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The Union of Britain is a syndicalist state in western Europe lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. It consists of the island of Great Britain and a large number of smaller outlying islands. Completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to its north and east, the English Channel to its south, and the Irish Sea to its south-west, Britain borders no other sovereign states. Its closest neighbours are the Irish Republic across the Irish Sea to the west and the Commune of France across the English Channel to the south

History[]

Main article: Union of Britain/History

Following the Weltkrieg, an enlarged German Empire was seen as a threat to the United Kingdom, despite the country not conceding anything at the Treaty of Versailles. As a result, military spending remained at wartime levels and a particular emphasis was placed on the naval budget to combat the ever-expanding German navy. Following the 1924 general election, a Conservative-Liberal coalition under Austin Chamberlain came to power, deciding early on that the cost of the naval arms race was unsustainable for British spending. As a result pay among the armed forces was slashed across the board and the naval buildup was scaled back.

The British Revolution[]

On May 13th, the crew of the HMS Hood, docked in Plymouth, mutinied, refusing to obey the orders of their superiors. Though they were soon arrested, a large crowd of protestors at the docks intimidated the local police into releasing the sailors and later calling for support against the protestors. Subsequently, a violent crackdown occurred on the protest which resulted in a general strike and rioting throughout the city. In response to government violence against strikers, the Transport and General Workers' Union called a solidarity strike to protest. Fearing a revolution like that in France, the government moved swiftly to outlaw the TGWU and suspend the right of transport workers to strike, outraging the Labour Party and general trade unionist movement. Despite mass arrests, various other labour movements went on strike and numerous territorial barracks went into mutiny. While on the 18th of June the Trade Union Congress announced its intention to hold a general strike, with the government ordering the army to reinforce the police and aid them in breaking up strikes and forcing workers to resume critical jobs.

Kaiserreich Union of Britain Location Map

Union of Britain

In southern Wales, the large Port Talbot Steelworks was heavily unionized and its workers had undertaken a mass walkout. In September, when a crowd of striking workers approached a group of inexperienced soldiers, one opened fire on the crowd leading to mass chaos and the death of five striking workers. The town was soon placed under curfew by the police and that night the nearby barracks were stormed by furious miners, who stripped and beat the soldiers and took the buildings afterwards. Across Britain clashes between police and striking workers grew more common and more deadly. Parliament was quick to outlaw the SPGB, TUC, and Independent Labour Party as they saw those organizations as fueling tensions. Outraged, the Labour party began to rally behind the radical trade unionists in their calls to depose the government. Due to the spreading chaos some Liberal MPs abandoned the ruling coalition and petitioned the King to dissolve parliament and call for a new election, which he refused. Weeks later, George Lansbury spoke at a Labour Party conference where he embraced republicanism and condemned George V's "political meddling" while harkening back to the execution of Charles I. Due to Lansbury's statements, the Labour Party was soon outlawed and all Labour MPs remaining in London were arrested for high treason.

Generalstrike2

British tanks and soldiers preparing to engage the revolutionaries, 1925.

As the Revolution spread, Cardiff was the first major city to fall to revolutionary forces as martial law was declared across Wales. In Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh had their government buildings stormed by rebels who agreed to link up their territories through a successful albeit bloody march on Livingston, causing a Parliamentarian withdrawal from the heart of Scotland. With mass desertions in the army becoming ever more common, the army replaced their ranks with ill-diciplined ex-servicemen, whose brutality only served to increase support for the revolutionary cause. By January 1925, the rebels advanced from Cardiff to Bristol, while in Liverpool the Provisional Government of the new Union of Britain was proclaimed, appointing George Lansbury as its first President and A.J. Cook as the first Chairman of the Ministerial Council a few weeks later. With the support of Lansbury, Cook soon appointed John Wheatley as Deputy Chairman.

Though the loyalists were able to retake Bristol, the army was in full retreat across Britain's industrial heartland. A massive attempt to evacuate Scotland by sea was met with limited success, leaving some soldiers behind as guerrillas in the highlands. The Scottish rebels chose to advance south to link up with the midland rebels. In Spring, martial law was extended to the rest of the United Kingdom and the royal family was evacuated to Canada under the guise of a state visit. This caused a flood of people to try to flee the country, clogging Britain's southern ports and forcing the government to divert military forces to keep order. In July, the Republican military, now containing an air force, attacked Nottingham, where its discipline shocked the Parliamentarians and won it a tough victory. With the conflict nearing its end, the remains of the Royal Navy began assisting in the evacuation of much of the government to Canada. Heavy autumn rain slowed the Union's advance and the Parliamentarians managed to halt the rebels at Coventry. With Canadian reinforcements on their way, in December the Union secured French help in raiding Plymouth to break the stalemate. This proved successful and the direction of forces to the south coast allowed breakthroughs at Peterborough, Luton and the retaking of Bristol. London descended into chaos with the government abandoning the city, allowing the Republican army to enter and crush all remaining resistance. In early 1926, the Provisional Revolutionary Government convened the Constitutional Convention in the ruins of London. Its priority was reconstruction, and for that end masses of volunteers were organized for such tasks as supplying food and medicine and repairing roads and railways.

Rebuilding the Union[]

Some of the remaining Parliamentarian forces still fought on as guerrillas, and in February a group calling itself the Loyalist Opposition kidnapped three government officials and murdered at least two, promising more to come should "orderly and moral governance" not return. This prompted disorganised, violent reprisals which caused Chairman Cook to task Vice-Chairman Wheatley with ending the crisis. To do this, he create the Special Operations Executive, a detachment of the Republican Army designated with detaining counter-revolutionaries, protecting VIPs and eliminating armed dissident groups. This proved greatly successful at preventing extra-legal violence, though its arrest of former Conservative Party members would lead to many deaths through overzealous aggression and poor quality prison camps. The continuing bloodshed outraged George Lansbury, who resigned as President and appointed Clement Attlee to replace him as head of the Labour party. Arthur Cook won the subsequent election for President and shortly afterwards the Constitutional Convention abolished the title, granting the head of state title to the Chairman of the Ministerial Council. At the beginning of 1927, the constitution of the Union of Britain was formally brought into force. It established a secular state with universal suffrage for those over 21 and elections every five years. There were to be two equal chambers of Congress, each elected by a single transferable vote, but candidates must be approved by the Ministry of Information. The Chairman of the Federal Congress was to be appointed by a vote of both chambers and would unrestrictedly appoint the Executive Committee.

At the first real meeting of the federal congress a number of laws were rapidly passed, orchestrating the nationalisation of all mines, utilities, roads, railways and other industries. They were turned over to worker’s self-management via the unions, with the TUC responsible for controlling production and trade via its Manufacturing and Resources Commission, members of which were chosen from the TUC by the chairman. The immediate issue facing the country was a lack of key resources needed for industry, having previously been imported, as well as a severe shortage in food and oil imports from the Dominions, who refused to openly trade with the former-UK as their stabilization after the disruption the British Revolution brought hardened their stance against the new Britain. Significant restructuring of trading relationships was made, with attempts to compensate for the deficits made via trade with France, Italy and negotiations with many neutral countries. In the end a regime of rationing was brought in, which placed the food supply under state control and doled out a given amount of milk, sugar, fruit, margarine, butter, fats, cheese, meat, clothing and tea to each person. Potatoes and vegetables were never rationed and though cereal was initially considered the idea was rapidly abandoned in favour of price regulations. Petrol however had to be rationed extremely heavily, prompting the setup of a commission to investigate the possibilities of synthetic replacements at Porton Down. A series of People’s Restaurants were set up where a full meal costed no more than nine pence and the “Dig For Revolution” campaign began to encourage people to grow food and take up farming. As a result a migration to the countryside took place as more land was placed under cultivation. For many people this, and a programme of housing reform and slum clearance, actually managed to improve their quality of life, as they receive education in recycling and reusing various products and the quality and quantity of their diet rose. Fishing also benefited from the fall in meat consumption. As part of the attempts to compensate for the limited supply of textiles a small movement began to discard the wearing of hats as an institution, though its traction is limited.

A referendum on the independence of Scotland was planned for September 1. Though coalitions supporting both sides cut across economic policy lines, the Nationalists proved far better at campaign unity than the Unionists. Significant political violence rocked Scotland between mobs supporting each side and mobs supporting union with Britain but different economic platforms. Leading nationalist John MacCormick expressed willingness for a Windsor restoration and the head of the center-right Unionist Party endorsed independence. After a Unionist campaigner was stabbed to death in August, John Wheatley delayed the referendum to September 25. On September 1, a bomb exploded at Glasgow university though no one was killed. The following day street fighting between the two sides fortuitously caused no deaths, and fearing a Nationalist victory Wheatley had John MacCormick and his ally Robert Graham arrested for counter-revolutionary activities. Scottish Chairman Willie Gallacher suspended the referendum indefinitely, and in return London granted Scotland more autonomy. Late in 1928, Randall Davidson became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to retire voluntarily. He was replaced by Christian Socialist William Temple.

On May 12th 1930, John Wheatley died suddenly of a stroke, aged 61. His death prompted a leadership battle within the ILP, and left the Union without a Deputy Chair. Many on the increasingly powerful militant left saw this as an opportunity to place a radical into the position of Deputy Chair, but Chairman Cook took a moderate stance. In poor health himself (though he attempted to cover this up the best he could), Cook was wary of shifting the balance of power too far. As such, the veteran moderate ILPer J.R Clynes was appointed Deputy Chair, maintaining the Lab-ILP governing coalition. However, soon the Chairman's health began to fail, with his workaholic nature driving him to the point of exhaustion. Stubbornly continuing on, his failure to seek medical attention after an injury to his leg, that had been aggravated by a relatively innocuous fall, got infected. Hospitalised in late September, Cook was forced to miss the 1930 Labour Party Conference (which was chaired by Minister of Labour Tom Mann), and on October 19th his leg was amputated above the knee, prompting fears that the Chairman was on the verge of death. While Cook recovered from the operation (albeit with a cork leg and crutches), he acknowledged his time was up and announced his intent to resign as Leader of the Labour Party and Chairman of the Union of Britain by the end of the year.

A Climate of Paranoia[]

After a fairly cordial contest, the elder Syndicalist Tom Mann handily beat "Old Labour" stalwart and Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson and was elected Labour Leader, formally becoming Chairman on December 14th. A major cabinet reshuffle followed, with Labour ministers getting the majority of seats at the expense of the ILP, now led by the far more moderate and increasingly combative Philip Snowden. A series of minor scandals would soon follow, starting when Minister of Works Jimmy Thomas was caught embezzling funds, tipping off industrial and union leaders of coming budgetary amendments, and leveraging his position to enrich himself. Under immense pressure from his deputy Oswald Mosley, Thomas resigned in disgrace on July 1st and Mosley was promoted to Minister of Works.

Later that month, ex-Chairman Cook was hospitalised again, this time being diagnosed with cancer, however Cook still made a triumphant appearance at the 1931 Labour Party Conference in Scarborough that October. This would be his final public appearance however, as he was soon hospitalised for a final time. After several weeks in hospital, where many prominent politicians made sure to wish him well, Arthur Cook died on November 2nd, 1931, at the age of 47. The nation mourned its revolutionary hero, but soon the Union was thrown into another minor crisis by the McKenna Scandal wherein several 'Constitutionalist' Liberal Party politicians were rumoured to have been maintaining contact with exiled banker Reginald McKenna. Eventually, 17 Constitutionalist representatives in the TUC and Provincial Parliament were indicted by the High Court and put on trial, generating a national media frenzy. After several weeks, many of the indicted fled to Ireland to avoid being jailed for treason, damaging the Liberal Party and kickstarting a national climate of paranoia over potential royalist infiltration.

These fears of subversion only escalated after the McKenna Scandal. Growing tensions between Chairman Mann and the Provincial Parliament, which now operated under an ILP-Liberal coalition following the 1931 General Elections, boiled over following a proposal to reorganise the system of local government. The Provincial Parliament blocked the legislation in April and by August, under the direction of the 'Second Union of Democratic Control', led by Phillip Snowden of the ILP, Herbert Samuel of the Liberal Party and Harold Macmillan of the New Democratic Party, the Parliament deadlocked national governance entirely. A constitutional crisis emerged, with Mann's plans to hold a General Strike to cow the 2nd UDC into submission being quietly rescinded after a cabinet rebellion.

1932LondonProtest

Protests in London following the abolition of the Provincial Parliament, November 6th, 1932

Ultimately, in a deeply controversial act, Tom Mann invoked the Emergency Powers Act on the 1st of November, after a lengthy court battle ruled in his favour and a marathon session of the TUC deliberated over the action until 4:00AM. The Provincial Parliament was unceremoniously prorogued, and then abolished on November 5th, a move that triggered nation-wide protests and a slate of cabinet resignations by moderate Labour and ILP members. The Provincial Parliament illegally convened and held a largely symbolic vote of no confidence in Chairman Mann that afternoon, in turn leading to a near-riot amongst the TUC after Snowden called for armed insurrection to "restore democracy". Several TUC representatives suffered minor injuries in the chaos, most prominently the President of the TUC, John Bromley, who was injured when Snowden had shoved him off of the stage. The 2nd UDC's leadership were interned in the aftermath, with Snowden later being jailed for grievous bodily harm.

In early December, disgruntled civil servants affiliated to the UDC political parties leaked information regarding a drafted 1933 budget for the military and intelligence community as part of the 1932 Intelligence Leak. In the ensuing political scandal that dragged into the new year, three cabinet ministers were dismissed and putting Mann in an untenable position. On March 27th, 1933, the First Mann Ministry came to an end when the Chairman called for a vote of confidence against his own government. However, Mann himself would win a surprisingly comfortable victory in the subsequent vote, giving him the mandate to draw up a new ministry dominated by radical Federationists and Maximists, with the notorious but popular Deputy Chair Oswald Mosley at its helm. Mosley took an expectedly hard-line stance against the ILP and Liberals, charging that they had formed part of a "royalist conspiracy at the heart of government." The Proscribed Organisations Act 1933 was soon passed, formally banning the Independent Labour Party, the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party, and subsequently many high-profile politicians were indefinitely interned on suspicion of sedition and treason.

A Government of "Volcanic" Militancy[]

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Politics[]

Main article: Union of Britain/Politics

The Union of Britain is constitutionally federalist, consisting of eleven provinces. These are Scotland, the North East, North West, Yorkshire, East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, South West, East Anglia, South East and London, the Capital Territory. The Union also has one overseas territory: the Overseas Autonomous Territory of St. Helena and Ascension Island.

Britain's Federal Congress consists of two chambers. The Trade Union Congress is solely responsible for proposing legislation and nominating the Chairman. Congressmen are directly elected by union members, which include all workers holding government recognized jobs. Seats are based on industry, subdivided by region. The Councilist Assembly is the house of review, and its members are elected by the legislatures of Britain's eleven regional governments, with representation given in proportion to population. It approves the Chairman, though its approval is not needed if the TUC agrees on a candidate with a two-thirds supermajority.

The Chairman is head of state, and appoints the Executive Committee unilaterally. This includes the Deputy Chairman who is head of government and runs the powerful Central Intelligence Committee. The CIC is Britain's domestic security service responsible for neutralising internal threats, counter espionage and dealing with political dissidents. It includes the Revolutionary Education Commission which is responsible for educating the populace about the benefits of socialism and enforcing it as the new way of life and political orthodoxy. The Ministry of Information is responsible for approving political candidates and limiting the public's access to misinformation and information deemed dangerous.

Chairmen of the TUC of the Union of Britain since 1925
Portrait Leader Duration Party Faction Government
Term Start Term End
AJ Cook Arthur Cook
MC for Group 1 - Merthyr Tydfil
13th March 1925 14th December 1930 Labour Party Syndicalist Provisional Government
Labour-Syndicalists-TUC
Cook
Labour-Ind. Labour
TomMann Tom Mann
MC for Group 6 - Leeds Municipal
14th December 1930 Present Mann I
Labour-Popular Revolution
Federationist Mann II
General-Secretaries (Deputy Chair) of the TUC of the Union of Britain since 1925
Wheatley John Wheatley
MC for Group 8 - Glasgow Municipal
13th March 1925 12th May 1930 Independent
Labour Party
Wheatleyite Provisional Government
Cook
Clynes J.R. Clynes
MC for Group 19 - Manchester Municipal
12th May 1930 27th March 1933 Snowdenite Cook (Cont.)
Mann I
Labour Party Moderate
Oswald mosley Oswald Mosley
MC for Group 22 - Birmingham Municipal
2nd April 1933 Present Maximist Mann II

Political Parties[]

Main article: Union of Britain/Parties

The Union of Britain has been a de-facto one-party state ever since the passing of the Proscribed Organisations Act 1933, which banned the Independent Labour Party, the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party. National politics at all levels is thus controlled by the Labour Party. However, despite this, the Federal Congress remains divided as Labour has grown increasingly factionalised. Mann's orthodox syndicalists, the so-called “Federationists”, make up a razor-thin majority of Labour's Federal Congress delegation, but they lack outright control over the party. Largely descendent from the pre-revolution Syndicalist Party of Great Britain, the Federationists desire to preserve the current state of the federation, syndicalist-dominated and run by the provincial TUCs. However, the Federationists are themselves fractious, dominated by strong personalities, and are facing a split between pragmatic reformists who favour a more subdued and incremental progress towards socialism, and militant radicals that feel the Revolution was never completed, and who demand an end to a "lost decade of watered-down compromises".

Supporting Mann's leadership is Deputy Chair Oswald Mosley and his tight-knit followers, the “Maximists”. Largely members of Mosley's New Labour Association (NULA), an affiliate of Labour that is itself the successor of the Popular Revolution Party, the Maximists stress the need for “Total commitment to Socialism and the maximum effort for the revolution” and want to lead Britain onto the "path of Action". The Maximists presently control roughly 1/7th of the party delegation, but are set to grow substantially in the upcoming elections in early January. Loud supporters behind the current authoritarian shift of the Union, the Maximists are also critical of the Union's decentralised government, which they believe hampers the nation's economic potential. The Maximists are supported by their long-standing paramilitary, the Popular Revolutionary Guards or "Blackshirts", an organisation that has come under great scrutiny in recent months due to reports of intimidation and assault, to the point that Attorney-General (and Mosley critic) William Jowitt is reportedly considering opening a formal investigation into the Maximists' political dealings.

The current Federationist-Maximist coalition is internally opposed by the Attlee-Brockway Pact, also (somewhat derisively) known as the "Moderate Bloc" or "Right Bloc", which is an alliance of the Autonomist and Parliamentarian factions of Labour that formed following the 1932 Parliamentary Crisis. This alliance, controlling roughly 1/3rd of the party delegation, aggressively opposes the Totalist politics of Oswald Mosley, and has routinely called for a restoration of the Provincial Parliament and a roling back of repressive legislation. Largely stemming from the old Wheatleyite wing of the ILP which joined Labour in 1932, Fenner Brockway's Autonomists are the larger of the two, encompassing a broad tent of Christian Socialists, regionalists, co-operativists, ruralists and pacifists. The Autonomists' programme consists of a sweeping economic decentralisation programme inspired by guild socialism, and further devolution of powers to create a "co-fraternal" British nation. On the flipside, Clement Attlee's moderate Parliamentarians are far more unitary in nature. Long marginalised by the Federationists, the Parliamentarians are largely Fabians who support Keynesian economic reforms and an end of TUC-political domination, instead believing that Unions should advise the state, rather than running it. Because of these views, the Parliamentarians have frequently been branded as "traitors to the revolution" by Federationist militants, forcing them into silence to avoid censure, but the Parliamentarians do enjoy great (albeit closeted) sympathy from pragmatic sections of the Federal Congress who are horrified by the authoritarianism of Mann and Mosley. The Parliamentarians are also connected to Hugh Dalton's vestigial Social Democratic Party, with TUC delegate Herbert Morrison frequently acting as a go-between for the two groups.

Despite Labour's growing stranglehold over national affairs, there does exist a number of smaller regional parties, small breakaways from those organisations banned in 1933 and political independents. However, while they may have dedicated followings in their stronghold regions, these minor groupings have no actual influence over national legislative policy.

Portrait Incumbent Office Faction of the Labour Party
TomMann Tom Mann

(born 15 April 1856)

Chairman Federationist
Oswald mosley Oswald Mosley

(born 16 November 1896)

Deputy Chairman Maximist
Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt

(born 22 November 1890)

Minister of Foreign Affairs Federationist
Abe Moffat Abe Moffat

(born 24 September 1896)

Minister of Financial Affairs Federationist
R H Tawney R. H. Tawney

(born 8 July 1880)

Minister of Home Affairs Autonomists
John Strachey John Strachey

(born 21 October 1901)

Minister of War Maximist
Wilfred Risdon Wilfred Risdon

(born 28 January 1896)

Minister of Information Maximist
Alfred Salter Alfred Salter

(born 16 June 1873)

Minister of Health Autonomists
William Jowitt William Jowitt

(born 15 April 1885)

Minister of Justice N/A
Alexander Raven Thomson Alexander Raven Thomson

(born 3 December 1899)

Minister of Industry

and Labour

Maximist
Robert Forgan Robert Forgan

(born 10 March 1891)

Minister of Agriculture

and Fisheries

Maximist
Tommy Moran Tommy Moran

(born 12 December 1900)

Minister of Works

and Forests

Maximist
John Cliff John Cliff

(born 7 March 1883)

Minister of Railways Federationist
GCT Giles GCT Giles

(born ??? 1891)

President of

the Board of Education

Federationist
Clement Attlee Clement Attlee

(born 3 January 1883)

President of

the Board of Trade

Parliamentarian
Fred Jowitt Fred Jowett

(born 31 January 1864)

President of

the Air Board

Federationist
Albert Alexander A.V. Alexander

(born 1 May 1885)

Secretary of State

for the Navy

Parliamentarian
Ebby Edwards Ebby Edwards

(born 30 July 1884)

Secretary of State

for England

Federationist
Harry McShane Harry McShane

(born 7 May 1891)

Secretary of State

for Scotland

Federationist
Arthur horner Arthur Horner

(born 5 April 1894)

Secretary of State

for Wales

Federationist
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani Palme Dutt

(born 19 June 1896)

Minister without Portfolio Vanguardist


Military[]

The military doctrine of the Union of Britain puts great emphasis on naval superiority in home waters as well as providing escorts for commerce vessels which are the lifeline of the island nations. The army has a secondary role as the air force and the navy are thought to have a higher priority.

Army[]

The British Army is a mix of standing army units, home defence garrisons and local militias which provide a mobile reserve for the home defence garrisons. The standing army is rather small, but the manpower pool of Britain is great and a great number of divisions can be raised in a relatively short time should the need arise. In 1927, the War Office created the Local Defence Volunteers, as a way of dealing with Loyalist partisans during the Twilight War. the organisation evolved into an informal reservist force.

Navy[]

Despite the loss of many ships of the Royal Navy as the monarchists left for Canada, the Republican Navy is still one of the greatest navies of the world and one of the few navies of the world that employ aircraft carriers. The Republican Navy is the sole navy in Europe that can hope to take on the Kaiserliche Marine at sea. The Republican Navy, which is self-governing and largely self-financing, controls not only maritime defence, customs, and the merchant marine, but also has a huge influence over shipbuilding, trade and foreign policy.

Air Force[]

The Republican Air Force is mainly tasked to defend the British airspace, with less priority for fighting an aerial war in enemy skies. Still, the RAF does employ a significant number of strategic bombers under the RAF Strategic Bomber Command should the need arise to take the war to the enemy.

Foreign Relations[]

The Union of Britain is a member of the Third International, along with the Commune of France, and the Socialist Republic of Italy with which it has very good relations.

Britain has very hostile relations with all members of the Entente, especially the exiled British government in power in Canada. Germany and its bloc of satellites do not recognize either British government, and the Union is Germany's main rival for naval dominance of Europe's northern waters. Britain also has poor relations with Ireland, though the two do recognize one another.

Economy[]

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See also[]

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