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Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline
In 1901, the Polish immigrant turned anarchist assassin Leon Czolgosz sought to strike terror in the captains of industry by killing President McKinley. The assassin never completed his task. In a world where Theodore Roosevelt never became president, where the Progressive Era remained stillborn, America’s native sons and immigrant workers turn increasingly to militant trade unionism and socialism to put food on the table.
Reds! chronicles a world turned upside down, where the heart of world capitalism succumbs to communist revolution. It is a tale of ordinary men and women turned to revolution, of a tragic civil war spurred on by reaction, culminating in the death of the old United States and its rebirth in the Union of American Socialist Republics.
Reds! chronicles a world turned upside down, where the heart of world capitalism succumbs to communist revolution. It is a tale of ordinary men and women turned to revolution, of a tragic civil war spurred on by reaction, culminating in the death of the old United States and its rebirth in the Union of American Socialist Republics.
- GenresAlternate HistoryFiction
328 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 7, 2019
Sea Lion Press had been chugging along, pumping out alternative history gems for me to read, and I had been following it, reading them as they came out. In July 2017, I saw one of the latest tranche promising to explore the aftermath of a syndicalist-communist revolution in the United States in the twentieth century. I was eagerly looking forward to it as I read through other of the S.L.P. books before I reached it.
It was on a walking holiday to Hadrian's Wall (after "Meet The New Boss", and after finishing "Agent Lavender" before it) in early October 2018, and it was on 10th October that I started "Reds!".
Excellent teaser of the court-scene prosecuting anti-Communist White former U.S. Army Generals for war-crimes. A bit of a shock thinking of George Marshall as a war criminal, considering as "In Our Time Line", he is held up as a hero for his part in defeating the Third Reich in World War Two. It promises a bolder brighter future for American workers in the former United States and in the countries of Latin America, who had their Revolutions in concert with the Second American Civil War.
Following the timeline format from 1898 in to the early twentieth century is not too hard to follow. Just little snippets of workers in primary sector jobs working, striking, the union either winning or losing concessions from the big industrial capitalist bosses. Little notes of small or large industrial disasters, a new piece or pieces of technology, a new union formed etc. I did admit I started keeping notes of all the trade unions formed by the workers, heh heh. I do like acronyms. The original "Point of Deviation" from "Our Time Line" is big and bold, but does requires knowledge of the American Presidents that have been assassinated since 1865.
Interspersed between the timeline portions, there are the fictionalised extracts from politcial science/history books or history textbooks, describing the world, the nascent worker's movements in America, including one Sean Hannity!
This book is the first to introduce me to the philosophy and theories of one Daniel Deleon. He is just one of the more influential socialists in America of the early twentieth century. For example, the workers banding up in to "One Big Union", or, the workers in one factory forming a committee or a council to run the workplace in parallel to the capitalist management. These councils are in concert with other councils in other factories and other parts of the industrial manufacturing process. If all these councils decide to down tools for a strike, then the entire process of making a thing grinds down. He is rather radical, suggesting that the workers must smash every structure of capitalist control in every industry in society, and then rebuild it to suit the victorious workers.
Further on, it is time for the always fun "spot the divergence from "Our Time Line" competition" as the "First World Imperialist War" breaks out. Familiar persons are brought on stage to be radicalised by the sheer brutal pointlessness of the trenches sighing across France and Belgium. Our favourite and either venerated or reviled - depending on your point of view - Bolshevik revolutionaries make their thing happen in the Russian Empire. Exciting reading of the depictions of the twilight years of the Second American Republic, the shock win of the Worker's Communist Party in the 1932 elections (which by the way, is the only cast-iron way in which radical socialist win legitimacy for their revolutions and their program), the revolt of the anti-Communist Whites, the workers rising in the Second Civil War, the latter, complementary part of the Global Revolution, as Eric Hobsbawm would have put it. The books ends with the first constitutional congress to promulgate the constitution of the newly-born Union of American Socialist Republics.
The workers' parties, whatever their names throughout the book, introduce famous or noteworthy socialists (John "Jack" Reed (who wrote "Ten Days Which Shook The World", and whom was the subject of the film "Reds!" from the 'eighty's; Norman Thomas, William Z. Forster, Eugene Debs, William "Big Bill" Haywood) that may be familiar to people who are interested the social worker's movement of that time period.
There is not one writer of the story, but a trio, or troika!, of writers. They are Left-Communists, and have been Left-Communists for years now. The depth of their knowledge of theory shows through the fictional historical extracts and the very dry Marxist tracts, The fact they are Left-Communists does show them discrediting the more moderate strands of the socialist movement. For example, castigating the social democrats of Germany as being ineffectual and, rather having being "captured" by the bourgeoisie parties in the Reichstag as well as the land-owning Junker aristocracy. If you want to hear a Left-Communist view of the world, I would kindly point you in the direction of Radio Free Storozhevoy on YouTube.
To people who read the blurb and moan that "communism will cause tyranny...gulags...famines...mass deaths...stagnation...blah blah blah blah...," let me just say...there were specific reasons for the Bolshevik Revolution in the Russian Empire to stagnate and slowly fail.
That was because the Bolshevik Revolution took power in a country that was barely getting in to the stride of its industrialisation and subsequent socio-politico-economic reshaping/developement. It was backward, and had just emerged from a catastrophic role in the most calamitous war that had ever happened up until that point. And thanks to the efforts of the capitalist interventionist Whites, the revolutions abroad in Europe from the Bolshevik Revolution were quashed, leaving the Bolsheviks alone. An isolated revolution stagnates. A stagnating revolution turns to terror to enforce its rule.
Russia had never had a participatory bourgeois democracy like in Western Europe, North America, and Japan, thanks to the Tsar ruling with an iron fist. Him being incompetent was another trouble. Russia's aristocracy was still too powerful. The large estates of the nobility had not been broken up to the common use of the peasants. I could go on, but this review is already too long.
The only place where you will see forced labour camps in an America after a communist revolution is in Kim Newman's and Eugene Byrne's "Back in the U.S.S.A.", which is a parallelist story told of the Soviet Union...only in America! I find it a little underwhelming, given they could have been a little more imaginative with their subject.
I was socialist-leaning before I read this book, then I moved away from that upon consideration of the many mass deaths communist experiments caused in the twentieth century i,e, "Communism" by Richard Pipes, published by Phoenix Press. I changed back to enthusiastically a Left-Communist, or Centralist Marxist, holding-upper of DeLeonism after reading the book.
I am looking forward to the day when I can read this book again, and socialist reforms within the United States "In Real Life".
Reading "Reds!" ("A Revolutionary Timeline", "Red Dawn", "The Great Crusade" on Alternate History.Com, the revisions of the original on the Sufficient Velocity website, and being a member of the "Reds!" group on Discord) has fired my imagination and enthusiasm on the possibility and desirability of the United States becoming more socialist. The Americans would be healthier, better educated. The lot of poverty-stricken African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Autochthone-Americans, and White Americans will be improved. The forever wars in south-west Asia, and American economic-military imperialism will be significantly scaled back, saving many milliards (billions) of dollars. Habitats and the North American biosphere will be nursed back to health etc. etc.
I now follow the Democratic Socialists in America on Facebook. I really hope they will start to cause meaningful change in the world heart of capitalism. Very pleased to hear of D.S. victories in the very recent local elections. Workers of the World, Unite!
It was on a walking holiday to Hadrian's Wall (after "Meet The New Boss", and after finishing "Agent Lavender" before it) in early October 2018, and it was on 10th October that I started "Reds!".
Excellent teaser of the court-scene prosecuting anti-Communist White former U.S. Army Generals for war-crimes. A bit of a shock thinking of George Marshall as a war criminal, considering as "In Our Time Line", he is held up as a hero for his part in defeating the Third Reich in World War Two. It promises a bolder brighter future for American workers in the former United States and in the countries of Latin America, who had their Revolutions in concert with the Second American Civil War.
Following the timeline format from 1898 in to the early twentieth century is not too hard to follow. Just little snippets of workers in primary sector jobs working, striking, the union either winning or losing concessions from the big industrial capitalist bosses. Little notes of small or large industrial disasters, a new piece or pieces of technology, a new union formed etc. I did admit I started keeping notes of all the trade unions formed by the workers, heh heh. I do like acronyms. The original "Point of Deviation" from "Our Time Line" is big and bold, but does requires knowledge of the American Presidents that have been assassinated since 1865.
Interspersed between the timeline portions, there are the fictionalised extracts from politcial science/history books or history textbooks, describing the world, the nascent worker's movements in America, including one Sean Hannity!
This book is the first to introduce me to the philosophy and theories of one Daniel Deleon. He is just one of the more influential socialists in America of the early twentieth century. For example, the workers banding up in to "One Big Union", or, the workers in one factory forming a committee or a council to run the workplace in parallel to the capitalist management. These councils are in concert with other councils in other factories and other parts of the industrial manufacturing process. If all these councils decide to down tools for a strike, then the entire process of making a thing grinds down. He is rather radical, suggesting that the workers must smash every structure of capitalist control in every industry in society, and then rebuild it to suit the victorious workers.
Further on, it is time for the always fun "spot the divergence from "Our Time Line" competition" as the "First World Imperialist War" breaks out. Familiar persons are brought on stage to be radicalised by the sheer brutal pointlessness of the trenches sighing across France and Belgium. Our favourite and either venerated or reviled - depending on your point of view - Bolshevik revolutionaries make their thing happen in the Russian Empire. Exciting reading of the depictions of the twilight years of the Second American Republic, the shock win of the Worker's Communist Party in the 1932 elections (which by the way, is the only cast-iron way in which radical socialist win legitimacy for their revolutions and their program), the revolt of the anti-Communist Whites, the workers rising in the Second Civil War, the latter, complementary part of the Global Revolution, as Eric Hobsbawm would have put it. The books ends with the first constitutional congress to promulgate the constitution of the newly-born Union of American Socialist Republics.
The workers' parties, whatever their names throughout the book, introduce famous or noteworthy socialists (John "Jack" Reed (who wrote "Ten Days Which Shook The World", and whom was the subject of the film "Reds!" from the 'eighty's; Norman Thomas, William Z. Forster, Eugene Debs, William "Big Bill" Haywood) that may be familiar to people who are interested the social worker's movement of that time period.
There is not one writer of the story, but a trio, or troika!, of writers. They are Left-Communists, and have been Left-Communists for years now. The depth of their knowledge of theory shows through the fictional historical extracts and the very dry Marxist tracts, The fact they are Left-Communists does show them discrediting the more moderate strands of the socialist movement. For example, castigating the social democrats of Germany as being ineffectual and, rather having being "captured" by the bourgeoisie parties in the Reichstag as well as the land-owning Junker aristocracy. If you want to hear a Left-Communist view of the world, I would kindly point you in the direction of Radio Free Storozhevoy on YouTube.
To people who read the blurb and moan that "communism will cause tyranny...gulags...famines...mass deaths...stagnation...blah blah blah blah...," let me just say...there were specific reasons for the Bolshevik Revolution in the Russian Empire to stagnate and slowly fail.
That was because the Bolshevik Revolution took power in a country that was barely getting in to the stride of its industrialisation and subsequent socio-politico-economic reshaping/developement. It was backward, and had just emerged from a catastrophic role in the most calamitous war that had ever happened up until that point. And thanks to the efforts of the capitalist interventionist Whites, the revolutions abroad in Europe from the Bolshevik Revolution were quashed, leaving the Bolsheviks alone. An isolated revolution stagnates. A stagnating revolution turns to terror to enforce its rule.
Russia had never had a participatory bourgeois democracy like in Western Europe, North America, and Japan, thanks to the Tsar ruling with an iron fist. Him being incompetent was another trouble. Russia's aristocracy was still too powerful. The large estates of the nobility had not been broken up to the common use of the peasants. I could go on, but this review is already too long.
The only place where you will see forced labour camps in an America after a communist revolution is in Kim Newman's and Eugene Byrne's "Back in the U.S.S.A.", which is a parallelist story told of the Soviet Union...only in America! I find it a little underwhelming, given they could have been a little more imaginative with their subject.
I was socialist-leaning before I read this book, then I moved away from that upon consideration of the many mass deaths communist experiments caused in the twentieth century i,e, "Communism" by Richard Pipes, published by Phoenix Press. I changed back to enthusiastically a Left-Communist, or Centralist Marxist, holding-upper of DeLeonism after reading the book.
I am looking forward to the day when I can read this book again, and socialist reforms within the United States "In Real Life".
Reading "Reds!" ("A Revolutionary Timeline", "Red Dawn", "The Great Crusade" on Alternate History.Com, the revisions of the original on the Sufficient Velocity website, and being a member of the "Reds!" group on Discord) has fired my imagination and enthusiasm on the possibility and desirability of the United States becoming more socialist. The Americans would be healthier, better educated. The lot of poverty-stricken African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Autochthone-Americans, and White Americans will be improved. The forever wars in south-west Asia, and American economic-military imperialism will be significantly scaled back, saving many milliards (billions) of dollars. Habitats and the North American biosphere will be nursed back to health etc. etc.
I now follow the Democratic Socialists in America on Facebook. I really hope they will start to cause meaningful change in the world heart of capitalism. Very pleased to hear of D.S. victories in the very recent local elections. Workers of the World, Unite!
June 18, 2022
First of all, this alternate history narrative is still being written and revised; its most recent version (and the one I would review) can be found here: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com...
With that out of the way, what a stellar work of alternate history this is. I recently wrote a general overview of the 'Socialist America' type of divergence; in that context, this timeline must be taken as close to its platonic ideal. Not only does it pursue a relatively 'pure' version of what a communist revolution in the US would be like, but it shows a keen awareness of which social developments would be necessary to bring this about. While the international situation is a little too convergent with our own history, the societal changes within the US could hardly be greater. The slow buildup to the eventual revolution thus makes for an intriguing read, and could even be read as a guide to the prefigurations we would need to enact in our own time. Anyone who's got a basic interest in either socialist or United States history (or both, as is the case for me) should definitely take a look at this narrative.
With that out of the way, what a stellar work of alternate history this is. I recently wrote a general overview of the 'Socialist America' type of divergence; in that context, this timeline must be taken as close to its platonic ideal. Not only does it pursue a relatively 'pure' version of what a communist revolution in the US would be like, but it shows a keen awareness of which social developments would be necessary to bring this about. While the international situation is a little too convergent with our own history, the societal changes within the US could hardly be greater. The slow buildup to the eventual revolution thus makes for an intriguing read, and could even be read as a guide to the prefigurations we would need to enact in our own time. Anyone who's got a basic interest in either socialist or United States history (or both, as is the case for me) should definitely take a look at this narrative.
May 3, 2018
The original thread on AH.com is easily my favorite work of alternate history fiction, and had an impact on my socio-political views. I dig the new intro, although I do miss the West Wing parody from the original.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews