Biennio Rosso

The Biennio Rosso (Italian: Two Red Years) was a prolonged period of upheaval and civil unrest in the United States between 1918 and 1920, at the end and in the aftermath of the Great War. With working-class Americans already having been drafted to fight an extremely bloody war largely in Europe that was motivated largely by diplomatic and imperial interests, and the subsequent economic crisis as the war economy demobilized, social tensions exploded in a wave of revolutionary upswings and mass industrial action across the country. Although the government was ultimately not overthrown, and the situation calmed following the Red Summer of 1920, the events of this period are largely credited with initiating the pillarisation of American society, and the creation of parallel institutions representing the American left. As a result, it is often considered a precursor to the Second American Revolution in 1933.

The initial trigger for the first series of events in the period comprising the Biennio Rosso, came on 1 Janyary 1918, when Democrat John Hylan was sworn-in as mayor of New York City in spite of the victory of the SLP candidate Morris Hilquist in mayoral elections - a move ironically considered to have been caused by fear from the local establishment in light of the Russian Revolution. An attempt to arrest Hilquist sparked a massive popular backlash involving spontaneous walk-outs, formation of worker militias and seizures of workplaces. The resulting events became known as the Hylan-Hillquit Affair...