Funny you should mention this. I was totally wondering about what would happen to Pink Floyd in the UoB this morning.
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Congratulations, first of all, on the closure. It's a rare thing that writers get to finish off a started AAR - I wish I had. Secondly, congrats on writing one of the most well-thought, entertaining and illuminating Kaiserreich AARs I've ever read. I lift my red beret in salute 
[video=youtube;BAO3-h0qtps]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAO3-h0qtps[/video]
[video=youtube;BAO3-h0qtps]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAO3-h0qtps[/video]
That's a good question, too. I imagine Roger Waters might go into music at some point, and I know his dad was killed in WW2 in OTL, so it'd be interesting to see how things turned out for him and other British rock performers.
I've been silent until now, but I have enjoyed this and following it has been a treat
That means a lot from a KR maker, thanks.
I always enjoy AARs most when I can read them straight through, it does leave a sense of emptiness when you get to the end though. :/
Yeah, amount and quality of comments has always mattered a lot to me when writing AARs, without them you just feel no one is reading and sort of lose motivation to continue. You've clearly managed to make a very popular AAR here, DH doesn't seem to have that much traffic but you're AAR looks likely to exceed 60,000 views. Well done!
I have a lot more respect for people who try these things now. Honestly, it's discouraging sometimes, but I'm nearing the end of all this. One more chapter, plus a short epilogue.
My save has become difficult to use, so I put in some irl pictures and older ones. Can't do much more beyond this.
If you like cultural things like this, which I think is beyond the scope of trying me forming a narrative around my choices in the game, check out this alt-history piece(s)-
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=122672
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=148698
Congratulations, first of all, on the closure. It's a rare thing that writers get to finish off a started AAR - I wish I had. Secondly, congrats on writing one of the most well-thought, entertaining and illuminating Kaiserreich AARs I've ever read. I lift my red beret in salute
Thanks
Next chapter follows...
Keeping the house in order
I had been surprised at the level of detail Gallo recalled his American trip to me. Surely, the tumultuous 50s and 60s in the Combined Syndicates was watched closely by much of the world. It was Gallo however that provided a much more nuanced view of American troubles at the time, one that had been brushed over in the ensuing years. The strength of racists and reactionaries had been such in the Combined Syndicates that shootings and bombings became common place across the South and many urban centers. Yet they had overcome this to emerge even stronger, and now one of the greatest powers the Syndicalist bloc has seen.
I turned the conversation back towards matters closer to home- how did Gallo feel about Italy? Of the new order that emerged in Europe, Africa, and the Middle-East?
Gallo gave me an inquisitive look.
“And why do you think what I have to offer here is anything unique?”, he asked, “I’m sure you could get a more interesting one from those who served in the war against Germany and Russia”.
“Everyone’s got their story to tell”, I said, “I’m sure considering how well travelled you were, it may have put a different perspective on things”
“Indeed”, Gallo grunted, “I suppose that few others still around now could attest to being so absorbed in the military that they had simply gone from one battlefield to another. Really, I had felt that the moment I stepped onto that boat back in 1936 for the Second American Revolution, I never truly returned until 1946. 10 years of some fighting or another.”
“Where did you enter back into Italy once you were discharged?”
“For whatever reason, they decided to drop me off at Genoa. I believe there was a mixup with another Gallo, but I did not make a fuss. Honestly, I had no clue where to go. All I had known was fighting- it almost seemed as if this whole time from 1936 and onwards it was just about war for Italy. The Second American Revolution, the Spanish War, the Reunification, the Second World War… all one after the other.”
Gallo stood up and took a framed diploma out of the wall and handed it to me to look at. He pointed at the date it was awarded- 1953.
“I had decided that so near to Turin, maybe it was time for me to enter into University. You brought up that I was still a young teenager when I went off to fight in the Americas. This is true- I had never even finished my secondary education; I simply did not see the point then. There I was, 25 years old, and without anything to indicate I was educated. I had actually bummed around Northern Italy for the next few months, aimlessly without much direction. I can’t explain in details, but I simply couldn’t readjust back to a “normal” life as easy as I thought I would. Even as the news of Brazilian Syndicalists prevailing over La Plata came to me, marking the end of any Syndicalist power at war that should have marked to me a new period of my life, I still thought there was nothing left for me to do.”
The end of the Platinean War
I found some purpose when I realized that even with our victory, Italy had a ways to go. There was still the contentious question of religion in the country, the ongoing struggles in Asia and Africa, the need to bring technology and advancement to the people of Italy, to realize our goals of a workers’ society. As I saw even the most unlikely of my former comrades transitioning into education to find their calling, I knew that I couldn’t let my contributions end there.”
“I went through the usual channels to get my education- I won’t bore you with the details. The government had programs for people like me to earn an equivalence degree to get my credentials, and from there, due to my service in the military, I was able to go into about any of the main universities. I had intended to study medicine, maybe I had wanted to do something to heal people aside from killing them.”
“I decided to drop out of the pre-medical regimen a year and a half in”, said Gallo anticipating my next question “Couldn’t crack the requirements. Instead I was recommended by my professors to try out politics, economics, theory, all of those fields- so I focused my efforts there”
“Who did you vote for in the 1946 Congress? How did your peers in the military and university vote?”
“Most of us coming out of the war just wanted some peace”, said Gallo, “for my part I voted for the Social-Reformists. The votes of my peers in the military were all over the place from the Anarchist platform, due to the popularity of Comrade Berneri, as well as that of the National-Syndicalists, due to military focus, and like myself, those who just wanted to return to life for the Social-Reformists”
“On Campus, I found that by and large sympathy was for the Social-Reformists. I did not find this surprising, considering that much of the professors had been supportive of them due to the platform’s promise of greater support for the educational field. Most of the students were too because of wanting to get out of the barracks mentality that had dominated the Republic since its foundation. They wanted to be like the Union of Britain, which they felt had achieved a degree of normality that Italy had yet to achieve”
“I must add that the Social-Reformist victory then was as much about their platform as it was the dissatisfaction towards the other platforms. The Social-Reformists promised an orientation towards consumer goods, infrastructure improvement, support for education and public services- in short a perfect peacetime program. The Marxists had advanced a platform that by that time had become alien to most people, and the Anarchists were simply too radical for some, particularly in the north. The National-Syndicalists simply weren’t able to sell a message that fit into peacetime - while they substituted their strong aggressive military orientation for a heavy industrialization one; it simply didn’t appeal to that many people.”
“Still, looking back on it”, said Gallo, “The Anarcho-Syndicalists had achieved much in their short time in power. And I’m not saying this because I am close to their viewpoint now [1], but any rational person would acknowledge this. I was born at the beginning of our nation, but I know that my childhood was vastly different than those born now; we were a horribly underdeveloped nation as far as both industry and agriculture was concerned. Yet one of the unsung achievements of the Anarcho-Syndicalist program was the steady industrialization and technological achievements of the government. Even when one considers the unification of Italy bringing a boost to its overall power, there was still an appreciable improvement in Italy’s strength and standing in the Syndintern”
“In my own studies about the economy of Italy at the university, we discussed Italy’s strong emphasis on both Industrial and Agricultural efficiency. One thing that Italy could have at an advantage over other powers at the time was one that while we didn’t have the technology they have, there was also no need to worry about having to improve and overhaul obsolete technology. We had a “blank slate” of sorts to build up this country, and we took advantage of the cooperation from the British, French, and eventually the Americans to overhaul the country in the meantime”
Italian technologies at the end of the Anarcho-Syndicalist government
“The only real fault one could find with the Anarcho-Syndicalists was technology within the military. While infantry and artillery were comparable to the rest of the Syndicalist forces, armored capabilities were lacking. While we did not use many tanks in the Middle-East, I know that they were used extensively in the European theater, and that they were outmatched by the Mitteleuropean armored divisions.”
“Tell me”, asked Gallo, “Did you ever look at the makeup of the ground forces before demobilization?”
“If I did, I have since forgotten”, I responded, “But I suppose you know?”
“That I do”, Gallo nodded, “There was such an imbalance at the end that it would appear that Italy had relied on infantry power alone. Here, look”
Gallo retrieved an old journal from his bookshelf and quickly flipped it to a page with some figures.
Italian ground forces compared to other countries at the end of hostilities, 1946
“These were notes I took some years ago when I started working at the library. During the war against Germany and in the Middle-East, I had found that Italy had respectable numbers of armored divisions. By the time war focused to Russia, that number had dropped down to one theater command and four armored divisions. I could only conclude that aside from the poor technological state of the armored vehicles at the time, the industries back home were not focusing too much on tanks as we began to run into supply problems around that time- the same thing with our allies and even Russia, as I would learn later. In Italy’s case though, our stockpiles of oil were mostly shifted to air protection and the navy, with ground forces only having so much to keep logistics moving. Everything else was restricted down to necessities.”
“One of the unspoken promises of the Social-Reformists outside of their written platform from the Congress elections was to essentially modernize the military. It was known they were going to shrink the military, but they justified this to meetings with soldier councils by promising that they would finally receive the advancements that so far had eluded them.”
“So, despite expectations that the dove policies might fall flat among some soldiers, a considerable amount supported them?”, I asked.
Gallo shrugged.
“I find it’s a misconception to think that all of his in the military then wanted endless war and keeping the military unnecessarily so large. Many of us, be it conscripts or enthusiastic partisans of the socialist way, wanted to know that we would never have to go back to such a war that we saw against Germany. Even the officers had begun to question the “popular” structure of the military that the insurrectionists had championed for decades, wanting instead to make a smaller, better trained force.”
“Do you think the Social-Reformists achieved what they had aimed for?”
“I felt like they did. Even though in the ensuing years I gradually shifted to the Marxist platform, the fact that they were able to secure majorities in following congresses right up to the 1970 Congress meant that the populace were approving of their works. Their greatest achievements would have to be in the education and infrastructure of this country though. The education I can tell you put Italy on the map as one of the finest centers of learning on the continent, producing and hosting our share of talent such as Umberto Eco in philosophy, Levi-Montalcini in medicine, Enrico Fermi in physics, -I could list more but it would probably take pages in your paper! In particular the Anarcho-Syndicalist government’s research into nuclear energy continued through the Social-Reformists, even after Fermi’s death in 1962 [2].”
In infrastructure, the country finally managed to intertwine North and South and bring the level of development to a more level area in the two regions. The railroads and highways were brought up to the standards that were agreed upon in the Berlin and Barcelona summits of the Syndicalist International in the 1950s, and by the time they had left power, the Social-Reformist government had completely overhauled the aged infrastructure of Italy.
Italian Infrastructure at high levels
“You were in University at an interesting time”, I said, “Do you remember anything in particular about the student movements then?”
“Yes”, responded Gallo “I had participated in several protests at that. While I was not a leader, I had joined the movement trying to pressure the Italian government to withdraw from Libya entirely, which they had decided to retain as a client state. While nominally independent, it was known that the Italian government out of its tensions with their French comrades had ended up derailing talks for a union of Northwest African states.”
“We were dismayed by this selfish act on both the French and Italian governments, neglecting the spirit of internationalism in favor of narrow minded nationalist feuds and power plays within the Syndintern. Libya was an ugly reminder of Italy’s imperialist past- we wanted to move beyond that, especially considering the whole emphasis on decolonialism in Africa. We couldn’t be doing to Libya what the Egyptians were beginning to do in Central Africa, with the cooperation of the British monarchs in Australasia.”
“And as we know from history, the government didn’t budge on this matter”
“Yes”, said Gallo with a sigh, “Our demands were met with silence. Most of us gave up and left. Those of us that remained in the protest were eventually scattered by the police. The Social-Reformists claimed they were merely trying aid the government in Libya against “religious reactionaries” until it was ready to stand on its own. Still, the weirdest instance was that of the National-Syndicalists and their leading light, Mussolini, which were strongly for continuing this control of Libya”
“It’s all ancient history now”, said Gallo, “but once upon a time Mussolini was an ardent anti-militarist. He fled Italy following protests against the colonial war in Libya against the Ottoman Empire. Some people had thought that as a result of that, he would be sympathetic to the calls for removal of our forces there. Yet he had come out in support- this was not surprising to those of us familiar with his political evolution, considering he had supported the decrepit Kingdom in their foolish adventure in the Great War.”
“Mussolini had ‘deduced’, and I use that term lightly, that for whatever reason the Italians were in a way superior, culturally and politically, to those in Libya. A very elitist and skewed look on the world, and he would justify himself when outbursts of violence occurred such as the violent protests outside the Italian embassy in Tripoli in 1948 demanding independence. He would condemn a whole people for the actions of a few to suit his cynical worldview. Unfortunately, we could never see how he reacted to the eventual departure from Libya, considering the Superga disaster that happened only a year later on May 3rd, 1949”
“You were studying in Turin at the time. Did you remember anything from the accident?” I asked Gallo.
“I heard about the accident while in the university’s library. They said that an airplane had crashed into old basilica on Superga Hill, just east of the Po River. The day was overcast then , and from what I was told this contributed to poor visibility as the plane came in. I thought it was a general commercial flight when I arrived at the site to help the emergency crews until the first news came out from Mussolini’s Il Popolo- Mussolini himself was on that plane and perished in the crash.”
Wreckage from the plane crash
“And not only Mussolini, but many of the top figures in the National-Syndicalists. Emilio de Bono, Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Italo Balbo, and many more; in one swift stroke, the leadership of the National-Syndicalists was decapitated. With the exception of de Vecchi, all had been involved in some fighting. Mussolini with his self-styled “March of the Ten Thousand” during the 1921 Revolution, and de Bono and Balbo’s participation in the past war- even if you had not supported their viewpoints as I had, it was clear that this was going to be a major historical event in Italy.”
“If this was a book or some movie, I would claim this was a convenient plot device to remove characters from the story. But the reason was clear- Mussolini and the rest of the National-Syndicalists were preparing to host a conference for the Totalists in Turin, in light of their lack of any real success outside of the Combined Syndicates. They just happened to leave at the wrong time.”
“Any thoughts on the conspiracy theories around the crash?” I asked.
“They’re good for a laugh”, responded Gallo, “but beyond that they have no basis in reality. Sure, the National-Syndicalists were not exactly well liked by any of the other platforms in Italy, much less the rest of the Syndintern, but they weren’t exactly a danger to anyone like some of them claim. The outlandish ones claiming that Libyan rebels were behind this are even more laughable- Mussolini was in no position to affect Libyan policy, much less even known of among the Libyan masses. “
“How did the campus react to the Russian war in Central Asia”
“How else? We were very opposed to what we saw as a blatant imperial adventure on Russia’s part there. While originally Russia had been able to paint itself as merely acting in defense against Turkestan after several border settlements were attacked, it was later widely reported that Russia had engineered the conflict by provoking them. They had needed something, of course, to help save face after not gaining the whole of Europe as they had envisioned. Central Asia would be its consolation prize, in a way”
“What really got students as well as other youth angry was Russia’s decision to directly annex and incorporate those regions into the Empire, as well as its partition of Afghanistan in an agreement with Delhi and Iran during the final summit in 1950. We protested outside the main Russian embassy in Rome, but it was also a sobering reminder of the real imperialist drives that still existed outside the Syndintern. It helped me prepare for my future outside of college though.”
“After you graduated in 1953, you entered into the Directorate of Foreign Affairs, then under the leadership of Giuseppe Saragat of the Social-Reformists. What were your first impressions?”
“I was overwhelmed by how much they were dealing with in such a short span of days. It is a popular misconception that it was a “slow” time in the world after the end of the war in 1946. I had fooled myself into thinking this as well- but they were busy with not only non-syndicalist powers and colonial struggles, but their own inter-Syndintern relations. As I was settling down to affairs in Rome, I got my first big trial in the summer of 1954: The question of Austria and the German Union”
“This is not too widely known, even among historians today”, said Gallo, “but the question of a union between the German-speaking parts of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and whatever would arise in the ruins of Germany had already been tentatively discussed following the fall of Vienna in early 1943. After the collapse of the German Empire and the creation of the German Union, it was decided that in 10 years time the people of the new Austrian Republic could put the matter of entrance into the German Union to a popular referendum.”
“The possibilities of such a union troubled France, mostly out of fear that it would allow the German Syndicalists to overshadow them due to the sheer economic strength it would entail. This was much of the same reasoning that dominated their opposition to a strong, federated union of German socialist republics built on a syndicalist basis during discussions in the 1943 Frankfurt Conference.”
“In an amendment added later to the final Frankfurt Agreement that created the German Union”, said Gallo, “The matter of what to do with the rump Austria. Some “thinkers” within the German Union suggested that the old idea of a pan-German state in the vein of the pan-Arab Federation, an old idea. It had long been tainted with a racist outlook, but it was eventually settled upon that the matter of union would only be between the boundaries of the Republic of Austria, and not irredentist claims within the old Austrian Empire. More over, it would be a mutual union of Syndicalists, rather than some notion of superiority. The matter could not be decided until 10 years later however. And conveniently enough, it was 1954, well beyond that limit”
“And so we have the referendum that took place during that time”, I added as Gallo nodded, “What did the Italians think of this?”
“We were worried that such expressions would undercut the spirit of cooperation and internationalism between the Syndintern republics. More over, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire resulted in a patchwork of ethnic groups, hardly one that one could divide into borders that could please everyone. There would be Germans of course who demanded that similar referendums take place in Istria, Slovenia, and Trentino, and then there would be similar demands among others in the Empire. It was a mess to unleash”
“While the Italian government had supported the formation of the German Union”, said Gallo, “the position towards the referendum was mixed. We again felt that this was distracting from the real purposes of the Syndintern and would in time bring about other problems. However we would not contest the referendum or whatever results it came out to be, so long as it was retained within Austria itself, as well as ensuring that the German Union would continue to be a federation, rather than a unitary state.”
“France was more hostile to the question. They had in the ensuing years after Frankfurt set out to build opposition to the project in Austria, encouraging anarchist movements in that country to oppose such a large entity that would subsume their autonomy into control from Berlin.”
“The final results reflected this. While the attitudes towards union between Germany and Austria were high among both populations before the War, the final results of the referendum hardly showed consensus 55% in favor with 45% against. With that, Austria joined the German Union as a member republic, attaining a similar status to the others within it.
Germany and Austria after the referendum
“Response from France wasn’t too favorable, and I could tell within our directorate there was a sense of dismay too. The balance of power had been greatly upset in the Syndintern (not to mention the military alliance), and we were not sure how this would affect relations in the future. Much less what could be done now with Hungary, as France originally desired to have Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia federate into their own union. Hungary was the odd man out, as it were. It’s still something I don’t think we have straightened out, even now”
“And yet that was probably only the tip of the iceberg as far as international events went?”
“The 1950s was probably one of the most trying for the parties of the Syndintern. We had shifted from wartime to peacetime, and now challenges arose from the agents of reaction from within the country. I had mentioned before about the Combined Syndicates’s own troubles with those elements as it tried to enforce itself throughout the former United States. France had to deal with the incorporation of former French citizens in North Africa, many of whom were strongly opposed to them. The British had to deal with the continued agitation of the royal family in Australasia. The FAI with the Church and remnants of landowners. Our Middle-Eastern and North African Comrades with the old order of nobility and tribal chieftains. Our allies in Africa with their ethnic differences. Even in South America, despite Brazil’s size and now its addition of Argentina, it still was faced with a continent hostile to them [3].
“In Italy, the Social-Reformist “opening” to the Church resulted in the reemergence of services and clergy under a new “Church” loyal to the state [4], one that the Pope threatened all with excommunication for joining. However, the loosening of control over the clergy allowed for some to rile up tensions within Italy, and so we saw the emergence of the various self-styled “liberation” insurrectionary groups across the country. “
“It was known that these rebels operated through smuggling routes that originated from Serbia and Greece, the two states we believe were responsible for material aid in order to disrupt our position on the continent. Those years in the 50s and even 60s saw violence from these groups that styled themselves as the same as those Christians who were persecuted in Ancient Rome. Their support varied, but in the end it seemed to have dropped off as living conditions became more bearable by the late 50s. By the 1960s, most of this had been isolated to small groups that, like the mafia before them, resorted to small time smuggling and black market circles”
“However, the biggest problem to come out of this was not from these rebels, but within the government. The Social-Reformists were known for their opposition to the SSDR and had long promised to disband the office as they had seen its purpose had long been fulfilled. Tell me, do you recall what happened after the 1958 Congress?”
“The new House of Commons and Council of the Republic took awhile to appear. Longer than usual, though this was because the voting results were so close, wasn’t it?”
“That was one reason. But you know the SSDR ceased to exist after that Congress, yes?”
I nodded.
“This was discussed during the Congress, which resulted in an attempt by the members of the SSDR to enact a silent coup, under the justification that tighter control was needed in light of these reactionary groupings in the country, as well as claims that the Social-Reformists were endangering the revolution and rigged the results of the 1954 Congress. The meeting chambers in Rome were blocked as they assumed control of the state buildings, but they were relying on the support of the Marxist block to push this through. Much to their dismay, the Marxists did not support them and thus they had no real basis for their move, and their attempt was halted. All the more reason to disband them after that”
As if seeing my confusion, he added that time would prove him right [5], and he continued on to other matters.
“Outside of Italy, we saw challenges too in the Syndintern. I was a part of the mission to the Middle-East to help resolve border disputes between Kurdistan, Turkey, and the Arab Federation that threatened the progress towards federating those three into a union. I had the added benefit of at least having some recognition in those countries from my time in the war, and this helped to highlight my use there in forging the trust between those leaders. Even as Iran entered into a closer alliance with Russia, we ensured that the three would maintain mutual defenses and coordinate their economic growth to maintain an example against the enemies all around them- from the monarchists in Egypt, Arabia, and Greece to the Russian hegemony that was developing in Asia. We helped them forge mutual ties with the Bharatiya Commune [6], which helped to offset the danger of Australasian, Japanese, and Russian intrigues”
“The biggest embarrassment to the Syndintern during this time would have to be the fall of the pro-France party in Equatorial Africa. A coup ousted the government there despite the presence of a Syndintern mission, ushering into power a pro-Australasian regime consisting of former Nationalist French and Mittelafrikan administrators and local notables. We saw that similar movements were emerging in our allied states in Africa claiming that they were being too “controlled” by the Syndintern.”
“France and Britain had their own troubles to sort out in the region; The Combined Syndicates was occupied with what later would turn out to be a failed revolution in Cuba [7]. Brazil’s erstwhile ally in Bolivia found its government forced to resign after a popular movement resulted in a social democratic government that moved it away from tight association with the Syndintern. Our main problem was the issue of Libya, one that the Social-Reformist government had ignored for a long time. I had been a member of the faction within the directorate to push for total Libyan independence, and that opinion began to grow once the follies of French control in Equatorial Africa became apparent. In 1959, Libya was given independence, and we suggested to the French to do the same with Algeria and Morocco.”
“While their governments moved more towards reformism”, said Gallo, “I think that this at least kept our close ties with those nations. They were continuing to trade with us and retaining socialist structures, and to those of us wanting to maintain the spirit of the Syndintern, that was more than enough. And it was in North Africa we saw the first of our federations come into fruition, on a mutual basis between Algeria, Morocco, and Libya into a Maghreb Federation.
The Maghreb Federation “The Syndintern was as busy trying to keep order at home as it was trying to spread its message. It was a real wake up call to see these kinds of challenges to us, despite our resounding victory against Germany and keeping Russia from trying to restore the Ancien Régime of Europe. We became aware now that the hearts and minds of people were as important as ever in our struggle against our enemies“
“And I believe the events in the far east became a flashpoint for this post-war “order”?”, I added.
“Yes. The old German-held areas of China under the East German Company declared independence shortly after the voluntary exile of the Kaiser into Australasia in 1948. This was a government that was republican in nature, and incorporated a whole host of political opinions into its state. It however tried to stake an “independent” path in the complicated relations in the region. It managed to retain favorable relations with the Syndintern at times, other times with Russia, and other times with Australasia. Japan was the only nation that the new China seemed opposed to, for the most part due to the continued occupation of much of northern China by that state”
“Japan had set out to make its client states in Indonesia and Indochina, as well as expanding the reach of its Fengtian Republic partners in the Chinese mainland to give the illusion of Chinese self-rule. However, the real revolutionaries in Vietnam resisted the advances of Japan into areas where Germany formerly controlled during the height of the revolution there. The Syndintern during the 1960 Algiers Congress declared their support for anticolonial struggles in both Africa and Vietnam- it was the latter we all knew about in the following decade. It was the former that fell to the shadows, but it was there I believe the Syndintern made its greatest success.”
“And why you have Congo listed in your records, I presume”
Gallo looked out of his window and I noticed that we had talked well into midnight. I had missed my deadline for some two-bit articles on the navy games in the Bay of Naples; Gallo could pick up on my realization.
“I would love to tell you more”, said Gallo, “but I’m sure you have to get your work turned into the paper. We’ll leave the Congo Revolution for tomorrow.”
_______________________________________________________________________
[1] By this, Gallo means his gradual shift to the Marxist platform within the Greater Syndicalist Union. The grouping is now simply known as the “Socialist” platform, a regrouping of former PSI members from the Social-Reformist and Marxist platforms.
[2] Fermi’s death in 1962 from cancer was believed to have been to his work with nuclear materials, though this is not conclusive.
[3] Even though by size Argentina and Brazil formed a large bloc, there was still a substantial amount of economic strength by other countries in the region, notably Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Colombia.
[4] It must be added that the Social-Reformist recognition of the church did not entail a return of the church hierarchy. There was no “red” papacy created, as was the popular misconception in many countries outside the syndicalist block.
[5] Writing at the present time, most of Gallo’s assertions were correct. However, it is now known that some members of the Marxist platform did try to join in the coup, hoping to counteract what they see were the bankruptcies of the French-dominated Syndicalist movement.
[6] The Bharatiya Commune had managed to overcome the Princely Federation, capturing Mumbai in 1950. This in effect divided India into “north” and “south”, a situation which still persists to this day.
[7] A popular revolution in Cuba broke out in 1959, born out of formerly exiled revolutionaries returning from Mexico. Despite the support of much of the island’s populace, the revolution was not able to overcome the military which had been supplanted by elements of the American government-in-exile. Following the failed revolution, the American exiles began to assume a greater prominence in the island’s political affairs, controlling the policies of the major parties.
L'Unità said:
I had been surprised at the level of detail Gallo recalled his American trip to me. Surely, the tumultuous 50s and 60s in the Combined Syndicates was watched closely by much of the world. It was Gallo however that provided a much more nuanced view of American troubles at the time, one that had been brushed over in the ensuing years. The strength of racists and reactionaries had been such in the Combined Syndicates that shootings and bombings became common place across the South and many urban centers. Yet they had overcome this to emerge even stronger, and now one of the greatest powers the Syndicalist bloc has seen.
I turned the conversation back towards matters closer to home- how did Gallo feel about Italy? Of the new order that emerged in Europe, Africa, and the Middle-East?
Gallo gave me an inquisitive look.
“And why do you think what I have to offer here is anything unique?”, he asked, “I’m sure you could get a more interesting one from those who served in the war against Germany and Russia”.
“Everyone’s got their story to tell”, I said, “I’m sure considering how well travelled you were, it may have put a different perspective on things”
“Indeed”, Gallo grunted, “I suppose that few others still around now could attest to being so absorbed in the military that they had simply gone from one battlefield to another. Really, I had felt that the moment I stepped onto that boat back in 1936 for the Second American Revolution, I never truly returned until 1946. 10 years of some fighting or another.”
“Where did you enter back into Italy once you were discharged?”
“For whatever reason, they decided to drop me off at Genoa. I believe there was a mixup with another Gallo, but I did not make a fuss. Honestly, I had no clue where to go. All I had known was fighting- it almost seemed as if this whole time from 1936 and onwards it was just about war for Italy. The Second American Revolution, the Spanish War, the Reunification, the Second World War… all one after the other.”
Gallo stood up and took a framed diploma out of the wall and handed it to me to look at. He pointed at the date it was awarded- 1953.
“I had decided that so near to Turin, maybe it was time for me to enter into University. You brought up that I was still a young teenager when I went off to fight in the Americas. This is true- I had never even finished my secondary education; I simply did not see the point then. There I was, 25 years old, and without anything to indicate I was educated. I had actually bummed around Northern Italy for the next few months, aimlessly without much direction. I can’t explain in details, but I simply couldn’t readjust back to a “normal” life as easy as I thought I would. Even as the news of Brazilian Syndicalists prevailing over La Plata came to me, marking the end of any Syndicalist power at war that should have marked to me a new period of my life, I still thought there was nothing left for me to do.”
The end of the Platinean War
I found some purpose when I realized that even with our victory, Italy had a ways to go. There was still the contentious question of religion in the country, the ongoing struggles in Asia and Africa, the need to bring technology and advancement to the people of Italy, to realize our goals of a workers’ society. As I saw even the most unlikely of my former comrades transitioning into education to find their calling, I knew that I couldn’t let my contributions end there.”
“I went through the usual channels to get my education- I won’t bore you with the details. The government had programs for people like me to earn an equivalence degree to get my credentials, and from there, due to my service in the military, I was able to go into about any of the main universities. I had intended to study medicine, maybe I had wanted to do something to heal people aside from killing them.”
“I decided to drop out of the pre-medical regimen a year and a half in”, said Gallo anticipating my next question “Couldn’t crack the requirements. Instead I was recommended by my professors to try out politics, economics, theory, all of those fields- so I focused my efforts there”
“Who did you vote for in the 1946 Congress? How did your peers in the military and university vote?”
“Most of us coming out of the war just wanted some peace”, said Gallo, “for my part I voted for the Social-Reformists. The votes of my peers in the military were all over the place from the Anarchist platform, due to the popularity of Comrade Berneri, as well as that of the National-Syndicalists, due to military focus, and like myself, those who just wanted to return to life for the Social-Reformists”
“On Campus, I found that by and large sympathy was for the Social-Reformists. I did not find this surprising, considering that much of the professors had been supportive of them due to the platform’s promise of greater support for the educational field. Most of the students were too because of wanting to get out of the barracks mentality that had dominated the Republic since its foundation. They wanted to be like the Union of Britain, which they felt had achieved a degree of normality that Italy had yet to achieve”
“I must add that the Social-Reformist victory then was as much about their platform as it was the dissatisfaction towards the other platforms. The Social-Reformists promised an orientation towards consumer goods, infrastructure improvement, support for education and public services- in short a perfect peacetime program. The Marxists had advanced a platform that by that time had become alien to most people, and the Anarchists were simply too radical for some, particularly in the north. The National-Syndicalists simply weren’t able to sell a message that fit into peacetime - while they substituted their strong aggressive military orientation for a heavy industrialization one; it simply didn’t appeal to that many people.”
“Still, looking back on it”, said Gallo, “The Anarcho-Syndicalists had achieved much in their short time in power. And I’m not saying this because I am close to their viewpoint now [1], but any rational person would acknowledge this. I was born at the beginning of our nation, but I know that my childhood was vastly different than those born now; we were a horribly underdeveloped nation as far as both industry and agriculture was concerned. Yet one of the unsung achievements of the Anarcho-Syndicalist program was the steady industrialization and technological achievements of the government. Even when one considers the unification of Italy bringing a boost to its overall power, there was still an appreciable improvement in Italy’s strength and standing in the Syndintern”
“In my own studies about the economy of Italy at the university, we discussed Italy’s strong emphasis on both Industrial and Agricultural efficiency. One thing that Italy could have at an advantage over other powers at the time was one that while we didn’t have the technology they have, there was also no need to worry about having to improve and overhaul obsolete technology. We had a “blank slate” of sorts to build up this country, and we took advantage of the cooperation from the British, French, and eventually the Americans to overhaul the country in the meantime”
Italian technologies at the end of the Anarcho-Syndicalist government
“The only real fault one could find with the Anarcho-Syndicalists was technology within the military. While infantry and artillery were comparable to the rest of the Syndicalist forces, armored capabilities were lacking. While we did not use many tanks in the Middle-East, I know that they were used extensively in the European theater, and that they were outmatched by the Mitteleuropean armored divisions.”
“Tell me”, asked Gallo, “Did you ever look at the makeup of the ground forces before demobilization?”
“If I did, I have since forgotten”, I responded, “But I suppose you know?”
“That I do”, Gallo nodded, “There was such an imbalance at the end that it would appear that Italy had relied on infantry power alone. Here, look”
Gallo retrieved an old journal from his bookshelf and quickly flipped it to a page with some figures.
Italian ground forces compared to other countries at the end of hostilities, 1946
“These were notes I took some years ago when I started working at the library. During the war against Germany and in the Middle-East, I had found that Italy had respectable numbers of armored divisions. By the time war focused to Russia, that number had dropped down to one theater command and four armored divisions. I could only conclude that aside from the poor technological state of the armored vehicles at the time, the industries back home were not focusing too much on tanks as we began to run into supply problems around that time- the same thing with our allies and even Russia, as I would learn later. In Italy’s case though, our stockpiles of oil were mostly shifted to air protection and the navy, with ground forces only having so much to keep logistics moving. Everything else was restricted down to necessities.”
“One of the unspoken promises of the Social-Reformists outside of their written platform from the Congress elections was to essentially modernize the military. It was known they were going to shrink the military, but they justified this to meetings with soldier councils by promising that they would finally receive the advancements that so far had eluded them.”
“So, despite expectations that the dove policies might fall flat among some soldiers, a considerable amount supported them?”, I asked.
Gallo shrugged.
“I find it’s a misconception to think that all of his in the military then wanted endless war and keeping the military unnecessarily so large. Many of us, be it conscripts or enthusiastic partisans of the socialist way, wanted to know that we would never have to go back to such a war that we saw against Germany. Even the officers had begun to question the “popular” structure of the military that the insurrectionists had championed for decades, wanting instead to make a smaller, better trained force.”
“Do you think the Social-Reformists achieved what they had aimed for?”
“I felt like they did. Even though in the ensuing years I gradually shifted to the Marxist platform, the fact that they were able to secure majorities in following congresses right up to the 1970 Congress meant that the populace were approving of their works. Their greatest achievements would have to be in the education and infrastructure of this country though. The education I can tell you put Italy on the map as one of the finest centers of learning on the continent, producing and hosting our share of talent such as Umberto Eco in philosophy, Levi-Montalcini in medicine, Enrico Fermi in physics, -I could list more but it would probably take pages in your paper! In particular the Anarcho-Syndicalist government’s research into nuclear energy continued through the Social-Reformists, even after Fermi’s death in 1962 [2].”
In infrastructure, the country finally managed to intertwine North and South and bring the level of development to a more level area in the two regions. The railroads and highways were brought up to the standards that were agreed upon in the Berlin and Barcelona summits of the Syndicalist International in the 1950s, and by the time they had left power, the Social-Reformist government had completely overhauled the aged infrastructure of Italy.
Italian Infrastructure at high levels
“You were in University at an interesting time”, I said, “Do you remember anything in particular about the student movements then?”
“Yes”, responded Gallo “I had participated in several protests at that. While I was not a leader, I had joined the movement trying to pressure the Italian government to withdraw from Libya entirely, which they had decided to retain as a client state. While nominally independent, it was known that the Italian government out of its tensions with their French comrades had ended up derailing talks for a union of Northwest African states.”
“We were dismayed by this selfish act on both the French and Italian governments, neglecting the spirit of internationalism in favor of narrow minded nationalist feuds and power plays within the Syndintern. Libya was an ugly reminder of Italy’s imperialist past- we wanted to move beyond that, especially considering the whole emphasis on decolonialism in Africa. We couldn’t be doing to Libya what the Egyptians were beginning to do in Central Africa, with the cooperation of the British monarchs in Australasia.”
“And as we know from history, the government didn’t budge on this matter”
“Yes”, said Gallo with a sigh, “Our demands were met with silence. Most of us gave up and left. Those of us that remained in the protest were eventually scattered by the police. The Social-Reformists claimed they were merely trying aid the government in Libya against “religious reactionaries” until it was ready to stand on its own. Still, the weirdest instance was that of the National-Syndicalists and their leading light, Mussolini, which were strongly for continuing this control of Libya”
“It’s all ancient history now”, said Gallo, “but once upon a time Mussolini was an ardent anti-militarist. He fled Italy following protests against the colonial war in Libya against the Ottoman Empire. Some people had thought that as a result of that, he would be sympathetic to the calls for removal of our forces there. Yet he had come out in support- this was not surprising to those of us familiar with his political evolution, considering he had supported the decrepit Kingdom in their foolish adventure in the Great War.”
“Mussolini had ‘deduced’, and I use that term lightly, that for whatever reason the Italians were in a way superior, culturally and politically, to those in Libya. A very elitist and skewed look on the world, and he would justify himself when outbursts of violence occurred such as the violent protests outside the Italian embassy in Tripoli in 1948 demanding independence. He would condemn a whole people for the actions of a few to suit his cynical worldview. Unfortunately, we could never see how he reacted to the eventual departure from Libya, considering the Superga disaster that happened only a year later on May 3rd, 1949”
“You were studying in Turin at the time. Did you remember anything from the accident?” I asked Gallo.
“I heard about the accident while in the university’s library. They said that an airplane had crashed into old basilica on Superga Hill, just east of the Po River. The day was overcast then , and from what I was told this contributed to poor visibility as the plane came in. I thought it was a general commercial flight when I arrived at the site to help the emergency crews until the first news came out from Mussolini’s Il Popolo- Mussolini himself was on that plane and perished in the crash.”
Wreckage from the plane crash
“And not only Mussolini, but many of the top figures in the National-Syndicalists. Emilio de Bono, Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Italo Balbo, and many more; in one swift stroke, the leadership of the National-Syndicalists was decapitated. With the exception of de Vecchi, all had been involved in some fighting. Mussolini with his self-styled “March of the Ten Thousand” during the 1921 Revolution, and de Bono and Balbo’s participation in the past war- even if you had not supported their viewpoints as I had, it was clear that this was going to be a major historical event in Italy.”
“If this was a book or some movie, I would claim this was a convenient plot device to remove characters from the story. But the reason was clear- Mussolini and the rest of the National-Syndicalists were preparing to host a conference for the Totalists in Turin, in light of their lack of any real success outside of the Combined Syndicates. They just happened to leave at the wrong time.”
“Any thoughts on the conspiracy theories around the crash?” I asked.
“They’re good for a laugh”, responded Gallo, “but beyond that they have no basis in reality. Sure, the National-Syndicalists were not exactly well liked by any of the other platforms in Italy, much less the rest of the Syndintern, but they weren’t exactly a danger to anyone like some of them claim. The outlandish ones claiming that Libyan rebels were behind this are even more laughable- Mussolini was in no position to affect Libyan policy, much less even known of among the Libyan masses. “
“How did the campus react to the Russian war in Central Asia”
“How else? We were very opposed to what we saw as a blatant imperial adventure on Russia’s part there. While originally Russia had been able to paint itself as merely acting in defense against Turkestan after several border settlements were attacked, it was later widely reported that Russia had engineered the conflict by provoking them. They had needed something, of course, to help save face after not gaining the whole of Europe as they had envisioned. Central Asia would be its consolation prize, in a way”
“What really got students as well as other youth angry was Russia’s decision to directly annex and incorporate those regions into the Empire, as well as its partition of Afghanistan in an agreement with Delhi and Iran during the final summit in 1950. We protested outside the main Russian embassy in Rome, but it was also a sobering reminder of the real imperialist drives that still existed outside the Syndintern. It helped me prepare for my future outside of college though.”
“After you graduated in 1953, you entered into the Directorate of Foreign Affairs, then under the leadership of Giuseppe Saragat of the Social-Reformists. What were your first impressions?”
“I was overwhelmed by how much they were dealing with in such a short span of days. It is a popular misconception that it was a “slow” time in the world after the end of the war in 1946. I had fooled myself into thinking this as well- but they were busy with not only non-syndicalist powers and colonial struggles, but their own inter-Syndintern relations. As I was settling down to affairs in Rome, I got my first big trial in the summer of 1954: The question of Austria and the German Union”
“This is not too widely known, even among historians today”, said Gallo, “but the question of a union between the German-speaking parts of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and whatever would arise in the ruins of Germany had already been tentatively discussed following the fall of Vienna in early 1943. After the collapse of the German Empire and the creation of the German Union, it was decided that in 10 years time the people of the new Austrian Republic could put the matter of entrance into the German Union to a popular referendum.”
“The possibilities of such a union troubled France, mostly out of fear that it would allow the German Syndicalists to overshadow them due to the sheer economic strength it would entail. This was much of the same reasoning that dominated their opposition to a strong, federated union of German socialist republics built on a syndicalist basis during discussions in the 1943 Frankfurt Conference.”
“In an amendment added later to the final Frankfurt Agreement that created the German Union”, said Gallo, “The matter of what to do with the rump Austria. Some “thinkers” within the German Union suggested that the old idea of a pan-German state in the vein of the pan-Arab Federation, an old idea. It had long been tainted with a racist outlook, but it was eventually settled upon that the matter of union would only be between the boundaries of the Republic of Austria, and not irredentist claims within the old Austrian Empire. More over, it would be a mutual union of Syndicalists, rather than some notion of superiority. The matter could not be decided until 10 years later however. And conveniently enough, it was 1954, well beyond that limit”
“And so we have the referendum that took place during that time”, I added as Gallo nodded, “What did the Italians think of this?”
“We were worried that such expressions would undercut the spirit of cooperation and internationalism between the Syndintern republics. More over, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire resulted in a patchwork of ethnic groups, hardly one that one could divide into borders that could please everyone. There would be Germans of course who demanded that similar referendums take place in Istria, Slovenia, and Trentino, and then there would be similar demands among others in the Empire. It was a mess to unleash”
“While the Italian government had supported the formation of the German Union”, said Gallo, “the position towards the referendum was mixed. We again felt that this was distracting from the real purposes of the Syndintern and would in time bring about other problems. However we would not contest the referendum or whatever results it came out to be, so long as it was retained within Austria itself, as well as ensuring that the German Union would continue to be a federation, rather than a unitary state.”
“France was more hostile to the question. They had in the ensuing years after Frankfurt set out to build opposition to the project in Austria, encouraging anarchist movements in that country to oppose such a large entity that would subsume their autonomy into control from Berlin.”
“The final results reflected this. While the attitudes towards union between Germany and Austria were high among both populations before the War, the final results of the referendum hardly showed consensus 55% in favor with 45% against. With that, Austria joined the German Union as a member republic, attaining a similar status to the others within it.
Germany and Austria after the referendum
“Response from France wasn’t too favorable, and I could tell within our directorate there was a sense of dismay too. The balance of power had been greatly upset in the Syndintern (not to mention the military alliance), and we were not sure how this would affect relations in the future. Much less what could be done now with Hungary, as France originally desired to have Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia federate into their own union. Hungary was the odd man out, as it were. It’s still something I don’t think we have straightened out, even now”
“And yet that was probably only the tip of the iceberg as far as international events went?”
“The 1950s was probably one of the most trying for the parties of the Syndintern. We had shifted from wartime to peacetime, and now challenges arose from the agents of reaction from within the country. I had mentioned before about the Combined Syndicates’s own troubles with those elements as it tried to enforce itself throughout the former United States. France had to deal with the incorporation of former French citizens in North Africa, many of whom were strongly opposed to them. The British had to deal with the continued agitation of the royal family in Australasia. The FAI with the Church and remnants of landowners. Our Middle-Eastern and North African Comrades with the old order of nobility and tribal chieftains. Our allies in Africa with their ethnic differences. Even in South America, despite Brazil’s size and now its addition of Argentina, it still was faced with a continent hostile to them [3].
“In Italy, the Social-Reformist “opening” to the Church resulted in the reemergence of services and clergy under a new “Church” loyal to the state [4], one that the Pope threatened all with excommunication for joining. However, the loosening of control over the clergy allowed for some to rile up tensions within Italy, and so we saw the emergence of the various self-styled “liberation” insurrectionary groups across the country. “
“It was known that these rebels operated through smuggling routes that originated from Serbia and Greece, the two states we believe were responsible for material aid in order to disrupt our position on the continent. Those years in the 50s and even 60s saw violence from these groups that styled themselves as the same as those Christians who were persecuted in Ancient Rome. Their support varied, but in the end it seemed to have dropped off as living conditions became more bearable by the late 50s. By the 1960s, most of this had been isolated to small groups that, like the mafia before them, resorted to small time smuggling and black market circles”
“However, the biggest problem to come out of this was not from these rebels, but within the government. The Social-Reformists were known for their opposition to the SSDR and had long promised to disband the office as they had seen its purpose had long been fulfilled. Tell me, do you recall what happened after the 1958 Congress?”
“The new House of Commons and Council of the Republic took awhile to appear. Longer than usual, though this was because the voting results were so close, wasn’t it?”
“That was one reason. But you know the SSDR ceased to exist after that Congress, yes?”
I nodded.
“This was discussed during the Congress, which resulted in an attempt by the members of the SSDR to enact a silent coup, under the justification that tighter control was needed in light of these reactionary groupings in the country, as well as claims that the Social-Reformists were endangering the revolution and rigged the results of the 1954 Congress. The meeting chambers in Rome were blocked as they assumed control of the state buildings, but they were relying on the support of the Marxist block to push this through. Much to their dismay, the Marxists did not support them and thus they had no real basis for their move, and their attempt was halted. All the more reason to disband them after that”
As if seeing my confusion, he added that time would prove him right [5], and he continued on to other matters.
“Outside of Italy, we saw challenges too in the Syndintern. I was a part of the mission to the Middle-East to help resolve border disputes between Kurdistan, Turkey, and the Arab Federation that threatened the progress towards federating those three into a union. I had the added benefit of at least having some recognition in those countries from my time in the war, and this helped to highlight my use there in forging the trust between those leaders. Even as Iran entered into a closer alliance with Russia, we ensured that the three would maintain mutual defenses and coordinate their economic growth to maintain an example against the enemies all around them- from the monarchists in Egypt, Arabia, and Greece to the Russian hegemony that was developing in Asia. We helped them forge mutual ties with the Bharatiya Commune [6], which helped to offset the danger of Australasian, Japanese, and Russian intrigues”
“The biggest embarrassment to the Syndintern during this time would have to be the fall of the pro-France party in Equatorial Africa. A coup ousted the government there despite the presence of a Syndintern mission, ushering into power a pro-Australasian regime consisting of former Nationalist French and Mittelafrikan administrators and local notables. We saw that similar movements were emerging in our allied states in Africa claiming that they were being too “controlled” by the Syndintern.”
“France and Britain had their own troubles to sort out in the region; The Combined Syndicates was occupied with what later would turn out to be a failed revolution in Cuba [7]. Brazil’s erstwhile ally in Bolivia found its government forced to resign after a popular movement resulted in a social democratic government that moved it away from tight association with the Syndintern. Our main problem was the issue of Libya, one that the Social-Reformist government had ignored for a long time. I had been a member of the faction within the directorate to push for total Libyan independence, and that opinion began to grow once the follies of French control in Equatorial Africa became apparent. In 1959, Libya was given independence, and we suggested to the French to do the same with Algeria and Morocco.”
“While their governments moved more towards reformism”, said Gallo, “I think that this at least kept our close ties with those nations. They were continuing to trade with us and retaining socialist structures, and to those of us wanting to maintain the spirit of the Syndintern, that was more than enough. And it was in North Africa we saw the first of our federations come into fruition, on a mutual basis between Algeria, Morocco, and Libya into a Maghreb Federation.
The Maghreb Federation
“And I believe the events in the far east became a flashpoint for this post-war “order”?”, I added.
“Yes. The old German-held areas of China under the East German Company declared independence shortly after the voluntary exile of the Kaiser into Australasia in 1948. This was a government that was republican in nature, and incorporated a whole host of political opinions into its state. It however tried to stake an “independent” path in the complicated relations in the region. It managed to retain favorable relations with the Syndintern at times, other times with Russia, and other times with Australasia. Japan was the only nation that the new China seemed opposed to, for the most part due to the continued occupation of much of northern China by that state”
“Japan had set out to make its client states in Indonesia and Indochina, as well as expanding the reach of its Fengtian Republic partners in the Chinese mainland to give the illusion of Chinese self-rule. However, the real revolutionaries in Vietnam resisted the advances of Japan into areas where Germany formerly controlled during the height of the revolution there. The Syndintern during the 1960 Algiers Congress declared their support for anticolonial struggles in both Africa and Vietnam- it was the latter we all knew about in the following decade. It was the former that fell to the shadows, but it was there I believe the Syndintern made its greatest success.”
“And why you have Congo listed in your records, I presume”
Gallo looked out of his window and I noticed that we had talked well into midnight. I had missed my deadline for some two-bit articles on the navy games in the Bay of Naples; Gallo could pick up on my realization.
“I would love to tell you more”, said Gallo, “but I’m sure you have to get your work turned into the paper. We’ll leave the Congo Revolution for tomorrow.”
_______________________________________________________________________
[1] By this, Gallo means his gradual shift to the Marxist platform within the Greater Syndicalist Union. The grouping is now simply known as the “Socialist” platform, a regrouping of former PSI members from the Social-Reformist and Marxist platforms.
[2] Fermi’s death in 1962 from cancer was believed to have been to his work with nuclear materials, though this is not conclusive.
[3] Even though by size Argentina and Brazil formed a large bloc, there was still a substantial amount of economic strength by other countries in the region, notably Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Colombia.
[4] It must be added that the Social-Reformist recognition of the church did not entail a return of the church hierarchy. There was no “red” papacy created, as was the popular misconception in many countries outside the syndicalist block.
[5] Writing at the present time, most of Gallo’s assertions were correct. However, it is now known that some members of the Marxist platform did try to join in the coup, hoping to counteract what they see were the bankruptcies of the French-dominated Syndicalist movement.
[6] The Bharatiya Commune had managed to overcome the Princely Federation, capturing Mumbai in 1950. This in effect divided India into “north” and “south”, a situation which still persists to this day.
[7] A popular revolution in Cuba broke out in 1959, born out of formerly exiled revolutionaries returning from Mexico. Despite the support of much of the island’s populace, the revolution was not able to overcome the military which had been supplanted by elements of the American government-in-exile. Following the failed revolution, the American exiles began to assume a greater prominence in the island’s political affairs, controlling the policies of the major parties.
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A very interesting read. One minor quibble; I don't think Delhi would be called a sultanate, because a significant portion of its population is Hindu or Sikh. I think its more likely that it will be called the bland but unoffensive title of "Kingdom of Delhi/India"
talt
talt
I'm not sure why I attached Sultanate to it, the ministers don't reflect that arrangement at all. I must have my mind somewhere else, that has been removed now though.
Are those austrian events and Mahgreb federation in vanilla kaiserreich? I've never seen 'em!
I think the Mahgreb Fed events are in there, I do not recognize the Austrian ones tho, but it wouldn't surprise me! We have solutions for many different worlds!
I'm playing the original version of Kaiserreich before event chains were added for African federations (Benikongo, Benin-Sahel, Sahel, Bantu Federation, etc.), so I had to whip up events for Algeria to annex Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco, add cores for that, then change the name and flag. Same thing with Austria- I added that event on the suggestion of Viden over on the previous page, after my update back in July. I'm not sure if this is in the present version though, but Davis says they are.
Truth be told, being absorbed in this AAR, I haven't played subsequent versions of Kaiserreich until just recently. The addition of events for making neat federations for Africa in the first releases after the original for DH is very much welcomed and I wish I had those to work with. I had to make similar "federations" by basically adding cores to existing nations and then giving them a different nation. This also helps me to avoid making new ministers, and for the benefit of the AAR, I don't have to replicate this exactly- hence some of my earlier updates regarding Arab nationalists and the like for the Arab Federation.
In fact, I've actually added several events on my own to help simulate the role of Italy in the world, especially with civil war events and international participation. I even helped out with my navy by letting me recover some of the Italian Federation's sizable navy, rather than them all disappearing.
Truth be told, being absorbed in this AAR, I haven't played subsequent versions of Kaiserreich until just recently. The addition of events for making neat federations for Africa in the first releases after the original for DH is very much welcomed and I wish I had those to work with. I had to make similar "federations" by basically adding cores to existing nations and then giving them a different nation. This also helps me to avoid making new ministers, and for the benefit of the AAR, I don't have to replicate this exactly- hence some of my earlier updates regarding Arab nationalists and the like for the Arab Federation.
In fact, I've actually added several events on my own to help simulate the role of Italy in the world, especially with civil war events and international participation. I even helped out with my navy by letting me recover some of the Italian Federation's sizable navy, rather than them all disappearing.
If you think your events are worthy of being in KR, please post them in our forum
We are always looking for new content!
We are always looking for new content!
Long update here, I know. After this it's the epilogue, which'll be brief, and a timeline trying to piece together this thing. Without further adieu:
The Congo Crisis
When visiting Gallo’s apartment the next day, I was informed by one of his children that he was out walking along the waterside of the city.
The Naples Waterside was decorated for the 50th anniversary festivities, most notably having a row of flags of countries and movements affiliated with the Syndicalist International. The organizers of the event billed the anniversary much the same as those who organized France’s own 50th anniversary before as not only a national event but an international one due to its importance in establishing the syndicalist revolution as a political force.
I had ended my conversation with Gallo on the note of the revolution in the Congo, so I figured that he would be near the platform set up for the Union of African Socialist Republics. Despite the internal insurrections in the country, the government had still sent a representative to the 50th Anniversary celebrations- the Foreign Minister no less.
Gallo saw me approach and waved me over, asking me to walk with him back up the waterfront.
“How much do you know about the situation in Central Africa following the war?”, he asked.
“I know that the region had long been colonized by European interests, first by the Belgians and later by Germany in the Mittelafrika project. The following 15 or so odd years after the war saw the region administrated by Egypt, aided by interests in Australasia and Russia, as the region was slowly turned over to client states aligned to Cairo. 1963 sees the beginning of the revolution in the Congo, erupting in several urban cities after a call to arms by the Mouvement National Congolais[1] after a miner strike was repressed by the authorities. The whole crisis was marked by a simultaneous movement away from Egypt and civil war, with the socialists at the receiving end of this”, I summarized.
“That is as best a summary we can get these days. The conflict is still ongoing and hardly resolved, though its toughest period was in the period of 1964 to 1970. Even as we speak there are issues coming up in the region, and it is unlikely we will see a resolution for some time, much less a conclusive work on the subject”, said Gallo.
“So you were clearly involved in this conflict, as you hinted at earlier. Why the interest from Italy, much less the International, in Africa?”
Central Africa entering into the 1960s
“We had already begun to get problems from the regions created from the ruins of the colonial states of the French government in exile and Mittelafrika. I mentioned the problem of Equatorial Africa whose government essentially broke from the Syndintern and pursued its own “independent” path much to our dismay. The embarrassment and shame the Syndintern received when it was discovered agents from the Union of Britain and the Commune of France attempted to return the former ruling party to power ended up hurting our reputation in the region. For the same reasons, we saw the Benin-Sahel Federation attempt to distance themselves from the Syndintern”
“When Argentina had an internal insurrection that ejected the Brazilian backed socialist government in 1959, it was beginning to embolden our enemies abroad who now took to naming such events “revolutions” and lauding the return of “democracy”, or more precisely bourgeois democracy.”
“So if I am to make a guess here, the reason for these involvements in Vietnam and the Congo were as much for practical concerns of resources as they were for international prestige?”
Gallo shrugged.
“I guess you could put it that way. Cynical as it may be, there was a concern from all sectors in the Syndintern that we could no longer appear to be the liberating force we were in the past. The propaganda battle being waged by Australasia and Russia did everything to demonize our ideology and this made it substantially more difficult for countries to sympathize with us. Vietnam and the Congo both presented an opportunity for us to show a resistance struggle waged by the people themselves, rather than being liberated by the French or British as the case was in Africa after the war.”
“Vietnam was where the world was focused at- a convergence of the world powers not seen since the Second World War. Yet it overshadowed events in Africa which were just as important. Africa was underdeveloped, but it had a vast collection of resources and people struggling to be free. If Syndicalism was to remain relevant, it had to succeed where new nations were being created by popular movements, rather than from a foreign force. We had to replicate the uprisings that took place in the Middle-East, as opposed to merely creating new nations and acting as liberators.”
“But wasn’t Vietnam a popular movement?”, I interjected, “Would it not count in your interpretation?”
“I never said it was not a popular movement. It was not a new one”, started Gallo”, “Vietnam’s struggle for independence began before the war- as far as we were concerned, it was an unfinished revolution whose right was stolen by imperialists. Africa, on the other hand, was fertile ground for a new movement. One that could symbolize the new times we were in”
“If so, why not the active concern for the Congo that Vietnam warranted? Looking at the archives from the war onwards, there were always a few stories every week about the Vietnamese conflicts with Japan.” I asked.
Gallo stooped over to pick up a discarded bag from the bench. He reached into the bag and tossed out bird feed, attracting a large group of pigeons around us as they quickly devoured the seeds.
“These pigeons expect food; they have seen plenty of people feed them for years. I do not want to say that the Syndintern were like pigeons, but the behavior of the world at large towards Africa reminded me of this. They were aware of the presence of these movements, but reacting to it only once it has occurred.”
I nodded and Gallo continued.
“In a way, this was similar with the Congo. The Syndintern knew there was something going on there, but did not act until it had already broken out. Of course, like with our pigeons here, the Syndintern would not be alone in flocking to Africa once conflict emerged”
“Did the Syndintern have any hand in the uprisings? To paraphrase Gramsci, I do not think it was simply spontaneous without some sort of planning”
“There were the usual strategies that were done in many countries. The Syndintern either provided scholarships for young men and women to educate themselves in our own universities, or the establishment of facilities there. In the latter, the Syndintern determined in their 1948 World Congress to create such a program in one of the new countries created. As the pan-African movement was strongest in the Benin-Sahel at the time, the program was established at Accra, simply named the University of Africa.“
“How many people did that university educate?” I asked.
“I never got an accurate amount. The big problem was that the Benin-Sahel Federation would end up essentially breaking with the Syndintern and causing problems with the program there. Many of the records ended up being torched in the government’s crackdown on student protests there [2]. That being said, I know of a handful in the Congo revolt that were educated at the university.”
Gallo walked over to a bench and sat down, looking back towards the street at a colorful mural depicting the raising of the revolutionary flag over the palace at Caserta.
“When the revolt began in the Congo, it took the world by surprise. There had been so much focus on the east that when the first mine strikes occurred in the southern parts of Egypt’s holdings in early 1963, few people gave it serious attention. Miner disputes were frequent considering the abusive policy Egypt had put in place in order to become competitive internationally, but had rarely gone beyond a single mine. Now it was going across the region”
Revolts reached a highpoint by February 1963
“Somehow the collective mood of the land had clicked together and civil unrest erupted across the colonies once news of the miner revolt had spread and the client states were not able to deal with the uprisings. Egypt’s lack of control became apparent for everyone to see, and this created an opportunity for radicals sympathetic to the Syndintern to raise the red flag. Simultaneously, the cities of Brazzaville and Léopoldville saw street protests and a call for independence, and in time a popular government was established by these revolutionaries. Most were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, with a handful older- very young men relative to other revolutions we had seen. And as I said before, some were educated in the university in Accra- it is still said that the Syndintern had planned it but I never saw signs of it in my work. The Syndintern felt that the prospect of revolution was unlikely, and after the events in the Benin-Sahel Federation morale was understandably low in our ranks. The tension in the world was too high to provoke conflict with other powers”.
“What did they think would happen otherwise?” I asked.
“The two prevailing theories were that these revolutions would either create independent republics once Egypt established them on their own terms, or a revolution would occur where a nascent national bourgeoisie would declare independence from Egypt. And before you ask, for my part I had completely forgotten about African affairs with the department being tied up on East Asia. ”
“So what decided the sudden change towards Africa?”
“Nothing changed- officially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promised not to intervene in the crisis. This was repeated by our neighbors. There was an acknowledgement that the events there were important and our enemies would not ignore it. There was always the more unofficial ways this could be conducted without causing an incident abroad.”
“I presume this is where you come in?”
“Yes. As you probably have seen from my records, it says I had quit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and settled into working in the national library in 1962. An early age, but I was not an important figure whose absence would raise suspicions. I was still officially working in the library when I was tasked with getting together volunteers to travel to the Congo to aid them.”
“Why you? I would have thought someone from the intelligence circles would have been more appropriate”
“None who had experience surviving without support, as the government felt I demonstrated more than enough with my time in the Second American Civil War. We had a few of with us though in supporting roles, though I cannot provide names. I must also admit that I had willingly volunteered for it- most of us had- this was not a job for glory or anything, and the government would deny any knowledge of it. We gathered a total of 150 operatives willing to volunteer in the Congo. We were on our own here. Kind of a romantic sentiment that got me volunteering for the American war in the first place. A cynic might see that as a sign that I was the only one idiotic enough to think this would work”
“Who were the major groups you were told to work with?”
“By this point there were two groups that we identified as friendly with us. The first was the Mouvement National Congolais which I mentioned earlier and the second was a grouping of local militia known as the National Council for the Revolution. The former had more influence but more moderate as well; the second had far more armed strength from the get go and presumably was seen as pro-Syndintern. This allowed them to quickly seize control of Egypt’s holdings on the other side of the Congo River, most importantly Brazzaville. Without any influence from the Syndintern, they were beginning to link up with their MNC counterparts in Léopoldville.”
The Free Congo in March of 1963
“When did you leave for the region?” I asked.
“Some point in May of 1963. We could not all go at once, but I went first with 19 others to set up for the rest of our people. We boarded an airplane to the Mali Federation which was a close ally of the Syndintern. From there we went overland to Benin-Sahel where we posed as investors from Australasia. We caught a ride on a barge to Libreville, where we exited as part of a mercenary group traveling to the war for Egypt. From there it was not a problem to go across the border to the revolutionaries establishing themselves in Brazzaville. We could not land directly on the port as our information indicated the ports were still under the control of authorities sympathetic to Cairo.”
“And the authorities in Equatorial Africa did not mind this?”
“Apparently they did not. We had prepared for trouble with them but we found that their security was very poor. As far as we could tell from our brief time in Libreville the government had too many holes in their security apparatus so long as you knew who to pay off. We were not interested in causing trouble in the country, and they did not have particularly much interest in Egypt’s continued presence in Central Africa. As such they let mercenaries move through to the region without interference.”
“By the time we finally arrived in Brazzaville, a month had already passed. Honestly was it not for the fact that we wanted to avoid attracting attention, we could have arrived much sooner. By this point the revolutionaries had gained control over both Brazzaville and Léopoldville and took the step of formally creating a provisional government. This was not without trouble though, as certain bourgeois elements of the MNC decided to split from the organization and strike out on their own. At any rate, we sent word back to our group to prepare to come to the Congo in groups.”
“And how exactly did you go about convincing them that you were there to help?”
“One part convincing and the other part pure luck. They had been expecting something from the Syndintern, but something more significant. Not our small group. It was by sheer luck that they had been aware of the Garibaldi Brigades and seemed satisfied that I could demonstrate my first-hand experience with them”
“Once you were cleared, you were presumably able to get into contact with the revolutionary government. Who did you meet first?”
The Provisional Government of revolutionary Congo
“Patrice Lumumba. Then he was the Prime Minister of the government, opposite the president, Alphonse Massamba-Debat. Arguably his position held more power but he was not in the spotlight when the media covered the uprising. Lumumba was a well-read man despite not having a formal university education, which was readily obvious when I entered into my first meeting with him. Lumumba came out as a leader of the MNC that opted for this popular government, and was left as its main leader once those who rejected the agreement, led by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, left. He gave me an update on the political situation there, notably the development of the miner revolts in the south. It had finally spread to the regional capital at Élisabethville, and meetings with the representatives from the MNC indicated they were ready to join us in the struggle against Egypt”
Revolts in Élisabethville
I noticed as Gallo reached the end he began clenching his fists.
“We saw an opportunity for our first assignment then. I volunteered to travel along with five of our operatives to enter into Élisabethville and integrate them into the provisional government. We were to advise the MNC fighters with us how to set this up and create a unified command with the new fighters.”
“And things did not go as planned?”
“We did not know that the government in Élisabethville was willing to throw the whole movement away in order to secure their own narrow interests. To make matters worse they had no intention in even following up any sort of revolutionary demands, but capitulating to the forces of reaction. They wanted to form a republic aligned with the Entente. In exchange for access to resources for the Entente, these leaders were allowed to hold privileged positions in the new country. And to seal the deal, evidence of Syndintern interference would be sweet, wouldn’t it? The Entente sorely wanted to make these events appear a result of Syndintern interference in other countries’ internal affairs. They did not even bother trying to deceive us with false promises. As soon as our convoy rolled into Élisabethville, the commanding officer Joseph-Desiré Mobutu turned us over to the government, claiming we were preparing to overthrow the Élisabethville government. Not a good welcome after crisscrossing through a patchwork of pro-revolutionary and pro-Egypt territory to get there”
“Who was leading the Katanga government then?”, I asked.
“A local administrator named Moïse Tshombe. As we were held in the prison, we heard over the radio his declaration of the Republic of Katanga and raising arms against the “socialist demagogues” of the People’s Republic of the Congo. He added that they had reached an understanding with Egypt and “other interested parties” [3] in creating a Congo based on “federal and democratic” principles. It seems that the split from the MNC led by Kasa-Vubu also allied themselves with this government. Apparently some military officers also sympathized with Kasa-Vubu’s position, as we saw with Mobutu, and were declaring the formation of a rival Congolese government that Tshombe alluded to.”
“So right out of the gate you already encounter divisions in the Congo. Were you aware of what they were planning to do with you all at the time?”
“They did not tell us, but we knew that they would try to use us to expose the Syndintern. But for the time being, they did not mention our existence, even when they announced their independence and declared war the People’s Republic of the Congo.”
Katanga declares war on the Congo
“As far as I know from the region there are many different ethnic groups and tribes”, I added, “I can’t imagine that Katanga’s declaration of independence went unnoticed by these other tribes”.
“Timing and some dumb luck. The forces of Katanga signed some sort of agreement with Egypt which essentially allowed the two to focus on the Congo and other problems. However some other local movements also got ideas from Katanga’s declaration and tried to bargain with Egypt to make their own countries. This created some deal of chaos and disputes between individual groups with conflicting claims of course, so almost immediately Katanga found itself with problems in the Kasai region to the west and the Kivu region towards the Great Rift Valley while simultaneously fighting forces aligned with the Congo.”
“During that time we planned our escape. We were subjected to… well, you can imagine. One of our number did not come back. Far more of our Congolese comrades we never saw again. But we managed to make an amazingly intricate plan that I never could see in action, because a few weeks later some street fighting between rival militias spilled over into the prison. A stray explosive blew a wall in the prison which provoked a breakout. Rioting prisoners opened the gates, including ours, and we slipped out in the chaos.”
“That sounds too convenient to be a coincidence. Are you sure that they did not plan that?” I asked.
“As far as I know, it was not. As I said, luck and timing came together in a spectacular way. Katanga was being hit by the same problems that the Congo itself was consumed by- the difficulties in asserting authority over such a large region with different peoples. Plus, we did not have anyone to pick us up.”
“That must have been problematic. No knowledge of where you were and of course sticking out being a foreigner.”
“We had managed to find some of the Congo soldiers who were captured with us that were still loyal. They acted as our confederates while we figured out what to do next. We established that three weeks had passed since we were captured, with it being mid-June then. We got updates on global events which were disquieting, notably the intervention by the Entente into the war.”
“Yes, the so-called African Peace Mission led by Australasia, as requested by Egypt and ‘concerned African notables’. They cited the instability in the center of Africa as well as the emergence of a ‘dictatorial’ state. The Syndintern chose not to take direct action beyond condemning the move”. Gallo nodded at my explanation.
“That is correct. In late June the Australasian government announced they were leading a ‘multinational’ coalition to restore order to the region. We had to act quickly and linked up with pro-Congo rebels, through whom we eventually came into contact with Pierre Mulele, leading operations for the People’s Republic of the Congo in the region. On August 6th, the expeditionary force landed in Dar es Salaam, which had been taken over by a different group of revolutionaries. The invasion force quickly reestablished order in the city and followed up with operations along the coast towards Mombasa in the north. They obviously intended to work inwards to the Congo and aiding the faltering Egyptian forces.”
“How was the equipment of the revolutionary forces?”
“It was outdated; most of it was from before the Second World War. By and large, they were confiscated from old Mittelafrikan armories that were not found by the Egyptians. The only thing that helped out the revolutionaries here was that outside of a few elite divisions, the Egyptian military was equipped with surplus weaponry given to them by Russia and Australasia, made back in the Second World War. It was only with the arrival of the Australasian-led mission that modern weaponry entered into the region”
“This of course necessitated the guerilla warfare that was seen in the war”
“Pierre Mulele, to his credit, was very skilled in organizing guerillas. We were deep within enemy territory away from the regular forces of the Congo. We had to carry out quick attacks and disrupt enemy supplies. Admittedly the group that I led was not familiar with this kind of tactics, but it did remind me in a sense of what we did in the Second American Civil War.”
An example of rebel groups formed by Mulele
“Where did you get supplies during all this time?”, I asked, “The Syndintern was only sending basic trade while avoiding large arms shipments because of the lack of a reliable route”
“With Mulele and his guerrillas, we essentially lived off the land and had to scrounge up supplies where we could. The regular army was receiving shipments from Italy but these were infrequent. As Equatorial Africa would not cooperate with the Syndintern here, the idea was to use South Africa as a direct land route to revolutionaries. South Africa we learned later still had not total control of its northern regions, and the case of Angola would throw a wrench into our plans.”
“You are referring to the declaration of independence by Angola in October of 1963, correct?”
“That is the event. We had not expected the revolutionaries there to side against the Congo, as there were those who would side with us within the MPLA. Our allies were outmaneuvered by bourgeois machinations by local administrators, some of whom were still the same that came out of Portugal’s colony 30 years before, as well as the bourgeois natives in the form of the FNLA [4]. To add to the complications, it seems that the Russians had wanted to carve out influence in the region as Australasia was going to have its own stake in East Africa and was running independently of Entente interests. “
Angola’s independence in October of 1963
“And with Angola’s appearance combined with Egypt slowly reasserting control over the south, this meant that a direct land route to the Congo through South Africa was no longer possible”, I concluded.
“For our comrades it was further unnecessary handicaps on top of the divisions emerging among the people. Mulele now found himself cut off from supply routes with Angola falling out of their control. I had tried to implore the government back home to increase aid to the Congo when I got an opportunity to write a letter, but we did not get it immediately. Comrade Mulele now focused on trying to rejoin with the regular army further northwest in Luluaburg before we were overwhelmed. Still, we achieved many victories there I did not imagine due to their bravery. Even in spite of my age I still managed to make useful contributions, and the atmosphere reminded me of the optimism I saw in the Americans and later the Kurds – pure energy from the populace and optimism for their new future. They were making their own future, not having it imposed on them”
“How long did it take for you to return back to the provisional government?”
“We did not return back to Léopoldville until February of 1964. I could have returned earlier, but we needed to help Mulele where we could until we broke out of hostile territory with all of the forces. When we returned I found that the government had already sent some new armaments but fell short of matching the involvement of the Entente. Lumumba’s second hand man in the MNC, Antonie Gizenga, was on an international trip trying to secure more aid from friendly nations. The other operatives were busy helping out in Léopoldville, mostly in training and advising of the officers and running the civic government”
“I cannot imagine the government was feeling all that happy with the Syndintern”
“They were not. President Massamba-Débat and Prime Minister Lumumba called a meeting of the government to discuss their path forward. They also invited me as the ‘representative’ of the Syndintern”.
“And they naturally asked you what was with the Syndintern’s position on the crisis”, I said.
“Yeah”, sighed Gallo, “They did not doubt my commitment to the people. Mulele vouched for me and they were confident I was going to help them anyway I could. It was hard being put on the spot so suddenly, but I could understand their anger. Egypt and their colonial puppets were receiving generous help from Australasia, where they were getting none. The brutality we were seeing in the war was enough to get up there with the Second World War- many casualties and refugees [5]. I did not know the Syndintern’s reasons at the time, so I had to explain as best I could. I pointed out the Syndintern was likely concerned that their revolt would collapse and Egypt would resume control of the region and carry out de-colonialization on its own terms. They were already pouring resources into the Vietnam conflict as well as substantial support for the Bharatiya Commune and Brazil for regional interests. I explained to them that we needed to get some victories in order to convince the Syndintern that we were not fighting a losing war”
“Were they pleased with your response?”
“Well, I suppose so. I was just lucky that the Syndintern’s position was close to what I explained so I kept my reliability. I suggested to Mulele later that he cooperate with the young Ngouabi to train the military. The rest of our mission was already busy training recruits and officers.”
“The following months were a period of small skirmishes, if I recall correctly”
“While the Angolan and Katangan secessionists gave us extra fronts to fight along with the Egyptians, they had their own difficulties. The MNLA in Angola took up arms and linked up with pro-Congo rebels, giving them more distractions. Katanga had the rebels in the Kivu and Kasai regions. To their credit, the provisional government had ensured no divisions in their ranks, though one could argue that was aided by the fact their enemies had exited from the government and thrown in with Kasa-Vubu. Stanleyville was under control by Egyptian forces who declared a new Congo from there- simply the Republic of the Congo. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll refer to the revolutionary Congo as Congo-Léopoldville and the bourgeois one as Congo-Stanleyville. Kasa-Vubu established himself in Congo-Stanleyville and declared it to be the legitimate government. Recognition of Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Stanleyville was unsurprisingly done along ideological lines internationally”
“At the end of 1964, as news reports put it, the Egyptian forces were preparing for a big push on Léopoldville. This is generally seen as a turning point in the conflict,” I said, “It’s safe to say that the government was nervous at the time”
“Indeed. Egypt wanted to destroy the revolution when it was the weakest and prepared for a large attack on the Provisional Government’s most vulnerable front. This was encouraged with the defeat of revolutionary forces in Kikwit in November of 1964, which severed the supply routes for guerillas operating behind enemy lines in Kasai.”
“We received reports that the Egyptian-led Congo-Stanleyville force was going to march along the Congo River towards Kinshasa, bolstered by a small detachment of Australasian soldiers. The revolutionary forces met them at Coquilhatville in March of 1965, which was the last major city before reaching the Kinshasa area. Our volunteer force was with them and helped to put into practice urban combat.”
“Despite the odds stacked against us, especially due to the reactionaries with their armored vehicles and aircraft, the people came away with a victory. Some might say that it was because of our presence, but we only helped. The Congolese fighters had the people behind them; they had the morale and spirit that the Egyptian-led force lacked. Where the Egyptian force was slow moving if not defensive, ours was mobile and hard-hitting. We were able to turn the terrain to our advantage and turned it into a lesson for the imperialists”
Battle of Coquilhatville“And so the Battle of Coquilhatville goes down in history as the turning point of the Congo Crisis. As we know, shortly afterwards Gizenga suddenly found success within the Syndintern for support. By the summer of that year experts and advisors from the different nations of the Syndintern appeared along with more sophisticated equipment, including aircraft and armored vehicles. 1965 and onwards was more manageable for the Congo, but we should not mistake it for it being easy. If anything the conflict became more brutal as the stakes were raised.”
“In the summer of that year, the officer you had experience with before, Mobutu, staged a coup in Stanleyville where Kasa-Vubu was removed. It is believed the intervention force had a hand in the coup as they had concerns whether or not Kasa-Vubu was a competent leader.”
“It should also be mentioned”, Gallo added, “That Tshombe held a lot of power considering the size of Katanga in this skeleton of a bourgeois Congo. It is possible he was hoping to strike out away from this Congo and the allies wanted to placate him with a stronger leader. Mobutu was a military man, but he was also much more aggressive and as a result the fighting was more chaotic. He was willing to do a scorched earth tactic where they had to fall back. Cities like Luluaburg ended up changing hands so many times that the city was reduced to husks of gutted structures and broken infrastructure. The intervention force in the east began to have problems with the local population and was not able to commit further men as they were tied up trying to secure those eastern coastal regions.”
“And so you had to watch for the next two years chaotic battles and more brutality”. I sighed and shook my head. “My ignorance of all this is indicative of the lack of resources on the conflict”
“It is something I hope to rectify one day”, started Gallo, “And you are right. Even though we won at Coquilhatville, other battles followed where we saw weeks of fighting. I had saw battles at times that could rival those in the Second World War with how pitched they were; and then there were the separate battles against Angola and Katanga. Intelligence run by Diawara helped to get us linked up to sympathetic groups, and at the very least stir up tribal and local groups against Katanga and Angola where it benefitted us”
“In Angola we were aided by the presence of the MPLA and they allowed us to capture the regional capital in Luanda in September of 1966 after several weeks of fighting in our advance through there. It was a risky gamble, but it allowed us to remove a vulnerable spot and more importantly secure supply routes through South Africa.”
“And now the Congo had momentum on its side.”, I said.
Gallo nodded in agreement and continued.
“We began to converge on Katanga, seeing it as the most vital part of the Egyptian strategy in the region. I joined with Mulele once again, advancing out of Lulaburg towards Élisabethville. There was a difficult battle at Kolwezi in March of 1967 where we met the full force of the Katangese military. There they were crushed after a two week battle. They did not even bother putting up a resistance in Élisabethville, as the government had evacuated eastward to the Australasian controlled zones, unfortunately with Tshombe in tow.”
“With the Katanga government broken down and their forces reduced to straggling warbands, Congo-Stanleyville was now essentially a warlord’s turf in the form of General Mobutu. Our forces now swung northwards to Stanleyville while another Congolese force came from the capital led by Ngouabi. In both forces a lot of fighting took place, notably at Goma in the summer of 1967 where Mulele had to fight an incursion from an Australasian led force trying to reinforce Mobutu’s troubled position. The rest of the year was spent with small battles on the road to Stanleyville”
“And this culminates in the Battle of Stanleyville in February of 1968”
“Stanleyville was the last real battle of the Congo Crisis, and it was by far the worse. Where there was some real energy at Coquilhatville, there was only despair and brutality in Stanleyville. The enemy made us bleed for every street we took. Allied aircraft began to unload in the city, continuing scorched earth even up to the last minute. I had even been cut off in combat with a small group of our allies. Where I had been fortunate in previous battles to only receive small injuries, it was here that I got a rather nasty injury from shrapnel”, said Gallo lifting up his shirt to show scars, “Never thought I would have new ones to add to those I got in America and the Middle-East.”
“And when you finally took the administrative center, did the government flee?”
“By the time I linked back up with command, I was informed that Mobutu had died under unknown circumstances. I did not want to question any further or make any theories. I could tell though that many of my Congolese counterparts did not seem to mind- he had betrayed them and they lost several of their comrades in the process. The man was a traitor as far, and as they were concerned he got what he deserved.”
“We enter into the summer of 1968. The Provisional Government has nominal control over much of Central Africa, though ironically still unable to get the area in the south where the revolt started in the first place. But it eliminated the major sources of threats, and now focused on consolidating its power. What did you do then?”, I asked.
“We returned back to an advising capacity. The south fell into government control by the end of the year, and running simultaneous to that was the creation of councils to form the beginning of a new order. There were still small sources of opposition, like the pro-Entente grouping of Fulbert Youlou that remained underground. There was still the substantial problem of tribal and ethnic differences too, something that would not be overcome even in the span of decades. But the fighting was stopped, except for the border formed against Egypt and the Australasian occupation force, and now they could focus on peace time. The skills of men like Lumumba would become useful in this respect.”
“The Treaty of Stanleyville was signed in May of 1968 between representatives of Egypt and the People’s Republic of the Congo, overseen by Australasia. In exchange for completely abandoning the claims to Central Africa, the Congo agreed to a peace with Egypt and not to support rebel groups in the Sudan. A border was set along the Great Lakes region, where Egypt still retained control”
Treaty of Stanleyville with borders
The victory of the PR Congo paved the way for the creation of the Union of African Socialist Republics. A bold undertaking, but all the more important that it was done by the people themselves. I was there at the Congo but I did not fight in all the battles. I witnessed some, but from my own recollections one should be able to tell that we did not play a pivotal role. The people of the Congo liberated themselves, and rejected the attempts by Australasia or Russia to co-opt them. It was a boon for the pan-African movement allied with us and put a wrench into those like Benin-Sahel or Equatorial Africa that were trying to present their own factions.”
“If I recall correctly, Egypt lost even more just a month later in June. The Entente made them create a new state in the east which they would have influence over, the East African Union”
The East African Union
“That would be a thorn for the young UASR. We saw the failure of the movement there, leading some of those leaders like Julius Nyere to take refuge in the Congo. Likewise Kasa-Vubu and other anti-UASR elements took refuge in the EAU. The direct war may have been over, but a more hushed one of ideology and competition for success would take place”.
“When did you finally leave from the Congo?”
“In August of that year, I stayed for the opening of a new pan-African Project led by Lumumba. It was a good experience to finally see the long demotivated cadres on the continent has something to rally around. This is what I really wanted to see- not the wars, not the fighting, but the promise of a future by the youth. Some were older men in their 40s, but many in were in their 20s, filled with the optimism that I remember leaving to the American war with. The future was theirs to grasp, and they were willing to overcome the obstacles to do so. The UASR had become a beacon for the future of the oppressed. A Torch of Africa, one that was lit in part by the Torch of the Mediterranean”
Lumumba at the Pan-African Conference
Central Africa at the time of the 50th Anniversary of the Republic
________________________________________________________
Author’s note: After the revolution, many cities had their names changed from colonial ones to more indigenous ones. Examples of this include:
Léopoldville -> Kinshasa
Stanleyville -> Kisangani
Coquilhatville -> Mbandaka
Élisabethville -> Lubumbashi
[1] Mouvement National Congolais was founded by several intellectuals and nationalists with the aim of freeing the region from Egypt. The goals were disparate though, some acting out of progressive notions and others glorifying the past such as the Kingdom of Kongo. While the party’s foundation saw several first members, the most well-known is Patrice Lumumba.
[2] With Benin-Sahel’s disengagement from the Syndintern and enactment of capitalist reforms, students staged a protest at the University of Accra. The police came down hard on them and later accused the Syndintern of staging the protests. This meant the end of the pan-African program there. Kwame Nkrumah, a rival of the Benin-Sahel president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was also present in the protests which sealed his exile from the nation.
[3] “Other Interested Parties” of course including Australasia and Russia. Despite Egypt’s nominal control on the region, it has been argued that in effect these nations controlled Egypt’s policies.
[4] The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) were founded in the 1950s with the aim of making an independent Congo. They differed in ideology and international position, with the latter more accommodating towards Egypt and its allies.
[5] By some estimates, the total death toll reached 200,000 in the war, with many millions displaced. The UASR to this day still bears the legacy of the conflict.
The Congo Crisis
Vietnam Peace Talks Breakdown said:
When visiting Gallo’s apartment the next day, I was informed by one of his children that he was out walking along the waterside of the city.
The Naples Waterside was decorated for the 50th anniversary festivities, most notably having a row of flags of countries and movements affiliated with the Syndicalist International. The organizers of the event billed the anniversary much the same as those who organized France’s own 50th anniversary before as not only a national event but an international one due to its importance in establishing the syndicalist revolution as a political force.
I had ended my conversation with Gallo on the note of the revolution in the Congo, so I figured that he would be near the platform set up for the Union of African Socialist Republics. Despite the internal insurrections in the country, the government had still sent a representative to the 50th Anniversary celebrations- the Foreign Minister no less.
Gallo saw me approach and waved me over, asking me to walk with him back up the waterfront.
“How much do you know about the situation in Central Africa following the war?”, he asked.
“I know that the region had long been colonized by European interests, first by the Belgians and later by Germany in the Mittelafrika project. The following 15 or so odd years after the war saw the region administrated by Egypt, aided by interests in Australasia and Russia, as the region was slowly turned over to client states aligned to Cairo. 1963 sees the beginning of the revolution in the Congo, erupting in several urban cities after a call to arms by the Mouvement National Congolais[1] after a miner strike was repressed by the authorities. The whole crisis was marked by a simultaneous movement away from Egypt and civil war, with the socialists at the receiving end of this”, I summarized.
“That is as best a summary we can get these days. The conflict is still ongoing and hardly resolved, though its toughest period was in the period of 1964 to 1970. Even as we speak there are issues coming up in the region, and it is unlikely we will see a resolution for some time, much less a conclusive work on the subject”, said Gallo.
“So you were clearly involved in this conflict, as you hinted at earlier. Why the interest from Italy, much less the International, in Africa?”
Central Africa entering into the 1960s
“We had already begun to get problems from the regions created from the ruins of the colonial states of the French government in exile and Mittelafrika. I mentioned the problem of Equatorial Africa whose government essentially broke from the Syndintern and pursued its own “independent” path much to our dismay. The embarrassment and shame the Syndintern received when it was discovered agents from the Union of Britain and the Commune of France attempted to return the former ruling party to power ended up hurting our reputation in the region. For the same reasons, we saw the Benin-Sahel Federation attempt to distance themselves from the Syndintern”
“When Argentina had an internal insurrection that ejected the Brazilian backed socialist government in 1959, it was beginning to embolden our enemies abroad who now took to naming such events “revolutions” and lauding the return of “democracy”, or more precisely bourgeois democracy.”
“So if I am to make a guess here, the reason for these involvements in Vietnam and the Congo were as much for practical concerns of resources as they were for international prestige?”
Gallo shrugged.
“I guess you could put it that way. Cynical as it may be, there was a concern from all sectors in the Syndintern that we could no longer appear to be the liberating force we were in the past. The propaganda battle being waged by Australasia and Russia did everything to demonize our ideology and this made it substantially more difficult for countries to sympathize with us. Vietnam and the Congo both presented an opportunity for us to show a resistance struggle waged by the people themselves, rather than being liberated by the French or British as the case was in Africa after the war.”
“Vietnam was where the world was focused at- a convergence of the world powers not seen since the Second World War. Yet it overshadowed events in Africa which were just as important. Africa was underdeveloped, but it had a vast collection of resources and people struggling to be free. If Syndicalism was to remain relevant, it had to succeed where new nations were being created by popular movements, rather than from a foreign force. We had to replicate the uprisings that took place in the Middle-East, as opposed to merely creating new nations and acting as liberators.”
“But wasn’t Vietnam a popular movement?”, I interjected, “Would it not count in your interpretation?”
“I never said it was not a popular movement. It was not a new one”, started Gallo”, “Vietnam’s struggle for independence began before the war- as far as we were concerned, it was an unfinished revolution whose right was stolen by imperialists. Africa, on the other hand, was fertile ground for a new movement. One that could symbolize the new times we were in”
“If so, why not the active concern for the Congo that Vietnam warranted? Looking at the archives from the war onwards, there were always a few stories every week about the Vietnamese conflicts with Japan.” I asked.
Gallo stooped over to pick up a discarded bag from the bench. He reached into the bag and tossed out bird feed, attracting a large group of pigeons around us as they quickly devoured the seeds.
“These pigeons expect food; they have seen plenty of people feed them for years. I do not want to say that the Syndintern were like pigeons, but the behavior of the world at large towards Africa reminded me of this. They were aware of the presence of these movements, but reacting to it only once it has occurred.”
I nodded and Gallo continued.
“In a way, this was similar with the Congo. The Syndintern knew there was something going on there, but did not act until it had already broken out. Of course, like with our pigeons here, the Syndintern would not be alone in flocking to Africa once conflict emerged”
“Did the Syndintern have any hand in the uprisings? To paraphrase Gramsci, I do not think it was simply spontaneous without some sort of planning”
“There were the usual strategies that were done in many countries. The Syndintern either provided scholarships for young men and women to educate themselves in our own universities, or the establishment of facilities there. In the latter, the Syndintern determined in their 1948 World Congress to create such a program in one of the new countries created. As the pan-African movement was strongest in the Benin-Sahel at the time, the program was established at Accra, simply named the University of Africa.“
“How many people did that university educate?” I asked.
“I never got an accurate amount. The big problem was that the Benin-Sahel Federation would end up essentially breaking with the Syndintern and causing problems with the program there. Many of the records ended up being torched in the government’s crackdown on student protests there [2]. That being said, I know of a handful in the Congo revolt that were educated at the university.”
Gallo walked over to a bench and sat down, looking back towards the street at a colorful mural depicting the raising of the revolutionary flag over the palace at Caserta.
“When the revolt began in the Congo, it took the world by surprise. There had been so much focus on the east that when the first mine strikes occurred in the southern parts of Egypt’s holdings in early 1963, few people gave it serious attention. Miner disputes were frequent considering the abusive policy Egypt had put in place in order to become competitive internationally, but had rarely gone beyond a single mine. Now it was going across the region”
Revolts reached a highpoint by February 1963
“Somehow the collective mood of the land had clicked together and civil unrest erupted across the colonies once news of the miner revolt had spread and the client states were not able to deal with the uprisings. Egypt’s lack of control became apparent for everyone to see, and this created an opportunity for radicals sympathetic to the Syndintern to raise the red flag. Simultaneously, the cities of Brazzaville and Léopoldville saw street protests and a call for independence, and in time a popular government was established by these revolutionaries. Most were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, with a handful older- very young men relative to other revolutions we had seen. And as I said before, some were educated in the university in Accra- it is still said that the Syndintern had planned it but I never saw signs of it in my work. The Syndintern felt that the prospect of revolution was unlikely, and after the events in the Benin-Sahel Federation morale was understandably low in our ranks. The tension in the world was too high to provoke conflict with other powers”.
“What did they think would happen otherwise?” I asked.
“The two prevailing theories were that these revolutions would either create independent republics once Egypt established them on their own terms, or a revolution would occur where a nascent national bourgeoisie would declare independence from Egypt. And before you ask, for my part I had completely forgotten about African affairs with the department being tied up on East Asia. ”
“So what decided the sudden change towards Africa?”
“Nothing changed- officially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promised not to intervene in the crisis. This was repeated by our neighbors. There was an acknowledgement that the events there were important and our enemies would not ignore it. There was always the more unofficial ways this could be conducted without causing an incident abroad.”
“I presume this is where you come in?”
“Yes. As you probably have seen from my records, it says I had quit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and settled into working in the national library in 1962. An early age, but I was not an important figure whose absence would raise suspicions. I was still officially working in the library when I was tasked with getting together volunteers to travel to the Congo to aid them.”
“Why you? I would have thought someone from the intelligence circles would have been more appropriate”
“None who had experience surviving without support, as the government felt I demonstrated more than enough with my time in the Second American Civil War. We had a few of with us though in supporting roles, though I cannot provide names. I must also admit that I had willingly volunteered for it- most of us had- this was not a job for glory or anything, and the government would deny any knowledge of it. We gathered a total of 150 operatives willing to volunteer in the Congo. We were on our own here. Kind of a romantic sentiment that got me volunteering for the American war in the first place. A cynic might see that as a sign that I was the only one idiotic enough to think this would work”
“Who were the major groups you were told to work with?”
“By this point there were two groups that we identified as friendly with us. The first was the Mouvement National Congolais which I mentioned earlier and the second was a grouping of local militia known as the National Council for the Revolution. The former had more influence but more moderate as well; the second had far more armed strength from the get go and presumably was seen as pro-Syndintern. This allowed them to quickly seize control of Egypt’s holdings on the other side of the Congo River, most importantly Brazzaville. Without any influence from the Syndintern, they were beginning to link up with their MNC counterparts in Léopoldville.”
The Free Congo in March of 1963
“When did you leave for the region?” I asked.
“Some point in May of 1963. We could not all go at once, but I went first with 19 others to set up for the rest of our people. We boarded an airplane to the Mali Federation which was a close ally of the Syndintern. From there we went overland to Benin-Sahel where we posed as investors from Australasia. We caught a ride on a barge to Libreville, where we exited as part of a mercenary group traveling to the war for Egypt. From there it was not a problem to go across the border to the revolutionaries establishing themselves in Brazzaville. We could not land directly on the port as our information indicated the ports were still under the control of authorities sympathetic to Cairo.”
“And the authorities in Equatorial Africa did not mind this?”
“Apparently they did not. We had prepared for trouble with them but we found that their security was very poor. As far as we could tell from our brief time in Libreville the government had too many holes in their security apparatus so long as you knew who to pay off. We were not interested in causing trouble in the country, and they did not have particularly much interest in Egypt’s continued presence in Central Africa. As such they let mercenaries move through to the region without interference.”
“By the time we finally arrived in Brazzaville, a month had already passed. Honestly was it not for the fact that we wanted to avoid attracting attention, we could have arrived much sooner. By this point the revolutionaries had gained control over both Brazzaville and Léopoldville and took the step of formally creating a provisional government. This was not without trouble though, as certain bourgeois elements of the MNC decided to split from the organization and strike out on their own. At any rate, we sent word back to our group to prepare to come to the Congo in groups.”
“And how exactly did you go about convincing them that you were there to help?”
“One part convincing and the other part pure luck. They had been expecting something from the Syndintern, but something more significant. Not our small group. It was by sheer luck that they had been aware of the Garibaldi Brigades and seemed satisfied that I could demonstrate my first-hand experience with them”
“Once you were cleared, you were presumably able to get into contact with the revolutionary government. Who did you meet first?”
The Provisional Government of revolutionary Congo
“Patrice Lumumba. Then he was the Prime Minister of the government, opposite the president, Alphonse Massamba-Debat. Arguably his position held more power but he was not in the spotlight when the media covered the uprising. Lumumba was a well-read man despite not having a formal university education, which was readily obvious when I entered into my first meeting with him. Lumumba came out as a leader of the MNC that opted for this popular government, and was left as its main leader once those who rejected the agreement, led by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, left. He gave me an update on the political situation there, notably the development of the miner revolts in the south. It had finally spread to the regional capital at Élisabethville, and meetings with the representatives from the MNC indicated they were ready to join us in the struggle against Egypt”
Revolts in Élisabethville
I noticed as Gallo reached the end he began clenching his fists.
“We saw an opportunity for our first assignment then. I volunteered to travel along with five of our operatives to enter into Élisabethville and integrate them into the provisional government. We were to advise the MNC fighters with us how to set this up and create a unified command with the new fighters.”
“And things did not go as planned?”
“We did not know that the government in Élisabethville was willing to throw the whole movement away in order to secure their own narrow interests. To make matters worse they had no intention in even following up any sort of revolutionary demands, but capitulating to the forces of reaction. They wanted to form a republic aligned with the Entente. In exchange for access to resources for the Entente, these leaders were allowed to hold privileged positions in the new country. And to seal the deal, evidence of Syndintern interference would be sweet, wouldn’t it? The Entente sorely wanted to make these events appear a result of Syndintern interference in other countries’ internal affairs. They did not even bother trying to deceive us with false promises. As soon as our convoy rolled into Élisabethville, the commanding officer Joseph-Desiré Mobutu turned us over to the government, claiming we were preparing to overthrow the Élisabethville government. Not a good welcome after crisscrossing through a patchwork of pro-revolutionary and pro-Egypt territory to get there”
“Who was leading the Katanga government then?”, I asked.
“A local administrator named Moïse Tshombe. As we were held in the prison, we heard over the radio his declaration of the Republic of Katanga and raising arms against the “socialist demagogues” of the People’s Republic of the Congo. He added that they had reached an understanding with Egypt and “other interested parties” [3] in creating a Congo based on “federal and democratic” principles. It seems that the split from the MNC led by Kasa-Vubu also allied themselves with this government. Apparently some military officers also sympathized with Kasa-Vubu’s position, as we saw with Mobutu, and were declaring the formation of a rival Congolese government that Tshombe alluded to.”
“So right out of the gate you already encounter divisions in the Congo. Were you aware of what they were planning to do with you all at the time?”
“They did not tell us, but we knew that they would try to use us to expose the Syndintern. But for the time being, they did not mention our existence, even when they announced their independence and declared war the People’s Republic of the Congo.”
Katanga declares war on the Congo
“As far as I know from the region there are many different ethnic groups and tribes”, I added, “I can’t imagine that Katanga’s declaration of independence went unnoticed by these other tribes”.
“Timing and some dumb luck. The forces of Katanga signed some sort of agreement with Egypt which essentially allowed the two to focus on the Congo and other problems. However some other local movements also got ideas from Katanga’s declaration and tried to bargain with Egypt to make their own countries. This created some deal of chaos and disputes between individual groups with conflicting claims of course, so almost immediately Katanga found itself with problems in the Kasai region to the west and the Kivu region towards the Great Rift Valley while simultaneously fighting forces aligned with the Congo.”
“During that time we planned our escape. We were subjected to… well, you can imagine. One of our number did not come back. Far more of our Congolese comrades we never saw again. But we managed to make an amazingly intricate plan that I never could see in action, because a few weeks later some street fighting between rival militias spilled over into the prison. A stray explosive blew a wall in the prison which provoked a breakout. Rioting prisoners opened the gates, including ours, and we slipped out in the chaos.”
“That sounds too convenient to be a coincidence. Are you sure that they did not plan that?” I asked.
“As far as I know, it was not. As I said, luck and timing came together in a spectacular way. Katanga was being hit by the same problems that the Congo itself was consumed by- the difficulties in asserting authority over such a large region with different peoples. Plus, we did not have anyone to pick us up.”
“That must have been problematic. No knowledge of where you were and of course sticking out being a foreigner.”
“We had managed to find some of the Congo soldiers who were captured with us that were still loyal. They acted as our confederates while we figured out what to do next. We established that three weeks had passed since we were captured, with it being mid-June then. We got updates on global events which were disquieting, notably the intervention by the Entente into the war.”
“Yes, the so-called African Peace Mission led by Australasia, as requested by Egypt and ‘concerned African notables’. They cited the instability in the center of Africa as well as the emergence of a ‘dictatorial’ state. The Syndintern chose not to take direct action beyond condemning the move”. Gallo nodded at my explanation.
“That is correct. In late June the Australasian government announced they were leading a ‘multinational’ coalition to restore order to the region. We had to act quickly and linked up with pro-Congo rebels, through whom we eventually came into contact with Pierre Mulele, leading operations for the People’s Republic of the Congo in the region. On August 6th, the expeditionary force landed in Dar es Salaam, which had been taken over by a different group of revolutionaries. The invasion force quickly reestablished order in the city and followed up with operations along the coast towards Mombasa in the north. They obviously intended to work inwards to the Congo and aiding the faltering Egyptian forces.”
“How was the equipment of the revolutionary forces?”
“It was outdated; most of it was from before the Second World War. By and large, they were confiscated from old Mittelafrikan armories that were not found by the Egyptians. The only thing that helped out the revolutionaries here was that outside of a few elite divisions, the Egyptian military was equipped with surplus weaponry given to them by Russia and Australasia, made back in the Second World War. It was only with the arrival of the Australasian-led mission that modern weaponry entered into the region”
“This of course necessitated the guerilla warfare that was seen in the war”
“Pierre Mulele, to his credit, was very skilled in organizing guerillas. We were deep within enemy territory away from the regular forces of the Congo. We had to carry out quick attacks and disrupt enemy supplies. Admittedly the group that I led was not familiar with this kind of tactics, but it did remind me in a sense of what we did in the Second American Civil War.”
An example of rebel groups formed by Mulele
“Where did you get supplies during all this time?”, I asked, “The Syndintern was only sending basic trade while avoiding large arms shipments because of the lack of a reliable route”
“With Mulele and his guerrillas, we essentially lived off the land and had to scrounge up supplies where we could. The regular army was receiving shipments from Italy but these were infrequent. As Equatorial Africa would not cooperate with the Syndintern here, the idea was to use South Africa as a direct land route to revolutionaries. South Africa we learned later still had not total control of its northern regions, and the case of Angola would throw a wrench into our plans.”
“You are referring to the declaration of independence by Angola in October of 1963, correct?”
“That is the event. We had not expected the revolutionaries there to side against the Congo, as there were those who would side with us within the MPLA. Our allies were outmaneuvered by bourgeois machinations by local administrators, some of whom were still the same that came out of Portugal’s colony 30 years before, as well as the bourgeois natives in the form of the FNLA [4]. To add to the complications, it seems that the Russians had wanted to carve out influence in the region as Australasia was going to have its own stake in East Africa and was running independently of Entente interests. “
Angola’s independence in October of 1963
“And with Angola’s appearance combined with Egypt slowly reasserting control over the south, this meant that a direct land route to the Congo through South Africa was no longer possible”, I concluded.
“For our comrades it was further unnecessary handicaps on top of the divisions emerging among the people. Mulele now found himself cut off from supply routes with Angola falling out of their control. I had tried to implore the government back home to increase aid to the Congo when I got an opportunity to write a letter, but we did not get it immediately. Comrade Mulele now focused on trying to rejoin with the regular army further northwest in Luluaburg before we were overwhelmed. Still, we achieved many victories there I did not imagine due to their bravery. Even in spite of my age I still managed to make useful contributions, and the atmosphere reminded me of the optimism I saw in the Americans and later the Kurds – pure energy from the populace and optimism for their new future. They were making their own future, not having it imposed on them”
“How long did it take for you to return back to the provisional government?”
“We did not return back to Léopoldville until February of 1964. I could have returned earlier, but we needed to help Mulele where we could until we broke out of hostile territory with all of the forces. When we returned I found that the government had already sent some new armaments but fell short of matching the involvement of the Entente. Lumumba’s second hand man in the MNC, Antonie Gizenga, was on an international trip trying to secure more aid from friendly nations. The other operatives were busy helping out in Léopoldville, mostly in training and advising of the officers and running the civic government”
“I cannot imagine the government was feeling all that happy with the Syndintern”
“They were not. President Massamba-Débat and Prime Minister Lumumba called a meeting of the government to discuss their path forward. They also invited me as the ‘representative’ of the Syndintern”.
“And they naturally asked you what was with the Syndintern’s position on the crisis”, I said.
“Yeah”, sighed Gallo, “They did not doubt my commitment to the people. Mulele vouched for me and they were confident I was going to help them anyway I could. It was hard being put on the spot so suddenly, but I could understand their anger. Egypt and their colonial puppets were receiving generous help from Australasia, where they were getting none. The brutality we were seeing in the war was enough to get up there with the Second World War- many casualties and refugees [5]. I did not know the Syndintern’s reasons at the time, so I had to explain as best I could. I pointed out the Syndintern was likely concerned that their revolt would collapse and Egypt would resume control of the region and carry out de-colonialization on its own terms. They were already pouring resources into the Vietnam conflict as well as substantial support for the Bharatiya Commune and Brazil for regional interests. I explained to them that we needed to get some victories in order to convince the Syndintern that we were not fighting a losing war”
“Were they pleased with your response?”
“Well, I suppose so. I was just lucky that the Syndintern’s position was close to what I explained so I kept my reliability. I suggested to Mulele later that he cooperate with the young Ngouabi to train the military. The rest of our mission was already busy training recruits and officers.”
“The following months were a period of small skirmishes, if I recall correctly”
“While the Angolan and Katangan secessionists gave us extra fronts to fight along with the Egyptians, they had their own difficulties. The MNLA in Angola took up arms and linked up with pro-Congo rebels, giving them more distractions. Katanga had the rebels in the Kivu and Kasai regions. To their credit, the provisional government had ensured no divisions in their ranks, though one could argue that was aided by the fact their enemies had exited from the government and thrown in with Kasa-Vubu. Stanleyville was under control by Egyptian forces who declared a new Congo from there- simply the Republic of the Congo. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll refer to the revolutionary Congo as Congo-Léopoldville and the bourgeois one as Congo-Stanleyville. Kasa-Vubu established himself in Congo-Stanleyville and declared it to be the legitimate government. Recognition of Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Stanleyville was unsurprisingly done along ideological lines internationally”
“At the end of 1964, as news reports put it, the Egyptian forces were preparing for a big push on Léopoldville. This is generally seen as a turning point in the conflict,” I said, “It’s safe to say that the government was nervous at the time”
“Indeed. Egypt wanted to destroy the revolution when it was the weakest and prepared for a large attack on the Provisional Government’s most vulnerable front. This was encouraged with the defeat of revolutionary forces in Kikwit in November of 1964, which severed the supply routes for guerillas operating behind enemy lines in Kasai.”
“We received reports that the Egyptian-led Congo-Stanleyville force was going to march along the Congo River towards Kinshasa, bolstered by a small detachment of Australasian soldiers. The revolutionary forces met them at Coquilhatville in March of 1965, which was the last major city before reaching the Kinshasa area. Our volunteer force was with them and helped to put into practice urban combat.”
“Despite the odds stacked against us, especially due to the reactionaries with their armored vehicles and aircraft, the people came away with a victory. Some might say that it was because of our presence, but we only helped. The Congolese fighters had the people behind them; they had the morale and spirit that the Egyptian-led force lacked. Where the Egyptian force was slow moving if not defensive, ours was mobile and hard-hitting. We were able to turn the terrain to our advantage and turned it into a lesson for the imperialists”
Battle of Coquilhatville
“In the summer of that year, the officer you had experience with before, Mobutu, staged a coup in Stanleyville where Kasa-Vubu was removed. It is believed the intervention force had a hand in the coup as they had concerns whether or not Kasa-Vubu was a competent leader.”
“It should also be mentioned”, Gallo added, “That Tshombe held a lot of power considering the size of Katanga in this skeleton of a bourgeois Congo. It is possible he was hoping to strike out away from this Congo and the allies wanted to placate him with a stronger leader. Mobutu was a military man, but he was also much more aggressive and as a result the fighting was more chaotic. He was willing to do a scorched earth tactic where they had to fall back. Cities like Luluaburg ended up changing hands so many times that the city was reduced to husks of gutted structures and broken infrastructure. The intervention force in the east began to have problems with the local population and was not able to commit further men as they were tied up trying to secure those eastern coastal regions.”
“And so you had to watch for the next two years chaotic battles and more brutality”. I sighed and shook my head. “My ignorance of all this is indicative of the lack of resources on the conflict”
“It is something I hope to rectify one day”, started Gallo, “And you are right. Even though we won at Coquilhatville, other battles followed where we saw weeks of fighting. I had saw battles at times that could rival those in the Second World War with how pitched they were; and then there were the separate battles against Angola and Katanga. Intelligence run by Diawara helped to get us linked up to sympathetic groups, and at the very least stir up tribal and local groups against Katanga and Angola where it benefitted us”
“In Angola we were aided by the presence of the MPLA and they allowed us to capture the regional capital in Luanda in September of 1966 after several weeks of fighting in our advance through there. It was a risky gamble, but it allowed us to remove a vulnerable spot and more importantly secure supply routes through South Africa.”
“And now the Congo had momentum on its side.”, I said.
Gallo nodded in agreement and continued.
“We began to converge on Katanga, seeing it as the most vital part of the Egyptian strategy in the region. I joined with Mulele once again, advancing out of Lulaburg towards Élisabethville. There was a difficult battle at Kolwezi in March of 1967 where we met the full force of the Katangese military. There they were crushed after a two week battle. They did not even bother putting up a resistance in Élisabethville, as the government had evacuated eastward to the Australasian controlled zones, unfortunately with Tshombe in tow.”
“With the Katanga government broken down and their forces reduced to straggling warbands, Congo-Stanleyville was now essentially a warlord’s turf in the form of General Mobutu. Our forces now swung northwards to Stanleyville while another Congolese force came from the capital led by Ngouabi. In both forces a lot of fighting took place, notably at Goma in the summer of 1967 where Mulele had to fight an incursion from an Australasian led force trying to reinforce Mobutu’s troubled position. The rest of the year was spent with small battles on the road to Stanleyville”
“And this culminates in the Battle of Stanleyville in February of 1968”
“Stanleyville was the last real battle of the Congo Crisis, and it was by far the worse. Where there was some real energy at Coquilhatville, there was only despair and brutality in Stanleyville. The enemy made us bleed for every street we took. Allied aircraft began to unload in the city, continuing scorched earth even up to the last minute. I had even been cut off in combat with a small group of our allies. Where I had been fortunate in previous battles to only receive small injuries, it was here that I got a rather nasty injury from shrapnel”, said Gallo lifting up his shirt to show scars, “Never thought I would have new ones to add to those I got in America and the Middle-East.”
“And when you finally took the administrative center, did the government flee?”
“By the time I linked back up with command, I was informed that Mobutu had died under unknown circumstances. I did not want to question any further or make any theories. I could tell though that many of my Congolese counterparts did not seem to mind- he had betrayed them and they lost several of their comrades in the process. The man was a traitor as far, and as they were concerned he got what he deserved.”
“We enter into the summer of 1968. The Provisional Government has nominal control over much of Central Africa, though ironically still unable to get the area in the south where the revolt started in the first place. But it eliminated the major sources of threats, and now focused on consolidating its power. What did you do then?”, I asked.
“We returned back to an advising capacity. The south fell into government control by the end of the year, and running simultaneous to that was the creation of councils to form the beginning of a new order. There were still small sources of opposition, like the pro-Entente grouping of Fulbert Youlou that remained underground. There was still the substantial problem of tribal and ethnic differences too, something that would not be overcome even in the span of decades. But the fighting was stopped, except for the border formed against Egypt and the Australasian occupation force, and now they could focus on peace time. The skills of men like Lumumba would become useful in this respect.”
“The Treaty of Stanleyville was signed in May of 1968 between representatives of Egypt and the People’s Republic of the Congo, overseen by Australasia. In exchange for completely abandoning the claims to Central Africa, the Congo agreed to a peace with Egypt and not to support rebel groups in the Sudan. A border was set along the Great Lakes region, where Egypt still retained control”
Treaty of Stanleyville with borders
The victory of the PR Congo paved the way for the creation of the Union of African Socialist Republics. A bold undertaking, but all the more important that it was done by the people themselves. I was there at the Congo but I did not fight in all the battles. I witnessed some, but from my own recollections one should be able to tell that we did not play a pivotal role. The people of the Congo liberated themselves, and rejected the attempts by Australasia or Russia to co-opt them. It was a boon for the pan-African movement allied with us and put a wrench into those like Benin-Sahel or Equatorial Africa that were trying to present their own factions.”
“If I recall correctly, Egypt lost even more just a month later in June. The Entente made them create a new state in the east which they would have influence over, the East African Union”
The East African Union
“That would be a thorn for the young UASR. We saw the failure of the movement there, leading some of those leaders like Julius Nyere to take refuge in the Congo. Likewise Kasa-Vubu and other anti-UASR elements took refuge in the EAU. The direct war may have been over, but a more hushed one of ideology and competition for success would take place”.
“When did you finally leave from the Congo?”
“In August of that year, I stayed for the opening of a new pan-African Project led by Lumumba. It was a good experience to finally see the long demotivated cadres on the continent has something to rally around. This is what I really wanted to see- not the wars, not the fighting, but the promise of a future by the youth. Some were older men in their 40s, but many in were in their 20s, filled with the optimism that I remember leaving to the American war with. The future was theirs to grasp, and they were willing to overcome the obstacles to do so. The UASR had become a beacon for the future of the oppressed. A Torch of Africa, one that was lit in part by the Torch of the Mediterranean”
Lumumba at the Pan-African Conference
Central Africa at the time of the 50th Anniversary of the Republic
________________________________________________________
Author’s note: After the revolution, many cities had their names changed from colonial ones to more indigenous ones. Examples of this include:
Léopoldville -> Kinshasa
Stanleyville -> Kisangani
Coquilhatville -> Mbandaka
Élisabethville -> Lubumbashi
[1] Mouvement National Congolais was founded by several intellectuals and nationalists with the aim of freeing the region from Egypt. The goals were disparate though, some acting out of progressive notions and others glorifying the past such as the Kingdom of Kongo. While the party’s foundation saw several first members, the most well-known is Patrice Lumumba.
[2] With Benin-Sahel’s disengagement from the Syndintern and enactment of capitalist reforms, students staged a protest at the University of Accra. The police came down hard on them and later accused the Syndintern of staging the protests. This meant the end of the pan-African program there. Kwame Nkrumah, a rival of the Benin-Sahel president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was also present in the protests which sealed his exile from the nation.
[3] “Other Interested Parties” of course including Australasia and Russia. Despite Egypt’s nominal control on the region, it has been argued that in effect these nations controlled Egypt’s policies.
[4] The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) were founded in the 1950s with the aim of making an independent Congo. They differed in ideology and international position, with the latter more accommodating towards Egypt and its allies.
[5] By some estimates, the total death toll reached 200,000 in the war, with many millions displaced. The UASR to this day still bears the legacy of the conflict.
Well, that was unexpected. Really, you should post your custom events at the KR forum. Several of your ideas could be used by our team.
Really, you should post your custom events at the KR forum. Several of your ideas could be used by our team.
It lives!
Greatly thankful for you not abandoning this.
Well, good to see that someone is still looking out for it. It was really bad of me to just kind of let it float there as I went through a writers' block. BUT we are near the end. Just the epilogue of sorts plus my timeline to put the AAR into perspective.
Well, that was unexpected.
The events aren't all that great- mostly stuff to make what's going on in the aar make sense where it was lacking. This version was before the KR team made some better Syndie options for Africa, so I had to coddle some together. I think I could provide some ideas for ministers of the African blocks though in the new version. But that'll come once this is wrapped up.
Loose ends will be tied up (I hope) in the epilogue as well as the timeline.