Expand the Party Line: 3 Influence, 41+58+8+10 = 117
You broach the matter with the hardcore Syndicalists first, given that they were the ones who started this particular problem. Careful discussions in party offices and quiet arrangements have revealed a mirror of the split in the IWW: some are enthusiastic supporters of social justice, true equality, and the destruction of bourgeois morality, others have reservations. In some cases, these reservations are principles giving way to what they see as practicalities. They do not deem the sharecropper an important part of the revolutionary coalition and they expect those who have emigrated to SPA-dominated cities to be avid supporters given the IWW's efforts already. In other, thankfully fewer cases, you suspect there is at least some racism underlying their opinions.
Regardless of where this decision came from, a significant fraction of the Syndicalists agreed initially to maintain unity and the status quo, but when Haywood brought up his proposal, several panicked and reacted "somewhat unfairly" in the words of one of their members, although you would use stronger language.
During one of the recesses where attempts at calming the delegates were made, a hasty alliance between the Syndicalists and Ultraleft Farmer Labor to block the planned change. Given their awareness of the weakness those factions had, they relied on savage, brutal rhetoric in an attempt to strengthen their position.
Now it has had the opposite effect.
You push and pressure them, bringing to bear every rhetorical trick you know to make them agree, and then you call for a three-part vote.
The first was some mostly symbolic censures of the party members who were most acrimonious. The second was an affirmation of everyone's commitment to party unity.
The third was the dangerous part. You proposed adding a line to the party platform, going beneath the current statement about racial justice, adding that the SPA will pursue "social, political, and legal equality for the American Negro" as part of a broader program of addressing various structural injustices.
Haywood seconded your motion, and then the centrists of the party voted in support, their sheer numbers making opposing it futile.
The reaction wasn't as bad as you feared. There were a few defections from the party, but nothing that would truly weaken you. The Socialist Party of America has held together, and together you will march onwards to the Revolution.
Results: Stance on racial justice and minority rights clarified, slightly increased party unity, the Centrists are likely to use their high Strength to control future debates. Relations and Strengths changed.
Encourage the Correspondence: 1 Influence, 59+15 = 74
The first letter you write is a perfunctory thing. It's simple well-wishes that go out to the CNT-FAI as a whole. You make sure it is as public as possible though, and while you wait for their reply you begin to read everything about Spain you can get your hands on.
A similar reply comes back, and you write an equally public but significantly more detailed letter noting the commonalities in your struggles, especially against the false democracies of Spain and America.
Around this point, you notice others writing their own letters, and begin to sponsor special shipments to Spain containing them. Even your daughter gets involved, becoming penpals with two girls in Catalonia who's parents are active in the union.
About a week later, you get another letter, bringing simple instructions to stay at a certain hotel the next time you are in Washington, DC.
You obey with all the caution you can muster, and find yourself awoken in the middle of the night by a Canadian.
"Our comrades in the Syndintern send their regards. And we would like to hear your opinion on how the struggles of the proletariat fare in this place."
His voice is calm and steady, but you can't help but notice his hands are trembling, and that he is careful to keep his back to the wall.
You propose meeting again in the morning, with coffee.
And thus begins a rather fruitful relationship with a man who tells you his name is Alexander.
The first shipment of guns is on its way within a week.
Result: Contact made with the Syndintern, action continues.
Proletarian Unity: 1 Authority
You have found a deep rot within the Socialist Party and the Combined Syndicates. Significant portions of both are tainted by racism in a number of forms, from a vicious, corrosive hatred that wouldn't be out of place at a Klan meeting to a lofty assumption of moral and intellectual superiority to a simple contempt and disregard. None of them are acceptable. None of them are to be tolerated. You expound on it like a preacher from his pulpit. You write a dozen articles and essays. You go on the radio to expand on your opinions and beliefs.
You argue that it is immoral. You argue that it is foolish. You argue that it is counterproductive. You argue that it is counterrevolutionary. You list countless incidents where racism weakened revolutionary activity. It has broken strike after strike, been used to destroy organization after organization, and turned workers away from their true enemies time and time again.
You argue and argue and argue and argue, a long and painful and seemingly futile process.
But you start to see some changes in people's attitudes.
Result: Begun countering racist narratives, changes in strengths and attitudes within the SPA and CSA beginning to form, slight increase in minority support, further actions unlocked, slight decrease in overall support from within the CSA and SPA.
Minority Rights: 1 Influence, 6+20 = 26
You spend so much time speaking on the importance of resisting racism and creating solidarity, trying to create bottom-up support for the notion, that you nearly miss a major opportunity for going from the top-down. The vote is about to be called while you are away at a party meeting in Des Moines, convincing members of the Red Grange not to segregate the youth groups they are planning on creating.
Norman Thomas and four other Senators filibuster until you manage to return. To make it easier for them, you made use of an airplane for the first time. It was a rather terrifying experience, all told.
Norman has done an incredible amount of work for you on this. It's provoked some grumbling, again about you focusing on "pet projects" while leaving the real work to others.
You can't tell how much of this is frustration with your heavy-handedness on anti-racism, how much it is those you have attacked trying to counter you, and how much is genuine concern about your behavior. Regardless, it has cost you some support.
Results: Norman has managed to pass some significant laws.
Local Elections: 1 Influence, 7+15 = 22
It takes money, time, and guns to get sheriffs and county judges and mayors friendly to the SPA in charge. In dozens of small towns across America, fierce campaigns are run, supported by agitators and Red Guards. The same tactics that have been used before time and time again to remove forces hostile to the workers come out again.
But they don't quite work as well. You don't have the overwhelming support or the goodwill you do in the major cities.
In some places, old administrations are tossed out unceremoniously. In several cases where the towns were effectively dominated by rapacious corporations, rowdy posses and their Red Guard allies tar and feather the old leadership or hold impromptu tribunals. In others, massive protests force the small-town dictators to surrender their power.
But in many more your supporters are met with an unreasonable amount of hostility.
They arrive in small towns to find doors shut in their faces. They are arrested, beaten, stabbed, and shot. And the Red Guards fight back. Peaceful small-town streets become painted with blood. Several opposing leaders are executed in places where resistance is especially fierce, and the collateral damage is likely to be substantial.
Peter and the boys had gotten warning from two towns over. The syndicalists were coming to impose a dictatorship, to burn and loot, to carry off their wives and daughters for rape gangs. The police had come out in force, and taken every able-bodied man they could find. The main roads were barricaded, the younger men were set to watch the sides, and every gun in town found its way into a pair of willing hands.
The mob approached in a bus, painted blood red. It stopped a few hundred feet away and twenty men marched out, some armed some not.
One started to step forwards.
A dozen rifles were pointed at his chest. "Don't come any closer, you son of a bitch! You and yours best just turn around!"
The man stopped. "We're just here to talk, we don't want to cause any trouble."
"You caused plenty of trouble at Grantville. We don't want you, we don't want your hunkies, we don't want your Papists, we don't want your Negroes! Turn around!" Peter yelled, and the others joined in, volleying abuse at them.
The armed reds shifted, uneasy, but their leader held up a hand. "There was a fight in Grantville, yes. One of the Guards got a little drunk. We disciplined him and sent him home..."
"Turn around! This is private property, and you are trespassing!" Peter shouted.
Someone pulled a trigger.
You are sitting in your office, head on your hands. Blood pounds in your temples as you read yet another report of failures. You took the wrong approach in your instructions, and so many are paying the price for it. You begin to draft a letter with new instructions...
And Daniel J. Tobkin, accompanied by two flunkies, enters unexpectedly. "Mister Reed, I hear your boys have run into a spot of bother."
He makes a proposal of his own. Tobkin wants you to take a radically different tack. Instead of ousting hostile leaders, he wants you to subvert them, and he assures you he will be able to lend extensive resources to this task.
You find yourself listening, but you notice he makes no mention of what he wants from you. Tobkin is not the sort of person to spend so much influence for so little gain.
You thank him, and tell him you will decide soon.
[] Accept Tobkin's offer. The action will complete in the background, with a lower DC than if you did it on your own. Increase in support from The Teamster's Union.
[] Reject Tobkin's offer, and have the Red Guards and agitators continue as normal.
[] Reject Tobkin's offer, and pull back. You will need a stronger base of support in these areas before trying again.
Socialist Radio Networks, 87+5 = 92
The expansion of the radio network goes rapidly. Multiple attempts at legal blockages are dealt with in friendly courts, several attempted sabotage operations by reactionary militias are suppressed, and the newly established organizing committee of the CSA has begun publishing their first advice program for budding radio speakers, a guide to stations in various parts of the country, and establishing a funding system for creating new transmitters.
The network is developed enough that you can begin making speeches that will be heard by people in three states, while other speakers can manage similar feats. Soon though, you will have the ability to be heard across the nation as distant stations are connected together. (Apparently you need telephone wires for that? Even though the whole point of radio is that it's wireless? That's what the professionals say.)
Result: Progress continues. The SPA Radio Committee is proving very popular, and people are beginning to tune in.
Report from the Coordination Committee: 2 Influence on Limited Local Elections, 35+33+5 = 73
The Coordination Committee invested significantly more time in managing the groups they sent to secure support, carefully ensuring they behaved properly. The Red Guards frequently chafed at this short leash, but accepted it.
More importantly, the Committee picked their targets well. Many local leaders, though corrupt, reactionary, and behaving contrary to the interests of the workers are popular for a variety of reasons. The leaders they targeted were ones who were vulnerable. In many cases, the revelation of scandals (having protection does wonders for enabling victims to speak up against their attackers) assisted these changes in leadership.
A small, fragile network of councilmen, sheriffs, judges, police chiefs, and civic leaders has spread across Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and parts of several other states. The influence of the socialist party is not yet dominant in these areas, but it is steadily growing. Further outreach efforts will likely be needed to overturn the remaining leadership, although portions of these are beginning to accommodate themselves to the coming transformations.
Report from Norman Thomas: 1 Influence on Federal Worker's Rights, 55+10 = 65, 2 Influence on Minority Rights, 91+90+10 = 191
Norman has spent an incredible amount of time and energy lobbying Senators and Congressmen. He's worked sixteen hour days for two weeks straight, determined to see the legislation he desires passed. He has ignored questions from the party, hostile protests, and violent attacks on his character.
And the Cactus Clique has been outmaneuvered. Shouted down and demoralized, they are forced to concede in the Senate and the House.
The worker's rights section of the bill is limited, simply ending yellow-dog contracts and establishing that workers have a right to unionize. Introduced by Senator Norris, this is the bill's second time in Congress. The barrage of abuse directed by the Socialist Senators finally allowed it to be passed, giving one of the many rights that Americans have long been denied to the people.
Senator Norris received much of the credit from people, while his own party attacked him for "colluding" with you.
The Anti-Lynching Law, however, is Norman's from start to finish. Viciously opposed at every step, it is nonetheless forced through by endless negotiations and maneuverings on Norman's part, including several barrels of pork that threaten to break the budget of the U. S. Government and veteran's pensions, all bundled together as part of one law.
The law dies in veto, provoking widespread, wildy outraging thousands.
Protests and marches begin across the country. A few are even started in the heart of the South, although they are met with the gun, the noose, and the pyre.
In response, laws are passed in state governments across the country. Some only ban lynching. Some go further. "In Illinois, we remember the Declaration of Independence. All are equal, we make no exceptions!" says an old friend of yours, to enthusiastic applause.
Report from the Legislative Committee: 2 Influence on Cut Out the Rot, 72+10 = 82
Lower-ranked officials are fired by the dozen. Higher ones are forced to resign. Many return home to find police officers waiting. They are taken in, and asked questions with only a little regard for their rights and protections, and demands are made. "Did you steal state funds? Do you know any who did? Did you attempt to sabotage the tax collection? Did you take bribes? Do you know anyone who did?"
The questions are asked, again and again and again. The answers are used to fire more, to arrest more, to sweep through the government organs like white blood cells through the bodily ones.
The halls of government are ever so briefly left as silent as a tomb. A great deal of knowledge and experience has vanished from them, but the fierce resistance that so many displayed has as well.
In its place is excitement and enthusiasm as fresh hires, inexperienced and uncertain but determined to serve the people file in. Discussions rage in buildings where the only words had been dry as dust as the new and eager plot ways to make things work better, disregarding the hesitant advice of those few who avoided the purge.
Perhaps a fresh dawn has come.
But just a few miles away, in a jail cell, men sit aching and cold and scared and weary, fresh anger burning in their hearts. They murmur justifications to each other, finding seeds of truth within each one and watering them. They are angry, and perhaps rightly so.
But what can they do about it?
Report from Smedley Butler: 1 Influence on Instilling Discipline,10+14 = 24, 1 Influence on A Reporting System, 12
The changes Butler has been making in the Red Guards has prompted outcry and anger. As the month passed, resistance rallied. Many branches of the Red Guards underwent schisms, with new, looser organizations such as the Boston Worker's Militia, the Seattle Red Army, and the Midwestern Farmer Defense Force forming from those displeased with the reforms.
Meanwhile, the creation of the reporting system was stalled by paranoia over Butler possibly using it to remove opponents and become a Napoleon.
Numerous promises and agreements were made as Butler sought desperately to turn the disorganized militia into a competent and capable force. He conceded the right for local militias to punish their own and for changes to the articles he intends to create to be voted on by each individual force.
Some of the new organizations return to the greater fold, while others insist on maintaining their independence.
Gradually, the behavior of the Red Guards begins to improve.
Gradually, they become more mindful of the duties and obligations they have.
Work Overtime: Cost: Severely stressful, unhealthy, bad for your family. DC: No roll. Results: +1 temporary Influence.
You put in endless hours this month, crisscrossing the country again and again, spending days in backrooms that stink of cigarette smoke and sleeping in your office. You leave Flora to take care of your daughter, walking her to and from the office, and you can only occasionally spare the time to check on her.
She's still a bright and happy child, but she clearly is missing you.
You promise to spend more time with her next month.
Jesus, you need a vacation.
Choose A Focus: Promises of Equality
Race was not something Marx thought about in great depth. He saw it as something the capitalists used to divide and weaken the workers, and perhaps that is all it was in Germany so many years ago. But in America, it has become something more. It is a twisted hierarchy of social, economic, and political discrimination that leaves thousands suffering in unnatural poverty, and would continue doing so even if it was abolished today.
There needs to be more than just the abolishing of Jim Crow and the creation of more socialized modes of production. The social fabric of the South needs to be torn up, the oppressed need to be given the opportunity to speak for themselves at last, and restitution must be made.
The recent modification to the party line is a start, but it is a statement of direction, not action.
There is more to be done.
But you have already gone further than any other party, and you will make it clear that there are no brakes on this train. You will accept nothing less.
Result: Focus completed.
Ask a Favor
As the party convulses with turmoil, you burn carefully accumulated favors to ensure your success. The donations from the Centrists pour in, as agitators and organizers and politicians more determined to build a revolution than worry how it is built whip up extra enthusiasm for giving for a better tomorrow.
The dedicated Marxists are pushed to assist you in keeping the party together so that the Vanguard does not splinter, and they back your motions in the party congresses to the hilt.
The Parliamentarians obligingly write letter after letter, and telegram after telegram, and make speech after speech, advocating for electoralism and minority rights...just as one of its starkest failures is exposed.
Result: +4 Resources, bonuses to actions.
A/N: Not a great turn, but Norman did amazing work as usual. You should do something nice for him sometimes. 2 hour moratorium.
