“Fellow self-organized workers of the world: Sadly, class-consciousness is not ours alone. The international bourgeoisie was fractured and factional at the time of our first Revolutions, and the aristocracy only united at a regional level. Their disunity was our opportunity, and now six proletarian republics and countless self-managing cooperatives and unions have reclaimed that which was justly ours all along: The means of production, the freedom to organize, and democracy in the workplace. “But now, seeing the tide of liberation on the horizon, the capitalist exploiters and political puppet-masters and military enforcers of the bourgeois republics look to one another for support. They are beginning to speak together with one voice and act with one mind. Even old aristocrats prefer to submit to their former bourgeois enemies rather than give a single concession to the working class. Such we see in Colongo, where the Ventian Tsar sends his legions to slaughter Usonians at the beck and call of his Ereatian superiors. “But nowhere is the new class unity of the international bourgeoisie more clear than in the words of their puppets: Political figureheads. They are so desperate to discredit us that they blatantly project their own evils onto their conjured-up image of Syndicalism. The recent radio address by Archon Antiochus Soter is a prime example. “He speaks of the threat of global war to the 'warmth of peace,' without mentioning that he and his kin already started a global war. They expropriated the peasant, disinherited the artisan, and starved the new class of landless laborers they created in the name of 'progress' and 'industry.' They deprived these workers of every right and freedom in the name of 'efficiency.' So we toil in fifteen-hour workdays for pennies, our every movement regulated by 'expert managers' who push us to the verge of death by exhaustion. So we are forced to beg or steal for bread, so that the Archon and his capitalist friends may feast and enjoy every perverse delight they can buy with granaries and warehouses full of the products of our labor. And then of course there is Imperialism, the colonization of rightfully-sovereign peoples, who the capitalists bleed dry to enrich themselves even further or, for the more clever among them, bribe us workers with breadcrumbs to stave off revolt. “Is this not war on the greatest and most atrocious of scales? Or do the countless dead from overwork, careless industrial accidents, needless famine, noxious chemicals, and the callous military suppression of all resistance not count? But even then, they would have to account for the horrors of colonial war forced upon proletarian conscripts and indigenous peoples. “So the capitalist or aristocrat who accuses Syndicalism of fomenting war is either lying or hopelessly ignorant. The War of the Classes began hundreds of years ago; the only difference now is that we have the means to even the playing field. “But let us examine another claim made by the respectable Archon. Malassa, he declares with passion, stands for freedom, and would gladly befriend the proletarian republics of the world if only they were not authoritarian themselves. Even more ludicrously, he claims that Brouges has been imposing its will on those republics! Personally, I would ask that the honorable Archon make a visit to Liberated Territory before spewing slander and bourgeois propaganda. But I doubt that would change his tune: He speaks not with his own voice, but with that of the Bourgeois Class. To the Bourgeois, 'democracy' is all about paper cards and voting booths. To the Bourgeois, 'freedom' is the simple formula of might equals right. He has no concept of democracy in the workplace and the housing-block, so he reels in disgust at the achievements of Workers' Councils and housing collectives. He has no concept of collective freedom: Freedom from want, freedom in mutual aid, freedom to organize, freedom to strike and protest, freedom to reap the full benefits of the fields and factories we work. “What the Archon defends is only freedom and democracy in the narrowest, cruelest sense. Freedom to enslave, and the right to choose your favorite of two or three wealthy pawns who will never have the faintest idea of how we live and how we think. It is a flimsy veil to the world's true authoritarianism: International Capitalism. And the Revolutionary Syndicalist International, not only in Brouges but in every corner of this Earth, is one of the few but ever-growing people's movements that oppose this authoritarianism. Alongside us in the struggle are our comrades in the Usonian Communist Party, the Esperantist Commune, and countless smaller organizations whose contributions we must never discount. To call any of these organizations authoritarian is a contradiction in terms: We are federations of self-organized laborers in worker councils, self-organized peasants in village cooperatives, self-organized slum and street residents in mutual aid societies and housing collectives, and self-organized survivors of imperialism in national liberation movements. The very heart of our movements is the fundamental principle of democratic self-determination. “So, of course, the Archon must lie to make his point. He claims that Brouges forced a canal project on Dereham, when the reality is quite the opposite. Syndintern made a concession to the Republic of Dereham by choosing to contribute resources to a project which the Republic was already intent on, in return for Dereham's decisive commitment to worker ownership and management of the economy. The Archon also claims that Brouges has imposed controls on Naarden, Flamardie, and the other republics of the Northern Federation. Perhaps if he had a slightest idea of life in Liberated Territory, he would know that the NFRU is perhaps the most decentralized of any state in the world. The republics' autonomy, like syndicalist workers' autonomy, is the very ideal of freedom and justice. Perhaps the honorable Archon has confounded national centralization with Class Unity, no doubt because his own Class Unity depends on such heavy state repression. “But we, the United Industrial Workers and all our comrades in the International, we are not united by the power of police and surveillance and court injunctions. We are not united by any state machinery, benign or evil. We are united by the Work Exchange, the Labor Union, and class-conscious federation and re-federation of our many organizations into a global movement for the overthrow of tyrants like the bourgeois cronies and aristocratic reactionaries the Archon represents. “ALL POWER TO THE COUNCILS! ALL POWER TO THE UNIONS!”-In the original recording of the speech in Cournaillais, applause is audible immediately after the final shout. This is absent in the translated transcript aired outside of Cournaille.-
Office of the RSI Spokesperson, People Proletarian University, Brouges Gerald Veron though deeply about the subject. Going to war means that people will lose their lives. What good is freedom when not everyone could enjoy it? Being a country is not about borders, resources or cities. What truly matters is those who live in it. "We'll be needing small arms such as rifles, hand grenades, explosives and man portable anti tank weapons. Weapons that are easy hidden and transported. Also light anti-aircraft weapons will be a necessity. Furthermore we'll be needing trainers who can teach us how to handle the weaponry." Gerald Veron grabbed a piece of paper and started to write down some numbers. 25.000 rifles 15.000 submachine guns 40.000 pistols 1.000 mortars 5.000 anti-tank rifles/rockets 4.000 machineguns 2.000 light anti-aircraft weapons "Can you supply these weapons next month? They can be smuggled across the border with Alleghany or through the port of Colongo City. I would also like to present the Usonian case to the revolutionary workers congress.""Brouges has plenty of weapons stores waiting for export. The Revolutionary Guard could fill that order by the end of the week, if you can help arrange the transportation. My most recent report from Marshal Quin Caradec suggests that we can send around ninety veteran trainers and advisors along with the weapons and ammunition. "We also have a Volunteer Militia Regiment of eight-hundred Usonian expatriates living in Brouges who have requested to be notified in the event that they can feasibly deploy in Colongo. They have their own armaments and supplies. Shall I relay the message to them? "And as for the Congress, I will call for the delegates to assemble an Emergency Session in the name of the Usonian Revolutionary plight. They should be able to congregate the day after tomorrow."
OY! That's for the IC! >:OWhat do you want? I'll omit vassalship if that's what you want.Talis, my offer?Hah, you'll have to do better than that. I didn't throw off the colonial oppression of one faction just to shackle myself again. Give me a good offer, or I'll go get cuddly with the NFRU.