Let the ruling classes tremble – an Interactive Revolutionary AAR

[weissbrot]

Anarchists in power.

May God help us all.

[Thezfel101]

Here's hoping for a good 5 years!

[J. Passepartout]

Hurrah! Full freedom for the People is now this much closer.

[naggy]

Shouldn't you anarchists be outside rioting or something?

[Tanzhang (譚張)]

Anarchists in power.

May God help us all.

Indeed, at least now we get to go around calling the ruling party tyrants, criminals and murderers instead of Enewald.

First imperial decree: All dogs must wear pants!

I believe I'll start with you, Kadon...

[Thezfel101]

Oh shush, give em a chance :P

[yourworstnightm]

Now we will see if the Anarchists can live up to all expectations the voters have. I am very hopeful.

[Raph]

Well, this was unfortunate and I regret voting for the independents since they've sold themselves to the Anarchists of all people. This was definately not part of their program; also, as being junior part of the coalition I'm guessing they won't have much influence over policy. This is a vote forever lost for them.

Also, couldn't we have had a ML-Moderate-Independent coalition?

[Tanzhang (譚張)]

Oh shush, give em a chance :P

You mean like how they gave Lenin an chance? They were already calling him a murderous, bloodthirsty tyrant before he even won the election.

[Gergenuss]

Hmm I would have thought it would have been the other way around with a Independent minority government giving concessions to both the Anarchists and the moderates.

The Anarchist could have gotten voting rights for the farmers and the moderates higher minimum wages.

[Tommy4ever]

Also, couldn't we have had a ML-Moderate-Independent coalition?

Do you really think the Marxist-Leninists would have wanted to align themselves with the Independents? A faction of Trade Unionists, non-Marxists and idealists? Probably not. I also doubt the Independents would have wanted to align with a faction of statists, expansionists and anti-Trade Unionists. Meanwhile, whilst clearly possible, it would have been difficult for Lenin to have gone to Bebel with his cap in hand and begged for an alliance from the very people he expelled from the Marxists.

Hmm I would have thought it would have been the other way around with a Independent minority government giving concessions to both the Anarchists and the moderates.

The Anarchist could have gotten voting rights for the farmers and the moderates higher minimum wages.

The Independents were the smaller faction (the Anarchists had 6 more seats) and as you can see from the Workers' Vote have very little popular support (relying on the Party for 16 of their 21 seats). I'm also unsure if the Moderates would have joined a coalition including the Anarchists, even if the Anarchists weren't leading.

I'm not sure whether I will be able to do the election update today. I'll try but I'm not making any promises.

[Raph]

Do you really think the Marxist-Leninists would have wanted to align themselves with the Independents? A faction of Trade Unionists, non-Marxists and idealists? Probably not. I also doubt the Independents would have wanted to align with a faction of statists, expansionists and anti-Trade Unionists. Meanwhile, whilst clearly possible, it would have been difficult for Lenin to have gone to Bebel with his cap in hand and begged for an alliance from the very people he expelled from the Marxists.

Frankly, yes, I thought that they as socialists would be closer to the M-L than to the Anarchists.

[naggy]

Frankly, yes, I thought that they as socialists would be closer to the M-L than to the Anarchists.

Closer doesn't mean you can form a coalition with them.

[Dyranum]

Well [censored], for the first time in history, the anarchists are in the government.
Oh, and we have a hung government YAY!

Charge forward HMS Hung!

[Omen]

Though as someone who votes for the M-L this is a sad day, as someone who loves a good story this is pretty awesome.

[Gergenuss]

The Independents were the smaller faction (the Anarchists had 6 more seats) and as you can see from the Workers' Vote have very little popular support (relying on the Party for 16 of their 21 seats). I'm also unsure if the Moderates would have joined a coalition including the Anarchists, even if the Anarchists weren't leading.

I was just guessing that the independents would have more leverage being more in the middle and thereby having better chances to reach out to the other factions - but hey its your story - looking forward to next update

[Tommy4ever]

The Election of 1880

The Election of 1880 was regarded as another vital juncture in the history of the Republic. The Right regarded it as the last chance to intervene before the Left could secure total state domination and forever doom liberty to the position as the Republic’s least important virtue whilst the Left saw it as a dangerous chance for the feared Anarchists to swing to power for the first time.

Workers’ Vote

Seats:

Marxist-Leninists: 14
Anarchists: 13
Militarists: 9
Moderates: 9
Independents: 5

In the Workers’ Vote traditional power houses of the Anarchists and the Marxist-Leninists continued to dominate, as usual. Both factions increased their share of the Workers’ Vote by a single seat. Meanwhile the Militarists lost a seat whilst the Moderates gobbled up the majority of the former United Front votes. The new political force of the Independents simply failed to capture the imagination of the workers despite large scale support from many Trade Unions.

Party Vote

Seats:

Independents: 16
Anarchists: 14
Marxist-Leninists: 13
Militarists: 5
Moderates: 2

However the Independents did not have the same problem with the People’s Party as they secured the largest share of Party votes. Meanwhile the Marxist-Leninists suffered disastrously in front of the Party as they lost 11 of 24 seats. The Anarchists, meanwhile, gained just one. The Militarists lost two seats whilst the Moderates managed to secure next to no support from the Party.



The final result of the election was intriguing. There was no leading faction with both the Anarchists and Marxist-Leninists stuck on a hardly inspiring 27 seats (a gain of 2 for the Anarchists and a loss of 10 for the Leninists). It was clear that a coalition would be required but neither the Anarchists nor the Marxist-Leninists found this an easy thing to accomplish.

Schlieffen quickly put his support behind Lenin, something which in the end probably acted against the sitting Chairman as despite raising him to 41 seats the action scared away the Independents and the Moderates from forming an anti-Anarchist coalition. Instead the Independents looked to form an equal coalition with the Anarchists. This brought Kropotkin’s support up to 48 seats to Lenin’s 41, yet the Moderates (with their precious 11 seats) were adamantly against an alliance with the Anarchists and were unwilling to align themselves with Lenin so long as Schlieffen stood by his side. Therefore Bebel refused to join either coalition leaving the Republic with a hung Assembly. Therefore Peter Kropotkin was named Chairman as his Anarchist-Independent Alliance came to power with a minority government in the Constituent Assembly. Without the goodwill of the divided Marxist factions it would be very difficult for the new coalition to run the Republic.



As one of Kropotkin’s first acts was to re-legalize the Zeal the Anarchist paper quickly released a celebratory edition with the famous headline ‘’Hurrah for Anarchy!’’. The mood of the Zeal was, as ever, reflective of the mood of Anarchists worldwide. Not just in the Republic but in London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris and New York great crowds of Anarchists entered the streets to rejoice. Their moment had finally arrived. Two and a half decades of Marxist dominance in the Republic and indeed 30 years of statist rule was at an end. The time of the anti-state Right had finally arrived.



The new Chairman was an interesting figure. The man once known as Prince Peter Kropotkin was a Rurikid descended from the semi-mythical Rus Prince and was from a wealthy aristocratic Russian family. At the age of just 12 in 1854 (inspired by tales of the Young VSVR) he rejected his title as Prince. At 17 he fled the stuffy ranks of the Russian aristocracy and came to the Republic, quickly entering the People’s Party. By the time he was 20 he was a major figure amongst the Anarchist youth and in 1864, during the violent prelude to the Crisis of 1865, he was promoted to the Central Committee in a measure that the Left of the Party hoped would calm the militant Young Anarchists and promote a less violent Anarchist ideology. In 1865 and 1870 he was a prominent figure in Anarchist electoral near victories as twice Bakunin came within a fraction of a percent of victory. In 1870 he took charge of the Anarchist faction, leading it in a new direction that was less focused upon the Trade Unions, yet he failed to emulate the electoral successes of Bakunin and in both 1875 and 1880 secured a much smaller portion of the vote than Bakunin had managed. However politics had changed from Bakunin’s day and in 1880 Kropotkin was able to call upon something the Anarchists had almost never had within the People’s Party – allies. Forming a minority government coalition with the pro-Union Independents he became the first Anarchist Head of Government the world had ever seen.

Many people saw the victory of the Anarchist-Independent Alliance as a victory for an older generation. Throughout the Republic’s 30 year history it had been the young, people in their 20s and early 30s, who had dominated politics. Now the Chairman was 38 years old and his alliance partner and General Secretary was 54 (one of the few major figures still in the upper echelons of politics that fought in the Rhineland Revolution).

Another interesting point of the election was the latest meanderings of the VSVR’s ultimate political journeyman and beloved Minorities Secretary – Necazian. Originally an Anarchist he joined the United Front in 1865 along with the moderate wing of the Anarchist to try to secure peace. When the United Front fell apart in 1875 he jumped ship (shockingly) to join the new vibrant Marxist-Leninist faction and enjoyed another 5 years in the ruling faction. Having become disillusioned with Lenin he joined his 4th faction in 1880 as he championed the Independents and yet against secured victory for his faction. Even if his ideology was unclear he remained one of the Republic’s great political animals who certainly knew how to back the winning horse. Now entering his 4th consecutive term as a part of a reigning faction Necazian matched the record set by Engels who was also a part of a reigning faction for 4 terms (with the Marxists 1855-1865 and the United Front 1865-1875).

[Enewald]

Damn you Necazian.

So, in the game you have finally anarchists as the ruling party?

Can we get some proper reforms and laws? And constitution?

[Tommy4ever]

Damn you Necazian.

So, in the game you have finally anarchists as the ruling party?

Can we get some proper reforms and laws? And constitution?

Yes, Yes, we already have laws I'm just not going to go into any detail there as it would be insanely dull and no yet.

Obviously the Anarchist position they put up in the election is going to be majorly watered down with Independent ideas.

[Enewald]

Well, we can still attempt to craft a constitution?
Not everyone can be against one.