What would a Communist Britain name things?

[TerranGames]

This isn't a question about a Communist/Socialist Britain in general, this is about what it would name things if it was the very first to experience a revolution. So no Communes of France, Deutsche Raterepubliken, or Workers' Soviets. What would they call things like their workers' councils, as well as their administrative divisions and the like? Because a lot of the settings with leftist revolutions have them occur in non-Anglosphere countries, so they have fittingly exotic, non-English names. But if it starts in Britain first, what might they sound like instead?

(My hunch is that sadly, committees will be used, and "All power to the Committees" doesn't sound as good as "All power to the Soviets" to me.)

Thanks!

 

[Derek Pullem]

Worker's council = union or brotherhood or convention / convocation (from which convener)
Administrative divisions = not sure if they would change but if they did then Chapters or Regions or Borough are possible.
State would almost certainly be Commonwealth

 

[Dan1988]

Well, all of the exotic names all have a clear English translation in "council", so "All power to the Councils" can fit. What matters more, to me, is absolutely simple - will it remain a monarchy or not? If a monarchy, then there would be some continuity with the existing regime (so a lot of "Royal" this and "King/Queen/Prince's" that) and hence a Communist/Socialist Britain would be as harmless as, say, Sweden and Norway under their Social Democratic governments. (It also helps that Britain, technically, already had its revolution back in the 1600s and hence is already a republic to begin with, just it prefers to have an unelected head of state rather than an elected/appointed one. His/Her role, then could be seen as much of a moderator as a symbol of state akin to the Japanese Emperor post-1945.) If a full-on republic, even an authoritarian dictatorship, then all options are open in terms of naming.

 

[tonsofun]

Anything with a monarchy connection would get their name changed too.
There is a street near me named 'King Edward Avenue' which wouldn't be allowed to remain. I can imagine that any street with the name of a former monarch would need to change.
There is also a lot of places with royal names too. Royal Tunbridge Wells is just one. I imagine though, it would just lose the royal bit though. The town of 'Kings Lynn' might revert to Bishops Lynn or just Lynn.

 

[CaptainCalvert]

Anything with a monarchy connection would get their name changed too.
There is a street near me named 'King Edward Avenue' which wouldn't be allowed to remain. I can imagine that any street with the name of a former monarch would need to change.
There is also a lot of places with royal names too. Royal Tunbridge Wells is just one. I imagine though, it would just lose the royal bit though. The town of 'Kings Lynn' might revert to Bishops Lynn or just Lynn.

Just change Royal to Red and most thing are sorted: See you at the Red Oak on Tuesday for a beer; Red Tunbridge Wells; Red Mail; Red Lynn; Red Doulton China; The Red Family; the Red Wedding (oh dear....)

 

[TerranGames]

Much as I find the monarcho-socialist trope amusing, I'd bet on it not happening, since if the situation has degraded enough for a socialist revolution to break out, the royals probably aren't sticking around one way or another. As for the admin divisions, I've been looking into some of the modern subdivisions, and I was thinking maybe Municipality/Borough > District > Republic > Federation/Commonwealth levels as the ranking of subdivisions?

 

[Mayukh]

Much as I find the monarcho-socialist trope amusing, I'd bet on it not happening, since if the situation has degraded enough for a socialist revolution to break out, the royals probably aren't sticking around one way or another

Grenada?

 

[Zardust]

A Communist Britain emerging in say the 1920s or 30s, in an attempt to root itself and claim some sort of historical legitimacy, would probably focus on and use terminology and concepts from 2 eras in particular. The Cromwellian Republic(i cant see a Communist Britain allowing the monarchy to survive, it would probably go into exile in Canada) and the Chartist movement. So for example, the country would take on a Cromwellian air by renaming itself something like the Commonwealth of Great Britain and Northern Ireland etc.

Depending on when the Communists take over, they may or may not use the Empire as a vehicle for world wide revolution and rename themselves something like the Global Peoples Commonwealth, with Britain as its governing core and the colonies are various Soviet style republics.

 

[Maponus]

If we are talking about the Communist Party of Great Britain then I'm afraid it won't be anything especially unique or interesting. As the title of their 1935 programme helpfully suggests, they wanted "a Soviet Britain," and throughout the programme refer to "Workers Councils" and the "Workers Council State" as the primary instrument of governance. The earlier 1929 programme talks of a "Revolutionary Workers’ Government" and the later, more reformist "British Road to Socialism" (which the poor buggers in the CPB are still pleddling today) tones that down to "free Socialist Britain." In all likilhood a Communist Britain will be called some variation of "Socialist Republic of Britain."

Unlike the French Communists, the British Communists anti-colonial and internationlist credentials were very strong from the beginning, and these were only ever compromised at the very height of war-time unity. They will not retain the Empire, beyond perhaps a few island territories like the Falklands and such.

 

[Derek Pullem]

If we are talking abou the Communist Party of Great Britain then I'm afraid it won't be anything especially unique or interesting. As the title of their 1935 programme helpfully suggests, they wanted "a Soviet Britain," and throughout the programme refer to "Workers Councils" and the "Workers Council State" as the primary instrument of governance. The earlier 1929 programme talks of a "Revolutionary Workers’ Government" and the later, more reformist "British Road to Socialism" (which the poor buggers in the CPB are still pleddling today) tones that down to "free Socialist Britain." In all likilhood a Communist Britain will be called some variation of "Socialist Republic of Britain."

Unlike the French Communists, the British Communists anti-colonial and internationlist credentials were very strong from the beginning, and these were only ever compromised at the very height of war-time unity. They will not retain the Empire, beyond perhaps a few island territories like the Falklands and such.

Think any communist / socialist state would need a broader base than the CPGB

 

[Discernible]

(My hunch is that sadly, committees will be used, and "All power to the Committees" doesn't sound as good as "All power to the Soviets" to me.)

Tho' in Russian it would sound something like "All power to the Committees/Councils" to Russian ears...

 

[TerranGames]

snip

I wasn't talking about the CPGB, this question is about if the British were the first to have a socialist revolution, without any other countries leading it. So they can't talk about Communes or Soviets, since they're going to be the ones naming the institutions first, and I was wondering what they might get named in English.

 

[Maponus]

I wasn't talking about the CPGB, this question is about if the British were the first to have a socialist revolution, without any other countries leading it. So they can't talk about Communes or Soviets, since they're going to be the ones naming the institutions first, and I was wondering what they might get named in English.

In that case it would most likely be a "Cooperative Commonwealth" practicing "Industrial Democracy," to use terminology common in the Labour movement of the day. Workplaces would be run by Cooperatives, or possibly Guilds if something unusual happens.

Some on the British left hark back to the "Councils of Action" which were organised shortly after the end of the First World War as the "British Soviets," which is what I used in The Way the Winds Blows.

 

[Discernible]

I wasn't talking about the CPGB, this question is about if the British were the first to have a socialist revolution, without any other countries leading it. So they can't talk about Communes or Soviets, since they're going to be the ones naming the institutions first, and I was wondering what they might get named in English.

"Councils", "Municipalities", or maybe "Corporations". Many cities had corporations as the official name of their 'councils'.

Originally Labour weren't very imaginative when it came to naming things. New town council headquarters were often given the racy name of "Municipal Hall".

 

[tonsofun]

Just change Royal to Red and most thing are sorted: See you at the Red Oak on Tuesday for a beer; Red Tunbridge Wells; Red Mail; Red Lynn; Red Doulton China; The Red Family; the Red Wedding (oh dear....)

Sounds great. I'll bring my Cavalier Red Spaniel.

 

[Cryptic]

The House of Lords would get gently purged and the new chamber is the "House of the People". The people in the house then get issued alot of rubber stamps.

 

[Zardust]

Unlike the French Communists, the British Communists anti-colonial and internationlist credentials were very strong from the beginning, and these were only ever compromised at the very height of war-time unity. They will not retain the Empire, beyond perhaps a few island territories like the Falklands and such.

The Soviet Union was rife with anti imperialist rhetoric. It didnt stop them co opting an extant empire, the one they took over, for their own ends. No one expects intellectual consistency or logic from communists.

If British communists want world wide revolution, they would be ludicrously stupid to give up the best vehicle they have for it, and which they own by virtue of having taken over its owner (well, apart from the parts that break away and probably form a Royalist, capitalist block to oppose them, with the Crown in exile governing from Canada).

 

[JohnBull]

The Soviet Union was rife with anti imperialist rhetoric. It didnt stop them co opting an extant empire, the one they took over, for their own ends. No one expects intellectual consistency or logic from communists.

If British communists want world wide revolution, they would be ludicrously stupid to give up the best vehicle they have for it-the largest empire in human history from which they can expand to even more of the world.

I was thinking about that. If this Revolution spills over one or more Dominions, the whole things would probably ended up in a very centralized state in London, like happened in OTL USSR.

A communist version of the old Imperial Federation trope: they might be de jure more independent (Socialist Republic of Great Britain, Socialist Republic of Canada, etc.), but de facto a single centralized state.

 

[H.Flashman(VC)]

First of all, a lot depends on how they come to power. The sovjets were the mean by which the Russian Bolshevists acquired power, so that stuck. Furthermore after a while English history would be colonised by the movement and they will try to make the movement as old and british as possible. The two most likely candidates for
that are the Chartists and the Unions. Those two will be described as clear predecessors leading to the ultimate victory of the proletarian rise to power. Ahistorical distortions included, but that's obvious.

 

[TerranGames]

The Soviet Union was rife with anti imperialist rhetoric. It didnt stop them co opting an extant empire, the one they took over, for their own ends. No one expects intellectual consistency or logic from communists.

If British communists want world wide revolution, they would be ludicrously stupid to give up the best vehicle they have for it, and which they own by virtue of having taken over its owner (well, apart from the parts that break away and probably form a Royalist, capitalist block to oppose them, with the Crown in exile governing from Canada).

It depends on how they take power I suspect. If it's something like Fight and be Right, where they take power (mostly) legally, then they probably do transform the empire into a "Unbreakable Union of Free Republics" like the Soviets. If they come to power by overthrowing the government though, like at the end of WWI, then the colonial governors and dominions probably break away, and they're left with just Britain (and possibly Ireland or parts of it, depending on what happens, like if James Connolly is leading the revolution there or not.)