History Literature / TheFireNeverDies

As of October 13, 2022, part 1 of the story, ''[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-fire-never-dies-labors-star-ascendant.525137/ Labor's Star Ascendant]]'' has been completed.

* FictionalPoliticalParty: The Post-SACW American political system has political parties which either only exists because of the revolution, or had existed before as in RealLife but had been radically altered by the revolution. Chief among them include:

** The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), headed by the likes of Leon Bronstein, Vincent St. John and Emma Goldman, is much less unified but much more revolutionary/radical than the SLP, calling for an openly confrontational foreign policy, the complete restructuring of American government, and a more extensive series of postwar trials.

As of October 13, 2022, ''[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-fire-never-dies-labors-star-ascendant.525137/ Part 1: Labor's Star Ascendant]]'' has been completed.

'''''[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-fire-never-dies-labors-star-ascendant.525137/ The Fire Never Dies]]''''' is an AlternateHistory timeline on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom by Tropers/{{Meshakhad}}, depicting an America that eventually experiences a successful socialist revolution, as several of the schisms that the American socialist movement suffered are averted or mended.

* WarIsHell: The Second American Civil War had many brutal moments and war crimes to rival the horrors of the Great War in Europe. Notable mention include the brutal fighting and devastating famine in Calicornia which earned the state the nickname as "The Golden Abbatoir" [[note]]Abbatoir means 'Slaughterhouse'[[/note]], the use of chemical weapons and city-flattening artillery barrages by the Reds, atrocities by the KKK and the Whites such as the Huffington Massacres, the American Flu...

** Subverted with the Reds in comparison, who while no saints ultimately come off as the better of the two forces, and in fact responded furiously to atrocities committed by the Whites. Their [[ThisIsUnforgivable response]] to the Huffington Massacre was to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge systematically]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill annihilate]] the Army of the Ohio with everything they got.

** A FlashForward in Update 100 revealed this happened to ''[[spoiler:Britain]]'' of all places years after the Second American Revolution, falling under a [[spoiler:Falangist regime headed by the likes of [[spoiler:Baron Garvagh, General Fuller, William Joyce]] and others.

** A FlashFoward in Update 100 revealed this happened to ''[[spoiler:Britain]]'' of all places years after the Second American Revolution, falling under a [[spoiler:Falangist regime headed by the likes of [[spoiler:Baron Garvagh, General Fuller, William Joyce]] and others.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: After President Wilson suffered a stroke and the remainder of the US government considered surrendering to the Reds, General William J. Simmons, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, took control of the White forces in a military coup, destroying not only any chance of a negotiated surrender but also any remaining legitimacy of the US government. Simmons fully intended to remake America in the KKK's white supremacist image if given the chance, but the Reds' imminent victory ensured it would never come to pass.

** General Pershing, who would had commanded US forces in WWI in RealLife, was killed during [[spoiler:TheCoup launched by General William J. Simmons and the KKK to prevent the US government from surrendering to the Reds towards the end of the SACW]].
** [[spoiler:Both President Woodrow Wilson and General William J. Simmons were killed by an artillery barrage from the Reds midway through the Battle of Washington]]

* CurbStompBattle: The Battle of Miami is extremely one-sided, with the White fleet (including most of the US Navy's remaining combat strength) being almost completely wiped out for few enemy casualties. The Battle of Chesapeake Bay also qualifies, except the Whites knew that their chances were negligible, and they prioritized [[TakingYouWithMe taking as many Red ships with them as they could]].

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After the Memphis uprising and the death of General Carleton at the hands of a black partisan, the Klansman-turned-general Joe Huffington takes command of the Army of the Ohio in Kentucky and Tennessee. He issues an order that all African-Americans are to be treated as enemy combatants, resulting in the slaughter of thousands of black civilians. In response, the Red Army shifts its strategy from "slowly strangle the Army of the Ohio" to "wipe them out by any means necessary". This includes the use of [[DeadlyGas chemical weapons]] by the Army of Cleveland.

* ThePlague: The Spanish Flu appears in this timeline as well, only it is called the ''American'' Flu, owing to its appearance in Kansas[[note:While the precise origin of the 1918 flu pandemic remains disputed, the first confirmed case was diagnosed at an Army camp in Kansas]]. Leon Bronstein almost became a victim of it, but recovered just in time to coordinate the Delmarva Offensive. It was noted that while it indiscriminately infected and decimated both the Reds and Whites, it ultimately hurted the Whites more as the Reds have better access to medical care, while the Whites failed to do proper preparations due to both lacking the industries to produce them (most of them fell to the Reds' control) and mistakes by the Whites leadership which caused delays and problems to combat the disease.

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: When Bill Haywood and Governor Hiram Johnson negotiated the latter's submission to the Revolutionary government in Chicago in the Spring of 1918 that meant Haywood's Army of the Cascades, the California National Guard, and the Army of San Francisco under Mayor Jackson Wilson of Berkeley were more or less pointed at the same target. By the end of July it was clear to Admiral Caperton, U. S. Pacific Fleet Commander and functional ruler of White-held California, that trying to hold the Los Angeles-to-San Diego coastal strip would be futile so he announced his intent to evacuate to Panama, released whatever forces willing to take their chances surrendering to the Reds (he had never bothered to implement Wilson's order to discharge all Colored servicemen), and loaded on those civilians who preferred not to.

* DecapitationStrike: At the Battle of Washington DC, the Reds managed one against the White forces in the city when they directed a massive artillery barrage downtown, taking the White forces by surprise. When the dust settled, [[spoiler:both President Woodrow Wilson and General Simmons]] were killed along with General Hiram W. Evans and most of the Army of the Chesapeake’s leadership.

* FinalBattle: The Battle of Washington DC would be one for the Second American Civil War, with the Reds storming the city across the frozen Potomac river after encircling it and bombarding the city's defences as well as other critical locations with artillery bombardment. It took a month and levelled much of the city before the White defenders and what's left of the US government finally surrendered. While the civil war would continue a little longer with the Reds cleaning up the fragmented White forces across the country, the fall of Washington DC marks the effective end of the United States of America.

* DecapitationStrike: At the Battle of Washington DC, the Reds managed one against the White forces in the city when they directed a massive artillery barrage downtown, taking the White forces by surprise. When the dust settled, [[spoiler:both the already stroke-incapacitated President Woodrow Wilson and General Simmons were killed]] along with General Evans and most of the Army of the Chesapeake’s leadership.

** [[spoiler:Both President Woodrow Wilson and General Simmons were killed by an artillery barrage from the Reds in the early stage of the Battle of Washington DC]]

* IncurableCoughOfDoom: US Secretary of State Robert Lansing starts coughing in the middle of a speech at the Basel Conference. He dies a few days later from the American Flu.

* DecapitationAttack: At the Battle of Washington DC, the Reds managed one against the White forces in the city when they directed a massive artillery barrage downtown, taking the White forces by surprise. When the dust settled, [[spoiler:both the already stroke-incapacitated President Woodrow Wilson and General Simmons were killed]] along with General Evans and most of the Army of the Chesapeake’s leadership.

** Many notable labor activists, such as Bill "Big Bill" Haywood, Vincent St. John, and William Trautmann, successfully run for political office. Others (also including Haywood) become military commanders in the Second American Revolution.

** General Guy Carleton, commanding the Army of the Ohio in Kentucky and Tennessee, orders that all blacks - regardless of age or gender - be considered enemy combatants.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Woodrow Wilson, who responds to the civil unrest with increasingly harsh measures.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: When Bill Haywood and Governor Hiram Johnson negotiated the latter's submission to the Revolutionary government in Chicago in the Spring of 1918 that meant Haywood's Army of the Cascades, the California National Guard, and the Army of San Francisco under Mayor Jackson Wilson of Berkeley were more or less pointed at the same target. By the end of July it was clear to Admiral Caperton, U. S. Pacific Fleet Commander and functional ruler of White-held California, that trying to hold the Los Angeles-to-San Diego costal strip would be futile so he announced his intent to evacuate, released whatever forces willing to take thier chances surrendering to the Reds (he had never bothered to implement Wilson's order to discharge all Colored servicemen), and loaded on those civilians who preferred not to.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Daniel DeLeon, a highly influential American socialist thinker, survives the illness that killed him IOTL thanks to his newspaper, the ''Daily Worker'', being more successful, which in turn improves his living situation and access to medical care.
* StrikeEpisode: Several. So far, they're largely OTL strikes, but with generally better outcomes. The Great Longshoremen's Strike, on the other hand, leads to the outbreak of the Second American Revolution.