J.K. Stockholme
Right Opposition
Update 1 2201
The Daily Standard
FRONT PAGE
VENEZUELA SURRENDERS, SIGNS PEACE DEAL
After a decisive year of conflict, the Venezuelan civilian government has accepted a humiliating peace, surrendering large amounts of its former empire to the victorious powers of the UC, Brazil and Mexico. Some particularly hawkish individuals within the victorious camp have even said the treaty was too generous, due to the shattered state of the Venezuelan armed forces though the governments of all four states have endorsed the peace deal without reservations. In the Caribbean, Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico were ceded to the United Commons, while Jamaica was surrendered to Mexico. In Central America, Mexico also gained every metre of land up to the Panama Canal, which Mexico and Venezuela agreed to be co-owners of and have equal access rights to, though nominally Venezuela has sovereignty over the waterway. In the east, Brazil was given most of Guyana, save for core Venezuelan claims, while an arrangement was made for Brazil to receive monetary compensation as well through the UC, with Venezuela providing a reparations of industrial hardware for the following two years. Only a month after the treaty had been signed and the invading powers pushed their militaries up to their new territories a military coup returned Venezuela back to authoritarian rule, having been a democracy for many decades. The fall of Venezuela should prove to significantly shift the balance of trading power in the Caribbean.
(Venezuela: -Stability)
NORTH AMERICAN NEWS
CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED COMMONS
The UC government, though last year rumoured to be considering the recognition of the Western Union, has declared the leaders of the western clads to be outlaws, depriving them of their right to govern, and declaring all their land and assets to be under federal jurisdiction. The UC government followed this declaration with an air campaign aimed at undermining enemy leadership which has seen significant results including major defections and loss of confidence among many western leaders. However surrender was out of the question for the Western Union, and ultimately a ground war was undertaken by the east near the end of the year, which successfully forced the surrender of Chicago and Indianapolis, and has put St. Louis and Minneapolis under the threat of siege. Military operations during the first half of the year saw the lucky destruction of the WUs entire jet air force, leaving the skies entirely open to UC bombardment, which was tactically limited to potential sites of enemy clad leadership or key assets. Numerous military and civilian defections from the western clads occurred, which rendered the UC intelligence leaks helping the air force destroy significant officer barracks of the WU, though the location of the executive board has remained a mystery. The dedicated campaign against the top level executives of the west, although hurting their support and popularity, strengthened their resolve, as they have vowed negotiation is off the table until attacks directed against them cease. When the internal collapse of the WU was evidently not forthcoming, the UC then began the ground offensive later in the year. The UC army took precautions against alienating the populations of major cities, two of which surrendered. The UCs previously dire situation has been instrumentally improved by successful victory against Venezuela and recent victories against the WU, and while the war isnt over, either a negotiated settlement or a full occupation of the west or foreseeable options to end the conflict, though the latter would necessarily involve more blood than the UC may wish to bear.
(UC: -1 Infantry Division, +Stability)
(WU: -1 Infantry Division, - 1 Cavalry Division, -1 Fighter Squadron, --Stability)
CALIFORNIAN ELECTIONS
An unexpected minority government has formed in California after their mandated elections pitted the ruling Social-Democrats against a dissenting socialist bloc, internally splitting the party. Though the Social-Democrats are still in charge, their rule has been seriously questioned after major union strikes temporarily halted Governor Shepards economic program, and hurt her party in the polls. The governors campaign on the program itself won over a broad spectrum of Californian society, eating away Republican-Unionist voters, however the lack of a strong left-wing coalition combined with an aggressive industrializing policy has disenchanted a great number of voters away from both the Social-Democrats socialists and Shepards liberals to the Californian Environmental Party a counter-modernist group which campaigned on green reforms and a focus on resolving the labour disputes in the nation. Currently the green counter-modernists hold the balance of power in government, while socialists within the Social-Democrat Party are threatening to split if welfare and labour relations arent addressed before next election.
UNIONS STRIKE AS CALIFORNIA COMPLETES DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Despite calls for safety regulations and labour reforms, the Californian government pressed ahead with its economic projects, requisitioning the necessary materials and providing sufficient funds to finish rehabilitating the port of Oakland and construct integrated rail systems throughout the Sacramento valley. After dozens more tragic deaths during construction, and without any response from the government, unions felt they had no choice but to call a general strike, halting progress on both projects. Union strikes were lifted after the close elections hurt the ruling governments mandate, and the port of Oakland was finished before the end of the year though much of the rail system is yet to be finished, and the projects expected completion will be next year barring any further strikes.
(California: -Stability)
DEMONSTRATION TURNS INTO STANDOFF IN MEXICAN TEXAS
A group of Texans participated in an elaborate demonstration of disobedience this year, flaunting weapons in a major Texan city, claiming that Mexican oppression and exclusion has gone on long enough. The demonstrators crowded several city blocs wearing exaggerated Texan dress and bearing many cultural relics of their peoples history, including large hats of the cowboy and small ties, among other artifacts. Initially Mexican police entirely ignored the demonstration as some kind of cultural festival, until demonstrators begun revealing fire arms and made a makeshift firing range, which they claimed to be part of their cultural heritage. Fearful of a potential riot, police moved to isolate the crowd, however unintentionally caused a tense standoff between dozens of armed indigenous demonstrators and he police, lasting an hour as the demonstrators dug into their position. When the Mexican police backed off the Texans began shouting about the Alamo and claimed that this was the first victory on the road to autonomy and recognition. Mexican authorities in the region have known locals to own guns, but were surprised by the sheer number of Texans who showcased guns in solidarity after the demonstrations, and provincial leaders have been asking the government for resources to begin a crackdown, fearing a potential upsurge in violent crime.
SOUTH AMERICAN NEWS
VENEZUELAN MILITARY TAKES OVER CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT
Having witnessed the fall of their expansive domain at the hands of an incompetent civilian government, a military coup has taken place in Venezuela, led by the army, which occupied the capital and has assumed the role of government this year. Riots and protests erupted across the country after the peace treaty was signed, from separatists in the Antilles, to workers and liberals in Venezuela and Colombia proper. The military, seeing its role as stabilizing the socialist political order, stepped in as interim government though no one is sure for how long. Curfews and brutal police suppression of protests effectively reverted the instability caused by the initial shock of the peace deal, however the military will have a tough future also returning the country to economic recovery with the loss of much of its land and resources.
(Venezuela: +Stability)
COMMUNISTS MAKE ADVANCES IN SAO PAULO CIVIL WAR
Though overall the Workers Federation of Sao Paulo has made more progress towards ending the civil war than the white army this year after two somewhat successful campaigns in the west and north, a well-orchestrated push against Brasilia and its southern townships has brought a major industrial centre into the control of the whites. During the first half of the year the red army advanced on the western held territories adjacent to the Gaucho Republic, successfully acquiring territories up to the Parana River before which artillery volleyed against scurrying enemy units under the direct attack of the red armoured division and its backup. However in the first months of this plan the whites mounted their only major success in the war, a combined three way assault on Brasilia and its surrounding territories. It seemed that most of the white forces were dedicated to the attack, which caught the communists northern divisions by surprise with fire behind their positions, undermining their push into the western region. Red forces were redirected and completion of the western attack stalled, and by midyear Brasilia and the immediate defensive positions around it were lost. Cut off from the main white army, the communists finished off the western region before the end of the year with ease, while the whites sacrificed multiple divisions there to instead dig in for what they presumably predict to be a major counter-offensive in this coming year. Though much military hardware has fallen behind enemy lines, WFSP initiatives to collectivize equipment on their own side have succeeded in partially replenishing their stocks.
(WFSP: -3 Infantry Divisions, -1 Artillery Division, -5 IP, +4 IP)
(KSP: -5 Infantry Divisions, -2 Artillery Divisions, +5 IP)
SYNDICALIST MILITARY COUP IN LA PLATA
Led by the dashing Marshal Ferdinand Romano, the state of La Plata has gone through a deadly revolution this year, as wide sections of the army, government bureaucracy and civil society have defected to the young Marshals liberation front, giving him a firm grasp of the apparatuses of government. The fall of the corporate state began when soldiers more loyal to the people than their corporate overlords refused to fire on proletarian rioters and protestors in Buenos Aires, signalling to elements of the revolutionary underground that the time had come to undertake their subversive schemes. Lower level officer corps under the orders of Marshal Romano, himself an ambitious and popular officer, stormed the headquarters and board room offices of the National Corporations in the capital, arresting their executives eliminating in a single week most of the backers of the corporate dictatorship of La Plata. Romano appointed himself head of the Peoples Committee for Liberation, Progress and Order, constituting an emergency military government to destroy all capitalist elements hostile to the revolution. Of course perhaps over half the military, as well as the entirety of the plutocratic class were against Romanos lower level cadets, and the rest of the year was a bloodbath comparable in terror to any of the numerous wars the National Corporations waged against the Gaucho Republic. Illegal labour unions seized their chance in the townships outside the capital, and Chilean rebels too joined in murderously eliminating Argentine settlers along the west coast. The pacification is far from complete, as those of the old guard that survived the years near civil war have gone into hiding, with acts of sabotage occasionally marring the new revolutionary governments office buildings or arms depots. The old dynamics of Chilean rebels, Gaucho spies and a constant fear of the mass of the people have been only partially replaced in La Plata this year; the mass of the people are on the side of the new military government, but the interests of Chileans many who tolerate the regime but wish to see more democratic aspects introduced along Gaucho lines and other Gauchoist supporters remain. The fear of the people now is gone, replaced by the fear of reactionary militias still in hiding, some perhaps even in plain sight.
(La Plata: -4 Infantry Divisions, -2 Cavalry Division, -3 Artillery Divisions, -1 Fighter Squadron, +Stability, -Army Grade)
EUROPEAN NEWS
FRANCE IN CHAOS
Two separate rebel groups have entered into civil war with the military government in France this year in the wake of the assassination of the French head of state, the supreme commander. The two main fighting blocs have consolidated control over large parts of the industrial north of the country, while government forces have regrouped in the south, joined by divisions from the Basque occupation force and reservists in Aquitaine. Formerly a united front under the rebel organization known as the Underground, a major split in the organization erupted early this year, as the Revolutionary Assembly, a separate rebel group, has been founded with substantially more technocratic influence than the mainly liberal-democratic Underground. For detailed news, go to the special section on the next page.
FIRST DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS TAKES PLACE IN BERLIN
The Republic of Germany has hosted the delegations of Europes democratic states this year, as diplomats and politicians from England, the Celtic Union, Italy and even California convened in Berlin with English and UC help to discuss the future of democracy in Europe. Besides summitry and political networking, the Congress successfully agreed to a European democratic-wide non-aggression pact, though such agreement was rather easy due to the distance of the signatories. Delegates also discussed the possibility of unified military exercises, as well as a democratic military alliance to facilitate such exercises, though no binding agreements were reached on either subject. The Congress has been favourably received in all of the European delegations home countries, with many calls for a second Congress to push for closer military and political cooperation.
REPUBLIC OF GERMANY SEEKS COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS
University professors across Europe have seen new offerings emanating from the Republic of Germany for them to work in the north German state on programming and computer science projects. The government there has promised unlimited visa duration and relaxed citizenship requirements as well as well-paid positions with modern computer science facilities if they should choose to work in the country. The government has also offered awards to any scientist that can double the processing power of certain computers and provide proof of such expertise to the German government. The program has attracted some German students and young professors, but has yet to find any foreign civilians with desirable computer science abilities not already well endowed with military contracts at their own countries. Regardless, the increased publicity for German universities has certainly helped reduce the European sense that technocratic institutions are the only universities attracting foreign minds to immigrate.
NORTH-SOUTH GERMAN STATES HOLD CULTURAL FESTIVALS
The technocratic confederation of South Germany and the northern Republic of Germany have agreed to increase cultural exchanges between their respective populations, inaugurating the first international Oktoberfest, and increasing mutual tourism. Several other cultural festivals were held within northern and southern towns without major incident, however ideological differences between citizens of the two states continually became obstacles to organizing and holding the events. During events north Germans gave speeches on the history of German democracy and the values of humanism, while the south tried to encourage north Germans to attend technocratic universities. Despite obvious politicization of the festivities, tourism has increased among both states, and a freer flow of technocratic and democratic ideas has arisen within both countries.
EXPERIMENTAL BAVARIAN PROGRAMS BEGUN IN CELTIC UNION, NORWAY
Some universities in the Celtic Union and Norway, many with technocratic leaning or openly technocratic academics working for them with tenure, have begun offering programs using the Bavarian model of technocracy, where the costs of education are paid over the course of the students career. As of right now the courses remain highly experimental, as the results and rate of success wont be easily determined for at least until several years after the graduation of the first technocratic cohort, but nonetheless the direct presence of the Bavarian model in the Celtic Union and Norway have made other Bavarian ideas about governance more credible, which may prove to increase the traction Bavarians have at large in these countries. Universities in other countries where Bavarian help has been offered have declined to participate, whether by the legal prescriptions of their governments, many of which consider post-graduate payments illegal except through student loans, or due to a lack of interest where the law is more flexible. The immediate result of Bavarian help has been to strengthen those universities which have joined on as they have received educated assistants and exchange programs paid for by the Bavarian government.
SCOTTISH DRILLING RECEIVES EXTRA BAVARIAN AND ENGLISH FUNDS
Additional support from Bavaria to secure their bid, and from England unconditionally, have helped bring sufficient funds to complete the Scottish governments drilling expansions, and offshore natural gas extraction facilities have begun funneling substantial amounts of natural gas into the Bavarian economy, as well as a smaller amount of petroleum. The Scottish economy has also been improved, as their government unveils its intention to build refining and processing plants in Ireland and southern Scotland for newly extracted natural gas and oil to be shipped as final products. These promises have reduced concerns of a Scotland-oriented economic program, which has been perceived as unfair to Celts in Ireland who are footing the bill for Scottish development mutual exploitation of gas and petrol may help reduce such inter-provincial tensions.
NORWAY BEGINS OFFSHORE DRILLING, CONTESTS SCOTTISH TERRITORIAL CLAIMS
Mimicking the successful drilling project conducted by the Celtic Union, Norway has begun staking out claims on existing reserves off its coast and started its own project, and has argued that Scottish drilling sites are actually stealing their own reserves. The Norwegian government has complained that only as of last year could it have realized the scope of the Scottish plans went into parts of the North Sea Norway considers sovereign to itself. Norwegian destroyers have made practice runs through territory it considers its own, getting perilously close to Scottish offshore rigs, as Norwegian funds are being put towards drilling stations of their own.
LOMBARDY HITS FIRST MILESTONE IN PORT EXPANSION
The Lombard plan to expand the ports of Genoa, Venice, Messina and Athens has passed its first major checkpoint, as the western ports of Genoa and Venice have become operational, though final constructions are still underway to optimize them. The increased traffic that Lombardy can handle has already helped direct trade through its land over that of other countries, as Mediterranean merchants opt to take continental trade through the Italian peninsula over the Balkans or other ports in Iberia. The plan is projected to be finished within the next couple years and is hoped to keep Lombardys further holdings better integrated into the countrys far flung empire.
HIGH SPEED GDANSK LINE BEGUN IN HUNGARY
Astute Hungarian planners have begun the Gdansk Line, a high-speed rail line from Budapest to the Polish port of Gdansk, the former capital of the corporate state of Poland before skirmishes with Sweden brought the country into the Polish state in Hungary. While the lines current cost would provide for personnel, the design is capable of expansions for the high-speed transport of goods if planners wish to in the future. The line hasnt drawn too much controversy, though ministers representing both Polish and Hungarian constituents have argued more diffuse transportation systems would be preferable, rather than an elite line which would primarily benefit government officials and the new class of traders who benefit from the market socialist system.
CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS IN HUNGARY LINKED TO BALKAN TRAFFICKING
Leaked reports of government investigations into Romanian and Hungarians criminal organizations have indicated strong links to Bulgarian and Greek organizations in Turkish lands. The Hungarian police have condemned the unlawful leak of the report, and have insisted that until investigations have concluded they will not speak to what extend these criminals are linked to the recent upsurge in Balkan violence. The huge importance of Hungary as a bridge between industrial and agrarian centres across the continent has naturally meant the gravitation of criminal groups attention to Hungary as a route of illicit goods from the Middle East and Russia, which are suspected to flow into Lombardy and Bavaria, as well as possibly even into farther parts of Western Europe.
CZECHIA COMPLETES TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS
Businesses and national industries in Czechia are basking in Europes most advanced telecommunications networks, which have provided commercial enterprises with more accessible and usable communications systems. Regular citizens are also enjoying faster, cheaper and more abundant communications services from the government, and everyone in the counter-modernist state now awaits the completion of the kings second project, that of the crown railways. Isnt this a jolly little country.
SPECIAL: FRANCE IN CHAOS
SUPREME COMMANDER OF FRANCE ASSASSINATED ON SECOND ATTEMPT
The turning point of the brewing chaos in France came this year with the assassination of the leader of the French state, the supreme commander of the military, whom led the country in place of a president throughout the countrys crisis. Though confirmation of the exact events which transpired during the second (successful) attempt on the leaders life were difficult to obtain, the current government has blamed the syndicalists (Metzienne faction) of the eastern rebel coalition. The first attempt on the supreme commander also remains somewhat of a mystery. That attempt took place outside a military barracks in Paris, and police identified the shooter to be of Bavarian origin, though the government refrained from accusing the South German Confederation in favour of blaming the rebels of ARON. In the wake of the second attempt the country has entered into outright civil war, as multiple less than mutually amicable factions have organized conventional armed forces around their core areas of support.
(France: -Stability)
(Underground: +Existence)
(ARON: +Existence)
THE FRENCH UNDEGROUND SPLITS, LIBERAL UNDERGROUND REBELS IN NORTH-WEST
An irreconcilable ideological difference has forced the split of the French Underground, which formerly held in its number both liberals, socialists and disaffected officers of the French military. The main point of divergence was what respects were due to technocrats within France, and to the major technocratic powers that might serve to help the Undergrounds cause. A large bloc within the Underground categorically refused recognition of technocrats, who they see as authoritarians of the same ilk as the military government. The leadership, before the split, though not willing to reject potential allies of the cause of freedom, certainly refused to incorporate technocratic beliefs such as the university tithe into their revolutionary program. The so-called Blanquists who were willing to accept technocrats as part of the rebellion formalized the split with the creation of ARON, the Revolutionary Assembly of National Order, with the Revolutionary Officers Party (for short, the Louvre faction) as its co-leader with the Blanquists. In short order the time to begin conventional military operations against the government came, and the Underground, purged of technocrats by the choice of the Blanquists, solidified complete control of the northwest of France by the end of the year, fighting reorganizing government forces. The split has hurt the Underground immensely, as they are no longer the undisputed leader of the rebellion, and to their surprise the technocratic-tolerating ARON, with the help of the Blanquists, have secured about as much territory and arms as they have since the initiation of civil war.
REBELS OF ARON BEGIN MILITARY CAMPAIGN IN INDUSTRIAL EAST
The new revolutionary coalition of ARON has also rebelled this year, however their basis of power has been the industrial north-east, where much of the technocratic and syndicalist elements of the rebellion are headquartered. ARON itself is composed largely of four factions, the Revolutionary Officers Party (the Louvre faction), the Blanquist faction, the Popular Technocratic Party (the Sorbonne faction), and the United Revolutionary Syndicates (the Metzienne faction). The Louvre and Blanquist factions hold co-leadership of the Revolutionary Assembly (the Louvre granted the office of Great Emancipator, the Blanquists President of the Assembly), which acts as the collective government of the rebellion, organizing much of their armed forces, though an equal portion is controlled by the proletarian militias of the Metzienne, which have borne the brunt of casualties in the first year of civil war. The Metzienne have also been granted a lower house of the Assembly specifically for their syndicalist unions. The most ideologically developed, but additionally most newly integrated part of the ARON front is the Sorbonne faction, mainly technocratic intellectuals and academics turned revolutionaries who have been highly successful at engineering anti-government propaganda for ARON, with a technocratic flavour. The mishmash coalition, formed only this year but with half the Undergrounds contacts and arms has rapidly organized into a fighting force, and theyve made as much progress as the remainder of the Underground in fighting the government.
PARIS THREATENED ON ALL SIDES
The heart of France, and the former seat of military power in the country, Paris has been the main site of rebel push from both ARON and the Underground. Government forces have also recognized the importance of the citys millions of inhabitants, though have also spent the year scuffling much of the citys industrial resources to safer areas in the south. Both disrupted trade from three competing militaries combined with this policy of industrial evacuation has put the city in dire risk of starvation, however swift occupation of the city and its surrounding area might alleviate the imminent threat. Some are concerned, should ARON and the Underground push on Paris simultaneously, that urban conflict might erupt between partisans loyal to each cause, something government forces may or may not be abetting.