is established.

And then the U. S. Army moves in to "restore order." Hundreds of soldiers march into dozens of towns and cities in the Midwest, accompanied by newspapermen and photographers eager to confirm the horrors of the Dust Bowl for their readers safe in New York and San Francisco.

[] Tell the Red Guards to pull back. They can't trust the army to be impartial, and any towns with a syndicalist presence risk being massacred. They will avoid the risks of adventurism, but also lose any progress they have made towards gaining support.

[] With the army come reporters. Massacres of the scale necessary to break your Red Guards would be worse for the government than the Battle of Blair Mountain, the Columbine Mine Massacre, or the Payment Army Suppression. Have your men stay in place. Have them offer to help the army, in fact.

State-Level Agriculture Bills: 1 Authority

A whole suite of bills is passed in a dozen states, as the alliance of Farmer-Labor and the Socialist Party brings forth its first fruit. With hostile judges muzzled or replaced, there is not a whisper of protest or opposition.

The first law, and undeniably the most important, is the one ensuring that farmers can stay farming and that the cities will remain fed. Strict price limits are established for staple goods, both ceilings and floors, funds for creating irrigation systems are set aside, and a system for educating farmers in new and better farming methods is created...a system designed to encourage them into setting up communal farms that can use machinery, irrigation, and sustainable techniques with greater efficiency.

Meanwhile, a set of new fertilizer plants begin construction in Chicago, Des Moines, and Madison.

Result: Food prices are beginning to stabilize slightly, slight increase in rural support.

Farmer Relief Funds: 1 Influence, 6+10=16

The second is a more stopgap measure. $60 checks are sent out to the impoverished farmers, with a letter insisting that they do not spend it on their mortgages. Instead, the money should go to "seeds, modernizing their farms, or community support."

The state treasuries groan under the weight of this burden, even with the federal subsidy, but that doesn't matter. The nation is in crisis. Let the government go into debt. What matters is that the hungry are fed.

Result: -1 Influence, increase in rural support, state coffers beginning to run low.


Expand the Eviction Moratorium: 1 Influence, 91+10 =101

The third law is what begins to alarm the conservative media. Vice President Curtis decries the abuse of government authority and suggests a syndicalist conspiracy working to deprive honest, righteous Americans of their hard-earned farms and homes. Homes and farms they bought with the sweat of others.

You don't even bother replying, letting others point out that different members of a political party passing the same laws is hardly unusual.

When the Vice President threatens to send in the army to enforce his instructions and calls upon judges to overturn the laws, you prepare a reply, but Huey Long comes to your defense first, attacking government overreach and federal tyranny, calling Curtis just as bad as the syndicalists.

And while the two reactionary politicians tear chunks out of each other, state police and Red Guards begin halting evictions. Landlords will have to do more than just sit there and count their dollars if they want the rent to keep coming in now.

Result: Eviction is now illegal in all SPA states. While officially temporary, many expect this state of affairs to be permanent.

Anti-Reactionary Laws: 1 Influence, 55+10 = 65

The final law on the agenda is somewhat more unpleasant for many. Even members of your own party are reluctant to vote for it, but simple necessity is a compelling argument. Reactionary militias are growing in strength, backing scabs and protecting agents of capitalism. They must have their legal protection stripped away.

The first part bans scabbing, calling it unlawful interference in labor disputes without outside or mutual agreement. The second bans militias made to intimidate workers and racial and religious terror. The final part is what enables Red Guards to conduct citizen's arrests. It is this law that provides you a legal fig leaf, it is this law that might protect your Red Guards in the Dust Bowl.

Result: Laws banning certain militia groups passed, Totalists strengthened.

Report from the Coordination Committee: 47

What do you do when the people are resisting the government with violence? Meet them with violence of course. The newly socialized police forces are strengthened, given the ability to temporarily deputize and empower citizens, and funds are earmarked for giving them heavier weaponry and specialized, more professional teams to deal with bank robberies and similar actions.

Someone proposes establishing a small airforce of light propeller planes for the Chicago police after some former police and mobsters steal a truck and successfully escape a city. It is vetoed on budget grounds.

Report from the State Legislative Committee: 82

The state governments focus on setting up seed banks and experimental farming communes on public land with what little time they can spare from passing other laws. The rest of their spare time is spent arguing with each other and with state officials to see that the various laws are passed properly - there is significant resistance to what one bureaucrat describes as "a waste of money and time taking red-blooded American farmers and turning them into Soviet peasants through cockanamie lessons on things they already know."

Report from Norman Thomas: 77+10 = 87

Norman has found unexpected success in passing a resolution condemning "the bloodthirsty and vile practice of lynching, most particularly as it is used to suppress and abuse the Negro communities despite their lawful rights to protection under the law."

While significant portions of the Democrats voted against it, the America First Party largely abstained and you and your allies all eagerly supported the measure. The resolution is entirely symbolic, but it's a symbol that can only help you gain the support of the downtrodden sharecroppers of the South.

Ask a Favor

You spend nearly an hour on the phone on the 2nd of July, looking at your agenda as you speak to a dozen leading figures, convincing them to leave aside their own efforts temporarily to help you pass a suite of laws and provide the velvet glove and the iron fist to those hostile to your agenda. It works, although you know you have burnt a great deal of favor. The evident success of your political campaigns has mitigated the impact, but now even more people are arguing about electoralism.


Spend Time With Your Family

Despite your busy schedule, you make sure to find time for your family. You will not neglect them anymore, not if you can help it. Your attention is returned eagerly by Hannah. She might not quite think you are immortal and invincible and unquestionable anymore, but she still greatly admires you.

Every single day you take her home from the party offices, asking questions about what she did and telling her about what you did. She shows you copies of the letters she wrote to Red Guards and the sketches she drew. Lately, she has been trying her hand at buildings instead of people. Fantastical structures that seem like they would never hold up under their own weight decorate the pages she brings home and hangs up in her room.

You don't quite get her fascination with them, but you make sure to never let her know that. She would be crushed if she thought you uninterested, and you would hate yourself if you did that.

Result: Stress lowered, Health slightly improved.

Focus: On the Farms

The alliance with Farmer-Labor and the efforts of the SPA as a whole has revitalized you in rural areas. Outside of your stronghold states, many farmers are still mystified slaves of capital or eager footsoldiers of reaction, but those who proclaim their admiration for Long or their support for MacArthur have grown fewer and further between. You will have to race to persuade others, more distant from the evident benefits of socialism, but that can wait. The gains you have made are undeniable.

Result: Focus completed.