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A Quick History of the SFP since V2
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This article deals with the history and policies of the Socialist Freedom Party in the months leading up to V2 and what happened afterwards. It is a contribution to the Internationale's Red Salute History Program, which hopes to collect stories telling the tale of all of the Leftist players and parties in eRepublik.



We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring



For the eUSA's Socialist Freedom Party, eRepublik.v2 signaled, perhaps more than anything else, the end of the GOSPLAN experiment, one of the boldest undertakings ever attempted by the International Left in eRepublik.

GOSPLAN -- also sometimes referred to as "the Super-Commune" -- was an attempt by many leftists from around the world to create a massive socialist/communal economy in Russia that would drive out the cappies and the oligarchs, creating a socialist state by purely economic means. Dozens of SFPers, along with internationalists and social-revolutionaries from the UK, Australia, Turkey and elsewhere, moved to Russia to carry out the great plan.

One of the more intriguing aspects of that grand experiment was that it offered a type of social involvement, for a fairly sizable group of players, that was both internationalist and non-statist.

Things went pretty well at first, but the V2 economic changes threw a huge monkey wrench into things.

There was trouble in Russia on the political side as well. In synch with the Super-Commune movement, the Communist Party -- Soviet Union had been poised to take political power after months of preparing the ground. They had created popular alternative, anti-oligarchical political and military structures and had forged a political majority outside the control of the hackers. Then, as the election that promised to oust the oligarchs drew near, the last great wave of Russian rubots was unleashed on the CPSU, putting the final nail into the coffin of the Second eRep Soviet Revolution in Russia.

The election was lost to the cheaters and hackers. Along with the disappointment of the V2 changes, the multi/rubot onslaught wrecked the CPSU's hard work and drove alot of disappointed leftist Russian players out of game.

While the skilz of Russia's hacker community are, without a doubt, awe-inspiring, the determined spirit of those hundreds of progressive and democratic-minded Russian players who opposed them should also be applauded and remembered.




The SFP continued to play a very active role in US politics during this time, publishing frequent articles in the SFP Press and in member's newspapers. For example, it was during this period leading up to V2 that the SFP's legendary Commander Osmany Ramon published a well-received criticism of "game mechanics ideology" (Mechanism) that, I think it is fair to say, helped to move the "role player vs. game player" debate to a more rational level.

It may or may not be a coincidence that Sam Wystan's popular satirical paper, The Fieldist, started re-publishing about the same time.

The SFP published monthly lists of endorsements for Congressional candidates in nearly all states, promoting the election of active and progressive players no matter what their official Party alignment.



Historical note: This image appeared in the SFP Press long before the ersatz Frosty Revolution adopted it!


The red hot level of activity included the election of super-legendary rainy sunday to Congress for the first time as a member of the SFP and the development of a Mini-Commune Program, aimed at helping train the anarcho-socialist leaders of tomorrow.

From a Far Leftie perspective, things looked pretty sweet all around the e-world. MachtGeil, from the Kommunistische Partei eDeutschland (Communist Party of e-Germany) was elected President of Germany. Former SFPnik and long-time friend of the SFP, Spade, was President of South Korea. That Celtic Red Tiger, Brian Boru, was laying the groundwork for an Irish Reform Programme on socialist principles, the Super-Commune was growing stronger every day, leftist players were flocking to the newly reborn Czech Republic with the idea of forming a socialist republic, and commune-based economies (not only for military purposes) were beginning to thrive in places like Bosnia-Herzegovina.

And... Civil Anarchy ran for President of the USA for the first time. With the support of nine small parties, his campaign brought a fresh and revolutionary perspective that lifted the spirit of e-American politics. Not only was his avatar something of a departure for a country much more accustomed to lots of US flag-waving and fairly mundane odes to twice-baked nationalism...



...but his promise to take the eUSA out of EDEN, his detailed plans for empowering political parties, and his determination to establish an unequivocal civilian-based constitutional order all sent a bit of liberating shockwave through public opinion.


As the Super-Commune appeared to be reaching a level of self-sufficiency, many of the SFPers who'd gone to Russia started trickling back into the USA.

Then signs of distress began to appear...

Soon thereafter, the Party suffered a great loss when Commander Osmany Ramon, who had done so much to make the SFP a unique and interesting party, left the game so he could focus all the required energy on being a Dad to his newborn RL daughter.


"What makes us different than the average think tank is that we work from the standpoint of making life better for the workers of the eUS rather than the business owners or even the government." -- Cmdr. Ramon, 11 May 2010

A player who shall not be named wormed his way into managaing the Young Socialists, the SFP's program for new players, which at the time was running the Mini-Commune economic complex. This trash turned out to be a thief who ran off with the assets after messing up the organization's account and destroying its newspaper.


Logo of the Young Socialist newspaper, Resist, before it was trashed.


Cmdr. Ramon tried to propose methods for reorganizing the Commune under the upcoming new conditions. SFP activist Manic Eskimo, along with others, worked to create a new type of trans-national Communal economic model.

In the Czech Republic, Simonov put forward a bold proposal for the creation of Worker's Councils in all industries.


"To hell with boundaries." -- from a wall in Paris, May 1968

And not to blow our own horn too much, but the SFP Press published an article that was, perhaps, not noticed enough concerning the introduction of off-game stock market exchanges. The article asked the prescient question: "What reasonable protections against fraud exist for investors when there is no more contract enforcement in eRep?"

Of course, at the same time, the SFP's resident blabbermouth, PQ (Phoenix Quinn) also began to float off into some rather esoteric realms, like with these captions he chose for some Branksy pics in one edition of the SFP Press:


Stalinish grrl erase grip helium bladder shape of romantic delusions.


Table turn grrl have no fear frisk fear-mongering soldier


And then V2 hit like a brick.


Around this time, several SFP stalwarts went on a hiatus from the Party. Civil Anarchy spread his wings, gathering braoder political experience by working with the US Workers Party and the Federalist Party. Phoenix Quinn took a sabbatical and went on a worldwide walkabout, hanging out first in the Czech Socialist Republic and then in the new nation of New Zealand for couple of months. Vincent Nolan moved to India and helped to organize the Indian Workers Movement. Mark Valshannar took a break from the game.

The SFP Commune, SFP Press and the SFP Bear Cavalry all fell into deep decline and the Party entered one of its recurring periodic lulls.

Some lackluster and inept candidates were put forward for Congress under the SFP umbrella. The Party press took a nosedive. Membeship dropped off.

People quit playing the game because it sucked so much.



***

But. Eventually, these guys wandered back to the USA and/or rejoined the SFP.

Tear down the walls! All power to the imagination!

Quinn returned and got elected PP. His only noteworthy act, albeit a memorable one, was to rewrite the Party Constitution to do away with the concept of a "Steering Committee". He introduced in its place the Revolutionary Committee, which included mechanisms to encourage new members of the Party to move into leadership roles.

PQ also ran for Country President, despite the fact that the Party had endorsed the ticket of Cromstar/Kazeal. It was a quixotic campaign, to say the least, aimed mainly at annoying Pizza the Hut and putting forward a single campaign deman😛 to, and I quote, "Free South Dakota, ancestral home of the SFP Commune, from occupation by the Polish szlachta."



Soon thereafter, a new player, cival unrest -- encouraged by Vincent Nolan and others -- merged a smaller far-left party into the SFP. Then he ran for PP of the SFP and won. That was the real start of the SFP's post-V2 renaissance.

An influx of enthusiastic new players re-energized the Party. Both new players and veterans joined the party. Civil Anarchy returned, bringing his considerable organizational skills with him. Mark Valshannar returned and Bishop Samuel Seabury, an iconoclastic US player known for advocating a style of gameplay based on principled grassroots Christian Socialism, also brought a fresh perspective and his considerable economic skills to the party.

While serving his second term as PP, cival unrest had computer problems that eventually led him to abandon the game. SFP veteran and long-time dedicated Ramonist, Mark Valshannar returned to the helm of the SFP once again. Mark went on to set a record for being PP of the SFP for a total of six terms, the longest-serving leader in the Party's history. Not wanting to create a cult of personality, Mark finally moved to Austria in order to ensure that someone else would get elected as PP.

But by then he had done his work well. The SFP was back, once again an active and lively party, with its Economic, Military and Media structures not only revived, but adapted to the ever-changing conditions of the post-V2 New World.




Next time: How the SFP adapted to ongoing changes in eRepublik. A new party logo. Freedom Writers. And other stuff.



(BTW, for real e-history buffs, here's a link to a brief history of the Portuguese experience with e-communism in Beta and V1.)


This little walk down memory lane was drawn mainly from my somewhat faulty memory and reviewing some old newspaper articles. Corrections, amendments, and wild out-takes are welcomed and encouraged! Also, to my leftie friends around the world, please consider posting your own post-V2 stories.


Red Salute to all the New World e-Lefties out there who survived V2 and lived to tell the tale!





And to the RL rebels too, whose struggle continues every day...






"Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always." -- Commander Ramon, legendary Great Leader of the SFP