Develop a Radicalization Pipeline: 1 Influence, 86+35=121
The SPA is undeniably a mass party, with massive popular support, but that does not mean it is universally loved. Even many in the working class, those who should most strongly support you, refuse out of false consciousness or delusion. Meanwhile, the labor aristocracy, the intelligentsia, the bankers and plutocrats who conspire to suck the blood out of millions of innocents stand opposed to you out of selfish greed.
Your enemies have wealth and weaponry, but you are not without advantages of your own. And the greatest one is the collapse of American capitalism, a collapse that came about entirely through the system's internal contradictions.
For the past decade, Americans have been faced with hunger, with dispossession, with crime, with repression, with grinding poverty of the worst sort. Successive governments have failed to quell it, instead only worsening the situation through their desperate attempts to prop up capitalists.
And more than any other group, we have been the ones salving those wounds. We can do more if we are stronger. If we are strong enough, we can create an entirely new system and remove the chance of any such depression happening ever again. And it is written in the Declaration of Independence that we have the right to do so.
Now we just have to convince people of that...
Fortunately, we have plenty of evidence to use.
Choose 4 pieces of evidence to be the centerpiece of a propaganda campaign designed to radicalize those who still lukewarm.
[] The inability of the current governmental system to resolve the issues plaguing Americans
[] The immense violence that has repeatedly been used on innocents
[] The stubborn refusal of many leaders of current society to grant even the smallest concession
[] The long-term failure of traditional social relief institutions
[] The undemocratic nature of the last presidential election and other elements of American governance
[] The poverty of the everyday American, and how the SPA has improved their lot
[] The poverty of the everyday American, despite the great wealth being produced and consumed
[] Write-in
Report from the Coordination Planning Committee: 2 Influence on Community Check-Ins, 9+70+20=99+10=109
If there is one fundamental truth of the past decade, it is that being an American worker means suffering. The terror of violence, the grinding strain of poverty, the instability of a failing system have doubtless contributed to people's sanities beginning to falter.
But as with all things, the application of socialist principles can improve the situation. Budgets, small ones, are set aside in many towns and cities, with local governments responsible for using them to fund volunteer teams, with carefully managed democratic checks on their authority and activity.
The unhealthy and the lonely are paid visits to ensure that they are feeling alright, along with the few who request such visits. In many communities, this treatment is extended to the elderly and others, with volunteers bringing them meals, helping them with chores, and accompanying them on walks.
It has also become common for these teams to provide occasional visits to extreme capitalists and other reactionary individuals.
It's obviously a program with serious teething issues, especially since many are reluctant to ask for help, fearing the stigma of suffering from mental disease. There are also issues with neglect of minority-dominated areas in several cities, jurisdictional conflicts, concerns about what sort of private behavior should be viewed as problematic, and more.
But it is also a program that has benefited many people, assuaged many concerns, and improved many communities.
Report from Norman Thomas: 2 Influence on Write the Bigger Bill, 90+9+25=124, 2 Influence on Political Grandstanding, 37+81+15=133
The first step of writing a bill is to decide what it is supposed to do. In this case, that is a simple question. Thomas's goal is to push for genuine reform to alleviate the suffering of as many Americans as possible.
Your goal is to be able to justify rejecting just that reform without costing the SPA political support. And to also alleviate the suffering of Americans. But you find yourself wondering which is more important to you on late nights as you try to sleep on an ever-moving train.
By telegram and in person, you and Thomas begin creating your own ambitious bill. You demand national welfare from the cradle to the grave: free childcare, healthcare and retirement care, unemployment benefits, subsidized food, and rent. You demand the curtailment of imperialist ventures in South America and the Caribbean. You demand the establishment of equal rights for all races. You demand and you demand and you demand, making the bill as inflammatory as possible.
That's the first half done.
Meanwhile, from the seats in the House and Senate, SPA Senators and Congressmen rise and begin speaking. Insults and abuse rain down on the heads of cowards and capitalists as proud socialists ask why they support such oppressive systems. Challenges as to why popular legislation and policy is not even being discussed fill the air.
You show up a time or two, toss some cutting remarks at the enemy leadership, then turn and leave.
What little decorum was left in Congress is vanishing. There are full-on screaming fights, entire committees have failed because their members cannot work together anymore, and it's all being reported in loving detail by reporters.
In a desperate attempt to salvage the failing prestige of the American government, access for the public is increasingly restricted, with safety concerns being the excuse given in response to protests. The ranks of soldiers who form a permanent barrier around the Capitol and the police who line its inner chambers suggest there might be some truth to that.
But the appearance is of a government of tyrants, terrified of its own people. In other words, it exposes the federal government as exactly what it is.
Report from Smedley Butler: 2 Influence on Instilling Discipline, 14+70+40=124
Butler's relentless drive to improve the discipline and professionalism of the Red Guards continues as he mercilessly works to whip them into shape. Delinquency is punished, morale is improved, and continuous lectures on what it means to be a Red Guard are given by commissars and officers.
There's no mercy and not an ounce of bend in the so-called Red Marine. The militiamen who protect your rallies and attack your foes speak of him with a mix of awe and resentment, which Butler says is a good sign.
He's still not satisfied with their conduct, he still thinks they could be better, but without turning them into a full-time army there is only so much that can be done and so he is beginning to turn to other reforms...and to handling the various other leftist militias that have begun springing up, although he recognizes they are currently a low priority.
Report from Charles Schenk: 1 Influence on Finding Tools, Farming Edition, 46+10=56, 2 Influence on Infiltrate the Enemy Within, 42+40+10=92
The final contacts are made, their loyalties secured with bribery and blackmail. From the most mild to the most militant, if the farmers attempt to subvert the dictatorship of the proletariat, Schenk is confident he will know about it and be able to disrupt it by tearing apart their groups.
He has begun taking a somewhat similar approach to the SPA reformists, bribing and blackmailing some of their extant members as well as their prospective recruits. His greater familiarity with the SPA's structures makes it much easier for people to be placed where he needs them.
And that immediately bears fruit as his tools in the party begin feeding him (and by extension you) information. From them you learn of the massive military support Long is sending his Minutemen throughout the South, of "alternate relief networks" being set up along the lines of the SPA's soup kitchens and housing but with the goal of de-revolutionizing the working class, and of the frequent switches between terror and exhilaration of the reformists and progressives as they view the coming months as either the crucible that will forge their movement into the hammer that will save the nation or the flames that will consume them and America with it.
Some of this information is highly concerning. Long backing the Minutemen is nothing new, but the sheer number of grenades and mortars they are getting suggests something major is planned. The reformist relief projects may well be backed by BOI money, Schenk speculates, or perhaps by far-sighted capitalists. But the uncertainty of the progressives is possibly useful, as it could divide them at a crucial moment, or persuade them to support something they would ordinarily be against.
Report from Ben Stevens: 2 Influence on the Farmworker's Union, 75+70+35=180
The creation of the Farmworker's Union is a smashing success, one that sees people signing up in droves. Union recruiters are swarmed by the sheer number who want to get involved, paying dues and demanding action. The expense for arranging this is made well-worth it from the sheer expansion of the reach of socialism.
Ben Stevens is ecstatic and overwhelmed, delighted at the results of his marshaling the combined power of the CSA to reach out to the people he has the most sympathy for. "Every man and woman toiling to work on someone else's farm is a comrade in our class war!" he cried to a cheering crowd.
And buoyed by the triumph, he continues on, expanding the mandate, reaching out to those who do own land but have been rendered destitute, to the cooperative members who were on strike just a few weeks ago, and to so many more. Here there is less success, but less is not none. And so the ranks of the Red Grange swell even further. They are still an undeniable minority in the halls of the CSA, but they are a growing one.
And Ben clearly aims to make them grow even further.
Although IWW members who find themselves having missed the opportunity grumble and complain, they are unwilling to try and sabotage him. And the farmers and rural capitalists who haven't already decided to bow to the tide are growing more and more terrified and more and more determined not to flee, but they don't have the strength to stand against the "damned Syndicalist hordes" they fearmonger about.
What will stop him? What will stop the Red Grange?
You sincerely hope the answer is nothing.
Report from the Propaganda Committee: 1 Influence on Tales to Tell, 76+10=86, 1 Influence on Professional Reporters, 21+6=27, 2 Influence on Cross-Racial Agitation, 87+23+26=136, 2 Influence on Showing Solidarity, 18+21+26=65
With the publishing companies set up, all sorts of entertainment are getting put out and sold for a very reasonable price. Struggling artists and writers of all kinds are given an opportunity to earn some money, with limited oversight as long as nothing is explicitly pro-capitalism, reaction, racism, and so forth. And as long as stories with content inappropriate for children are marked as such.
There's a not-insignificant source of revenue from these books, but most of it gets plowed back into paying the writers and buying paper and ink and glue. But most isn't all.
Another concern of the propaganda committee is quality. Articles that are easily proven false, smudged ink, and other issues have dogged many of the newspapers that report favorably on the SPA due to lack of funds. Many columnists are unionized and are fighting against their publishers, but that doesn't mean they would want to take the pay cut working for a small socialist paper would require.
So their pay is raised, and then you have dramatically better reporters willing and even eager to begin working for the many "red rags" of America. Finding editors is still something of a problem, but it's less of one now, and there are more photographers too, even if many are working on a relatively informal basis.
Those are relatively minor issues for the Propaganda Committee. Much of their attention is on fighting against racism with word and image, something you wholeheartedly support.
A two-pronged approach is decided on. The first, and the more important prong is to encourage people to mix and mingle, while the second is to show that people already do so, to emphasize the interracial solidarity of the worker's movement. Hopefully, this attack will shatter the barriers that already remain.
Posters are designed, pamphlets are printed, speeches are made. And always, always, always, a few key themes are used. People are stronger together than apart. Diversity is good. All workers deserve respect.
"Meet those who are different. Hear their stories. Share their meals. Show them the courtesy and deference they show you. And remember, the workers are strongest when united."
It's a simple message and a reasonably effective one. It will take time to make its full impact, but you are assured there are some effects already visible.
Ben Little: 1 Influence on Clothing Distribution, 3+5=8, 2 Influence on Send Union Organizers to Louisville, 29+51+30=110
The attempt at organizing the clothing distribution falters on the basis that there isn't that much clothing to be found. American supply chains are in serious disrepair, and something will need to be done. Ben tried to visit the South to make some contacts in hopes of purchasing cotton, and nearly died in the process.
Then he goes to Louisville and finds a city intensely divided. Many of the labor unions supported the taking of the city, even if it was an undeniably illegal maneuver that had required several murders to pull off. But others have willingly cooperated with the federal government, out of greed or fear or some other reason. And the most blatant misdeeds of the capitalists and the police have been reined in enough to prevent the creation of the sort of mass support that would be needed to retake the city. Even the Silver Legion and the Klan and the Protectors and various other anti-Syndicalist militias have been quiet, mollified by the apparent destruction of the Syndicalist movement in the city and more concerned with planning how to expand that to the rest of the country.
For the moment, it's not truly fertile soil. But Ben Little is an excellent gardener, and he finds that there are seeds that can be sprouted.
The police might have temporarily pulled back from several neighborhoods and reduced the viciousness of their behavior after having seen the strength of the working class, but many of their members have escaped any sort of punishment for corruption or brutality. So Little works with several already present organizers and plans a march on the police station to demand justice.
People react predictably. One thing leads to another, and the Front chapter of Lousiville announces their intent to execute every "godless, anti-American red who fails to surrender," forcing those who had been standing on the sidelines to pick which side they are on.
Sympathy demonstrations spring up in several other cities, including Frankfort, and unrest explodes throughout Kentucky.
Red banners fly and militias charge. Streets fill with clashing protestors, and riot after riot begins. The Louisville city hall is seized by Red Guards, who are then forced out by police armed with looted National Guard equipment, including tanks, but then the ruins of the hall are reclaimed.
Someone has begun a bombing campaign attacking government offices throughout the state, attacking any sort of official building. Someone else has begun assassinating union leaders. It's entirely possible both are the work of the same people or group.
The entire state is in chaos, and it's honestly a miracle that troops haven't been sent in. Over the objections of Socialists and Longists in the Kentucky government, the National Guard has been sent in, with elements sympathetic to the "rebels" carefully purged, but though they can retake cities and railroads they can't break the spirit of the workers. And so Kentucky simmers.
It wasn't quite what Little intended to happen.
The SPA Cadres: 2 Influence on The Union Home, 21+20+7=48, 2 Influence on Judicial Replacement, 10+13=23
At long last, the grand housing project is finished...just in time for the Planning Commission, in loose cooperation with various state and local governments, to begin expanding the housing and build new shops and other facilities around them. It's undeniable proof of what the masses can accomplish when putting their minds to a task, a propaganda triumph that will resound through the ages, a slap across the face of every capitalist and reactionary and aristocrat who proclaim homelessness and suffering to be necessary and natural.
However, even as there is triumph there is failure. Protests and demands for change to the American judicial system have largely been ignored by elements of the SPA holding political office, even as recent events have demonstrated its essential need. There have been token discussions, but little actual progress.
There has been plenty of criticism leveled at the party for that. Some of the Anarchists and Syndicalists are accusing it of having grown too statist and centralized to be able to effectively respond to the workers, and their calls are having some appeal, while many cadres are debating what their course of action for demanding the judicial transformations they desire should be.
You have poured oil on troubled waters for now. And you are popular enough, and the center strong enough, that things are holding together. More importantly, you are trusted.
That's not a trust you can afford to let down. The party must show it serves the workers.
