NationStates Jolt Archive


PRA 'Andarasan' Declaration of Independence

Andaras
27-01-2008, 05:59
For most of it's history, Andaras was a poor country, dominated by foreign capital, whose majority 'Andâr' indigenous peasant population lived in a different than the opulent and extravagant lifestyles of the white bourgeois in the cities, most descendants of the ethnic colonizers of the country. Suffering from poverty, ignorance and the superstition of religion, the 'andâr' truly lived wretched lives. While the bourgeois created cities of lights, prostitution and a playground for foreign criminality, the peasants consistently had their land confiscated by local landlords for development, they died of common ailments in the thousands.

Defacto racial laws kept the white bourgeois in power, and systematically treated the andâr as less than human, even going so far as using police to deny them entry to the cities. It is then no surprise that in the wake of economic mismanagement by the bourgeois, and a crisis of overproduction, depression, that Marxist groups gained steady ground among the rural population. Most were of the growing 'urban poor', ethnic andârs whose parents were driven off their land into the growing industrial proletariat. Having access foremost to the 'Communist Manifesto', it wasn't long until these groups organized direct actions, using the massive support they gained in the slums of Augustgrad, the capital.

But it was foremost the disunity of the ruling bourgeois that contributed to the eventual revolution. Although formally a republic, 'Andâras' was a de facto corpocracy run by a clandestine clique of the most rich and influential of the bourgeois, and rather than a formal government is was an extension of the investments (casinos, drug-rings, in order of worth) of the bourgeois individuals themselves, so therefore 'government' merely extending to these business ventures and nothing else. The republic itself was therefore powerless, being that the 'power of the purse' resided wholly in the clique. But this clique was almost never united, most members represented separate bourgeois elites and investors from different foreign countries, and all had different interests, therefore the clique was infamous for petty infighting, murderous blood-feuds and gang wars.

It was therefore a quick action that liquidated the old order and replaced it with a 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

The Andarasan Party of Labor, emerged thereafter as the primary organized group in the opposition, and it was not the clique but the 'liberal' republic which initially resisted.

But following violent crackdowns in the cities by the government, the APL gained attention and notoriety in the media for literally taking over the most radical and unionized workplaces under the label of ‘compulsory expropriation’, and running them as cooperative communes, the most well known being light industry and other mass retail operations known for their chronic slave-like treatment of employees. Now instead of producing consumer products for overseas export, these 'communal' workplaces created food for the impoverished local slums. It was not so much these actions but the reaction by the government that escalated the crisis. The government in meetings with the clique and other employer and corporate groups agreed upon a plan to use military personal under the guise of private security contractors in the workplace to strong arm the APL.

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A group of partisan laborers and militants take over a workplace.

This more than anything escalated the crisis, for reports of the security personal acting as thugs for the employers and forcing employees to work much longer hours than they were being paid for, and into even more unfair employment contracts, and in some case beatings, outraged the general public. At it was the APL, and no other left-wing group that got the attention of leading the opposition against this, for the reputation of opposition groups in the past apathetic and pragmatic cliques indifferent to the plight of people was still strong, and reports of them negotiating in secret meetings with the government over the crisis caused a massive exodus from the the formal 'legalized' parties of the government into the APL.

The APL now continued to play on this popular dissent and general outrage against the government, and word of mouth spread through Augustgrad, for workers rights protests' were turning into riots and the police and security personnel were using such naked oppression, this shocked many indifferent people, and by default made the APL the de facto leader of the opposition. The government response only further exacerbated the problem by sending in even larger numbers of security contractors, and reports of strikes and industrial disputes all over the country being put down by violence led to the APL forming quasi-militia units to protect the cooperatives they already controlled, some armed.

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Samuel Enver de Santos addressing workers in Augustgrad.

The APL then made the first public announcement in weeks, saying they were forming the Federation of Autonomous Unions, which would be a loose collection of cooperatives, communes and other workplaces run democratically, to be led by a central union structure. They called upon all workplaces to be unionized. The government position was now becoming increasingly tenuous, and they were advised by foreign governments not to be confrontational. This advice was ignored, and at the behest of business and corporate employer groups the government ordered police and security contractors to take back workplaces controlled by unions and the APL. General riots ensued at many workplaces around the country. It soon became obvious to the Government that their situation was deteriorating, and they called a special sitting of 'parliament' to fast-track new ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation so the Government could use military force on the APL and it’s supporters, and with bipartisan support from the other puppet it passed.

This further outraged the public and enforced the image of the other 'opposition' parties in parliament working together against the Andarasan people. Not long after this a group of Army generals purportedly representing the Armed Forces, contacted the government and refused to take place in any actions. Not after gunmen stormed the Parliament, shooting dead both sitting houses, although the only members attending and not boycotting were the government and small right-wing cliques of other parties, not having resigned like the rest. Officially the deed was done by a group of radical army officers acting independently, and the APL denied responsibility. It immediately seemed to be anarchy in the country, and with no clear government and the police forces effectively dissolving into the populace – order breaks down, businesses and corporate buildings are burnt and mass demonstrations are common, EF militants and gangs openly hunt down and kill political dissidents and ‘reactionaries’ in the streets.

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The execution of a 'reactionary' by partisans.

Soon after the APL established a Revolutionary Council comprising the party hierarchy under a democratic centralist model, all other political parties and groups are subsequently banned. Ad-hoc radical slum-groups attacked major business areas in Augustgrad, and openly murdered anyone who opposed the EF, which the council subsequently declared revolutionary actions. The party’s slogan of ‘Opposition. Resistance. Activism’ was openly displayed on banners in the Augustgrad. In reality though a massive Terror ensued as militants murdered some 100,000 suspected counter-revolutionaries in Augustgrad alone, and some millions of ethnic whites of the middle-class fled as foreign and private property was 'defacto' nationalized as workers openly took over their workplaces and drove out or killed it's owners. Some months later the provisional transitional council was dissolved and a unicameral assembly was established, being made up of elected delegates from the autonomous unions, the position of head of state was to be filled by the office of President, who was to be elected by the assembly itself, with all political parties except the APL banned. The assembly then immediately elected Samuel Enver de Santos, the APL General-Secretary, as President.

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Worker militias marching through Augustgrad after the Revolution.

Today the Assembly has issued a declaration of 'independence' under the newly formed 'People's Republic of Andaras'. Although they country had defacto independence under the republic, the name change indicated a move to a socialist state. The assembly also issued with this a declaration seeking seeking relations with 'fraternal' nations.

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Flag of the PRA.