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Commune News | World News | Party News

Welcome to this week's "Spring Into Action!" edition of Socialist Freedom Press, where we ask the question that's on everybody's min😛 "Is this game totally FFFFFFFFFF'd or what?" Ha-ha! Who knows!?

In any case, this week we have: a special report from e-Bosnia, some notes on alliances and anarchists, and links to a number of thoughtful articles that deserve much more attention. Also: some very exciting new developments in both the Socialist Freedom Party and in the development of internationalist communes.

Workers of all countries, enjoy!



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OCTO | Gosplan


Press Release from the Department of International Relations
By: Osmany Ramon and Manic Eskimo

Announcing the Occidental Communal Trade Organization (OCTO)

Manic Eskimo has been working diligently on expanding SFP relations with our far-left neighbors to the North and South in working to form the Occidental Communal Trade Organization.

OCTO will be a platform for an exchange of ideas between the socialist parties in the Western hemisphere and an experiment in creating and operating a transnational commune in conjunction with those parties.

So far, talks are happening between the SFP, Bloque Socialista in eArgentina, the Communist Party of eCanada, and a non-partisan socialist group from eVenezuela. There has been interest expressed by socialist parties in eMexico, eBolivia and eColombia.

Transnational communes could allow for party members to remain in their own country while taking advantage of production bonuses for high resource regions in other nations.

Manic Eskimo is working to make contact with the remaining socialist parties of North and South America.




The Central Problem of the eWorld's Economy

Kemal Ergenekon, one of the economic master-minds behind the Soviet Super-Commune experiment, has published an in-depth analysis of problems facing the e-world economy. In The Central Problem of the eWorld's Economy: Savings, citizen Ergenekon carefully looks at the role of savings, interest (or the lack thereof), loans and trust, and investments in both the real world and in our virtual e-world.

His conclusion is that the capitalist mode of production simply does not work efficiently in eRepublik.

The solution he offers is to organize means for collective investment that can provide both capable and transparent management and trust. Ergenekon's writing is thoughtful, extremely well-informed and poses questions that need to be addressed by any finance ministries.

He explains his interest in the GOSPLAN effort as follows:

"There are many other market failures in the eWorld that are caused by informational asymmetries, transaction costs and principal-agent problems which can only be overcome by collective action. There are many injustices committed in the eWorld resulting from exploitation of the game mechanics eRepublik offers, which can only be fought against collectively; united as one in ideals and objectives. To achieve a better eWorld, we need to unite and work together in an egalitarian and democratic fashion. That is why I work for the Gosplan, and that is why I will call all interested to participate in the project."



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eBiH | Alliances | Think


The Radnička Partija eBiH and Super-Alliances in eBosnia
By: Vincent Nolan


A few days ago, after swigging some vodka and substituting my breakfast for some more vodka, (damn you Russia) I got a tip that there might be something going down in eBosnia and Herzegovina’s (the proper name for eBosnia or eBiH) neck of the woods. Something…socialist. So I put in for some leave time from my duties in the Gosplan and took a trip to eBosnia to get the scoop on a supposed fully operational socialist organization. Here is what I learned.


Next time you look at the eRepublik world map, and you should, if you zoom in a little bit and moved the cursor just east of Italy you would find the country of eBosnia nestled, as it turns out, not so comfortably in between eCroatia and eSerbia.



This “sandwiched” location of eBosnia has proven to be a catalyst for an interesting political atmosphere. You could say that it is on a kind of dividing line between the two super alliances of eRepublik, which are of course, EDEN and Phoenix. You have 30-40 percent of the population who are RL Serbs and are completely against joining EDEN due to the fact that they don’t want to fight eSerbia. You then have RL Croats and Bosniaks who are anti-Phoenix.


So what is a Bosnia to do?


Bosnian Congressman Mario Zrno says that it is in the best interest for eBosnia to remain neutral in the whole EDEN-Phoenix tug of war. Now add on the pressure of eSerbs moving in for the PTO attempt and you have a whole new ball game. In this situation Zrno believes that eBosnia may be forced to lean toward Eden to protect itself against the threat of PTO, but the ultimate stance for Zrno and his party, Radnička Partija eBiH, ("Workers Party of e-Bosnia and Herzegovina", of which Zrno is a former Party President) is to be “pro-Bosnian,” and attempt to balance the scales between the pro-EDEN, pro-Phoenix conflict in eBosnia by advocating neutrality.

Would you be surprised to learn that Radnička Partija eBiH is the premiere socialist party in eBosnia?

That’s right ladies and gents, comrades and revolutionaries, Socialism lives in eBosnia.



The Radnička Partija eBiH is currently ranked #5 in eBosnia and have a grand total of two congressmen in office at this time. Their base region is located in the in the Brčko District where they currently have their commune set up.

“We plan to make Brcko something like the Paris commune,” says Zrko, “I am very proud of all our projects, and the biggest of them are our organization for helping ebabys (eBebe Radničke Partije), our workers commune, and the RAF-(Red Army Fighters), our military wing.”

The "eBebe Radničke Partije" is very similar to our own SFP’s Young Socialists program. The Radnička Partija eBiH version helps young eRepublikans through gifting to keep wellness up, donating food so they don’t die (important), and just giving good old fashioned great advice to help new players along in the potentially frustrating first weeks of eLife.



The RAF is the Radnička Partija eBiH party militia and functions much like the SFP’s Bear Cavalry. They are funded by the Radnička Partija eBiH commune and harbor the noble cause to fight for the weak and oppressed.

“We don’t belong to the any imperial alliance, EDEN or Phoenix,” says Zrno, “we fight them.”



The Radnička Partija eBiH commune is a self sufficient entity with five companies and about fifty workers. They consist of a q1 weapon, q2 food, q3 grain, and a q1 ticket. The fifth company is yet another q1 weapons company used exclusively for the RAF.

Below is a quote from Congressman Zrno and head of the Radnička Partija eBiH commune answering my questions about Bosnia’s commune and the new economic module.

“We have about 50 workers in our commune, impact on market is huge. Our goal is to provide our commune workers every thing that they need (houses, food, weapons). Our products are cheapest on eBiH market, that is biggest problem for capitalist because they need to lower prices to compete and that is how they are loosing profit. Some of them even threatened us due to low prices.
We have only one high region and that is grain. Our commune have one q3 grain company which supplies our q2 food company. Surplus of grain we sell for very low price, so in one moment we had cheapest grain in the world. As for the new module, we will work as usual and when it comes we will simply adapt.”

Congressman Zrno would like to officially invite the Socialist Freedom Press readers to move to eBosnia and become part of their growing family. Their commune’s objective is similar to the Gosplan’s in Russia. They wish to sell their products on the market at a cheap price to make it hard for capitalist companies to compete. According to Zrno, this has been going very, very well.

If you would like to learn more about eBosnian socialism you can check out Zrno’s paper The Voice of Workers. A recent article titled "Ideja eKomunizma" ("The eCommunist Idea&quot😉 is well worth checking out if you're curious about why e-leftist ideas make so much sense in eRepublik.

You can also check out Radnička Partija eBiH current Party President Soporpa’s paper Novi plamen (New Flame) and Drug_Izet_Fazlinovic’s paper Communist State.



I believe the situation in eBosnia is yet another example of the effects of super-alliances on the eRepublik playing field. In this case a nation has been divided, and eSocialists are once again tasked with the duty of fighting the status-quo for the good of the people. Even if the people sometimes fail to see it that way. I wish the Radnička Partija eBiH nothing but good fortune in all of their future endeavors in eBiH.




Alliances, Anarchists and Authoritarianism
By: Phoenix Quinn



EDEN and the USA: Trouble in Paradise? A Retrospective

There's been alot of vitriol flying back and forth lately over the USA's commitment to EDEN, with many European citizens criticizing the US's decision to engage in a failed Resistance War in Sindh instead of participating in EDEN-sponsored battles. President PigInZen even published an apology afterwards. What has perhaps received less coverage is the on-going debate inside the USA about participation in this super-alliance at all.

Perhaps a bit of a retrospective is in order...

The relationship between the eUSA and EDEN has always been a bit curious. Much of this stems from the "anti-imperialist" rhetoric that emerged during and after the events usually referred to as "World War 3".

During the PEACE-GC invasion of the United States last summer, members of the EDEN alliance were instrumental in helping to liberate the US from occupation. Collaboration and co-operation between the mostly European members of EDEN and the Brolliance countries (US and Canada) during those events led to the two North American entities joining up with the alliance once PEACE morphed into Phoenix.

Although the vote in the US Congress to join EDEN was nearly unanimous, there were voices of dissent at the time. A number of Jeremiahs warned against getting the eUSA involved in mis-conceived imperialist adventures that could come back to haunt us. At any rate, the majority opinion -- and certainly that of the US military and most of the government -- was basically that the eUSA owed a debt of gratitude to its allies and she needed to keep her friends close in case of another invasion.



As Poland began her rise to world-power status, the first "crack in the wall" centered around Polish involvement in Peru. In effect, Peru -- which contains high iron -- was colonized by Poland. Debate continues over whether that benefits or hurts the Peruvian community itself. And it is still a bone of contention within Latin American politics. While official American policy at the time was essentially "Hand's off -- it's none of our business.", this did not sit well with many eUSA citizens who have a natural inclination to oppose seeing a country's independence quashed.

Other controversial policy issues having to do with participation in the alliance arose in the ensuing weeks, leading to similar discussions and debates: the US involvement in Belgian elections, its role in supporting the Spanish conquest of France and the Polish assaults on Germany, and the wisdom (or not) of invading the eUK. In each of these situations, a realpolitik understanding that the eUSA -- very much unlike the RL USA -- is far from the world's only super-power, won the day. The executive decision that the eUSA should continue to participate in and support EDEN, even if it tarnished the eUSA's "anti-imperialist" credentials, was confirmed again and again.



Then came the USA's crusade to liberate China from Phoenix occupation, which in turn has led to a series of agreements between the eUSA, eIndia and eChina. In a nutshell, following the "Snafu in Kyushu", in which the eUSA received an rather embarassing poke in the eye and the issue of the US's own arrogance was broadly debated, the land war in Asia got underway in earnest. A great deal of gold was spent and some epic battles were waged. When the dust settled the situation in China, while changed in some ways to China's favor, was essentially status quo ante. The Phoenix powers continued to hold the key high iron regions.

In very practical terms, Indonesia was biggest loser, with the eUSA occupying the Indian region of Karnataka -- a high-iron region -- that had formerly been held by the once-powerful Indonesians. In an effort to once again defend itself from accusations of imperialism, the eUSA made a rental agreement with eIndia concerning Karnataka. And, again, debates arose back home about the wisdom and overall economic impact of pursuing such aggressive policies.



While all of this was going on, Poland and Spain continued to exert a major influence on European affairs particularly in the west, the north and in the Baltic region. Meanwhile Romania and Croatia continued to slug it out with their erstwhile Phoenix opponents in Serbia, which has also reached something like a super-power status, and always-powerful Hungary. All the while keeping a watchful eye out on eRussia, lest it should turn its attention in earnest away from Asia (and its own internal problems) and launch an assault into Central Europe.

The USA's interest in Asia has, on more than one occasion, led to complaints by its European allies that she is not devoting enough attention to these battles that we might, if we were feeling a bit cynical, refer to as "The Wars of the Polish Succession".

To make matters even more interesting, eSerbia -- like the eUSA -- has turned its attention to Asia. Through a series of land swaps with Pakistan and Bulgaria, the Serbs began building a land bridge from the Balkans to South Asia, clearly with the intention of challenging the US position there and breaking up the cooperation between the US, India and China. A remnant of that attempt is the fact that the natural Pakistani region of Sindh is currently occupied by Serbia.



Given its need to defend its position on the sub-continent, trying to push the Serbs out of Sindh was not an entirely absurd undertaking for the US and Indian forces. But the timing of the attempt meant that the US failed to participate in yet another EDEN-sponsored assault on its European neighbors, leading to the present brou-ha-ha.

In fact, EDEN commanders have begun to analyze the possibilities for land bridges as well: One that connects EDEN-controlled Europe to South America via Spain, and another that connects them to Asia via a North American corridor. Given the tempest in a teapot that ensued when tiny Delaware was ceded to Canada, one can only imagine the populist outcry that would ensue if the US ceded a Polish Corridor across the entire continent.

Interesting times.


ALA crumbling?



ALA is the Alianza LatinoAmericana. In recent days, South American power-houses Argentina and Brazil, who have always had somewhat touchy relationships with their Latin neighbors, have withdrawn from the Alliance, leading to a good deal of discussion over the future of the alliance. Check out the latest edition of the Alliance's newsletter, an article titled El futuro de la ALA ("The Future of ALA&quot😉 for an overview of the situation. The immediate question is whether Brazilian or Argentine citizens should continue with leadership roles in the Alliance when their governments have withdrawn from it. The larger question is whether the Alliance will continue to exist at all.

This comes at a time when both Argentina and Brazil are involved in an occupation of South Africa that threatens Australia and, by implication, other members of the SOL Alliance.



Love and Rage? Anarchists in Chile and USA



Along with all of the debates, rhetoric and strategies involved in the events outlined above, there is "something in the air" that underpins and provides sort of an interesting counter-melody to much of it. While the question of "imperialism" has largely been beaten to death, the question of "authoritarianism and totalitarianism" within in the game has not gotten as much press.

These are inter-related, but -- at least for now -- somewhat separate questions. The first has to do mainly with strategies for war, and hence, the actions of governments, while the latter tends to have more to do with the organization and methods employed by parties. The recent attention of the Party election within the AAP (America's Advancement Party) brought some of this light, particularly with pronouncements by the ever-iconoclastic Emerick that he intended to turn this "far-left" party into an "authoritarian" one.

It is perhaps interesting to note as well the development in Chile of a new anarcho-syndicalist party that refers to itself as El Frente Obrero Internacionalista (Internationalist Workers Front). While programmatically not too different from other far-left groups, the emphasis appears to be on the importance of inner-party democracy and opposition to bureaucracy and authoritarianism.

Likewise, a new anarcho-syndicalist group has been posting articles in the US press.

Perhaps it's a conjecture based on too little evidence, but paying attention to what is happening "at the margins" can be valuable. It may be noteworthy that at a time when Brazil is engaged in declaring itself and its new colonies to be based on an ersatz interpretation of "sharia" law and the US is seeing the emergence of openly "authoritarian" tendencies, voices for a left and libertarian alternative are bubbling up as well.




THINK!

Oakden | Dadds | Zanmor | jstott


Oakden's Challenge

After walking through the minefields of super-alliances, imperialism and authoritarianism, reading Robert Oakden's recent article The Independence Doctine provides some anti-land-mine tech, metaphorically speaking. It is a bold exploration of the possibilities for declaring America's independence from the super-alliance paradigm.

No doubt citizen Oakden can expect a barrage of brow-beating for even daring to ask these questions. And maybe he's not right about everything. But it's certainly refreshing to see somebody asking if the emperor is wearing any clothes.



What's It All About?

http://ikopal.com/nomoslabs/images/red-star-small.jpg" width="25px" height="24px"> Johnobrow Dadds of the Peoples Communist Party (UK) has been publishing near-daily musings on the nature of life, the left, the game and everything in his paper The Militant Mind. Always an interesting writer, comrade Dadds's latest series challenges preconceived notions, encourages us to explore the lacunae of the game, and provides some welcome relief from the avalanche of "You Fail" and "I hate Lana" banalities that so often fill up the press pages. Do yourself a favor and check it out...

Yes We Can
You're Unique, Just Like Everybody Else
Enough of Your Politics
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Do You Know Why I Play eRepublik So Much?
And an excellent analysis of What is eCommunism?



Pay It Forward

Friend of the SFP, well-known free-thinker, and outstanding e-Olympian Zanmor provides a simple yet revolutionary bit of advice in his article Public Service: Pay It Forward in which he encourages us to engage in random acts of kindness, sending out unsolicited gifts and other donations to needy players.



Don't Be Afraid to Give Your Workers Real Work

Another great bit of "outside the box" advice was published recently by radical thinker jstott in his paper Serenity lane. Leaving aside the question of communes vs. cooperatives vs. capitalist enterprises, citizen jstott gets to the heart of things by advising company owners and managers to get your employees involved. Don't be constrained by the strict limits of narrowly-construed mechanics. Your employees are people too and want to have something to do other than clicking that "work" button. So create a structure in which they can have some responsibilities to help manage the enterprise and be more than just "worker bees".



Party News
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SFP Candidates | New SFP Forum | Valshannar Returns! | McFarland Resigns; World Ends. Or Not.



New SFP Forum and Wiki

The Socialist Freedom Party is pleased to announce the unveiling of its new off-game forum. Many thanks to Comrad3, Osmany Ramon and the others who got it organized. It looks great and has a number of features not available on the old forum, including a direct interface to the SFP IRC channel.

The URL for the Socialist Freedom Party forum is now: http://www.socialistfreedom.org/.

In addition, a Party wiki is also being created. Stay tuned for more info about it!





This election season the SFP is sponsoring several outstanding candidates for Congress. Along with hard-working incumbents Rainy Sunday and CivilAnarchy, get ready to rock because one of the most far-thinking and hard-working citizens of the New World, the man who turned the SFP from a fun group of friends into a 6th-party powerhouse and a leading participant in the Internatinal eSocialist Movement, Osmany Ramon is running too!


Osmany Ramon for Vermont
By: Osmany Ramon

The Man

On March 27th, I will have been a citizen of the New World for 1 year. In my first year, I have spent a lot of time focusing on the Socialist Freedom Party and taking it from where it started to a top 10 party in the eUS. I served as Party President for four terms and in that time I started a number of successful programs within the SFP from the Young Socialist program which is a party-based version of the Department of Education, the first eAmerican Commune which is expanding into other nations, and the SFP Bear Cavalry, a militia that uses communal production to supply itself without the necessity of donations.

When not serving as the Party President, I have held various positions in the party Steering Committee including my current service as the SFP’s Director of International Affairs.

And now after having put a lot of work into the party, I would like to contribute my organizational skills, critical thinking and leadership to the eUS government.

The Plan

One of the things I would like to work on in Congress is organizing a 6th Party Caucus. Max McFarland 2’s plan of transforming the AAP into a vehicle for 6th party candidates to run in elections means that we will potentially see an influx of active minor party members of congress in the next and subsequent terms. In order for 6th party interests to be effectively represented, the members of congress who represent those parties must be organized and disciplined. I will work towards building bridges between the 6th parties for this purpose.

I am most interested in looking at the current Tax and Trade policies. I believe in using tax rates to regulate the economy and that the government should take a much larger role than it has traditionally in fostering trade between nations. One proposal I have is for the eUS to pick one of its long-time allies as a Most-Favored Trading Partner and subsidize import licenses for proven companies between the two nations.

I would also like to look into the EDEN debacle and figure out how to avoid such a situation in the future. I am highly critical of super alliances and the hardships they have caused all over the globe but once we have joined an alliance, we have an obligation to uphold our end of the bargain. Failure to support our allies will harm the eUS’s reputation when it comes to forging future alliances.
Citizenship scandals have also been rocking the nation recently and I promise that I will always go through the proper channels with the Immigration Enforcement Subcommittee and the Citizen Task Force before approving citizenship for anyone.

I look forward to serving the great state of Vermont as your Senator in Congress and I would encourage any eAmerican citizen to feel free to contact me with questions about Congress, pending legislation and my position on various issues. I will work hard to be active and keep communication lines open so that citizens are informed of what Congress is doing.




Mark Valshannar has been elected PP of the SFP for the 3rd time by an overwhelming majority. He provided the Press with the following remarks...

Why Run for Party President
By: Mark Valshannar

Press the candidate button. Cough up two gold. Then vote for yourself and wonder who the hell the other candidates are.

I've done this four times now in the Socialist Freedom Party. The first time I ran for Party President it was because I felt as though I had somehow deserved it. The second time I ran because all the other worthy candidates where in Russia fighting in resistance wars for the Bear Cavalry. The third time I ran and for the first time lost in a lulz run. And now, the forth time, I have won again. Why did I run this time?

A better question to ask may be “Why did I ever bother to run?”

Out of all the things to run for in this game Party President seems to be rather low on the list. However for me this is different. Being trusted by the group of people I'm with in the Socialist Freedom Party means a lot to me.

The people in the SFP are a rather odd bunch of RL radicals who decided to bring that baggage into this new world of eRepublik.

Normally bringing in real life political stances is looked down upon. However with the people I'm with, like the editor of this paper Phoenix Quinn and four time Party President Osmany Ramon, it brings out a lot of creativity.

Simply put the SFP doesn't get giddy out of pressing “Fight” five times a day.

Projects like the Commune and then the Commune-fueled militia the Bear Cavalry showed it. The SFP isn't willing to be herded in by the rules of the game mechanics. We're a lot more stubborn then that. We don't care if our ideas require us to go around the status quo a bit. We like being creative.

To quote one comment I've seen before: yes we are perfectly happy with jerking off to this image of in game Socialism.

But why did you run for Party President Mark? Answer the question you posed earlier in this article, you git!

Ok I'm getting on it.

I ran for Party President again this time partially because all the other suitable candidates where off doing other things in eRepublik and real life. I also ran because I value the creativity of the SFP a lot. It is home to me in this odd little virtual world and if I can help the party chronicle it's many theoretical articles or send vast amounts of spam er I mean messages to new players them I will be happy because in the Socialist Freedom Party you don't have to listen to "the rules". You find a way around them just for fun. And fun is what it all comes down to in a game right?

“Why run for Party President?” For fun.



Editorial: McFarland Resignation is Not the End of the World
By: Phoenix Quinn

Max McFarland 2 has announced his departure. In his notice, he quoted the famous Robert Frost poem about how the world will end. As always with Max, it is a nice, almost poetic piece. As do many others, I sincerely wish him well and appreciate all he has done.

The passing of this great man presents an opportunity to reflect on the nature of things, doesn't it? Here are my thoughts at this juncture...

The sands of time shape the world inexorably beneath our feet, sometimes almost without our noticing it. While we tend to focus on the spectacular events in front of our noses, it is usually the longer-term trends that matter the most.

For example, in RL, we've seen over and over that in the politics of insurgency, yesterday's mini-imperialist and ultra-nationalist "blood and guts" rebel leaders become today's marginalized fringe or, if successful in their endeavors, all too often they become a new kind of despot.

Or consider a fireworks exhibition. It's a glorious spectacle. When the great artists of fire set off their ordnance in one final dazzling display, we just have to cheer. It's exciting. Or. When, on one night of the year, everybody in the city runs out to the sidewalk at the stroke of midnight to explode their firecrackers, roman candles and sparklers, then spirits are lifted far and wide. There's no doubt about it. It's a wonderful thing.

But when it's over, there's only a pall of smoke and the smell of gunpowder hanging over the city. Nothing has actually changed.


Recall the story of the hare and the tortoise. When all is said and done, inevitably and un-sexy as it may be, slow and steady almost always wins the race.

In those rebel areas I alluded to, more often than not it's actually those who've worked for years, inexorably laying the foundation for reconciliation and progress, who are today's election winners and society builders. Oftentimes they're ready to implement a thoughtful plan that's been long in the making. Or. A masterful painting that was carefully constructed, stroke by stroke in the artist's studio over many months, brings delight and illumination to generation after generation of viewers, not for one brief moment, but for hundreds of years.


As Bertolt Brecht had Galileo opine: "Pity the country that needs heros."

Max, we'll miss you and all of your fiery glory. And we thank you for your generous and tireless contributions. But in the end, it takes more than one great man to make a country a success.


======================================


http://ikopal.com/nomoslabs/images/red-star-small.jpg" width="25px" height="24px"> Join the Socialist Freedom Party...and spring into action!
Check out the SFP Forum or the SFP chat on irc.rizon.net at #socialistfreedomparty ( Mibbit link; Chatzilla: irc://irc.rizon.net/socialistfreedomparty )

http://ikopal.com/nomoslabs/images/red-star-small.jpg" width="25px" height="24px"> Not yet level 7? Need some help getting started?... Contact the Young Socialists: friendly folks dedicated to assisting and mentoring newer players.

http://ikopal.com/nomoslabs/images/red-star-small.jpg" width="25px" height="24px"> Bored with the same-old, same-old? Help build up the Super-Commune. Contact Comrad3 for more info.