I mean...with both America and the SV mostly on the Eastern Front, is England going to have the logistics for a big landing on a D Day scale, especially as a Johnny Come Lately? Too much American and Soviet blood is going to be spilled to have enough diplomatic leverage to get a chunk of Germany EVEN if they did too. The Commies don't just have the better hand, they have nearly all the cards.
I mean...with both America and the SV mostly on the Eastern Front, is England going to have the logistics for a big landing on a D Day scale, especially as a Johnny Come Lately? Too much American and Soviet blood is going to be spilled to have enough diplomatic leverage to get a chunk of Germany EVEN if they did too. The Commies don't just have the better hand, they have nearly all the cards.
i have basically as little interest in military history as you can have on this site and even i know this ain't it
remember: the French and British have massive colonial empires to fill out their ranks and a vested interest in keeping an allied state by their borders.
(the latter reason is why we axed the Spanish Soviet Republic from the AH.com version)
I'm not sure how one can read about the SEU rather suddenly losing government to the LCP and the FBU's prime-ministership passing from conciliatory unicorns to the conventional liberals and then to a warhawk and come to the conclusion that the cold war is over.
It was merely on break for a bit after the long crisis before things started returning to increasing hostility in the 2010s.
I'm not saying that "the cold war is over", I'm just saying that a lot of SEU voters would probably think that since the TCI had already fulfilled most of Marx's predictions the FBU would probably just dissolve into ashes any day now.
It's less "peaceful coexistence" and more "Joint Security Bureau Agents Uncover Evil TCI Plot To Just Sit Back And Watch The Poor Rise Up And Eat The Rich"
I mean...with both America and the SV mostly on the Eastern Front, is England going to have the logistics for a big landing on a D Day scale, especially as a Johnny Come Lately? Too much American and Soviet blood is going to be spilled to have enough diplomatic leverage to get a chunk of Germany EVEN if they did too. The Commies don't just have the better hand, they have nearly all the cards.
The British Empire is enormous and its resources are vast, and with Clement Attlee to organise its war production into sensible lines it can actually achieve its true potential of output, especially with the pre-war effort the Empire made into preparing greater industries in its most important dominions to try and distribute wider-ranging warmaking capabilities.
Also the Commonwealth goes through Portugal into Falangist Spain after repulsing Sanjurjo's botched attempted invasion of Portugal and from Spain, goes into France via Acquitaine. Where Petain's government unravels breathtakingly fast upon realising they've backed the wrong horse as the French State's military defects to the FBU in real time. Once France is fully liberated, the French military is back into its full swing and reintegrated into Allied command and joins with the Imperial push into west Germany; including a reverse sickle cut by French and British forces through the Ardennes that slips past the Siegfried line which is pinned down with a distraction offensive by Indian, Nigerian, Portuguese, and one token Americuban division while Canadian, Spanish, and South African troops threaten the North-German plains.
Against Germany's manpower depleted, exhausted and hopelessly outnumbered armies, it would only ever end in crushing victory as Franco-British and American-Soviet troops shake hands at Hamburg.
Also once the Italian navy is dealt with, the British Empire is perfectly capable of landing in Sicily and Naples and pressing north from there.
Where Petain's government unravels breathtakingly fast upon realising they've backed the wrong horse as the French State's military defects to the FBU in real time
Marxism-DeLeonism
Left Communism
Organic Centralism
Containment
Fractions:
DeLeonist
Leninist
Internationalist
Environmentalist
Political Position
Center-Left (UASR), Far-Left (International)
Color
Crimson
The Communist Labor Party is one of the three major parties in the Union of American Socialist Republics.
Labor grew from "Workers' Party-Labor", the anti-Horn War, pro-austerity, pro-vanguard faction of the Workers' Party, following the lead of such leaders as Earl Browder and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. After Cannon's dissolution of the CEC, the faction, led by Eric Hass and Lyndon B. Johnson formed the "Communist Labor Party", as one of the two legal successors to the WCPA, with Presidium member and 1928 US vice-presidential nominee James W. Ford as General Secretary of the Party.
Whilst they failed to win in the subsequent 1954 election, the party, under Hass and Detroit delegate Coleman Young, were able to gain control in 1958. Hass' short-lived government was notable for the announcement of the "Luna Program" in 1959, but was derailed by a scandal involving illegal bribes to two top aides to Secretary-General Young. While Young was cleared, he resigned from office, and the scandal paved the way for the Liberation electoral victory in 1960.
Nixon and Johnson would butt heads through the 60's over the former's decentralization and internationalist platform, but the era also saw the two compromise on a number of issues. This policy of semi-cooperation would continue under the Haywood administration. Following the contentious election of 1970, where independent left parties formed a plurality, the CLP and LCP were forced into an alliance, with Johnson as Premier to gain a majority. Despite hopes for the reformation of the Workers' Party (The "Promise of the Moon" as it was later called, due to the Luna Landing that same year), Johnson's untimely death in 1971 placed LCP cadre Grace Lee Boggs into office. With that, Liberation was able to gain enough alliances to win in 1972. Labor, now under biologist Stephen Jay Gould and later Betty Friedan, managed to win out in the mid-to-late 70's, but the rise of the SEU and the aggressive Hampton years would see the CLP decline, only coming into power twice in the next 40 years (1986 under Linda Jenness and 1998 under Ron Dellums).
Still, the party remains a kingmaker, forming alliances as it sees fit between either the LCP or SEU, depending on if it can enact its agenda through either two parties. Currently, the party is considered the smallest of the "major league" parties, and in an alliance with the SEU and even some minor league parties.
The party's general secretary is actor turned politician Daniel DeVito, Jr. (best known as shrewd delegate Louie De Palma in the 70's sitcom Taxi Drivers and later as Louis C. Fraina in the 1987 miniseries Vanguard), and Indian immigrant and urban planner Nithya Raman is Party leader.
Ideology
As one of the two legal successors to the WCP (as indicated by its logo, the old party's emblem), Communist Labor claims to be the true successor in terms of policy (as does Liberation). While both officially adhere to left communism, Communist Labor leans heavily on a literalist interpretation of Basic Law. As such, it officially considers its doctrine "Marxist-DeLeonist" and "Organic Centralist", in accordance with the original WCP platform
Named after thinker Daniel DeLeon (whose name also adorns the capital of the United Republics alongside fellow thinker and occasional rival Eugene Debs), DeLeonism, or "Marxism-DeLeonism", can be seen as a synthesis of Marxist and Syndicalist thought, believing in a strong vanguard party to seize state power and militant industrial unions to both gain power outside the state and to organize democratic power amongst the workplaces. Organicism or organic centralism, a concept originating from Italian American thinker Amadeo Bordiga, is a replacement for the "Democratic Centralism" of the old CPSU, believing that the vanguard party is a key part of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, but that "every member has a say," and the idea of fractions is key to ensuring their "true democratic nature".
In practice, Labor attempts to strengthen the power of the All-Union Government, representative of the Vanguard Party, and heavily integrate the workplace-unions and communes that elect it. Labor believes that the Party and the workplaces should be interdependent, with one electing and empowering the other, in accordance with DeLeonist thought. As opposed to Liberation's and the SEU's doctrine of independent workplaces and less state involvement, the CLP believes that the workers and the state are fundamentally linked and should be united into a single entity, as opposed to workers working outside the system.
As opposed to Liberation or SEU's strong sense of cultural libertinism, Communist Labor views itself as "culturally neutral", largely continuing to adhere to the ideals of the First Cultural Revolution and even some of the Second Cultural Revolution in recent years. Communist Labor believes in remunerative justice; not punitive or rehabilitative. Labor opposed Liberation's steady dismantling of the security state, including the abolition of the civilian death penalty in 1955, the steady de-escalation of the MDSS under Morris Childs and George Bush, and the closings of Alcatraz, Leavenworth, and Joliet (the last remaining "high security" prisons run by the Special Prison Administration from the revolution) in 1978. They are also largely hostile to the nuclear family and view larger communities like "communes" as the basic units of society, in accordance with the First Cultural Revolution.
Contrary to critics, Labor is not "anti-Internationalist." Indeed, it views America as a "nation of nations" (dating back to Langston Hughes' "Brave New World" radio address in 1934) by virtue of its immigrant population, its indigenous peoples and its role in spearheading both the major liberal and socialist revolutions across the world throughout history. "Fundamentally Internationalist", the now cosmopolitan populace of America would be a proving ground for the inevitable future of world communism.
However, as opposed to Liberation's "militarized internationalism" that proposes immediate confrontation with the Franco-British Union via "rollback" or the pacifistic radicalism of the SEU, Communist Labor instead upholds the policy of "containment" in terms of foreign policy. Containment, largely the brainchild of diplomat George Kennan, is a form of a "beachhead" doctrine that prioritizes the further entrenching the dictatorship of the proletariat in the newly-liberated countries and strengthening the Comintern bloc of states in preparation for the "Final Conflict" through furthering the "development of productive forces". Building the conditions for lower-stage communism is necessary for the continued success of Communist states and prevents any reversions.
Labor thus holds that military forces should "contain" capitalist states, preventing their expansion, and let the conditions of capitalism bring them down, instead of fighting to "rollback" capitalism. Labor believes a combination of strong military presence in already existing communist states and "muscular diplomacy" aimed at delegitimizing and weakening the capitalist states is the best way for containment to work.
Fractions
The CLP holds that its fractions are an integral function of the party. Per Bordiga, they are parts of a whole, a movement dedicated to the cause, regardless of its internal differences. The fractions are officially recognized by the party.
DeLeonist- Considered the "core" of the party. Largely follows Marxism-DeLeonism and cultural moderation. Firmly believes in the "dual vanguard" and the further integration of workplace-unions into the government. GenSec DeVito and Leader Raman are members
Leninist- Also called the "Vanguard faction", has a similar platform to the CPSU, with a particular focus on emphasizing the "vanguard party" as the main organ of the proletariat, instead of merely part of a larger "party-union" dual rule arrangement.
Internationalist- Also called "Hampton Labor" or "Red Dog Labor", firmly follows the DeLeonist line of the party, but otherwise aligns with Liberation on foreign policy and cultural issues. However, as opposed to Liberation's mass organization, they believe that rollback is better served by a vanguard party-union pressuring the state.
Environmentalist- Also called "Green Labor", believes that the vanguard party-union should push for more environmental regulations. Often caucuses with the SEU on environmental regulations.
Party General Secretaries
James W. Ford (1954-1958)
Coleman Young (1958-1960)
Bayard Rustin (1960-1966)
Georgia Cozzini (1966-1975)
Jules Levin (1975-1984)
Bella Abzug (1984-1987)
Manuel "Spain" Rodriguez (1987-2000)
Sonia Johnson (2000-2008)
Lisa Edelstein (2008-2014)
Daniel DeVito, Jr. (2014- present)
Party Leaders
Eric Hass (1954-1960)
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1960-1971)
Stephen Jay Gould (1971-1976)
Betty Friedan (1976-1980)
Linda Jenness (1980-1988)
Ben Cayetano (1988-1992)
Elizabeth Rowley (1992-1996)
Ron Dellums (1996-2002)
Mary Cal Hollis (2002-2008)
Bob Kiss (2008-2014)
Miguel Figueroa (2014-2020)
Nithya Raman (2020- present)
They were operating under the assumption that France and Germany working together would be an unbeatable combination of Europe's (and thus the world's in their minds) greatest land-based military traditions and most powerful armies. When they realised that against the full might of America, the British Empire, and the Soviet Union they were going to lose; most of those who backed Petain pulled the old "actually I'm just an anti-communist patriot" card and changed teams; seeing the side-switching of whole divisions, corps, and even armies at a time. With the French army largely intact rather than having to be built up from scratch like OTL, they can quickly be put to work for the push into Germany itself after being vetted.
Also the Free-French forces are larger than OTL as well, containing much of the colonial African forces from French West Africa as well as Equatorial Africa and the evacuated divisions loyal to Blum during Petain's initial coup in 1942.
The forces that remain loyal to Germany and the rump French state are primarily those of the SS-Charlemagne who create the short lived Ordensstaat-Salfrank out of the territory they still control before being swept aside in the offensives of 1945.
The loss of North Africa, the defeat in Iberia, and the attacks on Southern Italy and Acquitaine provide the impetus for the French nationalists to save their own skins.
"Look, I didn't go to Ethiopia just to have pansies like you take my freedom away from me!"
"You went to Ethiopia in 1993 to open up a co-op."
"And a lot of good men died in that co-op!"
Communist Labor instead upholds the policy of "containment" in terms of foreign policy. Containment, largely the brainchild of diplomat George Kennan, is a form of a "beachhead" doctrine that prioritizes the further entrenching the dictatorship of the proletariat in the newly-liberated countries and strengthening the Comintern bloc of states in preparation for the "Final Conflict" through furthering the "development of productive forces".
Also it's worth noting that for most of modern history, France was regarded as the greatest land power of Europe with the finest army and the best generals; especially in the wake of the Spanish Empire's decline and the Holy Roman Empire's failure to consolidate. It was only their crushingly swift defeat in 1940 through a series of unfortunate events and decades of making fun of them for it that France stopped being seen as a first-class military power (and honestly throughout the cold war, France was the second strongest land army in NATO by a large margin even with the trimming down of its military from its pre-war heights and the modern French army is only rivalled by Russia in the entirety of Europe). And Vichy France was forcibly disarmed while Free France had little more than colonial dregs and a few escaped divisions and so the army had to be rebuilt almost from the ground-up. Before then, 1870-71 was seen as a brief fluke in the pride of the glorious Armee.
Without the disassembly of the French army and with its record largely unblemished from its strong accounting for itself on both sides of the war and the instrumentality of the reunified French army in destroying Germany and Italy's western forces the legacy of Napoleon is still seen as unbroken. Especially as France doesn't heavily draw down its military like it did OTL post-war due to NATO policies of hiding behind nukes and France being very non-committal to NATO at the best of times.
Without the disassembly of the French army and with its record largely unblemished from its strong accounting for itself on both sides of the war and the instrumentality of the reunified French army in destroying Germany and Italy's western forces the legacy of Napoleon is still seen as unbrokens.
I was mostly referring to Reds showing off how utterly incompetent the Nazis really were. That, and the fact that even Brazil couldn't save the Axis as well as the utter spread of communism due to wehrbs hating anything to the left of Speer.
