By: Iota (New Astri)
20 May, 2022

Every so often, something truly exciting happens on NationStates. Something big enough that the entire site starts talking about it. Over the past week, one of those events has been happening. Many of you likely already know what I'm referring to: Infamously bigoted region Confederacy of Layem has been raided!

Layem was a thorn in the side of the NationStates community for the many long years it existed. "If only it didn't have an active founder nation to protect it, we could raid it," was a common sentiment among military leaders. In a sudden and thrilling twist, Layem's founder nation was recently deleted for the rule-breaking offense of commercialization, or offering real-life rewards for in-game actions. The founder returned on a new account, and promptly began to insult the site moderators. A few days later, all of the founder's nations were deleted, and he was declared Delete-on-Site, rendering him banned from the entire game.

Layem's delegate passworded the region mere hours after its founder was deleted, preventing a raid from taking place. However, this Security Council proposal, authored by Quebecshire and approved by 93.9% of voters, ensured that the password would be nullified. While the gameplay community was waiting for the password to be nullified, it set its sights on a different target: The region Layem was evacuating to, Concord.

Concord fell quickly to a fantastic raiding force assembled from a wide variety of regions. It has since been locked down, and now serves as both a military trophy and historical landmark. On the very same night as the raid on Concord, many regions which the founder of Layem had previously owned were deleted and subsequently refounded by mercenaries from around the NationStates globe. One example is Trans, a region Layem's founder had previously draped in bigoted sentiment. Now, as the region's new founder indicates, it's owned by a trans, communist, raider lesbian...huh, something about that might sound familiar to some TCB members.

After Concord was conquered, Confederacy of Layem was next. The Security Council proposal passed, and the moment it did, a stunning 108 people participated in the initial attack against Layem. There certainly won't be anyone defending the region, but more participants are still needed. Layem is over four years old, and due to how the game's influence mechanic works, this means it will take a significant number of participants to fully clear the region of its bigoted natives.

As for the Bloc, our members are incredibly enthusiastic about joining this historic raid. The whole of our military, the Peoples Revolutionary Air Force, is mobilizing to join in the destruction of Layem. Some members of the Bloc are even becoming PRAF recruits just to participate. A full statistical report of PRAF participants will be published soon. For now, celebrate the NationStates community's dedicated efforts to keep bigots off our site!

Recommended further reading about Layem's fall:

PRAF Report - The Raid on Concord
Concord Wrap-Up
Coalition'd (Political Cartoon)
Victory in Layem

Certain editions of the Red Standard will, in the future, include crosswords, riddles, ciphers, and other puzzles for all of TCB to solve! Prepare yourself for a puzzle bonanza!

This very edition, in fact, has 2 puzzles - a crossword and a more complex, two-step puzzle!

Awards will be given out to TCB members who are first to solve these puzzles - an Epic card for the first person to solve the crossword and a Legendary card for the first person to solve the two-step puzzle!

Everyone who successfully solves one of puzzles we've prepared for you will be mentioned in the next Red Standard.

Here's the starting point for the two-step puzzle: What disappears as soon as you say its name?

Hint: Start on the NationStates website.

Good luck, TCB!

It is no secret that the legal system of TCB lies today in deep disrepair.

Its numerous laws have seldom been updated.

Its provisions are sometimes self-contradicting.

Its sections are often incomprehensible to TCB citizens.

The best example of the state of our laws is the Criminal Law Act. It is older than both our current AND our previous constitution. Some crimes in it have a definition - but lack a proper sentence! The way crimes are categorized defies all reason (harassment, for example, is considered a minor crime).

The rework of our legal system that was supposed to follow the creation of our current constitution never materialized - leaving us with a hodgepodge of dysfunctional laws.

For some time now, discussion has been brewing in the Bloc about what is to be done about all this.

Some were convinced that our legal system has grown too complex and outdated - that it is beyond salvation. We HAVE to choose to ignore laws and let ourselves be guided by common sense only - they claimed - otherwise we'd be unable to do anything.

I do not, however, share this belief. Common sense should definitely play a role in our day to day decisions - but we have to make sure we have laws everyone can follow.

What is common sense to me, after all, might not be common sense to you - some form of formalized, agreed-upon rules is necessary for any sort of complex endeavour, and our Bloc is certainly a complex organization.

Keeping the laws as they are is an unacceptable proposition - they simply have too many flaws that we can not afford to ignore.

The only possible option, in my opinion, is to start a complete rework of our current legal system. We must ascertain which parts we want to keep, which we want to amend and which we want to remove!

The Legislative Committee has already made the important first step on this long journey. It has started the debate process on amending the Medals and Decorations Act 2016. They've proposed the addition of several new medals for the top manual recruiters, as well as a reform of the military medal system.

It is our duty as the Bloc's citizens to be active participants in the creation and amending of laws!

I urge everyone here to try to read some of the laws in TCB's Law Archive. We can only change our current system if we understand it - reading through the Law Archive will help you in that.

Heya, Aquila/Eriadni here.

I’m gonna take over from where Pan kath left off last week and take a look at the next section of Principles of Communism! This is one of my favourite starting points for people interested in revolutionary politics. It’s clear, well written and gives you a good starting point before diving into the more complex stuff.
If you haven’t already downloaded it, there’s a free English language pdf file available here: https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/C08-Manifesto-_-Principles-of-Communism-2nd-Printing.pdf

Principles begins on p77. Now to the good stuff…

Question 3: Proletarians, then have not always existed?
Answer: No. Poor folk and working classes have always existed, and the working classes have mostly been poor. But there have not always been workers and poor people living under the conditions just stated; in other words, there have not always been proletarians any more than there has always been free and unbridled competition.

This is a pretty important section because it highlights the historical role and importance of the proletariat as a class. This argument has its base in two related, but slightly different interpretations of history and political economy.

The first point to note is that the experience of working people under capitalism was different to previously lived versions of poverty. Whilst Engels rightfully notes that poor and working people have almost always lived in poor and vulnerable conditions, the experience of the peasant or agrarian worker under feudalism should be distinguished from that under capitalism. Under feudalism, peasants and working people were for the most part tied to the land and were known as serfs. A lord would own an estate of land and included and bonded with that estate were the serfs. Nominally in return for protection, serfs would provide a portion of their harvest or produce for the feudal lord. Serfs were bought and sold along with the property and were generally forbidden to leave their estate without paying some form of compensation to the lord. They may have also been expected to provide days of free labour to their lords.

This was of course a terribly exploitative relationship, but generally the fortunes of local serfs were dependent on the weather and agricultural conditions. A poor harvest year would lead to malnutrition, whilst a good year would bring comparative prosperity. This existence would have been very difficult, however the ties to land meant serfs had at least some security of feeding themselves. Under capitalism, the proletariat have nothing but their labour to sell, making their existence in many ways more precarious than that of the serf.

The second point is that proletarians fulfill a specific role within the capitalist economy. The historical working poor did not fulfill the same functions as the proletariat do under capitalism, which is in turn the subject of Marx and Engels' later writings and analysis of capitalist political economy. You can summarise a bit and say that the proletariat are often the working poor, but the working poor have not always been the proletariat.

That was a longer discussion than last week, so we might leave it there before going to a very meaty section in Question 4 next week!

Red Salute!
Aquila

By: LoweVonBayern (UFROE)
20 May, 2022

A terrible nuclear disaster, which led to the deaths of millions, took place in the Aniv Nuclear Plant of the Unified Soviet State Republic. The explosion killed people within a 500 mile radius, and it leveled the cities of Moscow and Omsk to the ground. At first many blamed a flaw in the safety systems of the facility. Dr. Henry Fogl, sent by UFROE as part of an aid team who tried to prevent the disaster, discovered that a water cooling chamber of the 4th reactor had been emptied. The result of this problem would cause an explosion that had a force of over 500 tons. Allies soon sent aid and supplies to civilians trapped in bunkers due to the high levels of radioactivity. Eventually, the nation slowly began to recover from the disaster, as it's leadership stayed strong and the citizenry stayed stronger.

Amid all the chaos in the nation, a terrorist group known as the Mad Hatters struck multiple cities, trying to overthrow the government as they raided bunkers. Thankfully allied forces quickly intervened and defeated the Mad Hatters.
Following the discovery of possible Mad Hatter involvement in the Aniv Nuclear Disaster and their attack on the civilians of the Unified Soviet State Republic, the Mad Hatters found themselves at war. The nations of Liberza and UFROE, supported by their allies in Proletarska, deployed troops to fight against the terrorists. After successfully repelling attacks from the Mad Hatters, and clearing the Unified Soviet State Republic of them, the allies decided to nuke the Mad Hatters HQ in North America. Soon conflict broke out across the globe, as nations from many different continents discovered and destroyed Mad Hatter bases. The efforts began in the Middle East, and North Africa, with several thousand troops from both UFROE and Liberza being deployed to combat. Not long after, the Mad Hatters were exterminated there and now they only held Asia and Southern Africa. A threat of the usage of nuclear weaponry by Liberza led to the Mad Hatters scrambling for safety, as they attempted to sail to the African Coast. Unfortunately for them they were met, and stopped by, the UFROEian Navy in the decisive Battle of the Indian Ocean, where over 1,200 terrorist ships were sunk.

With that their only stronghold left was in the nation of South Africa. A swift coup, secretly supported by UFROE, led to the Mad Hatters losing protection from the national government. Soon soldiers of the coalition had surrounded the final Mad Hatter HQ. After many hours of fighting the base was finally broken into, with the terrorists being captured. The war, which had killed hundreds of thousands of people, was finally over, and the nations of the Communist Bloc had triumphed over the capitalist terrorists. The troops, barring of course the 28,000 dead ,would go home. Peace was re-established across the world.

Politics:

• If you’re not endorsing our delegate Kethania, you should do that straight away! Every endorsement on our delegate protects our regional security as well as amplifies our voice on WA resolutions. If you are not, you are limited to 10 endorsements yourself. You should also endorse our vice delegates, Marxmeans, Shamian, and The Workers Union of Habsburg-Lorraine!

• Become a citizen! This allows you to participate in regional politics, pick your representatives, and join the Regional Discord server. More information can be found here.

• Check out the Law Archive. It is an easy way to navigate and keep track of all our laws. This document is updated as new laws get passed.

• If you are interested in getting involved, consider participating in one of our volunteer programs. Citizens can become volunteers by inquiring in the Regional Discord. We greatly appreciate the work all our volunteers do!

NationStates:

• Want some endorsements? Run the Revolutionary Endorsement Program! It's simple and doesn't take very much time. Endorse comrades, get endorsed back. Alternatively, post the following to the RMB:

  [nation]ink_cloud[/nation], rep

  Our RMB bot, created by Kethania, will give you a list of nations to endorse.

• We have published the Master Dispatch. This should be the first place you go if you are looking for information on TCB or NationStates. It contains links to every major resource, and it is pinned under the WFE.

• We're always interested in having residents of TCB participate in the region. If you have an idea for a fun cultural event, an interesting news article, or any other way you'd like to contribute to the region, telegram a Minister to make your suggestion!

Other:

• We have created a list of leftist resources! This is an ongoing project, and if you think there is something missing from this list, please telegram or DM me. I am Pan Kath here and kole#2926 on Discord.