Let the ruling classes tremble – an Interactive Revolutionary AAR

[Van5]

I like to vote (and I cannot lie)
You otha' brothas can't deny.
When the OP posts again with the election slate
and a tight three-way race
you get sprung...

Oh lordy, lol

[Tommy4ever]

Like how you cant stop an avalanche
as it races down the hill
You can try to stop the seasons, girl
But ya know you never will
And you can try to stop my dancin' feet

Cause you know you can't stop the beat.

the beat of the revolution

I like to vote (and I cannot lie)
You otha' brothas can't deny.
When the OP posts again with the election slate
and a tight three-way race
you get sprung...

Music and culture shall flourish in the Republic with works such as these!

Congratulations on your ACA! This is doing really well too... Can I vote while I catch up?

Thank you and you can of course vote right away.

The options are: Marxists, Anarchists, German Socialists or Trade Unionists

Speaking of which here are the latest polls:

We now have 55 votes which means that there has been one more vote this time than in the first election - yay!

Marxists - 24
Anarchists - 16
German Socialists - 10
Trade Unionists - 5

Whilst I don't like to be presumptuous I think the Marxists can pretty much start celebrating now, there is very little chance of the Anarchists making up that lost ground. The big story seems to be the swing away form the German Socialists. In the last election they registered 20 votes which was 37% of the entire number of votes cast, at this moment they have just 18% of the votes cast. After this Weitling is surely going to be a broken man and Marx a vindicated one.

[naggy]

Music and culture shall flourish in the Republic with works such as these!

Thread gains 5.25 prestige.

[aldriq]

OK, in that case I'll vote for the Anarchists, not wanting to let the Marxists think they are going to have an easy ride to power...

[Tommy4ever]

Thread gains 5.25 prestige.

Brilliant.

[Gergenuss]

One more vote for the anarchists, mostly to press the issue for a free press, and a more open discussion of political questions

Are there any chance that the Cooperative anarchists will transform to a true syndicalist movement? By for example joining with the trade unionists?

[Boris ze Spider]

Lol, first the Cage the Elephant Cover and now this, whats next?

[BootOnFace]

You Invented Naggy. +1.0 Permanent Prestige

[enf91]

Thread gains 5.25 prestige.

And if they had flourished 5 seconds earlier, 3 fewer countries would have discovered it. Great. We missed out on 25 prestige.

[Kolprock]

Marxists!

[Tommy4ever]

Polls are now closed.

Here are the final results. In brackets next to the number of votes I will write the change from the last election.

58 votes in all, that's 4 more than last time.

Marxists - 25 (+8)

Anarchists - 18 (+3)

German Socialists - 10 (-10)

Trade Unionists - 5 (+3)

So a strong victory for the Marxists. Karl Marx is the second Chairman of the VSVR.

[Konnigratz]

Excellent. The Socialists have been ousted and now the true representatives of the people are in power!

[Premu]

Excellent. The Socialists have been ousted and now the true representatives of the people are in power!

You mean the people who know that the people want without even asking them?

[Konnigratz]

You mean the people who know that the people want without even asking them?

Of course! Marx is simply that good.

[Tommy4ever]

The Election of 1855

Following 5 years of Weitling and moderate reform the People’s Party went into its second election itching for more radical change. Both Karl Marx and the Anarchist Proudhon measured the mood of the Party much better than Weitling and with their more radical programs they drew the support of the Party electorate away from the centre and the German Socialists and to the two extremes of the party towards Marxism and Anarchism.



The message for Weitling and the German Socialists couldn’t be more clear – this was no time for moderation. The United Socialist People’s Republic had been founded with the aim of creating an society of total equality and this could never be achieved under Weitling’s administration.

The big news of the election was the total collapse of the German Socialist vote. In 1850 they had been relatively comfortable as the largest faction, having secured 37% of the votes however in 1855 they were a distant third and in fact polled closer to the Trade Unionists than to the second placed Anarchists. They lost 19.8% of the total vote as they were reduced to just 17.2% of the vote.

Just as the German Socialists fell Karl Marx’s faction picked up the slack with a surging result that secured him both the mandate of the Party and the position of Chairman – a role he was born to fill. The Marxist vote was up by 11.6% having risen from 31.5% in 1850 to 43.1% in 1855. Whilst failing to secure an absolute majority the Marxists had successfully secured a significantly larger share of the vote than the German Socialists had 5 years before.

In 1855 Proudhon’s Anarchists flattered to deceive. During the early part of the election they surged into a hefty lead, however as the election progressed the votes simply dried up as more and more support went to Karl Marx rather than Proudhon. However they had secured a minor 3.2% gain on 1850 to rise from 27.8% to 31% of the vote. More importantly they were now the second largest faction in terms of support following the collapse of the Socialists.

Finally the Trade Unionists recovered from an embarrassing performance in 1850 as they more than doubled their support to rise from 3.7% of the vote to 8.6%. However in the current system meant that they remained a largely inconsequential force. On top of this the faction was already heading for collapse – by 1855 the United Trades Unions represented barely half of the total number of Trades Unions in the VSVR ever larger numbers of Trades Unions left the faction and either went totally independent or aligned themselves with the more mainstream factions.



As promised within days of being inaugurated as the 2nd Chairman of the VSVR Karl Marx reshuffled the Central Committee. He, of course, was Chairman, the Anarchist leader moved from being the Commissar of Finance to the General Secretary (at his own request) whilst Weitling took on Proudhon’s former role. Eccarius, Weydemeyer and Blanqui all retained their old positions. Engels, the lifelong friend of Marx, was able to secure the powerful position of Part Secretary for the Ruhr which granted him a powerbase in the most industrial region on earth. Elsewhere Feuerbach took on Engels’ old role as Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

The Russian Anarchist Bakunin was granted an entirely new role as he became Minorities Secretary. As a compromise with the Walloons Karl Marx had decided that a new position should be created within the Central Committee that would cater to the needs of minority populations. This would guarantee minorities a say in all matters of state and would ensure that their specific needs would be catered to.



With the new position created within the Central Committee a space was made available for someone new to enter the leadership of the VSVR. That man was the young, agile and popular Wilhelm Liebknecht.

Liebknecht had been just 21 when the 1848 Revolution began in Paris. At the time he was in Switzerland working for a leftwing newspaper but being a young socialist he was eager to join the revolution and crossed the border into Baden where he joined in the revolution there. He spent his 22nd birthday battling with Badenese soldiers on the streets on Frieburg in March and continued to fight along the barricades throughout the country for several more months. By August it was obvious that the revolutionaries were fighting a losing battle in Baden and Liebknecht crossed over into the Rhineland where the revolution seemed to be considerably stronger. It didn’t take him long to reach Cologne, since the fall of Paris to the counterrevolution the epicentre of the Europe-wide revolution, and before long he had found himself with Blanqui’s armed Communist brigades. In September he took part in the seizure of Cologne. Liebknecht continued to fight as a foot soldier for the rest of the revolutionary war. In early November 1849, with little fighting still ongoing, Liebknecht made the jump from revolutionary soldier to a member of the lower ranks of the People’s Party.

Due to the need to totally replace government people who would not normally get a chance of high position were given the opportunity to take on major roles in government and in January 1850 Liebknecht became the chief aide of Feuerbach, then the Party Secretary for the Ruhr. This not only gave him political influence and a chance to prove his abilities but also placed Liebknecht in Cologne itself. In early 1851 Liebknecht came to the attentions of Karl Marx after Marx was heard of Liebknecht’s popularity amongst the youth of the Party. Marx and Liebknecht soon became friends although the latter was never fully converted to the thinking of the former. Instead Liebknecht remained independent of the factional system of the People’s Party although he was most closely associated with the Marxists and to a lesser extent with the German Socialists. As his importance grew Liebknecht quickly moved up the ranks of the Party until October 1853 when he was given a powerful office of his own when he was named Party Secretary for Wallonia. Despite now having to spend a large amount of his time in Liege Liebknecht continued to grow in influence in Cologne and when a new position became available in the Central Committee he was the obvious man to take it. A new generation of politicians was now entering into the Republic’s government as the 28 year old was named Commissar for Justice.



Meanwhile Karl Marx became the leading figure in the Republic as its 2nd Chairman. Upon being sworn in as Chairman in front on the entire membership of the People’s Party Marx stood to greet the adulation of the Party as he was clapped for over an hour. The most popular, intelligent and internationally influential person in the United Socialist People’s Republic had now been given the opportunity he craved to change the course of world history – to set the Republic firmly on the path to Communism.

[Zzzzz...]

Hooray for Marx! For a better VSVR!

[Necazian]

Though the Anarchists did not win this election, it is better to have our Marxist comrades having a majority than the warmongering and nationalistic German Socialists.

[J. Passepartout]

Although I am, of course, unhappy at the results of the vote, I will grant that if we must have a governent, it is good to see the anarchists in the positions they hold.

[Boris ze Spider]

The anarchists will be back.

[HatMan]

Victory for Marxism! Now lets save our people from poverty and dispair with reforms Also nice to see some new lifeblood entering the party