Second American Civil War

The Second American Civil War was a war fought in the year 1933 that marked the fall of the old United States. It was fought between the fascist Government of National Salvation (known as the "Whites") who had taken power on 1 February by overthrowing the incoming socialist government-elect of Norman Thomas in a military coup d'etat, and Communist forces representing the parties of the Popular Front and those who opposed the coup (known as the "Reds"), and from May onwards, the nascent Union of American Socialist Republics (UASR).

In spite of early victories, the Whites soon found themselves facing insurrection on the West Coast, while Red forces pushed eastwards from their midwestern strongholds, with the Red victory at the Battle of Chicago marking a major turning point. White forces would also face unanticipated partisan resistance in the South, a presumed conservative stronghold, thanks to an alliance between blacks and poor whites against the Bourbon ruling classes which had been cultivated by leftists over much of the 1920s. Much of the Red leadership was made up of radicalized World War I veterans, most notably George Patton, who had been secretly working as an agent for the Workers' Communist Party within the upper echelons of the US military before leading a mutiny among members of the Bonus Army upon being dispatched to win them over as recruits to the White cause. By the end of the year, Douglas MacArthur's military government has been forced to flee to Cuba, along with aligned members of the bourgeoisie, where they set up a government-in-exile with the initially reluctant collaboration of Cuban elites.

With the victory of the United Republics, the war marked a major realignment in global politics, with the UASR going from being one of the key centres of international capitalism to becoming one of the two superpowers of the Third Communist International, breaking their alliance with the United Kingdom and becoming one of Nazi Germany's main enemies. The United Republics would also be able to aid the alliance of agrarian and socialist rebels in Mexico, leading to the success of the near-simultaneous Second Mexican Revolution and the establishment of a Socialist Republic the following year, and from there socialism would gain significant influence over much of Latin and South America. The Revolution would also sow the seeds for America's conflict against international fascist governments during World War II. Along with the rise of Communism in the American continent, the war also marked the beginning of the First Cultural Revolution, a period of upheaval and challenge to established social norms.

Terminology
The "Second American Civil War" is the most common name for the conflict, differentiating it from the First American Civil War, more commonly known today as the Slavers' War. It is also widely known as the Second American Revolution, with the first American revolution in turn being the war of independence from Great Britain fought between 1775 and 1783. The phrase "Second American Revolution" however, can also specifically refer to the Red May Revolution, which is the point at which Red forces officially abandoned the struggle to restore the democratic constitutional government, and instead proclaimed the formation of the United American Republics.

Background
Although some leftist scholars have argued the revolution was in the long term inevitable, the more immediate root causes of the events can be linked to the so-called "Gilded Age" of American history in the decades following the First Civil War. The Gilded Age marked a prolonged period of capitalist and economic expansion in the United States, growing to rival the status of the old European colonial powers. However, inequality was rife, with regular corruption scandals and alienation of both native and migrant laborers. This period saw the growth of many of America's early labor and socialist movements, although by 1900 there was an increasingly large middle-class reform movement to address the tensions growing underneath the surface, known as the "Progressive Movement". However, this movement would ultimately prove unsuccessful as Progressive factions failed to achieve dominance in either of America's main political parties, the Democrats or the Republicans, and their limited victories being rolled back by courts and politicians in the 1900s. As such, class conflict would only intensify as Labor movements steadily grew in a more industrialized America. With reforms lacking, high levels of corruption and inequality persisted post-Gilded Age. The Socialist Labor Party and Social Democratic Party first entered Congress in the 1906 elections, and would only gain influence in the years ahead, while Progressives were marginalized from the two traditional major parties, facing Supreme Court-ordered reversals of their limited victories and eventual splits. In 1914, the United States entered the Great War, a conflict which would prove extremely harsh and take a huge toll on working-class soldiers, many of whom were radicalized by their experiences. The post-war period, with an economic downturn as the country demobilized, would see a surge of labour unrest, strikes and factory occupations, known as the Biennio Rosso.

January 1918 would see the New York City government and police force refuse to allow SLP mayor-elect Morris Hilquit to take power, culminating in a widespread uprising temporarily taking hold of Manhattan and an attempted crackdown by the national government, only ending following negotiations an an agreement to recognize the municipal government in exchange for the disbanding of workers' militias. In the meantime, similar uprisings had spread across the countries to major cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco and Seattle. Even though these "communes" were short-lived, unrest continued. Radicalised soldiers, fresh from their war experiences, would be drawn into armed conflicts defending striking workers from hired thugs. During the summer of 1919, an estimated five million Americans were involved in some kind of factory occupation. Class conflict would finally peak during the Red Summer of 1920, before labor groups began to lose steam. General Leonard Wood, former Secretary of War, rose to prominence in the Republican Party as the government hastily move towards reform to stem the upsurge, even attempting to address uprisings from black veterans in the Jim Crow South. Wood was elected president in November 1920.

While the overall situation nationwide calmed following this, a precedent had been set. During the 1920s, parallel institutions linked to the socialist movement became more well-developed and prevalent through American society. The International Labor Defense Committee, formed in 1920, would defend labor and left-wing activists, soon affiliating themselves into the International Red Aid network. The Pioneer League, a socialist alternative to the Boy Scouts, was established in 1921, and would develop a strong rivalry with their bourgeois counterparts. Joining the nascent Third Communist International, the further radicalized SLP would change its name to the Workers' Party of the America, in accordance with the conditions of TCI membership. This would mark a new period in the newly-christened WPA's history, as it came to make up a separate pillar of American civil society, against the "official" institutions, de facto representing the Republican Party, and organizations in the South supported by the Democratic Party.

With a growth of an African-American protest movement against Jim Crow laws and discrimination in the Deep South led by disaffected black veterans dawning, the Workers' Party began to move its efforts into fighting racism and segregation in the region, adopting the "Southern Strategy" in October 1921. With this new alignment formalized, the WPA would begin to focus on building alliances between the white working class and African-Americans of the South against the elites and bourgeoisie. They would come into conflict with white supremacist groups of the region such as the Ku Klux Klan, who would step up their campaign of racial terror in an attempt to destroy the movement. As early as 1919, the Omaha Race Riots, sparked after a group of armed black Great War veterans successfully thwarted an attempted lynching, gave America its first taste of a black population that had the capability to defend itself, and reactionaries responded in kind. The Vicksburg Pogrom on July 14, 1922 saw a series of killings as the KKK attacked a meeting of the local Tenant Farmers Union, which was responded to by a wave of strikes and counterattacks by the Communist-aligned TFU, and later on, the Mississippi Red Army. By November, as the government forcibly restored order in Mississippi, 72 white and 4 black citizens would be charged with violating the Anti-Lynching Act. Meanwhile, the Republican-lead national government began to rapidly move towards reform in an attempt to stem racial violence in the region. The federal government, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment, threatened to reduce the representation of states that practiced voter suppression proportionately to the percentage of the population denied ballot access. Poll tax laws targeting the black community would be ruled unconstitutional, and by the 1924 elections, the Republican Party would begin to actively campaign on civil rights issues in the South, deepening the societal rift between them and the Democratic Party, which having lost most of its left-populist flank to the splinter Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, became the party representing the interests of the Southern ruling class. However, even they would be forced to distance themselves from the excesses of far-right groups such as the KKK. The elections were once more won by the Republican Party with Wood re-elected to a second term, and with the Democratic Party coming second on electoral college votes. However, having already lost most of their voter base outside of the South to the DFLP (which aligned itself with the Republicans), they won a measly 11.4% of the national popular vote, while the Workers' Party, in spite of being narrowly beaten by the Democrats in the electoral college, won over a third of the popular vote, a sign of their growing power. The following February, the New York edition of the socialist Daily Worker would equal the New York Times in total circulation.



The growth of the socialist movement was tempered somewhat by the economic boom of the 1920s, but this was in many ways compensated for by ongoing events in the South. The Civil Rights Act of 1925 was passed by the federal government on June 18, prohibiting segregation and racial and sex-based discrimination in employment, housing and other services, sparking a renewed violent backlash from the far-right. State police were mobilized during the "Days of Rage" incidents that summer, which saw local black figures being attacked and murdered by mobs in rural areas. August 14 would see clashes in Washington D.C. between marching Klansmen, who managed to mobilize in large numbers, and WPA counter-protestors before police intervention, effectively ending the rally. By the end of the summer, the Army would be sent to the South to both prevent further conflict and to pre-empt a more co-ordinated response from Communist Spartacus League paramilitaries. The National Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover would soon receive official authorization to begin crackdowns on the Klan, while opening links to establish covert ties with left-wing groups, in an attempt to use them as a catspaw against Klan unrest. That October, a Spartacus League member and NBI informant who had received information from his contact would assassinate Hiram Evans, Imperial Wizard of the KKK, triggering a power struggle within the Klan. Meanwhile, the government would pass the Voting Rights Act, authorizing federal reapportionment of Congressional seats in response to voter suppression. In response, the government of Texas would formally abolish most of Jim Crow in a law passed in April 1926, as a means to prevent further federal repercussions and to stem civil unrest. This type of move would become the norm for governments in most Southern states over the next few years, as the status quo of segregation proved increasingly unsustainable.

By the mid-1920s, the pillarisation of American civil society had reached a point where beyond a mere labor movement, the old cultural norms of American society were becoming widely challenged. Patriarchal norms of family organization was critiqued for its function towards class society and division of labor. Both European and Asian immigrants were encouraged to speak and preserve their languages rather than to disappear into Anglo-American society, atheism spread as churches and religious institutions had firmly aligned themselves with the American establishment and even early scientific research work on sexual minorities began to generate interest. Due to the lax censorship regulations of the Republican government, depictions of homosexuality in film and literature begun to gradually become more common. In 1928, an edict was issued by the Catholic Church condeming socialism and expelling known members of the WPA, further deepening the rift.

While the Jim Crow regime was largely relegated to a state of retreat by 1927, reactionary and fascist movements in America would not rest, particularly in response to the increasingly large divide to a now-heavily pillarised American society. William Pelley founded the Silver Legion paramilitary group on August 7, 1925, distancing itself from the well-established KKK and modelling itself explicitly on the Blackshirts of Fascist Italy and the Nazi Party in Germany. On March 24 of the following year, three people were killed in Chicago when the main offices of Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung, a local German-language paper affiliated with the nationwide Daily Worker was bombed by Max Overfield, a Silver Legion member. During July 4 celebrations in 1927, President Leonard Wood was shot by a KKK member named William Burke, who was killed while attempting to flee the scene of the crime. President Wood would die seven days later from his injuries. Newspapers would soon publish excerpts from a manifesto Burke left behind, accusing the President of being a Jewish and Masonic communist agent, aiming to destroy the white race. However, before the identity and motive of the gunman could even be established, confused police and military authorities responded by initiating an offensive against the Workers' Party, who they assumed had attempted a coup of some kind through the shooting. WPA members of Congress would be illegally detained under a confused state of authority, as local police began arresting trade unionists. In response, a massive general strike was only narrowly averted on July 6 as Vice-President Herbert Hoover ordered the immediate release of all those arrested and apologized on behalf of the national government for the incident. With Hoover consolidating power following Wood's eventual death, the Klan would finally face a new offensive from the state in response to the assassination from August 11, in spite of the group's leadership denying any involvement with Burke's plot. At the President's funeral, the leaders of all four of America's major political parties would deliver eulogies in a moment of national unity that had become increasingly rare. Stress underneath the faultlines of American society was clearly building, and in response to the Crisis, a new amendment to the constitution was quickly passed through congress on October 28 to resolve questions regarding the line of succession and procedure in case of the incapacitation of the executive.

The 1928 elections saw Hoover, seen by the party as a worthy heir to the late General Wood, receive an easy nomination as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. However, the left-leaning DFLP had serious reservations about Hoover and ties to capitalist interests, such as selecting newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst as his Vice-President. Ultimately, however the two were able to convince the DFLP to maintain their joint Alignment coalition agreement for a new presidential term. Duing the campaign, and in the absence of Wood as a unifying figure, Hoover would soon find himself torn between the traditional pro-Business faction of the Republicans and the interests of "common" supporters and DFLP voters. In an attempt to reduce ongoing tension in the South and to win back support, he began to reduce party promises made on the advancement of civil rights and to increasingly emphasise a conservative anti-Communist line, while also taking credit for reforms made under the Progressive Republican government since 1920. The Democratic Party would suffer due to controversy over the right-wing orientation of their VP candidate Walter F. George in the wake of the July Crisis, and while initial results for the Republican Party's strategy proved lukewarm, the party was able to gain traction through a controversy involving an Army Lieutenant accused of being a Soviet agent, speaking a media witch-hunt. This incident would hurt the Workers' Party campaign as the Republicans appealed to feelings of conspiratorial xenophobia, in spite of their early success. The party had however, overcome division within its ranks, following the passing of the unifying figure of Eugene Debs earlier that year, and questions about the continuation of the more concillatory "Second Period" policies the party had operated under in 1924, following the violation of the de facto truce in the form of the July Crisis. The party had selected the relatively moderate C.E. Ruthenburg as its candidate over leftist William Z. Foster, but as a concession to the Left of the party, he would select Great War veteran and civil rights activist James W. Ford as his running mate, the first major African-American candidate in a presidential election. Ford's candidature is said to have prompted William Pelley of the Silver Legion to run as an independent fascist candidate nominated by a number of reactionary groups, although his campaign was poorly organized and he was not considered a serious contender.

The election saw an unsurprising victory for Republicans, winning 53.8% of the vote in the presidential elections in spite of losses in Congress. The Workers' Party experienced a slight reduction in the Presidential popular vote, but with Democratic losses, they were now positioned in second place by electoral college as well as popular vote, firmly cementing their status as America's second party.

In 1929, soon after the new government took office, reports from economists would begin to warn of economic hardship ahead, with the Dow Jones seeing a sudden slump of 5% within an hour on September 23. At the same time, tensions were increasing with the Soviet Union, with the government granting asylum to Leon Trotsky amidst growing repression under Iosif Stalin and passing economic tariffs against the USSR. With tensions growing and the economic instability mounting, the Comintern would introduce its "Third Period" policies. For Communist parties worldwide, the relatively reconcillatory period of the 1920s had ended, as they were instructed to break ties with reformists and social democrats, and to begin agitating for revolution. In response to the new policies requiring parties to state their affiliation in their name, the party changed their name to the Workers' Communist Party of America (WCP) at their 1930 Congress.



Economic faultlines would finally erupt on February 6, 1930, also known as Black Thursday as stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. The 10th would become known as Black Monday as the markets slumped even further, reaching a record one-day loss of 12.5%. Markets across the country would soon enter freefall in response. These events would lead to a worldwide economic collapse called the Great Depression. Many businesses collapsed overnight, and many workers were suddenly unemployed. Due to the slow response of the government of Herbert Hoover, many were angered, and the unemployed soon began to turn to the Workers' Party as an alternative.

On May 12, WPA Congressman and Presbyterian minister Norman Thomas was arrested with other activists for protesting unemployment and the slow government response to economic collapse. The resulting trial sent the Congressman to national attention. As a speech he delivered was reprinted in papers nationwide, his arrest became a cause célèbre, with marches in cities nationwide before his release amidst the backlash. Authorities in 1930-31 would attempt to step up anti-communist activities. On September 21, Hamilton Fish III of the House Internal Security Committee, published an official list of known or suspected Communist sympathizers in American academia and arts scene - which included many members of the DFLP, further deterioating their already frail relationship with the Republican Party. In addition to an already-radicalized urban working class, rural farmers, increasingly reliant on capitalists, too had gradually become intertwined the broader workers' movement. The Harlan County War of 1931 would even see members of the National Guard called in to end strikes fraternizing with miners and switching sides. The same year, the DFLP allowed its frequent left-wing ally the Independent Socialist Labor Party to merge into it, and established members of the national leadership were recalled by the party rank and file as the DFL veered swifly to the left in response to the Depression. By the end of the year, standards of living had fell dramatically amongst members of all social classes, with unemployment approaching 20%. Industrial action and factory occupations surged throughout 1931, as the WCP's "Ultra-Left" surged in influence, as the party grew both in power and internal division. Ahead of the 1932 elections, the party would have to decide on an presidential candidate amid these circumstances and tensions.

1932 elections and the MacArthur Putsch
By 1932, with the Depression at its peak, America was in a state of widespread tension and division. Amidst this, a new presidential election was due.

The WCP's final Party Congress before the Civil War began on 29 April 1932, and was held in New York City. The party had grown significantly since the onset of the economic crisis, and the mood was increasingly militant. In spite of growing rifts betwen the party's right and left wings, they managed to endorse a program calling for direct power to be taken by worker councils. In a surprise result, Congressman Norman Thomas, who had come to prominence following his his arrest and subsequent release, was successfully voted for as candidate. He stood out as an atypical candidate for the party, as a Presbyterian minister in an increasingly atheist party and as a broad non-factionalist, able to appeal to vast strains of thought within the party itself, while also being able to appeal to disaffected members of the centre-left at the same time. Along with this, the party would successfully form an electoral alliance with the increasingly left-wing DFLP, known as the Popular Front. Selecting Upton Sinclair, a key figure of the party's left as his running mate, the Popular Front presidential ticket would prove to be a powerful force of unity.

The Republican Party Convention, on the other hand, proved bitter and vitriolic. The wealthy, business-minded delegates who made up much of the party's traditional base had moved towards increasingly reactionary positions in light of the Depression, attempting to scapegoat immigrants, minority groups and Communists in response to the economic woes. The incumbent Hoover would find himself under attack from this wing of the party, who viewed him as too moderate in his stances. His greatest challenger was Hamilton Fish III, well-known for his hardline anti-communist stance in the wake of the Mejer Affair. Hoover criticized Fish for his ties to far-right groups such as the Silver Legion (as part of his campaign, he had produced a list of "communist sympathizers" in public life with a heavy focus on Jews), but dissatisfaction with Hoover was rife throughout the political spectrum. In spite of this, he would narrowly win the nomination, in part due to a divided opposition and a lack of Progressive challengers.

The Democratic Party, by this point, was in a state of deep decline, having lost most of its ballot access outside of the South, and being rivalled even on its traditional home territory by the DFL and Workers' Party. The party found itself split between three options for the presidential elections - to endorse Hoover as part of a united anti-communist front, to nominate John Nance Garner, a traditional conservative representative of the party's Old Guard, or the controversial populist and Governor of Lousiana Huey Long. His policies of wealth distribution had proven effective at slowing the growth of the WCP in his home state, in spite of his government's corruption and authoritarianism. He was able to win a shock victory as nominee at the Party Convention, before making concessions to appeal to his angered rivals.

William Pelley would once again run as an independent fascist candidate, increasingly inspired by German "National Socialism". While his support base remained small, he managed to find a level of renwed support from the middle and upper classes in response to the Depression. Other than his own group, the Silver Legion, he would also find support from organizations such as Charles Coughlin's Unity Party, the ailing Ku Klux Klan, the German-American Bund and the American Legion.

With the traditional pro-capitalist parties facing an unprecedented challenge from the Popular Front and WCP, the Republican Party would attempt to convince Long to withdraw from the race, and to endorse a united anti-communist ticket. Long however, rebuffed this, disinterested in wherever the future of America was capitalist or socialist, even appearing open to co-operating with the Workers' Party in the event of a Popular Front victory. In spite of this, the Republican Party remained confident in their position. Polling statistics by the party suggested a lead for Hoover, albeit with a reduced majority. However, due to flawed sampling techniques being widespread in opinion polls at that time, much of their statistics were skewed towards wealthier voters to start with. Food riots broke out in a starving Ohio in June, as shops and warehouses were looted and seized. By this point, the state government decided not to utilize the National Guard due to fears concerning their loyalty. The summer saw members of the "Bonus Army" march in Washington, a rally of several thousand Great War veterans, demanding payment of government-guaranteed compensation amidst the Depression. On August 6, they would be dispersed from Washington by forces lead by General Douglas MacArthur, forcing them to decamp to Pennsylvania, with plans to return after the election. The Bonus Army would become a noticeable issue in the election campaign, with Thomas and the Popular Front championing their cause as the Republican government did not pay out. On 1 September, delegates from unions and already-existing workers' councils from across America would meet in Chicago, formally establishing the "All-American Congress of Soviets".

Election day finally arrived on November 8. The political establishment had seriously underestimated to the extent of which their public legitimacy had been undermined amidst the massive discontent of the Depression. Norman Thomas won 56.7% of the popular vote, whilst the Republican Party were left humiliated as Hoover scored just 22.7% of the vote. Combined, the Popular Front was able to win a supermajority in the House of Representatives, while the Senate saw a popular Front plurality in spite of the low number of seats being contested. The extent of the electoral humiliation of the Republican Party left many members of the American bourgeoisie unable to accept the results, and feelings of anger and fear would quickly begin to spread. Capitalist-aligned newspapers, even including respected broadsheets such as the Washington Post, would make increasingly sensationalist claims and accusations of voter fraud, often based on speculation or poorly-sourced or anecdotal evidence. Many of the wealthy panicked as they attempted to move assets out of the country, and paranoia of potential class-based attacks would circulate. Reports concerning donations from businesses to fascist groups were leaked to socialists, and soon members of the left would grow concerned about possible retaliation for the election result. When Congress re-convened on December 5, First Secretary Nicholas Longworth announced that three members of the Cabinet had unexpectedly resigned, and appointed interim holders for their positions. One of the new officers was Douglas MacArthur, the head of military intelligence, who was selected as the new Secretary of War. The WCP attempted to call a motion to disclose information regarding these unexplained resignations, but was overruled by the executive before a vote could be held. Uncertainty within the party took hold on the course of action to take, but the Politburo, at this point dominated by the Center and the Right, would over-rule Secretary-General Earl Browder, and sent out a telegram to all sections of the party, and ordered them to comply with the interim government. However, in spite of assurances promising a peaceful transition of power, the party's base grew increasingly suscpicious and dissatisfied. On 13 December, the Left factions of the party, backed by the Spartacus League and the Solidarity trade union, called on the working-class to mobilize, as strikes spread nationwide and new workers' councils were established. The party found itself divided into two factions, the Legalists and the Maximalists. The Legalists, representing the party's right-wing and controlling much of the leadership apparatus, was convinced that power was going to be peacefully transfered in spite of the panic of the ruling classes, believing that they had essentially been rendered impotent. Meanwhile, the Maximalists were convinced that a fascist coup was already imminent, and that action needed to be taken immediately. The Maximalists would soon find their fears vindicated. Notably, reports of suspicious closed meetings between the executive and military officials such as MacArthur were circulating through the government and legislature - meetings that it would later be discovered were attempts by the conspirators to coerce and intimidate the outgoing President Hoover in submitting to their demands and planned seizure of power. The cabinet members that had resigned were removed from office by a combination of threats and bribery, and had been placed under house arrest. Longworth and MacArthur recruited far-right groups, police forces and businessmen to participate and aid their plot, both financially and militarily. The National Salvation Front was formed, an organization intended to unite the new government and to crush any left-wing or revolutionary response. As Congress met again on 6 January 1933 to officially certify the electoral college votes, the Republican and Democratic attempted to contest the results by any means possible, often using vague or spurious charges against the Popular Front, much to the opposition's protest. In spite of this, Norman Thomas was still able to secure a majority of electoral collage votes. With the Right of the Workers' Party in control, extraparliamentary action in protest was limited to a one-day general strike on 13 January.

The coup was finally carried out as planned on 1 Febuary. President Hoover was forced to sign an executive order declaring a state of emergency and authorizing martial law in response to "threat of insurrection". Extrajudicial detention was authorized, and General Douglas MacArthur was to assume executive power as the de facto head of government. Assuming power, MacArthur immediately outlawed the WCP and formally charged the entire party leadership under the Sedition Act. WCP and DFLP officials in Washington D.C. were arrested or in some cases assassinated by pre-selected MacArthur loyalists, supported by far-right paramilitary groups. That morning, Norman Thomas was arrested at a Washington hotel by putschist forces, marched outside from his room in full view of several uninvolved bystanders, taken outside the building and summarily executed by firing squad. With many key members of the leaderships of the Popular Front parties liquidated, the nascent "White" forces of the Government of National Salvation would be tasked with maintaining control from D.C. over the entire United States, as the Reds were forced to hastily co-ordinate a response in kind.