General Domestic Issues

[musashisamurai]

The Inner Council has quietly raised new restrictions on fundraising organizations within Pacifica-all restrictions aimed at curtailing possible foreign meddling in elections for the Assembly (lower house of the Forum, democratically elected by freedmen). Secret Memos have also been circulated from Great Houses to their vassal houses to make sure they crack down on any possible socialist or communist movements, as agitators may be emboldened by the IWA's new belligerent stance.

[kingpie3]

Baunair does not have a socialist party as our people and culture are super capitalist. Whatever socialists we did have, most likely have already immigrated to the UMC or South America. We're open (as we've always been) to allowing anyone to join a socialist party if it meets the appropriate standards of a political party, but would like to negotiate the extent to which they would be beholden to the IWA and how much funding they would receive (if at all). And Baunair already planned on leaving the Power to the People League.

[kingpie3]

HFPE: Due to rising security concerns on the South American continent, Kraash Taundra and high level officials within the Consortium of Holy Baunairi Guilds are transferring themselves back to Mars, in a rural southern town. Important assets that were en route to the Atlantic Imperium are being ordered to head back to Baunair. Premier Tammertert, who has bounties on their heads in the criminal underworld is not supposed to know about this.

The Consortium is also engaging in high level discussions with the Atlantic Imperium's royal line to offer them security on the Red Planet as well. There are plans in place to reach out to the Pacifican royals in a political union that may offer them some type of protection from Mobius in the event of war. This is not being received well by the Amedee line, which has always sought West African bloodlines, but in what are obviously desperate times, desperate measures must be taken to make sure the soul of the Imperium is not snuffed out.

[Subotai45]

A crippling miners' strike ripples across Ironhill province. After several days, the noble in charge of the mines brings in scabs to break the strike and continue the operation as normal. This works temporarily, but an armed group of miners, under the Ironhill Miners' Soviet, dispersed the scabs and has established control of the mines.

The national government is yet to step in, but it is an issue in the upcoming Commissarial elections. While one candidate is the typical petty-noble bureaucrat, another, who has become surprisingly popular in recent debates, is labelled a "red," calling for an end to suppression of all political parties and greater popular participation in government.

On the horizon appears a collection of knights, in glimmering armor astride long, serpentine dragons. They fly the banner of the Duke of Ironhill, who is positioned near the center of the formation next to a bugler - an archaic form of signal that is kept for sentimentality, not use. They have no heavy weapons, only swords and carbines, expecting the sight of their adamantine swords and GMed dragons to frighten the miners into obedience. They are only commoners after all, and not immersed in the warrior culture of the nobility.

The miners' watchman sounds the alarm, and a patrol comes out of the quarry. Their elected platoon leader takes stock of the situation. His miners, while unarmored, have their rifles and even a heavy machine gun taken from the militia armory, which should be enough to take down the dragons. They hope.

One of the massive beasts takes a step forward, its kngiht drawing a curved sword. Some of the miners waver, and even take a step back. But the platoon leader calls them to stand steady. "Don't fall back, my comrades!" he insists. "We have come too far to back down now. This is rightfully ours - this pit was dug by our tired backs, this ore is drenched in our sweat. Even the swords they threaten us with were built by our fellow proletarians for the gain of the noble class, who are different from us only in their accident of birth and lack of sympathy for their common man. If we back down, they will just continue to work us for their own gain. We must fight - we have nothing to lose but our chains. If we perish, we shall receive our reward in Heaven for our fight for our fellow man. Stand firm!"

The miners don't seem so sure about the dying bit, but they don't have much time before the nobles decide that decapitating a commoner seems like a fun way to spend an afternoon and come charging in. The miners open fire, the first several shots skidding off the noble's energy shields and armor. They fly closer at blinding speed, only faltering when the heavy machine gun rips a nobleman in half. In close-quarters combat, the nobles have the upper hand, but tough miners continue to pour out of the mines, carrying heavy pickaxes which can puncture noble armor. The Duke of Ironhill flees as his retinue is slaughtered, vowing that he will have them all hung and barred from Heaven.

As the Commissarial election results pour in, the nobles demand that the recently-elected Commissar Levin send the SSC in to deal with the miners and bar them from Heaven. The commissar insists that this is a local issue, and that Heaven is the birthright of all Venusians.

Solidarity protests spring up across Venus. Buenos Aries is the home of the largest such march, as the oppressed underclass takes to the streets, chanting and blocking off major intersections. Amateur rappers, heirs to the old socialist rap tradition of New Hope, call for class upheaval and struggle against the noble class that extracts the wealth from the workers. The Ironhill Miners' Soviet, realizing that armed struggle with the nobility is inevitable, takes control of several militia armories in the region and disperses the weapons to friendly unions. These unions combine into the Ironhill Soviet, declaring the establishment of a republic in the province. In several other provinces, Workers' Militia units organize and declare their support for a Pan-Venusian Soviet and call for the establishment of a republic.

Many conservative sections of the populace, most notably the nobility, have founded Patriotic Regiments to combat the rise of leftist populism. Isolated fighting has broken out between the Patriotic Regiments and Workers' Militias outside Ironhill.

[musashisamurai]

"Preposterous," says members of the Inner Council upon hearing of the socialist revolts in another monarchist nation, "The Venusians are loose guns, sloppy, That type of revolt would never happen. But to be clear, I want the Inquisition on alert to break up any movements. We are better than those aliens."

[Subotai45]

Commissar Levin denounces the violence, blaming it on rebellious and reactionary noble elements. In a sharp break from tradition, he argues that there cannot be a unified state where some are privileged above others, and the entire noble class is thus a threat to national security. The SSC, generally drawn from the lower classes and underpaid, follows his lead in his refusal to crack down on the rising labor movement, and instead agrees that the nobles are responsible for the bloodshed in Ironhill.

Emperor Dmitri calls for the replacement of Levin, but the popular commissar declares that his mandate is given by the people, not the emperor, and he cannot be replaced by any hereditary ruler, and only the sovereign populace. He responds to Dmitri's call by issuing an arrest warrant on the Emperor and other nobles close to him. The militia, as could be expected of an organization composed of the entire population, is divided. Some reactionary elements side with the nobles in a series of small but bloody firefights across Venus, and the nobles manage to maintain control of the vast majority of the planet's land area, although the loss of such populous cities as Buenos Aries to soviets, workers' councils, and united labour committees means that the rebel/SSC coalition has control of almost half the population.

The nomadic horde in the west, under Hetman Potemkin, was expected to declare for the nobility, as a typically conservative element. However, the Cordoba Committee of Communist Cadres (4C) reminded the Hetman of egalitarian structure of the nomadic culture and called for them to join the workers of Venus in creating a bright and democratic future for Venus. Thus, with the aid of the Ironhill Soviet, 4C, and the United Dockworkers' Militia (Southern Chapter) the Radical-Egalitarian Great Western Horde eliminated noble holdouts from San Agustin to Mendoza, and from Posadas to Resistencia.

Nobles, fearing the bloodshed, flee off-world. Some go to Pallas, a strong noble hideout in the asteroid belt, while others go to monarchist-friendly regimes on other planets, including Baun and Pacifica. The Emperor holds out in Astarte, collecting an army of loyalists, but as the western coalition - now calling itself the Universal People's Federation - bulldozes through noble manors towards Astarte, his advisors convince him to head to Pallas and set up a government there while he awaits the arrival of support from the Outer Reaches.

The UPF has promised to continue the ongoing war on Callisto to bring socialism to the oppressed working classes there.

[mat.gopack]

The UMC applauds the determination of the socialists on Venus, and offer any aid they require in solidarity - as, I assume, would the exiled UVSR.

[Subotai45]

The UVSR will be returning to Venus to establish a member-state of the Federation on its initial lands. The remainder of the former empire on the homeworld will be the Venusian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. We are sure that the remainder of the planet will soon see the Red Light.

[Subotai45]

(for anyone who is even kinda watching Venus)

"HI LIBERATION" spell out fireworks in the skies over Libertatia. "TALK PLZ _ UPF"

[Constantine072]

“All is fair in amare and bellum. A nation is betrays the land it walks, it’s a amare of love has caused this spawn then a child, to be rejected by its parent for the failed courtship of another. Now is attempting to in its entirely betray its adopted parent. And worse it’s pathetic attempt of ‘choice’ is mired in lies. What people would surrender? If the child loves, and expects amare, why would they send agents and men to enforce their lies.

Freedom is granted only for those who take it. Sometimes to take it you must fight for it. While the way we choose is not always the way of Bellum. Killing another child of Gaia, be they adopted by another brings us sorrow to see such a life extinguished. So why choose way of the vile spawn adopted father? When we can choose to follow the way of their spurned lover. Peaceful, and showing there way of light. To lift the curtains, to see the unwanted son, whose need for love, corrupted their father way. And their cowardice made them leave their true mothers home.

Instead of fighting for freedom in era of the Great War, they put tail in leg and joined another. Surrendering who they were forever more. The child had believed they could choose a father, one strong and had tamed the mighty Ocean of Fire, and the frozen Sea of the North. Yet they were not free and only stayed until they were found to be distasteful after the affair. Their amare scorned, they left for land of Bellum. Expanding ever more. They have defiled the Bellum through the reaction of soil. While we will not choose Bellum, we have chosen Amare.

All is fair is in Bellum and Amare.”

‘True Freedom’ Radio