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

No matter how ridiculous the instructions make you feel, you follow them to the letter. You are not unfamiliar with subterfuge, even if you prefer to leave it to other men. So you enter Central Park late one night in a crude disguise: a long coat and a hat. It makes you sweat, but you have handled worse discomfort.

You are only accompanied by a single guard, one of your most trusted - Isaac Goldstein has been in the party since he was a boy, and he has shed blood in your defense no less than four times. Even so, the relative lack of protection is enough to make you uneasy. Every rustle of bushes in the night or snap of a twig has your head pivoting as you try desperately to track the sound.

You find the bench that was described, then the hollow in a tree beside it. You slip in a letter with a time and a place and leave, gladly returning to your bed and your wife's arms.

Two days later you again leave with only Isaac for company.

You make your way down into the city, into the Lower East Side, where Jewish immigrants in their thousands have arrived seeking to prosper in a free land, and now seek to make the land free. You wind your way through streets festooned with banners of the grain and gear and six pointed stars, patrolled by men in yarmulkes and red armbands.

You find a little kosher butcher shop run by a man Schenk assured you was discreet.

Waiting for you are three men. Two you do not recognize.

One is Schenk.

He holds up a hand, speaking before you can.

"I'm sorry about all this, Jack. I wanted to simply tell you the truth, but I was outvoted. In any case, you know now. I am a member of the Red Army Faction. And of course, you already know our demands: Class war, unrelenting and unceasing, until the red flag is flown sea to shining sea. There can be no hesitation, no betrayal of our principles, no peace until we have triumphed. And there is no price that shouldn't be paid for the victory of the working class."

The man standing to his left speaks. "And you aren't willing to give us that. You are a reformist, nothing more. Olson and Norris and LaFollette are your allies."

He seems like he's going to say more, but the man on Schenk's right interrupts him. "Comrade Reed has demonstrated his commitment and courage many times. The Red Guards have been unleashed on reactionaries time and time again. A tactical disagreement does not make him a reformist."

It's rather obvious what they are doing.

Annoyingly, that doesn't mean it fails.

The two men to Schenk's side keep badgering you, one offering praise and being conciliatory, while the other offers insults and snarls aggressively.

And all the while Schenk keeps the peace, handling things. You are put at a disadvantage by the circumstances, you are outnumbered and on unfamiliar ground.

And so you find yourself questioning your own judgement.

So you turn the tables.

Schenk wants cooperation with the Red Army Faction? Well, what will the workers get out of it?

You make him describe what he envisions, treating it like any of the operations he has proposed to you.
Some of them seem half-mad schemes, like training livestock to be part of the "total war" he envisions as an inevitability.

Some of them seem almost counterproductively vicious, like the taking of hostages from capitalist families and direct attacks on churches.

Some of them seem bold but potent, like the creation of "do-or-die" squads from the most determined Red Guards to be used for near-suicidal missions.

And some of them are just common sense, like the expansion of the Revolutionary Guards so that they can be used to more effectively investigate and defeat counterrevolutionary plots.

He has a lot to say, and a lot to offer. But what the cost is he doesn't say.

But you can guess at what it would be anyway.

At a minimum, he will want to allow for cooperation between the SPA's networks and the RAF's networks.

He will also probably want protection for RAF agents committing their acts of total war.

There might be more, but you will have to decide.

Schenk, seeing you hesitant, begins to boast of some of their operations. He describes how the RAF has assassinated leaders of Share Our Wealth Clubs throughout California, disrupting such counterrevolutionary organizations. He brags of leaving the mutilated bodies of Pinkertons outside the homes of other strikebreakers.

And he smiles as he speaks of it.

You have some choices to make...

[] Fully reject any cooperation with him and his ilk. This will certainly cause Schenk to leave, and may provoke a dangerous reaction. However, you trust the loyalty of your guards.
[] Delay and buy time. He will continue working with you to advance the cause of the proletariat, but he will likely be maneuvering to persuade you to accede to his point of view. Of course, you can do the same...and you can reopen negotiations later.
[] Lay an offer on the table. The Red Army Faction have some decent points, and they are hardly the most intolerable people you have worked with. But they do need to be kept on a leash. (The Red Army Faction becomes a faction similar to other SPA factions with their own special ability group. They also have an additional stat, Cooperation, which represents how inclined they are to listen to you as opposed to how much they like you. Initial Relations and Cooperation will be determined by the point total of the offer. Concessions add points, demands remove them.)
-[] Work with Schenk to ensure members of the Commission of Revolutionary Defense are wholly dedicated to the cause. (+5 points)
-[] Provide financial aid to the Red Army Faction. (+3 points. -2 Resources per month, may cause a political reaction if discovered)
-[] Agree to allow Red Army Faction members the protection of the SPA, including encouraging cadres to hide them, letting them use Commission resources such as safehouses, and providing legal defenses for captured faction members. (+5 points, may cause a political reaction.)
-[] Agree to share information between the Commission and the RAF. (+2 points)
-[] Agree to begin stepping up the campaign against reactionaries. (+3 points)
-[] Agree to begin working to marginalize reformists within the party. (+3 points)
-[] Ask Schenk to step down from his position and let you appoint a replacement without rancor. (-5 points)
-[] Ask for major Red Army Faction operations to only be launched with your permission. (-4 points)
-[] Ask that certain categories of actions such as the taking of hostages or attacks on churches be restricted. (-4 points)
-[] Ask to be provided a list of RAF members. (-6 points)
-[] Ask that they do not even consider attacking members of the SPA. (-3 points.)