Eighth Parliament of the Republic of Britain 1875-1878
The Eighth Parliament of the Republic of Britain was perhaps the most turbulent in its entire history. When Disraeli was returned to power in 1875 Britain's primary concerns were ensuring the balance of power in Europe and dealing with a rising level of unemployment – by the end Europe was aflame and Britain was teetering on the brink of Civil War with no obvious route to avoid it.
In the early days of the government Britain pursued an extremely aggressive foreign policy in Asia as the colonial lobby demanded more colonies. In 1875 the small state of Kutch (directly adjacent to the British Indian territory) was annexed whilst the following year the Sultanate of Brunei was conquered, giving Britain control over the Northern shore of Borneo.
However, politically, things were going to prove to be much more complicated. The censorship of revolutionary literature amounted to shutting the stable gate after the horse had bolted. Revolutionary ideas were already widespread, as were socialist texts and the censorship of new material was not going to do anything to stop this. As papers refused to abide by the new laws that forbade any publications to openly support the overthrow of the Republic the government was forced to use physical force. Needless to say the ransacking of popular far left newspapers did nothing to cool the social tensions in Britain that, for the first time since the 1840s, were bubbling towards boiling point.
Economic, political and social conditions were converging into a brew of immense potency. During the Gladstonian Premiership the workers had endured the mind numbingly inequitable tax structure, had accepted the end to reforms and even the brutal war in France. But things had changed.
As part of the new budget in 1875 the Chancellor had increased the rate of tax on the poorest to 44% whilst reducing taxes on middle income households to 20% from 25% (the aim being to give much needed relief to beleaguered small business owners) whilst taxes on the wealthiest remained negligible. These additional funds were being used by the Treasury to construct a new fleet for the Indian Ocean, to pay off some debt accumulated in the Gladstone era and to expand the British Army with the recruitment of 24,000 elite soldiers. With the incomes of the poorest being dug into to fund rampant militarism and tax cuts for the wealthy people were justifiably enraged and the Socialist rhetoric of class struggle became ever more appealing.
Economically things started to rapidly worsen. Although witnessing incredibly growth rates of around 13% in 1875 and 1877 in 1876, for the first time since 1842, Britain witnessed negative industrial growth of just under 2%. This had been the first time since 1849 that Britain had seen growth below 5%. But this instability in industry was not the primary worry, that was unemployment. By the end of 1878 it stood at 385,000 – marginally under 10% of the entire craftsmen population.
Alongside these woes for the powerless came a level of decadence that Britain had rarely seen before. Capricious wealth, idleness and a social movement amongst the upper classes had created a peculiar situation in which the bourgeoisie were making greater outward displays of wealth than ever before whilst the poor were experiencing much greater suffering. Bacchanalian debauchery and unashamed degeneracy were eroding the upper class' old respect that had been slowly engrained in the minds of the British over the course of centuries.
But perhaps the worst sin of the Disraeli government was the fact that it carried a big stick. With strikes becoming ever more common, political, angry and violent in their nature from early 1876 the government agreed to arm the police and if things were to get out of hand to employ the army in strike breaking action. With political repression of labour movements and the far left growing the workers were being driven to radicalism.
In response to the government's uping of the stakes on July 27th 1876 a group of Liverpool dockers founded the Red Front Brotherhood – an armed group who would aim to stand against armed police and troops to protect striking workers and would also fight against the old cadres of the BNU who continued to combat leftists and immigrants in many cities. Te RFB quickly began to grow beyond Liverpool and in September George Odger of the Socialist Party gave it official backing as a defensive organisation against ''the unprecidented assault on the working class''.
In December 1876 a major strike occurred around the steel mills of North Eastern England. This was the area of the country with the worst unemployment where as many as 40% of workers had no jobs. The steel industry had been suffering in this part of the world and owners had joined together in a program to cut wages and shed workers. Many unemployed workers joined together with the tens of thousands of steel workers in their strike action – after clashed with far right gangs the strikers started to become worryingly militant. At this the armed police were employed, yet they simply lacked the numbers to restore order. The day falling this retreat a campaign of factory occupations was unleashed in which workers broke into factories, and threw out the owners and managers. Fearing any further escalation the army was called in. Rather than simply disperse as most strikes had in the past in the face of the army these steel workers, emboldened by RFB support, chose to fight. In the resulting battles over 1,000 strikers were killed – as were around 200 soldiers. The event caused outrage and shock across the country. Joseph Arch of the Labour Party and George Odger of the Socialists joined together in Parliament to call for the immediate resignation of the government and which had lost the confidence of the people so spectacularily. They were ignored, but from this moment on the Labour party and the Socialists would enjoy much closer relations with Arch's Labour willing to work with the Socialists on a plane of relative moderation.
Yet just as the economy began to improve in 1877 and the worst industrial violence started to fade away events overseas would change Britain, and indeed the world forever. The influence of the Manhattan Commune would pale in comparison to the events that were to unfold in the coming months.
The March Revolution of 1877 was very similar to the Commune, but with one cruicial difference – it was a success. The troubles afflicting Britain in 1876 had not been particular to that country. Indeed, France, Germany and mostly importantly of all Austria had been facing a similar crisis. In March 1877 Vienna erupted in full blown revolution. After a frightfully swift escalation of violence in the city the Vienna garrison had joined the rioters and placed Emperor Francis Joseph under arrest. The city then went on to call for the election of some sort of Council.
At this stage the Manhattan Commune had stagnated and was eventually crushed. However one of the deputies elected to the Council was none other than Whilhelm Liebknecht – the joint founder of the Marxist SPD in Germany and a recent exile from Germany. Liebknecht managed to organise the Council effectively and sent it to pursue an aggressive policy to secure the revolution. First Vienna organised a militia of workers and soldiers and marched on Eisenstadt (where the remnants of the Imperial government had fled from the revolution in the capital) – deposing the Imperial government and subsiquently declaring the Vienna Räte (workers' council) to be the official government of Austria. With this delegates were sent forth to every corner of the old Austrian Empire to call upon recognition of the new government, or if that failed for revolution from the workers and in other areas the peasantry.
The Räte would also go on to make a series of popular proclamations: industry was to be placed under worker control, land was to be distributed to the peasantry, Hungary was to have its own central government (capturing Hungarian national sentiment was regarded as immensely important), all feudal ranks were to be abolished, all would have the right to vote etc etc.
By the end of April the industrial areas along the Danube and in Bohemia were firmly under the control of the Räte whilst much of rural Hungary, Croatia, Austria proper and Slovenia were also under less stable Räte control. However pro-Habsburg elements had already arisen in Northern Italy and from the Translyvanian moutains (where a substantial army had been based).
Under normal circumstances one might have expected either France or Germany to intervene in this chaotic situation in cotinental Europe's 3rd power. However both these countries were teetering on the brink of revolution themselves and neither could afford to so much as contemplate a largescale and costly conflict. Russia on the other hand, was facing no major disturbances amongst its vast peasantry and simply lacked the urban proletarian populations of the West. In April, the Russian Imperial Army crossed the border into Austria with the aim of restore the captive Kaiser and crushing the revolution once and for all.
At this time the inspiration of the revolution in Austria turned the revolution international. In late April, 5 of France's 6 major industrial centres rose up in revolt. In Lille, Bourdeoux, Lyon and Marseilles the revolutionaries threw out the forces of the Republican government, in Toulouse no major revolts took places and in Paris the revolution was smothered in its cradle by a strong garrison. As the revolutionaries began to move out from the fallen cities France slid into a state of Civil War.
In the Ottoman Empire the Turks had been faced with a brutal war in the Balkans since 1875 against Greeks and seperatist forces. The Turkish army was collapsing and the Sultanate extremely unpopular. An armed group of socialists, called the Revolutionary Party, would launch a series of largescale risings in the industrialised cities of Western Anatolia and in Thrace.
In July socialists revolutionaries would launch a successful coup in Quebec – having won the majority of the small but well drilled Quebecios Army the Parti Communiste launched its own revolution. In October Prince Francois – the youngest uncle of the recently deposed King of France – began a pro-Monarchist counter-revolution in Quebec as he led an army of volunteers Northwards from the city of Montreal.
In September the government of Switzerland collapsed and in the resulting election a coalition of Marxists and more moderate Socialists formed a government. They new radical government would go on to begin program of nationalising industry and redistributing both land and wealth.
Around this time the 73 year old Disraeli would begin to grow dangerously ill, becoming less and less able to take part in government in what was perhaps the most cruicial moment of his entire career. At the same time trouble in Britain began to escalate back to the worst levels of 1876.
In early October the revolution in Austria secured peace. In Italy old Habsburgs secured their own state based around Milan but failed to secure anything else, in Galicia initial Russian victories had not led to the crushing of the revolution and instead the Tsar agreed to a deal in which West Galicia was to be annexed and East Galicia made independent under a pro-Russian Ruthenian nation. Shortly late the Sozialistche Räterepublik was proclaimed. With victory in the old Austrian Empire secured the architecht of the Revolution, Whilhelm Liebknecht, crossed the border into his native Germany where he hoped to incite a revolution. By this time Vienna had already become the new centre for Europe's large community of revolutionary emigres having attracted Marxists, Anarchists and non-communist socialists alike.
In the Balkans the Turkish revolution was a success, but it came at the cost of the old Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states finally forced out the Turks, as did the Armenians and Iraqis whilst a brief Swedish attempt to crush the Revolution secured them the rest of Libya but also led to a botched assault on the Dardanelles.
Whilst across Europe failure to act had led to Civil War and Revolution in Germany the declaration of the SRR and the victory of 3 seperate Socialist Republics had finally convinced Kaiser Whilhelm I of the German Empire that only one thing could save Germany from the fates being suffered by so many peoples of Europe – the socialist movement would have to be utterly crushed through sheer force or arms. The so called ''German Method'' would begin in late October – hand in hand the Kaiser, providing political authority, the Catholic and Protestant Churches, providing spiritual and moral authority, and the German Army, providing physicial authority, would begin their campaign to crush socialism in Germany forever.
The German Method called for the summarary execution of high ranking revolutionaries – on November 3rd Liebknecht was captured in Munich attempting to organise armed resistance and was executed, three days later the other founder of the SPD and its then leader – August Babel – was killed in Hamburg. Martial Law was proclaimed and until order could be restored strike action and trade unions were to be made illegal (although this was to be a temporary measure). Meanwhile, all revolutionary parties were made permanently illegal. All ring leaders of revolutionaries groups were to be executed or if possible imprisoned and any attempt to violently bring down the government was to be responded to with execution. All infrastructure of the socialist movement was to be utterly destroyed.
The German Method created chaos, anarchy and saw as many as 100,000 die (both 'Whites' and 'Reds') before the end of the year, but the immediate threat of full blown revolution had started to subside.
The German Method was to be extremely influencial within the National Conservative Party. Looking at Europe, where governments had only responded slowly in Austria and France there had been Civil War and in Austria Revolution. Where they had worked with the revolutionaries as in Switzerland a social revolution was occuring regardless – only slightly moderated. In Britain it was estimated that the total manpower of revolutionary groups stood around 5 million – the British Army in Britain had only 150,000 men. Unless the state struck hard and fast those numbers would destroy the Republic.
Whith Benjamin Disraeli on death's door he finally resigned on January 11th. The NCP wanted to replace him with Marshal Robert Napier (the latest darling of the hard right) who called for the implimentation of the German Method in Britain.
However, it seemed Martial Law and the banning of political parties was just too much for even a pragmatic Liberal Party to take and the Liberals left the coalition. Unable to proceed with a legitimate government the NCP were forced to agree to new elections.
By January 1878 the wave of revolutions that had begun just under a year ago had created Socialist Republics in Turkey, Quebec and the SRR (which was divided internally between an Austrian and a Hungarian SRR) whilst the socialists had also come to power in Switzerland via the ballot box. In French Algeria socialism had mixed with national forces and created a large scale rebellion – now only the besieged city of Algiers remained in French hands. In continental France intitial successes of the rebels in their march on Paris have been reversed and the rebels are now slowly losing ground to government forces. In Germany the Imperial Government has begun its process of utterly destroying the socialist movement through sheer force of arms and will in hopes of preventing revolution. Finally, Britain remains at the brink of a revolution. All the country needs now is a spark to set it off.