New Eden People's Association
The workers united will never be defeated!
Anthem: A Las Barricadas (You can listen to it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=wZAgWC9G8WY)
March: The Internationale (You can listen to it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=5DTbashsKic)
Capital: None. The Association's system of administration is fully decentralised.
Largest city: Malatesta
Official languages: None. There is no state to sanction languages as such.
National languages: The colonists are primarily descended from Spanish and English speakers, and proficiency in these languages is still widespread. However, use of Lojban as an auxiliary language is growing, and most publications are trilingual.
Ethnic groups: The Association is a multi-racial society. The colonists were primarily white, but waves of immigrants of all races have since arrived and contributed to the gene pool. Most citizens today are mixed-race.
Demonym: None. The citizens of the Association do not usually refer to themselves by demonyms exclusive to this territory- they are either settlers, citizens, or comrades.
Government: Anarchist federation. Industrial collectives and agricultural communes, as well as citizen's councils, are grouped together loosely into regional federations. These form the backbone of the Association as a whole. Decisions are made by direct and/or consensus democracy where possible- where impractical, instantly recallable mandated delegates are elected or chosen by lottery (for instance when dealing with outside entities). These are the Speakers with whom the outside world interacts.
Legislature: None. Legislative, executive, and judicial functions are all in the hands of the people.
Independence from Earth: Declared 2080, upon the foundation of the first settlement at Aragon. Since the planet of New Eden was too remote and insignificant to effectively police or exert control over, the government in Earth has never disputed this claim or initiated hostilities against the Association. A steady trickle of immigrants arrives in the Association spaceport to this day, although this is a far cry from the waves of the past. It is now 2162. It is almost the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Association by a handful of libertarian socialists who decided to start anew on another world rather than struggle on Earth.
Population: Approximately 126,000. The populations of specific settlements are listed below (all values are to the nearest thousand):
- Goldman: 18,000.
- Malatesta: 40,000.
- Aragon: 6,000.
- Zapata: 10,000.
- Barcelona: 16,000.
- Kropotkin: 11,000.
- Pankhurst: 13,000.
- Minor outlying settlements: 12,000.
GDP (PPP): Impossible to calculate. There is no unified system of currency, and all industrial accounting is done using calculation in kind. The national economy operates according to various specific schemes, as decided by the locals; all are based on libertarian socialism, but each arranges distribution and compensation slightly differently. Some communes are entirely gift economies (as advocated by Kropotkin), some are based on work quotas (of the type employed in Twin Oaks (watch this:
vimeo.com/89076764), and some have collectivist labour voucher systems in place (as advocated by Bakunin).
GDP (nominal): As above.
Gini coefficient: Difficult to quantify, but somewhere near zero.
Human development index: Difficult to calculate due to lack of GDP. However, there is universal literacy and free access to healthcare and social services for all citizens.
Currency: Labour vouchers (the amount citizens receive is calculated based on time worked, amount achieved, and desirability of labour. The system is thus self-compensating; the fewer people do a job, the more rewarding the job becomes in terms of labour vouchers) in the communities which employ them. Elsewhere, there is free access to basic goods and rationing for luxuries.
Date format: Y.M.D and/or H.M.S. Dates are thus usually given as such: 2162.12.28 and times as such: 10.56.48. The full date/time can also be given like so: 2162.12.28 10.56.48.
Drives on the: There is not enough private transport for it to be worth establishing a standard.
And now for some extra information of my own, detailing the history, culture, military, and technology of the NEPA.
History: The anarchist movement on earth had been in stagnation for almost two centuries by the 2070s, and the situation on Earth was only getting worse. Massive surveillance, environmental deterioration, and the rise of various neo-fascist movements quickly made the situation hopeless. The 2072 conference of the International of Anarchist Federations brought together the would-be settlers of New Eden. Roughly 800 libertarian socialists of various tendencies (anarchists and Marxists alike) clubbed together to purchase an old ion-drive freighter, which they refurbished and pressed back into service. The target- a garden planet girdled with a vast ocean and dotted with islands on the fringe of the Galaxy. Upon arrival in 2080, the colonists set about building utopia. Earth never had the chance or the will to intervene. Several generations and waves of immigration later, the descendants of those 800 exiles, and their newfound allies, have constructed a functional socialist society.
Culture and Religion: The majority of the population are atheists (over 96%). There are, however, minorities of Buddhists, pacifist Christians, and pagans.
Military: The NEPA does not have a professional standing army, but it is certainly not defenseless. All able-bodied citizens are eligible to volunteer for the People's Militia. Each commune, syndicate, and council is responsible for mustering its own militia in the case of attack, with these militias then coordinated through the federal framework of the People's Militia. The Militia maintain several armories around the island from which weapons are distributed at times of need, as well as performing the role of a police force in enforcing the decisions made by the people's courts in peacetime. The NEPA military is oriented entirely towards defence- the Militia are trained in guerrilla tactics with which to wreak havoc upon invading forces, and the autonomous decentralised structure of the local militias means that they are aptly suited to defending terrain with which they are familiar, but ill-suited to large-scale attacks on foreign soil.
Technology: The NEPA experiment has established a stable society in a condition of almost zero growth. As such, technology has not advanced much beyond the level it was in the mid-to-late 21st century. The only significant advances industrially have been significant improvements in hydroponics and industrial automation, which mean that the island is able to easily meet and exceed domestic food requirements and the citizens have a relatively short working week. Unlike in capitalist economies, advances in productivity do not result in crises of unemployment, but rather are used to bolster the equitable distribution of labour. Space travel has also advanced significantly since the establishment of the colony, developed during the mass transit of immigrants to the island. Despite being perfectly sufficient to run the island's industrial and hydroponic systems, computer technology here is markedly primitive, mostly based on the two-dimensional GUI paradigm introduced in the 20th century. Another weakness is the realm of the military; most weaponry available is either projectile-based or explosive, and all are merely developments of technologies available in the 20th and 21st century.
