Shining Tomorrow Historical Lore (Part 1)

This series of posts will detail the backstory of the setting of my upcoming novel, Shining Tomorrow. This backstory is not needed to understand the novel; it is only posted as a supplementary bonus.

Part 1: The Late United States Period (1914-1950)
Part 2: The Norman Regime and the MacGruder Coup (1951-1970)
Part 3: The Rise of the White Nationalist Movement (1971-2015)
Part 4: World War III (2015-2020)
Part 5: Morning in America (2021-Present)

YOUNG ELEGANT LADIES OF THE WEST (Eugene V. Debs High School chapter)
Historical research assignment
DUE DATE: October 16, 2052

As members of YELOW, you are responsible for guiding the next generation in the right way and safeguarding the future of the North American Federation. As the poet William Ross Wallace once said, “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” Thus, every YELOW girl should have a thorough understanding of our country’s history.

To that end, I want you to write a timeline of NAF history, starting from the beginnings of the Shining Tomorrow Party in the old United States to the current day. The assignment must be typed and written in complete sentences. Spelling or grammar mistakes will count against you.

48-star US flag.

Irma Kaneyasu
10-12-2052
YELOW
Teacher: Mrs. de Kryger

1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary is assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip. World War I begins.

1915: The Paris Fireball — a meteorite blows up over Paris, destroying the city, then another one blows up most of the French Army, letting Germany win easily.

1916: The Central Powers win the war completely. German General Erich Ludendorff says in a now-famous speech: “A victory for law and civilization was won this day. What was begun in 1789 was ended this year with heroic resolve.”

1917: The Russian Empire falls apart and the communist Bolsheviks take charge.

[Mrs. K: Great job here, Irma. Most students forget the Bolshevik role in kicking off the Third Revolution, but you tied it back to the Paris Fireball as well.]

1920: The Bolshevik Revolution inspires the labor movement in the US to hit harder. To organize all this, the Shining Tomorrow Party (STP) is founded in Huntington, WV by Grant Norman, a former coal miner who became a labor organizer. He is quoted as saying “Ludendorff is wrong. The revolutionary spirit is not yet dead. A shining tomorrow awaits us all!”

1921: The Battle of Blair Mountain takes place in West Virginia. With the help of fighters trained by the STP, labor wins and gets almost everything they want. This marks the birth of the Shining Tomorrow Party’s armed wing, the North American People’s Army (NAPA).

1929: Black Tuesday; the Great Depression hits. Support for the Shining Tomorrow Party increases dramatically, especially in its home base of Appalachia and the Deep South, where they are called “socialist good ol’ boys,” nothing like the typical urban labor organizer.

Flag of the Shining Tomorrow Party.

1932: Herbert Hoover wins the election, defeating Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a narrow majority. Hoover won because he promised to “scour socialism from American shores” and keep America free. Despite this, the STP retains a strong core of support.

[Mrs. K: You forgot to include “keep America free” in the quote. The US regime was never as free as claimed in their propaganda.]

1934: President Hoover rejects proposals for economic reform and begins a “War on Socialist Agitation” that cracks down on the labor movement. However, this fuels radical forces and increases the STP’s support, especially among the army.

[Mrs. K: While there was some support for the STP among retired generals, the rank-and-file had yet to radicalize in any significant way.]

1936: Dockworkers led by union leader and STP member Seamus Branagan go on strike in New York City to protest low pay; they are soon joined by workers in Boston and Newark. Hoover gets the National Guard to shoot them all dead, calling them “Bolshevik tools” working for the Soviet Union. It is here that the United States military takes the side of the Shining Tomorrow Party.

1937: Grant Norman condemns the massacre and calls for violent revolution, blasting the US regime as “economic Redcoats” that need to be overthrown in a new American Revolution.

[Mrs. K: A lot more happened that year. The North American People’s Army was very active, conducting bombings and assassinations of prominent bankers and industrialists.]

1938: Through Executive Order 9005, Hoover declares martial law and bans the STP and all other socialist parties as criminal organizations. The Army responds by killing him in broad daylight, beginning the Second American Civil War.

1940: The German Kaiserreich begins Operation Bismarck, the invasion of the Soviet Union, in order to “break the back of socialism forever” in the words of Kaiser Wilhelm III.

1946: Soviet Premier Leon Trotsky surrenders, and the Russian throne is restored with a Hohenzollern prince in the seat.

[Mrs. K: The 1940 and 1946 sections are completely irrelevant. This is about the old USA, not Europe.]

1947: Japan’s conquest of eastern Asia is solidified with no credible challenges.

[Mrs. K: Because we are under the firm protection of the Japanese Empire, I’ll let this one slide.]

1950: After twelve years of bloody fighting, the US regime is overthrown and the North American Federation (NAF) is proclaimed, with its capital in Highline City on the West Coast to represent a shift to a new way of life. Washington DC is returned to the state of Maryland as Columbia County.

[Mrs. K: You failed to mention Norman’s proclamation of a Third Revolution, and how it got that name.]