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Ding Ding Ding!
You're the winner of my hidden prize. You uncovered the subtle mystery. Now any obscure reference you want shall be entered into the next update.
May he rest in peace!
This ought to be good. Count me in.
Between this and Tanzhang's British AAR, I'm itching to write a Kaiserreich AAR myself. It's a shame I really, really suck at DH.
It ain't easy - I'm not the best at DH either, but I manage to swarm my enemies with infantry hordes.
And what a taste they shall receive!
Welcome, comrade.
As am I - this I can assure you.
It sounds like Britain would go Totalist (to achieve the domestic and international aims of the revolution) but the dictatorship will go out of control afterwards and the Great English Kerfuffle will start.
Kerkuffle eh? That may be my new favorite word.
Aye, the Luftstreitkräfte is a bitch to defeat. Only good ol' England can give her a beating!
Ix-nay on the ecretsay venteay.
Much approval.
Well, I hope you stay exited, there are many glorious years to come.
Thanks!
Much obliged, good nacho. Much obliged!
In my latest update, I hid a subtle surprise and told myself I would offer a special surprise to whoever could identify the mistake. And now, you can choose any reference of choice into the next update!
"Together in Britain we have lit a flame that the ages shall not extinguish. Guard that sacred flame, my brother Redshirts, until it illuminates Britain and lights again the paths of mankind."
- Oswald Mosley, 'Comrades in Struggle'
Between 1936 and 1938, Britain would undergo an unprecedented transformation implemented by exhaustive draconian measures. Unsurprisingly, the architect to this scheme was Chairman Mosley, shepherding the British economy into an industrial era unseen since the Victorian age. As directed in "A Most Fortuitous Accident"[1] - the financial capital of the world had made a irreversible shift from the Great Wen to Frankfurt am Main. Post-World War I statistics confirmed suspicions that German production soared had past the combined economic might of the British Union and the French Commune. The division of the Entente empires only quickened the change; worldwide economic competition would shatter, allowing the mighty German lion to centralize international finances around its political capital. Other nations were swift to fall in line, and soon the corporate condition of the western world depended entirely on the Kaisereich. Even the sleeping giant, the titanic United States, capitulated to Bundesministerium der Finanzen. Whereas the vast community of nations bowed to the German supremacy, Britain, following its destructive trend, refused to swallow the pill of economic submission. The Syndicalist Revolution had lit a flame that only international revolution could satisfy - but the pacifist and unionist policies of the Federationists rejected these advances. Dictated by semi-autonomous trade-unions, the British economy, though self-sufficient, was incapable of matching its former glory.
British economist, Edwin Cannan, had aruged (in his capitalist persuasions) that a nation run by trade unions would obstruct the state's financial efficiency. Though his directives were grounded in bourgeois motivations, prominent Maxist authorities found great merit in his work. For obvious reasons their political successes had been matched each time by the Trade Union's clout, and thus were desperate for a final solution to this tremendous economic obstruction. Public expectations followed the Maxist discontent; industrial development had grinded to a halt while conflicting unions demanded reforms that threatened the contentment of their opposites. With a little help from his illicit reforms, Mosley seized his victory at Cable Street to enforce despotic legislation - including the unmitigated nationalization of the Trade Unions into a single state run organization. In the image of Cannan, the Maxists reversed British policy in a matter of weeks, eradicating the unionist 'culture' that has persisted since 1925. But not all were satisfied by the reversal in policy. Many rebuked this radical, decisive, unorthodox course change - frequently citing the utopian dream that Mosley's predecessors had promised.
Even some Maxists, especially the moderates, were skeptical of the the nationalization. Among their ranks was the renown moderate, Clement Atlee. Discouraged by British radicalization, Attlee was determined to strike a balance between the Communists and the Federationists, or as he famously suggested, "between madness and arrogance." Renown for his quiet, yet effective leadership, Attlee had crossed from the slim opposition Federationists ranks to the Maxists following a narrow constituency victory in the general election. Begrudgingly accepted by the General Secretary - Atlee became the premier centrist within the Maxist faction. Whereas Mosely's image of Britain was drowned in idealism, Atlee forged an economic policy grounded in pragmatism and practicality. The plan proceeded in spite of the British addiction with illustrious goals - shattering the conceptual bubble that had engulfed the isle since the Revolution. It had taken nearly a decade to accomplish, but the true face of Marxism was about to descend on the Albion union.
Always the quiet brilliance, Clement Atlee would construct the Five Year Plan and moderate its content from early Maxist influence. He would later become an important figure in the English Civil War.
While it may be difficult to comprehend, the Five Year Plan, proposed by Atlee and forced through by the Chairman, was an actual moderation in policy from the initial Maxist proposal. More heavy-handed proposals called for an invasion of Ireland, which would facilitate a massive industrial expansion on the island. Perhaps most outrageous were proposals that entire townships should be destroyed to make way for either collective farms or factory complex's. Exposing the madness in these suggestions, Attlee toned down the proposals and pushed through a plan that could be initiated within a month, as long as the proper administrative procedures were functioning. Any plebeian worker could conclude that this plan was beyond ambitious, verging on farcical - but Mosely was determined to modernize the British economy. His determination directly led to the founding of the Central Committee of the Maxist Party of the Union of Britain, an executive organ of the nation composed of the highest-ranking Maxist officials. The judiciary branch, headed by the Supreme Workers Court, did not budge on Oswald's creation; either out of fear or executive clout. Historians agree that it is quite possible that the Chairman had stacked the judiciary, unnoticed (perhaps purposely so) by the dwindling opposition. What isn't speculation though is that under Oswald Mosely the Maxist Party did indeed wrestle control of the final untapped political organs. With the capability to initiate the Plan through the Central Committee and to crush opposition by the Supreme Workers Court, the administration launched the Five Year Plan.
At first, urban workers appointed by the Central Committee were ordered to march to the countryside and oversee the complete collectivization of the agricultural sector. But the collectivization lacked the support of the agrarian population, who were enjoying the benefits of their independent stolypin[2] farms. Oswald sought the combination of agricultural with manufacturing industries which would facilitate the desired abolition of the distinction between urban and rural. Despite the ironic resemblance to serfdom, the Maxists viewed collectivization favorably, simply because it was bigger, more mechanical, and communal. Truthfully, a collectivized farm where the state controlled the output carried no incentive to the rural farmer. But the countryside was not prepared for such a radical undertaking, especially because previous efforts at collectivization had failed miserably. In order to combat the agrarian resistance, Mosley innovated a way to forge a class struggle with the intention to rouse the peasantry to his side. The Central Committee launched a propaganda campaign, championing the "socialist farmers" who were employed on communal farms, against the independent farmers that had flourished under the Federationists. This wealthy class, labeled as "Yeomans," would bare the brunt of Maxist assaults as the countryside mobilized for radical reform.
Each division of workers was led by a party official, who presided over the nationalization of the land and the construction of modernized farms. Communal farms championed under Horner were quickly brought to heel under the new economic plan. Within a short number of weeks, thousands of loosely cooperative farms had been morphed into productive rural factories, worked by farmers and managed by proletariat laborers. Meanwhile economic classification was now a chimera. Tax lists were utilized to decide on deyemanization, a method at least rational on paper, the agricultural departments noted that the process was not specified. Many non-yeomans were being labeled as such, while the entire operation sped out of control. Urban Redshirts would detain or shoot suspected yeomans, no matter the lack of evidence provided. The Maxist policies were presented in terms of a class analysis - but its economic factor made little apparent sense. They were also economically destructive in that they led to the liquidation of the most efficient producers in the countryside. Almost immediately, agricultural production collapsed under the massive shift, with military expediters spiking to confront the yeoman's.
Propaganda drawings such as these were frequently depicted in urban centers to gather support for the agrarian collectivization. Always a host of culture, London attracted Socialist painters from around the world to help depict their concept of an ideal society. This painting, titled "Threshing on the Collective Farm," was drawn by a Russian realist painter, Arkady Pastov.
It is important to note that many in the countryside, including communal farmers, vehemently opposed the yeoman purge. By 1937, only 1 in 10 countryside producers were card holding party members - frequent reports cite collectivized farmers aiding their stolypin[2] counterparts to safety, often to their own detriment. A report from Eric Blair noted that the forced labour encampments would require a near tripling in size to shelter the apprehended yeomans and their "gallant" farmer protectors. Three extra labor encampments were built in Derby, which led James Henry Thomas to comment, "It's the same shithole as before. Not even the Emperor of Mankind could fix this mess." The rural countryside experienced a sharp decline in population until spring, when the Central Committee concluded that the British collectivization had worsened the shelter conditions in the winter and forced thousands to perish or flee their homes. Nonetheless, nearly 25,000 British workers had been mobilized to improve the collective condition, and upon winter's conclusion, the majority of construction had been completed. Food rations normalized, although actual agricultural production remained stagnant, most likely due to the enormous relocation. While it is difficult to guess the number of yeomans apprehended or murdered, a inquiry ordered by President-General Douglas MacArthur predicted that the number was definitively over 100,000 - while AUS commissions led by William Riley predicted the number was beyond half a million.[3]
Unused lands or former private estates were either incorporated into the collective system or became the base of a new industrial expansion. The mastermind of the economic implementation, Leslie Solley, dictated the widest industrial expansion in British history since the mid-19th century. Regions such as Hull, previously the agricultural center of the north, were transformed into self-sufficient industrial centers, rivaling even Manchester. Hundreds of independent farms were nationalized - giving the government the land necessary to construct heavy industrial factories worthy of the Kaisereich. With the trade unions destroyed and wage demands neutralized, Britain experienced a period of unprecedented "crash industrialization." Not only were new factories constructed, but also, fourty-five percent of standing factories were modernized and enlarged. In Norwich, Sunderland, London, Oxford, Dover, Hull, and Carliste, manufacturing enterprises were erected and quickly filled with either a mix of eager proletariat workers or captured "yeoman" laborers.
This industrial complex in Hull was one of the earliest construction projects of the Five Year plan - it would grow to become one of the most productive manufacturing centers in Northern Britain.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can conclude that if it not for the baby-boom after the Great War, the Union of Britain would not have been able to employ such a massive enterprise. But perhaps the greatest Maxist accomplishment between 1936 and 1938 was the revolutionary expansion of the British Republican Army [BRA]. In 1936, the Supreme Commissary of the Republican Armed Forces, Tom Wintringham (also known as the last Federationalist), commanded a garrison force of 435,000 soldiers. In comparison, the unmobilized French Communal Army [FCA] stood at 1,650,000 - while the Deutsches Heer commanded 3,800,000 standing soldiers. To make matters more dismal, the BRA was nothing more than a under-supplied militia force. General William Alexander often compared his Republican County Milita to the BRA in jest. Many British civilians saw this as an unacceptable humiliation - and their discontent is now predicted as a prime cause for Oswald's election. The Chairman flouted the Federationalists' impudent attitude towards the Armed forces, which Mosley regarded as feral. After the initial stages of the Five Year Plan had been confronted, Oswald extirpated the Republican County Militia and merged it into the British Republican Army. Although the armed forces remained amorphous, Oswald was determined to aggregate manpower for service. Aside from a amalgam of benefits, the Central Committee made William Alexander the ancillary reason to join the army. Overnight, he became the poster face for the Armed Forces, intending to burgeon the army with his capacious character.
By the end of 1937, agricultural production had contoured upwards, industrial production was up 10%, and the total manpower of the conflated BRA had reached its apogee at nearly 1,500,00 soldiers. The copious surplus of manpower, conjoined with the improved economic conditions, proved that Britain was on the rise once more.
[1]A Most Fortuitous Accident is a partially accurate account of the initial Asian condition preceding the Second Weltkrieg - beyond its early chapters, the history falls into hogwashed Alternative History.
[2] In OTL and TTL, the stolypin reforms were a series of changes to the Imperial Russian agricultural sector after the slow decline of the Russian collective farm. Stolypin farms were independent private estates that would later come to be identified with Kulaks under the dying days of the NEP. I just wrote a 20 page term paper about all this Collectivization crap, so I had to dump it somewhere.
[3] I refer to the Second American Civil, which had been raging since mid-1937, and the conflicting powers. Aforementioned is President MacArthur, executive of the United States government, and William Riley, Minister of Information and Security under the American Union State.
This is a very good AAR sir! I look forward to seeing how you further flesh out Mosley's Totalist Tyranny and I especially look forward to the civil war that will seek to right his wrongs!
Good as always, BTW, there is still a "Mosely" out there. And... is "Maxist" (instead of "Maximist") another hidden bonus?
Now I realized that my reference was too difficult and strained too implement. Shame on me.
Now I realized that my reference was too difficult and strained too implement. Shame on me.
Boooooooooooo!
A pox on anything but a Blackshirt Baronet! Love live the British Union of Fascists!
A pox on anything but a Blackshirt Baronet! Love live the British Union of Fascists!
"Deyeomanization" hmy: Syndicalist Britain sounds like quite a dystopian place to live in.
I wonder what future development exactly the ominous references to "American inquiry commissions" refer to...
Please keep it coming
hmy: Syndicalist Britain sounds like quite a dystopian place to live in. I wonder what future development exactly the ominous references to "American inquiry commissions" refer to...
Please keep it coming
"Not even the Emperor of Mankind could fix this mess." Was that a reference to Warhammer 40k that I just spotted?
Ding, Ding, Ding!
"Deyeomanization"
I wonder what future development exactly the ominous references to "American inquiry commissions" refer to...
Please keep it coming
Indeed - more on that commission - and the disparity of Syndicalist Britain to come.
Can't say I wouldn't suspect such a abovian response.
Good as always, BTW, there is still a "Mosely" out there. And... is "Maxist" (instead of "Maximist") another hidden bonus?
Now I realized that my reference was too difficult and strained too implement. Shame on me.
Not really. I use Maxist because I prefer the abbreviation, although I will in the future switch between.
Why thank you very much!
And on a less glorious note, I am spending the month of July in Spain. Thus, y'all will have to suffer without an update. Enjoy the summer!
You enjoy it too!! Spain is nice (but hot). Are you going to spend it at the sea-side?
I hope you enjoy your vacation in Spain! While you are in Spain could you confirm that it rains mainly on the plain?
Paella Valenciana; try it while you're there. Enjoy yourself, anarchy in the UOB can wait!
Amazing update! Clearly, the complete centralisation of the economy, society, and everything is the way forward.
Just went to the beach in Valencia yesterday.
I already made the mistake. Why didn't you tell me sooner!?
I hope you enjoy your vacation in Spain! While you are in Spain could you confirm that it rains mainly on the plain?
I shall investigate.
Had it yesterday in an absurdly large pan.
Amazing update! Clearly, the complete centralisation of the economy, society, and everything is the way forward.
Obviously. Thatcher would be proud.
Welcome aboard, Comrade.
I hope everyone is still enjoying their break. I'd just like to remind everyone to vote in the Q2's ACA's - their a great way to give your favorite AAR's recognition.