News Media of Istkalen

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Socialization?

The Council of Ministers is allegedly discussing the issue of socialization - whether it might be a solution to many of the efficiency issues that have plagued Istkalen's industrial and mining sectors. Currently, both are extremely decentralized, formed of great numbers of indidivudal producers who cooperate merely informally. The issue, however, is that this form of organization has hampered the production of raw materials. Despite the country's wealth of coal and iron, it produces little steel or even cast iron, despite both being in high demand by light-industrial producers and craftspeople. Mining output, too, is erratic, mines themselves often constantly embroiled in legal disputes as a result of their vague status in regards to ownership. Particularly in these times, when the country continues to face even more extreme shortages as a result of the combination of widespread crop failures and continued international sanctions placed by major economic powers, particularly Inimicus, very few believe that the situation is sustainable.

What is it?

What socialization would entail would be the merging of all privately held mining and industrial property into larger syndicates, which would then excercise democratic control over mining and industrial production, introducing structure and a planning of sorts and thus more stable production An idea of the Communist era, when politicians sought to create a "humanized socialism," it saw success economically, increasing and rationalizing production, although much of this has been attributed to the high levels of education that most Istkalener workers are effectively required to have because of the general lack of the division of labor, but was extremely controversial - it flew in the face of custom and caused significant disruption to the lives of individual workers, who had previously been accustomed to high levels of independence.

In the modern day, socialized organization is present only in the utility sector, where it is widely seen as necessary, even by utility workers; decentralized forms of organization are seen simply as irrational, and state-ownership a step too far from Istkalener principles of production.

Who supports it?

The traditional base of Istkalener politics - craftspeople/light-industrial producers and agricultural producers - demand the socialization of both. Light-industrial producers and craftsmen have a constant need for refined industrial materials, from metals to, in the modern day, carbon fiber. The present system of heavy industry in Istkalen, in addition to the erratic nature of mining, has often denied their demands, and forced them to "make do" with inadequate materials. The state in recent years has instead opted to purchase materials from abroad, and then pay for them using the profits from export; but this is seen as introducing trade deficit, which would leave Istkalen at the mercy of other nations.

As for agricultural workers, many are dependent on machinery produced by light-industrial producers, which requires, in particular, metals which can only be produced and refined by heavy-industrial producers. The erratic and unstable nature of heavy industry in Istkalen means that they must often do without machinery or working machinery, sometimes reducing yields and thus their personal profit.

The state, too, seeks to develop Istkalen as more self-sufficient, but also an exporter of refined products. It sees the mining industry as unsustainable, and seeks to rationalize heavy industry in particular in order to establish new industries to take over the position which mining has taken and to maintain the country's narrow trade surplus. The development of heavy industry also plays a role in their desire to modernize the country - like Communist planners of other countries, they see heavy industry as necessary to develop other forms of industry independently - that is, to improve the lives of ordinary Istkaleners and increase the country's image abroad.

Miners are also in support - socialization would merely confirm the currently existing system and end the endless legal conflicts, while rationalizing production to offer individual miners more stable income than usual.

Who opposes it?

Opposed are primarily professionals and heavy-industrial producers.

Most professionals in Istkalen see the issue of heavy-industry as one that must be overcome through national means, rather than merely adopting the practices of other nations. Idealistic in ideology, many believe it possible for Istkalen to develop technology to allow for greater efficiency and rationalization while maintaining decentralized forms of industrial organization. Others see the country as needing to divorce itself from heavy industry, and pursue a path based on modernizing agriculture and light-industry, to produce high-quality products, from clothing to electronics, perhaps using to an extent the country's national resources. Many see it as an innapropriate expression of nativism that could be better directed - an expression of superstition and ancient ideas that should be discarded.

Heavy-industrial producers are opposed because the action would negatively affect their independence. Most producers in general hold their independence as a matter of pride - they want the ability to decide what they can produce, what hours they work, and much more. It is so ingrained in the minds of many that it has become almost a symbol of the nation. In the minds of many, to take this away would be denying them that dignity, as well as their nationality, as well as corrupting the country by the West. Others feel that socialization is an insult, implying that they are not, for whatever reason, educated or intelligent enough to manage their own affairs truly independently. Many, like professionals, also look forwards to a possible modernization on Istkalener terms, using new technology, efforts which many are intimately involved in. ; the fact

What is the government position?

Information about government position is little more than rumor. While it is already known that mining is likely to be socialized, the issue of heavy industry also is more contentious. The government does not want to alienate citizens, particularly during the current campaign against "religious extremism and superstitions;" it is unlikely to make any public statements.

However, insiders claim that there is a fierce divide; the Head of State and PM are allegedly opposed, but parts of the cabinet, particularly "technocrats" like Demirkol and Kerel, are strongly in favor. Nothing can be conclusively said, however, until something official is released, which is, again, not going to happen for some time if ever.

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Virejane loosens restrictions on Arianism, Islam; national-level workers' associations hold protests in favor of raising taxes as a result of alleged 'debt-trap diplomacy'

Minister of Religious Affairs Kūseli Virejane, in return for supporting significant welfare reform proposed by Finance Minister Antras Arkalis, has managed, with the force of the German and Turkish communities behind her, to loosen restrictions on Arian Christianity and Islam that presently exist in the country. While restrictions on the wearing of religious clothing and symbols in public will continue, the two religious sects will be allowed a degree of independence. Organizations, albeit nominally secular organizations, consisting of all believers in both religions will have a degree of control over the instruction of clergy, as well as theology itself, although the Ministry of Religious Affairs will be able to veto and amend their decisions.

Virejane also succeeded in creating a general workers' association for clergy, irrespective of religion, which will also be nominally secular but will have power to regulate the general conduct of clergy, as well as their income. Ownership of religious buildings will also be transferred to the workers' association, which will then be charged with managing them.

Virejane's reforms were passed only narrowly. They were opposed by most of the government until Virejane's deal with Arkalis, and even now are only supported in a grudging way.

"I am personally opposed to Virejane's reforms. They have eroded secularism in Istkalen, and will certainly contribute to a rise in further insanity. The occupation has ended; we must recover the reputation and prestige of our country, rather than acting to bury it. Yet if I did not accept them, she and her small faction would not have approved my proposed reforms, and thus Istkalen would have been plunged into terrible debt, which it absolutely cannot afford," said Minister Arkalis yesterday. "We must consider the greater good, we must, sometimes, make compromises."

The Head of State, who holds veto power and previously acted to veto a similar reform that Virejane pursued unilaterally, refused to do so again.

"Whether I agree or disagree with the reform does not matter," he said at a press conference yesterday. "It was pursued in accordance with the law, unlike the previous attempt of Minister Virejane to enact widespread reform using a generous interpretation of the act establishing her ministry as justification, and thus I have no reason to strike it down. Yes, I have the power to do so, but I feel that I must uphold legality and precedent regardless of my personal feelings."

The Prime Minister allegedly reacted angrily to the passage of the reform, although she did not appear for comment.

"She thought it an insult to the state," said an individual close to the Prime Minister who wishes to remain anonymous. "She thought it dangerous. She was also one of the main supporters of the original legislation, and for her to see it scrapped, in part, so early on seemed no short of devastating. She delivered a thirty-minute long speech, really a rant, about the dangers of religious belief after the Council of Ministers had voted."

Pope Tabitha, according to guards at the unknown location in which she is kept, was told of the passage of the legislation, and did not react. Other members of the Arian clergy, however, did. A universalist elector, who wishes to remain anonymous, privately stated that the reforms were "a real Godsend...a blessing. The church was in danger of dying, so persecuted it was - now at least we may conduct ourselves, and be free of the extremists, the conservatives."

This sentiment is reflected by most universalist Arians, who have long been opposed both to religious regulation and the extremist conservatism of other factions within the Arian church, and similarly see the reforms as accomplishing all that they desired.

Perhaps obviously, conservatives within the church have strongly opposed the reforms, calling for a return to the past in which the church had free reign; however, few remain, as most were arrested for various reasons. Some attempted to stage a protest, which according to the people's committee in the area which it took place turned into a riot, which then had to be suppressed, leading to the arrest of all of the demonstrators.

Within the Muslim community in Istkalen, which has been historically radically reformist and is condemned as a group of heretics by most others within the international community, reactions have been more limited, but generally positive.

In other news, Vardic attempts at investing and sponsoring the construction of high-speed freight in Istkalen have led to accusations of debt-trap diplomacy. A number of national-level workers' associations have expressed significant concern over the level of debt that the Republic may be incurring by accepting Vardic investment, particularly in regards to the possibility that it could be used by the Vardic state to justify interference in the domestic affairs of Istkalen. In order to pre-empt this, as such, many have voted to begin demonstrations in favor of higher taxation, in order to limit debt and preempt the possibility of default.

"We have just regained our independence," said a member of the national-level workers' committee of the Professionals' Association. "We must not give it up now. Regardless of what the intentions of the Vards are, we must tread carefully."

Demonstrations began today, and have been combined with other efforts to reduce debt in general. The Agricultural Workers' Association, for example, fearing that the already financially precarious situation of the state could cause Istkalen to become severely indebted to Vardic lenders and investors, sought to re-negotiate agreements it had made with the central government over the procurement of agricultural goods, in the favor of the government, in order to reduce its debt and thus the possibility of future default.

"We will lose now," said the Elder of the national-level workers' council of the association, in an attempt to justify the decision to the agricultural workers of Istkalen, "but we will prevent ourselves from an even greater loss in the future. Our independence, our dignity, and our future prosperity are sacrosanct. Surely we will not be so shortsighted to desire prosperity now, and sacrifice our future well-being?"

An independent movement has also begun among domestic holders of bonds, many of whom have pledged not to demand repayment from the government. However, this has been significantly less enthusiastic than the actions of the workers' associations, and is not expected to have a significant effect on reducing debt.

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Minister of Development defends plans for automation: "Uneducated people should have nothing"

The government today appeared for scrutiny before the eighteen workers' asssociations - two having been created since November. Significant concern was expressed over the increasingly autocratic actions of the government, particularly of the Prime Minister and those aligned with her, the foreign policy of the state, especially in regards to the Strait crisis of several months ago, and the "worrying" statement of the Head of State regarding the future structure of the Republic, which laid out an authoritarian vision of the future. Other questions regarded the continued hostility of the state towards the Kingdom of Reitzmag, the country's development policy, the state of the country's finances, and the continued shortages of basic goods and housing.

Perhaps most interesting was, however, the response of the Minister of Development to a question asked by a representative of the laborers' association in regards to automation. Both the Rikkalek I and following Malk governments had strongly promoted automation as a simpler way to solve one of the dilemmas of Istkalenic industrial organization - that is, how decentralization could be applied to widescale industry, which is traditionally centralized - as well as of labor - whether it is ethical for manual laborers to be employed on an effectively permanent basis by so-called "industrial workers" particularly in heavy industry - simply by eliminating the problem entirely. Other given reasons were also economic - the state wished to modernize and to develop new and indigenous industry, and it saw expansion into this unexplored area as a way to do both.

The Laborers' Association has long since voiced opposition to automation without plans for them, and has sought to negotiate with the state for some agreement to either limit automation or guarantee them greater welfare temporarily and the ability to engage in certain professions without examination. The question that the representative in question asked was expected; the association had in fact previously asked it of the government, although then the government was under no obligation to respond, and did not; it regarded whether the state had any plans for re-employing or retraining manual laborers who, in a system with greater automation, would lose the vast majority of their work.

The response was a long tirade by the Minister of Development, responsible for implementing and to an extent developing state policy on this issue, against manual laborers, which he repeatedly called "uneducated people."

"The uneducated people in this country," he said, "always demand things, and contribute nothing. They are like tumors, they exist only because we have taken no action against them, and grudgingly tolerate them. What use do we have for them? The educated people of this country do not have any inclinations against manual labor; it is expected of them. To this very day, they perform a great deal of manual labor in their work. We do not sulk about in darkened offices like the feeble and stupid Westerners, we work with both hand and mind at once. Unlike the West, then, where the uneducated can indeed suck from the educated all of their wealth because the educated are unwilling to perform labor, like leeches, here we have no use for them but for charity. Being a kind people, then, we give them charity, we allow them some of their work so that they may survive. But charity cannot last forever. We may be merciful, we may be gentle, but we are not endless fountains of wealth. We cannot support these leeches anymore, for they are now genuinely harming us."

"Currently, we all know that there is a harsh debate over the issue of employment and industrial structure, which focuses on the role that the uneducated people play. If there were no uneducated people, this issue would not exist, and we would be free to pursue more productive things. Unfortunately, however, they do and some misguided people believe that we must focus on them, that we must treat them as equals. But they are not equals, and we must not focus on them. As I said, the whole of their existence depends on our charity, the charity of the educated. They are mere wisps in s in the corners of our eyes, that is all, like dogs. We care for dogs, do we not, but we would not put them above humans, or ourselves. If we had to, for our own survival, for the survival of others, we would let a dog die, it would fade from importance. So it must be here. The uneducated are like dogs, and we are starving people. We must stop giving our remaining food to the dogs, and reserve it for ourselves. Let them die, let them all die, it does not matter. We did not need them, really, we do not need them."

"In part, even, our kindness was misguided. They are parasites, all of them; we should have killed them all, but now we cannot. Regardless, uneducated people should have nothing. They don't deserve anything. They are a weight on our nation. In fact they are responsible for the darkness that our nation was plunged into. If all the uneducated people were dead we would be much happier, and the nation would be thriving."

"What automation does is liberate the educated person from onerous labor, but not from all manual labor; but more impotantly, it deprives the uneducated people of any purpose, of any place, it expels them from the nation and leaves them with nothing, so that they may all shrivel up and die, leaving us free of their parasitism. It is like medicine, a very good medicine, like a magical chemotherapy which helps the body and kills the tumor. It is thus objectively good, there is no doubt."

Manual laborers have historically held a low societal position in Istkalen, a class which is seen as being composed of rejects unable to function in society, and which until recently did not possess full citizenship or rights. Significant discrimination against them still exists; violations of labor law against them, for example, are rarely taken seriously, if at all. Sentiments like that of the Minister of Development are rarely expressed, but in general automation is seen as a good thing for similar reasons - Istkaleners will no longer have to employ or interact with members of the class.

Regardless, the Minister of Development was forced to retract his comments publically by the Head of State, who is rumored to have threatened him with prison. The Head of State later answered the question himself.

"Firstly," he said, "I would like to apologize for the innaprorpriate and disturbing comments of the Minister of Development on behalf of the government. He has since been disciplined. But to directly answer the question, the government's desire is to re-employ those affected by the drive for industrial automation in other areas, particularly new infrastructural projects which will require a large supply of such labor."

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Reforms again

Vistek Rikkalek, newly empowered, has driven the state towards reform yet again. For the past eight months the country has vacillated between extremes; now again from one it seems to be jumping back to another. The government of Malk represented, in spite of communist participation, the right in Istkalen, a right characterized by authoritarianism and isolationism; Rikkalek's agenda, his second government, represents the left, more naive and more inclined towards openness.

Rikkalek, in an address to representatives of the workers' associations, divided his reform into three areas - reform in regard to industrial organization, reform in regard to industrial production, and reforms in regard to bureaucracy and the organization of the state. All three, he claims, were and are hampered by the impact of the occupation - he claims in particular that it disrupted and over-fragmented industrial organization, set back advances in industry itself by years in its destruction of infrastructure and cultivation of extremist movements, and finally gave too much power to the bureaucracy of the capital while fragmenting governance elsewhere between informal and often corrupt authorities - and thus need to quickly be brought to rights.

"Prior to the occupation, our Istkalen, although authoritarian, was a prosperous, stable, and technologically advanced country. The war that plunged it into darkness was destructive and excessive in that destruction; but it was not that which set it behind. What destroyed our country truly was the occupation. Perhaps, in part, it was warranted. If I were the leader of Reitzmag I too would have desired occupation. Yet what was not warranted was its attempt to destroy our society. Our leaders were arrested, and a narrow conception of democracy, not merely a Western conception but a Reitzmic conception, imposed on us, a society constructed on principles very different from those of any Western society and certainly that of Reitzmag. We found ourselves, thus, in an artificial vacuum, doubting and fearing, turning to the past to try to save ourselves," said Rikkalek.

"This was our doom. We fell into reaction, we fell into violence; with society and civilization taken away from us by perhaps well-intentioned but nonetheless ill-informed foreign authorities, we were forced to turn to the most primeval of influences. There seemed to be no future to reach to, nor even a present to live in; only a past to reminisce on endlessly. The advancement we once courted was rejected for deindustrialization, delineation of authority, a greater efficiency of the state, rejected for instability and a 'more traditional' cumbersome customary division of powers. The occupation threw us off the path of progress; the reform we begin today will allow us to find our way back and truly join the greater community of nations as equals."

Reforms to industrial organization, unlike those earlier undertaken by the first Rikkalek cabinet which sought to create a quasi-market-socialist economy in Istkalen, will merely try to restore certain aspects of prewar organization. In particular, agriculture and industry will be organized into more centralized organizations in order to reduce the "violent" competition of the past eight months. Similarly to the syndicates of the social democratic era, they will to an extent fix levels of production as well as prices, while also coordinating development. However, most other fields will remain largely unaffected - according to Rikkalek, there is simply little evidence that centralization is needed in such areas as crafts and specialist healthcare. The only change that will affect all workers is the legalization of contracting by workers' association. Entrusted with managing and providing most public services, the associations formerly used corvee in order to fulfill their responsibilities; with this made illegal, however, they will now be allowed instead to employ individuals, or really contract them.

Industrial production will primarily see a renewed focus on automation. Social democratic governments, trying to decrease the level of de facto employment, in which large numbers of manual laborers would be employed on an effectively permanent basis in particularly heavy industrial facilities, pursued such policies with gusto; postwar governments have either been unable to do so or have neglected the issue in favor of focusing on traditional industries. The second Rikkalek cabinet, however, will seek again to focus on industrial development, particularly in regards to the manufacture of electronics and machinery, a significant part of which Istkalen must import. According to Rikkalek himself, Istkalen must pursue self-sufficiency in order to protect it from "economic imperialism;" at the same time, however, it must not betray its basic principles, or tolerate the continued abuse of manual laborers in industrial facilities. Therefore, as the social democrats concluded, in his view and that of his government, the only logical way forward is to fund the development of further mechanization and automation, in order to increase efficiency while reducing the need for manual labor/employment.

The crafts will largely be left alone, although Rikkalek has stated that the state will focus on increasing non-craft "individual" light industry, while increasing the rigor and quality of the applied arts through partial mechanization in Istkalen - both of which are legally crafts and represented by the Crafts Association. As for agriculture, the focus on modernization will primarily occur in urban areas, where increased funding will be given to agriculture in order to improve self-sufficiency.

Politically, reforms will be relatively simple. Bureaucracies, particularly the ministries, will be reduced in size, with many of their responsibilities being transferred to the workers' associations; their role will merely be to coordinate, direct, and complement them. The peope's committees will be abolished, replaced with a system of appointments made by the Head of State, although part of their governing responsibilities will be transferred to the workers' associations. Finally, the political parties will be re-legalized.

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service

Agricultural reforms initially rejected

One of the major proposals of the Rikkalek II government, a plan to modernize agriculture via reforms made to farm organization, has been rejected near-unanimously by the Agriculture Association of Istkalen, responsible for regulating agricultural production and representing agricultural workers, primarily on the basis that it would take control over land distributed to farmers by reform-communist and social-democratic governments, and thus rob them of their independence, termed a restoration of both the abuses of the Relemian (1798-1900) and the liberal (1973-1979) periods.

"The farmers and agricultural workers of Istkalen will not see the reforms of the last three decades reversed," stated the organization in a public statement. "We will defend their right to their land forever."

The government has managed, however, to get certain aspects of its agricultural agenda agreed to. Inheritance law in regard to land has been changed; individuals may no longer leave it to children, but rather it will be given to the state to be redistributed. At the same time, infrastructure used by multiple farmers and other agricultural workers - aqueducts, for example - will be placed under the management of the Agriculture Association rather than remaining unowned and part of the commons. Mechanization and automation plans have also been accepted, although there was from the beginning little opposition to them.

Social democrats re-organize

The Social Democratic Party has been re-founded by Milrakas Ikoszer and other ex-regime politicians who have been cleared of all charges. While, under the recently passed laws re-legalizing political parties, their political expression as a group will be extremely limited, they were only narrowly approved - only because of their considerably less radical aims were they even able to be considered.

The party's main intention is to promote technological progress and a continued wide distribution of property in Istkalen.

The ridiculous may have an application in Istkalen

The "crafts" in Istkalen have become more or less the industrial or applied arts with a twist. "Craftsmen," nowadays, are really mostly industrial designers, and are only differentiated from their counterparts in the West in their involvement in manufacturing - in industry, particularly light industry, there is exceedingly little division of labor, and thus most goods are made, in part by hand, although the process has become partially mechanized, by the designer. Despite modernization, this has resulted in significant inefficiencies in Istkalen's industrial sector. It can take weeks for even the most simple of appliances to be made; while standardization has begun to prevail, minor human errors, while not affecting the performance of an appliance, can occasionally make them difficult to repair.

Government programs have primarily focused on increasing the level of mechanization and standardization, which has improved some of the issues - in comparison to the early 2000s, efficiency has been signicantly improved - but has not solved them.

A small group of craftspeople in Kirelesile, who have termed themselves "designers," have put their faith in a less-than-perfect and expensive solution - additive manufacturing. Shilled in other countries as a magical technology that would revolutionize manufacturing, its role rapidly collapsed due to a host of reasons. While still used as a useful tool in certain applications, its role in actual industrial manufacturing remains in a very primitive stage.

This group has long since pursued improvements to the technology, however, and now state that they will begin to apply it to production that must be standardized - the production of appliances, for example. Products from this endeavor will be made available in Kirelesile within a week, although their quality is not assured.

The intention of the group is to act as a pilot which will spur voluntary adoption of the technology once it has advanced enough to become widely used

[Istkalen]

*Istkalen Information Service: The politics of Istkalen

Istkalen under the social democrats was an unusual place, an odd unity existing between a tamed elite taken from the "administrative class" and the working class represented through state-backed unions, both governing together and in concert. It was an authoritarian place, but at the same time one where ideological unity was truly reflected in reality. The regime provided stability to the vast majority of Istkaleners; and thus most genuinely supported it, until 2018 with the seizure of power of a radical nationalist faction.

Under the social-democrats, thus, party affiliation had, in its heyday, very little meaning. Partisan politics, so violent in the military era, had fallen away; much milder ethno-vocational interests prevailed. Statecraft was simply a matter of guaranteeing each vocational interest certain rights, and ensuring the unity of all interests, appealing to the nation to do so, sometimes violently (several attempts were made during the era to forcibly subjugate 'errant' cultures to the majority of culture, particularly by seeking to dissolve families).

The coup of 13th April represented an extremely radical attempt to cement the nation and the unity of the ruling and working classes by forcibly amalgamating them, violently, into a single mass. The state was made a violent mob, directed by similarly crazed people at the top; divergence in cultures and vocations were abolished in the name of the nation and the "leader" who represented it. So rapid and radical was its change that the pre-existing moderate system was completely abolished, replaced with something much weaker in terms of institutional stability that would itself rapidly come crashing down.

The coup of 18th April thus occurred in a nation that had lost its institutions, a nation which was a blank slate, and represented an attempt to restore the pre-social-democratic system of elitism and technocracy. Popular power was replcaed with the power of the most skilled, and the people's ability to participate in state functions reduced considerably. Yet the country's technical elite did not have the same unity as before social democracy; it was divided, squabbling over issues of ideology. The state was thus plunged into constant argument over what shape it would take, particularly whether it would move towards a "national state" (the vision of Kerel), or a more "liberal state" (the vision of Ikomar).

They organized themselves into the parties of the past; vocational interests fell away in favor of partisan ones. Power struggles in the cabinet were continuous; vocational bodies, previously "above" this struggle, were subjugated to it. A sort of Western-style democracy might have formed in Istkalen under different conditions, in which power was handed between the most popular party every few years; but the instability of the nation, and the extreme centralization of the elite in the capital, far away from the people themselves, made this impossible. Politics became a matter of private intrigue, factionalized; when a faction took power, it would seek to subjugate all other factions.

As time went on, ethno-vocational interests were increasingly threatened; their position in people's minds, if not in power, still strong, their influence began to pick up again. This culminated in the reaction against the policies of the liberal faction spearheaded by Dr. Koline, when people turned en masse to the so-called "imperial Realm," which promised a restoration of the old poltiics when these interests were protected and represented.

Rikkalek's assumption of full powers and his dissolution of the people's committees was the beginning of the post-occupation system. Vocational interests were strong, partisan interests week; all were dominated by an authoritarian figure. Interests respected, the country began to recover socially, resulting in increased support for the "new order."

The politics of modern Istkalen represent in part a return to non-radical social democratic systems, but not entirely. They are characterized primarily by paternalism. Allowing the elites to rule resulted in disorder; the presence of strong authoritarian figures to control the elites and politicians and unite the nation has thus become increasingly predominant - Rikkalek, then Malk, then Rikkalek again. Unlike under the social democrats, a partisan system still exists; but it is controlled through repressive and popular measures against it.

Vocational interests are also strongly institutionalized, as they were under the social democrats. They have a wide range of powers, and are the only bodies able to defend themselves against the authoritarian figures against the center of the regime. However, they have become in part subjugated to the central figure; their role is in part merely to assist the rule of the central leader. They are increasingly executive bodies which seek to prevent certain measures not exactly to represent their constituents but to prevent rebellion and thus encourage national unity.

Finally, the bureaucracy is subjugated to the central leader. In the past, they were one and the same; now, the leader is separate from them, closer to the people, and controls them in order to prevent "repressive" behavior

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: The state threatens to return us to a failed past

In 2018, Istkalen seemed to be a model for the world, an ultra-modern state that demonstrated how a form of socialism, or really a secularized distributism, could genuinely function. Heavy industry was almost entirely automated, agriculture dense, with the country having perhaps the only profitable vertical farms in the world, and light industry decentralized but also efficient, a wonderland where, with a workforce of the genuinely knowledgeable, additive manufacturing had genuine potential. It was effectively self-sufficient, and beyond that was a net exporter of most goods apart from electronics.

In 2018, it was seen as a country where the workers ruled through their unions, where an autocratic elite had been dismantled for a pure, anti-bureaucratic democracy, tempered by a sound and technocratic tradition. A calm and peaceful country, modern, progressive, prosperous, and democratic.

2018 was the pinnacle of Istkalen's modern history; but it was built on a foundation of lies. Yet it is to 2018 that the current leaders of Istkalen want to return.

Automation in heavy industry, in principle, was a good thing, but it caused numerous further problems. Technology was not yet advanced to the point that all manual workers in it could be discarded; and yet it was done anyways in a rudimentary way. Production facilities faced constant mechanical errors and damage; the country saw only a minimal increase, if not actually a decrease, in the production of raw materials and heavy machinery. The rapidity of the attempt at full automation - as soon as even a rudimentary form of such automation was developed, the government rushed to implement it everywhere as quickly as possible, often in the space of a few months - also caused significant unemployment. The state merely relegalized apprenticeship for no more than five years as a piecemeal solution.

The rapid expansion of additive manufacturing in light industry, while increasing efficiency when compared to handmade production, massively lowered the quality of products across the country. While standardization was more common, old craftsmanship had vanished. Waste also increased; errors were constant with the new technology, requiring far more to be used than usual. While the state pushed to open further recycling plants in order to combat this sudden increase, these recycling plants, themselves badly automated, were inefficient; at the same time, some of the material simply could not be recycled.

The vertical farms of Istkalen were perhaps the worst failure. While they allowed distributed ownership to continue in a more modern way, they used so much electricity that, in 2018, it was beginning to be rationed to ordinary consumers, despite massive increases in electric production with the breakneck construction of wind farms and nuclear power plants across the country. The associated expenses of this electricity were also far greater than the revenue generated from the farms; the state in response severely cut down on welfare and sought to subsidize the farms massively, while also cutting the pay of those in power plants significantly, deciding eventually to just stop paying them with money and instead with food seized from the farms themselves. This, too, resulted in unemployment; in ten years the percentage of the population of those engaged in agriculture fell from 60% to 35%, with few options available for the remainder. Significant unrest followed.

The expense of all of this still to an extent was laid on consumers; prices rose by over 75% in the space of five years, but wages largely remained the same. In response, the state forcibly imposed price controls, resulting in extreme shortage.

At the same time, the cost of all of this was weighing down on the state; the debt-to-GDP ratio was rapidly ballooning, and many were fearing a crisis, resultingin a unilateral "haircut" on all domestic bonds, followed quickly by a default on all these domestic bonds (the state was careful to categorize bond purchases as foreign and domestic, initially out of xenophobia and later out of a pragmatism of sorts that allowed them to take this action). The state then defaulted on all domestic loans, wiping out most of its debt (foreign investment was severely limited), causing financial collapse across the country. In September of 2018, the situation was at such a terrible point that the state decided it was better simply to abolish money entirely, resulting in even further unrest.

This resulted in the radical faction gaining control over the SDP leadership in November, and holding sham elections in December with an aim of returning to the older system. They abandoned the rapid technological advancement of the past era for a more conservative approach, relegalizing money and imposing a course of austerity. The economy appeared to stagnate; but knowing that the economic growth of the "modernization period" was really an illusion, this was really a stabilization. Inflation ended, and the state gradually stabilized until the war.

It is this disastrous path that we now appear to be embarking on. Again the rhetoric of this modernization, of automation and all these shiny things, is taken up; again are we promised that it is the future. We have forgotten already the disaster that occurred just four years ago, we have forgotten why we abandoned all of this.

The radical social democrats have been condemned, yes, perhaps that is why. People now see the past before them, even the past of social democracy in general, as better, and thus they lend their support to such a disastrous course.

Yet we have seen what happens when we advance recklessly; disaster. The position of the government must be more reasoned, and it must abandon its belief that modernization may occur by driving recklessly forwards, resurrecting the old and abandoned infrastructure.

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Forwards!

Left to right: Minister Írenet Isteresskemar, Minister Yasemin Demirkol, Head of State Vistek Rikkalek, Minister Altay Sancar

The Council of Justice, assisted by the Council of Censors (an independent ombudsman with extraordinarily wide-ranging powers), unilaterally imposed a new constitution on Istkalen yesterday - the first written document the country will have for its governance that proscribes anything approaching democracy and the separation of powers since the 1975 constitution was suspended last year. Their motivation was clear and simple - extreme corruption within the bureaucracy, widely seen as an elitist and distant class.

The constitution spells a definitive end to the shortlived "liberal era" in Istkalen, where party politics and factionalism again began to rule, and a return to an older democracy. This time, however, the bureaucracy will not have to be subdued - it will simply no longer exist in its present form. In the new constitution, which proscribes a "new society" based on "industrial self-government," it will be a "National Directory," elected by the workers' associations like the former Congress of Producers, that will hold both legislative and executive power. Such directories have also formed at local and regional levels to take power from existing, appointed authorities.The center of power has moved from the civil servants to elected representatives; even if this is only in theory rather than in practice, such an arrangement being constitutionalized will still be historical. Similarly, Kirelesile is now the (primary) capital; Líressile will remain merely an administrative center, accountable to the workers' association and the Council of Censors even more so than before. Even the social democrats had to fear the civil servants reaching out and murdering them in some palace coup; with elected authorities and bureaucracy now separated, this terror will no longer remain. This informal stranglehold, thus, has finally perished.

More radically, society itself is changed by the constitution. Geography is ignored where possible in favor of workplace and industry based representation, the argument being that society in Istkalen has historically been occupation/class based without significant regional variations. Virtually everything is thought of as an act of economic planning or coordination rather than of legislating or regulating; where conflicts do occur, they are arbitrated by workplace-specific committees. This radical change has the effect of denying the creation of any more bureaucracies - all work is taken up by one, democratic institution, preventing others from arising outside of it.

With the collapse of the power of the bureaucracy, so have the parties. They served to provide a democratic veneer for the power-struggles within the upper echelons; with those echelons gone, thus, the parties have been abandoned. Interests have solidified around the vocation and the nationality, and have become far less ideological, a continuation of a general trend.

But new factions are arising.

Elections in Istkalen under the new constitution are scheduled for March 4, and while they will be nominally nonpartisan, it is likely that, just as the elections of but a few months ago were, most candidates will have informal political affiliations. With self-nominations already beginning, these affiliations have already become apparent.

Existing candidates can be divided into four rough factions. They find themselves centered around support for particular individuals in the government, who are united in their origin - all gained power within the upper civil service in unorthodox ways - and, to an extent, their ideology - all are to an extent opposed to the now-abolished system which elevated the civil service above all others. Isteresskemar, Demirkol, Sancar, and Rikkalek - these are the four who may very well see themselves becoming the new linchpins of politics in Istkalen.

Sancar is the leftmost, a socialist opposed to private property and markets. Of all, he is the only one who desires collectivization, but also the total elimination of any unelected institutions. He is considered very close to outright anarchism, separated only by his continued support for the existence of a military. With the modernization drive of the current government, which has sought to quickly restore the still relatively intact pre-2018 infrastructure, including great numbers of fully automated factories and vertical farms which might, for the first time, be both efficient and profitable, his views have become increasingly popular; for many, to continue supporting ownership or individual management of lands and production under the current conditions makes increasingly less sense, with collectivization being an efficient and rational way of managing the economy without compromising the principle of self-management.

Rikkalek is of the center-left, in favor of both private property and markets but also of a more communitarian economy. He sees the system of individual management of lands and production as the best possible system, but seeks greater cooperation and regulation within the workers' association to rationalize the economy. While opposed to the old practice of corvee, he strongly wants the associations to become integrated communities in which each individual has responsibilities to each other and to the community, and in exchange for these rights. Yet he is also for the expansion of the commons alongside this system, seeking to make available to all resources and certain machinery, seeing the private ownership of resources in particular as nonsensical.

Demirkol is difficult to place. Her ideology is a pure technocracy; she is in favor of democracy but wants everything to be administered by elected and (somewhat) accountable technocrats, with the creation of a planned and rational economy. Everything else falls away for her belief in the rule of technocrats; how property is owned, for example, does not matter to her so long as in the end it is the most skilled who administer it. Yet she is equally opposed to the old system of rot, seeing it as necessary for the new technocrats to be limited by terms and in pay, as well as for them to live "close to the people," rather than somewhere like Líressile.

Isteresskemar can be considered center-right. She is a secularized distributist, of sorts, wanting a free market of decentralized producers, but one in which employment is limited, excepting the employment of the young and inexperienced, which she views as acceptable and perhaps even good. She is strongly opposed to state intervention and planning, seeing any economic intervention as the sole prerogative of decentralized and democratic workers' associations.

None correspond well to any party which existed before; and yet, from current registerations, these four and their ideologies are quickly becoming the center of the new Istkalen. On March 4th, we will see what is to come.

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Turn left

Rikkalek has yet again reorientated the country towards his personal "non-aligned socialism;" now, however, he no longer has to contend with liberals and nationalists in government, and is completely free to do as he wishes. As the country prepares for the 4 March elections, radical change has begun in Istkalen.

Istkalen was historically a hierarchical society, heavily claSs-stratified and dependent on perceived levels of education and skill. The state formed and directed all social, economic, and political life; not to obey it, even in the smallest way, was seen as treason. In effect, it an extraordinarily strict meritocracy, where the ability to produce was the sole factor in climbing socially, but also one that was heavily authoritarian if not totalitarian - the state was everywhere and everything, and all were expected to obey it unquestioningly for the "good of all society."

This was a system that by-and-large collapsed with the occupation, which removed the elite from power, causing more participatory and democratic institutions, albeit also ones more unstable, to gain significant influence. While significant aspects of the form of society remained unchanged, the country began to see a liberalization of the social environment. The 31st of January, when Istkalen's courts removed the elite from power by force, was in effect a culmination of this general movement, handing all power to the representatives of the producers of Istkalen.

Here is where socialism began to make its emergence. Society in Istkalen is centered, almost unhealthily so, on work and the workplace; therefore, any change in favor of democratization, whether in society or in politics, must also favor the democratization of the workplace; in essence, the adoption of even a moderate socialism.

Where this change is most salient is in terms of the relationship between ward committees and workers, and more indirectly through the various workplace committees and councils. Previously, the institutions were seen as above the rest; workers had to obey their every word, and in exchange received a paternal sort of love. The system, despite there existing nominal elections, was deeply elitist and paternalistic in nature.

This has become increasingly increased by a collective system. Responsibilities have been increasingly delegated to direct assemblies of workers; the workers' associations themselves are increaingly distancing themselves from the older, more aristocratic model, and appear to be attempting to transform themselves into idealized trade unions, becoming more participatory in nature as worker-representatives come under increasingly pressure to better represent the interests of workers rather than merely themselves and society.

Similarly, collective principles are being increasingly applied to production itself. Increased levels of cooperation across smallholdings, in particular the sharing of machinery and the maintenance of irrigation infrastructure, have been observed at ward levels; craftsmen and "designers" have similarly begun to organize themselves through the workers' associations - they now divide tasks between themselves via the associations, organize cooperation via the associations, and retain only the right to do as they wish with the final product.

Even more radically, food distribution has found itself partially collectivized. In workplaces and communal living spaces, individuals now divide duties among themselves for the action of the distribution of food and cooking, rather than doing it individually - creating, in effect, communal, voluntary canteens.

Even religion has been affected by this movement. Hundreds if not thousands of places of worship have been taken over by "assemblies of believers," which operate according to democratic principles and which have begun to purge the ranks of the clergy of, in particular, the most extreme, while at the same time deeply undermining traditional religious structures.

The desire is to uproot the old, which is seen as corrupt, for the new, a more democratic and egalitarian system. Rikkalek and his followers in particular want to supplant the old state for the more democratic collective. For them, the state is suppressive, but the individual is anarchic; the collective is between both, permitting its members freedom from demands from the state but also preventing them from acting with total greed as they would as mere individuals. Everyone, in their minds, must be made dependent on each other within the collective, and every collective upoin each other, to definitively prevent competition and greed and ensure national unity.

In the past, attempts to synthesize Lirisianism with democracy have resulted in bizarre, hybrid systems. Rikkalek's formulation of "non-aligned socialism," however, remains Lirisian - it continues to place the welfare of the nation as a whole above the individual, but all the same seeks to remove coercion from the process. It is perhaps the closest that Istkalen has come to any semblance of democracy; and yet, all the same, it could fail miserably, as so many other collective systems have in other countries.

[Istkalen]

Elections - The Debate - Opening Statements and Free Debate

A woman, dressed in brown, sits in front of a flickering screen, on which a silhouette of the country is shown. Hands clasped, she speaks, first in Kitets.

Citizens, you are listening to the National Information Service. In preparation for the elections of 4th March, the leaders of the four major political movements and groupings have appeared here, for the purpose of communicating to you their ideals, their positions - in effect, how they intend to govern. At the heart of any democracy is information, information made freely available to all citizens. For this to be hidden leads to a crisis in governance and people's rule. We will - and are, now, here - making every effort to ensure that this tragedy does not befall us, to provide a flow of truthful information to the people, to the citizens, so that they for themselves may make their own decisions in a rational way.

Present, from left to right, are Altay Sancar, of his newly founded Ecological-Socialist Movement, Vistek Rikkalek, of the refounded People's Association, Írenet Isteresskemar, of the newly founded Democratic Movement, and Yasemin Demirkol, of the newly founded Progress Party.

The format for this debate is as follows. There will be no exact time limit, but the debate itself may not exceed four hours in length nor be any shorter than one hour. Candidates will begin with their opening statements, and then will move to free debate - before then moving to closing statements. Civility is an expectation; not conforming to these rules and expectations set out will result in warning, then expulsion from the debate.

She repeats this in the four other national languages of Istkalen.

The candidates will now present their opening statements. We begin, first, with Ms. Isteresskemar.

---

II: Good evening to all. Our nation is under attack. Our ways are threatened, our very sovereignty is threatened. Compradors, foreign agents, at every level of government and society act slowly to bring us down. The West does not like us, you see. Our ways are too free for them; they would prefer that we bow down to their materialistic neoliberalism, to become incessant, vapid consumers as the rest of them are. We are a nation of workers, of producers, and we will remain that way. The Democratic Movement seeks to turn our nation into a fortress. We will shut out the West, and seek total independence, politically, economically, and socially. We will make no agreements with the outside world; what agreements we have foolishly engaged in we will disengage from. To throw our lot in with them is to sacrifice ourselves. We will lead an internal drive for the expansion of industrial and agricultural product, while not forsaking the sacred independence and autonomy of our individual workers, not forsaking their humanity, the humanity of our production. We must take nothing from the West, neither imports nor their ways. If we do so we forsake our identity as workers and become idiotic, drooling consumers. Socially, every aspect of the West must be thoroughly eliminated. Foreign literature, foreign language, must not be taught in our schools; both corrupt the individual, corrupt the nation. Those citizens which seek foreign education must be expelled permanently; they cannot be trusted. The same goes with foreign clothing, foreign art. This clothing, this music, this art, this film, all of the West; they are inherently materialistic, inherently decadent. Our ways must be maintained against this; we will purge this all from the nation, and replace it with a wholesome and authentic expression of our own great and independent culture. Istkaleners - we must stand against the foreign hordes, and defend, uphold, our nation!

---

Thank you, Ms. Isteresskemar. We will continue to Mr. Sancar.

---

AS: Thank you to all who are listening. The basis of our nation is the agricultural worker and the miner. The rest merely consume from them. The cities, for example, take from them and return to them very little which they themselves cannot produce. This has weakened our nation greatly. What the Ecological-Socialist Movement wants to do is overthrow this inequality. Everyone becomes a farmer, everyone becomes a miner, performing other, more specialized actions merely part of the time, not for their own profit but for the benefit of the community, a community that will form through necessity and shared vocation. In the new society there shall be no divisions between people. Everyone together will hold everything in common, everyone will be perfectly equal; there will be a uniformity, and that uniformity a blossoming unity. The sobriety and strength of our people is rebuilt; they become able, again, to defend our nation from the foreign invaders, to defend it from internal corruption. Our society thus becomes equal, strong, and united.

---

Thank you, Mr. Sancar. We will continue to Ms. Demirkol.

---

YD: Good evening, citizens. Our aim is simple - rational government. We want to democratize the government, to make it more accountable to the people, to ensure that it acts in their interest; so too do we want to technocratize it, ensure that those sitting in government are genuinely qualified to their tasks. For too long have we had ideologues with nothing beyond a primary school education dictating to us what we are allowed to do, to produce, and how. No more. We want, in a nutshell, to remove from governance ideology and replace with it healthy and democratic pragmatism. We intend first to entrust power over all industry to the workers' associations, which shall operate on the collective principle. Then we shall engage in our political reforms. We will ban political campaigning, the tool of demagogues alone, completely. We should not elect people based on how well they lie to us, but rather merely how well they work, how skilled they are. We will seek also to strengthen the Council of Examination to truly ensure the ability of the elected to serve in office; accountability, democracy, are sacrosanct, but both are useless when power is allowed to go into the hands of the corrupt and the manipulators. We want finally to end the controls over social life. It is not for the state to determine what people can or cannot do, unless if they decide to harm other. Let the people do as they wish,; they will be happier. Let us, then, put an end to superstition; let us see science and reason prevail in our Istkalen.

---

Thank you, Ms. Demirkol. We will continue, now, to Mr. Rikkalek.

---

VR: Citizens, thank you. Istkalen is a nascent democracy. For the first time in perhaps the whole of its history, power is directly in the hands of the people, of the workers. Our aim is to protect this workers' democracy through social change. The present structure, the present norms, and in certain ways the present culture of Istkalen imply, necessitate, a more authoritarian state. They require the state to dictate to the people what to do, how to behave; they posit that the state is the highest authority on the good of society, and therefore that its will is inevitably good for society. Within the workplace, we see a slavish obedience to a master, which, even if elected, remains a master; within the city, the same obedience, but now to the municipal authorities. There is no question of accountability; it is simply believed that the state can do no wrong, and thus that the person who protests is themselves in the wrong, a traitor to our society. What the People's Association seeks to do is begin a peaceful "revolution" in culture and society in order to modernize the country and allow for the permanent establishment of democracy. We want first to turn the workers' associations from the elected bureaucracies they currently are into genuine communities, bonded by shared vocation. Obedience to the state, then, will become participation in the community, a democratic participation rather than the old slavish devotion. So too do we want to democratize the arts, the universities, housing, every conceivable aspect of life that is presently managed by the state, every aspect of life that demands obedience. We want, very simply, to pull down the role of the state and replace it with the direct rule of the people.

---

Thank you, Mr. Rikkalek. We will now move to the free debate portion of this debate.

---

YD: To Mr. Sancar - is Istkalen even capable of feeding its population under your proposals? That is what, I think, we all really need to know.

AS: It does not matter. Those who die should die, must die; they are sick and a cancer on the nation, on the world. Their deaths will be a mercy killing, and both the world and the nation will be left better off for it. A revolution is, and will be, always violent, and this is no exception. We seek to create a new society based on labor, and those who cannot labor, and who cannot survive on their own labor, do not have a place in it. As I said, we are not a society of the bourgeois and the proletarian, but of the urbanite and the non-urbanite; the former must either integrate into the latter or simply be removed from society.

II: This is all very well, but quite honestly I am not one for genocide. Do you feel, Mr. Sancar, that you have any moral...doubts about your plans?

AS: No. Those who die cannot even have been considered human. Humanity is labor; that is to say, it is created through labor. The urbanites do not work. Therefore, they are not human. They may become human, may be restored; but if they do not, they must be squashed as one would squash a cockroach or an ant.

II: But you yourself are an urbanite.

AS: Yes. Once the revolution is complete, I will kill myself, for I no longer have a use for myself.

II: I really don't think we should have to listen to this, but I will say one more thing. Mr. Sancar, please seek help, you obviously need it. Continuing on, yes, there is a difference between the cities and the countryside, or really Kirelesile and everywhere else, and this difference should be resolved, but not through these means. We should instead seek, through development, to make the countryside more attractive for the residents of Kirelesile - by constructing housing, and particularly by decentralizing industry, in line with traditional systems.

AS: I am not anti-industrial, if that is what you are implying. I too believe that industry should be managed by the communes I propose - that it should be decentralized, not abolished! Madam, please stop trying to pass these falsehoods on the people of Istkalen!

YD: Regardless, Mr. Sancar, without the 'urbanites,' how is any of this to be managed? How do you intend to maintain industry if you have killed all the experts and the manual workers? We do not imply that you want to abolish industry, we imply that you would leave it completely unusable.

AS: Workers, manual workers, are not urbanites, in my vision - they do work, and have the same sobriety and strength of those of the countryside, and thus they are honorary members of the citizens of the countryside. Even without them, the farmers can make do.

VR: Regardless, I would like to ask Ms. Istersskemar a simple question. How do you intend to maintain industry according to your desired system? A certainl level of cooperation is necessary, but you yourself have admitted, in the past, that you want an economy of independent producers who cooperate economically only in the context of the market . How does any of this work? Developed indutry requires cooperation between more than two people.

II: The answer lies in automation. Currently, it is not possible for any of these things to be maintained without the employment of manual laborers, an undesirable practice but a necessity. Once we push forwards automation - and much of the technology is already there - whole factories can be managed just by two. I am not one to abandon the principles of the nation to adopt those of the West, as you are; I will always remain firm to our own ways.

VR: The whole of society is based around cooperation. People are not atoms floating around; for anything to function they need to be bonded together. The economic vision of the People's Association reflects this. We seek to maintain the system of independent producers, but complement this with a system of cooperation. For the good of the community, together they will organize labor that is necessarily cooperative in nature. This is not a reflection of tradition, that is true, but it is a reflection of what developed with the collapse of the state during the occupation - it is a relfection of a more natural, democratic state.

YD: I would like to criticize the proposals of the People's Association from the other direction. How is this efficient, or at least more efficient that a more centralized or planned economy?

VR: Efficiency is not the most significant concern everywhere. Totalitarian government can be efficient, but it is not ideal. In the same way, totalitarian and dictatorial government in the economy is efficient, but far from ideal. Both trample on individuals.

II: The cat is calling the kettle black. You are the only dictator on this stage.

VR: Strong measures are needed in an emergency. But the emergency is now over.

YD: In an economic emergency, then, would this govern the economy? Would the state command the economy if it deemed it to be collapsing?

VR: The state would intervene, yes.

YD: So then individual rights matter only sometimes, not always?

VR: When the exercise of individual rights threatens the stability of the whole of society, they do not matter. Society has its rights as well, which must be respected.

II: In my opinion, the individual is sacrosanct. Society is constructed from individuals, it is not something above; society can only be free if all individuals are free. In no circumstance should rights be curtailed, even if it is harming the economy and the state.

VR: So you would prefer disorder and feudalism to order and democracy?

II: Disorder, yes. Feudalism, no. But feudalism would not arise if the people had rights; they would defend them, would they not?

YD: A person might give up their rights if promised stability. We must respect certain bounds of personal freedom; but we must also act always in the interest of the whole, in the interest of stability and the general welfare, in order to preserve a democratic and republican system. Extremism in either direction will get us nowhere.

II: When the 'interest of the whole' conflicts with these bounds you mention? What happens then?

YD: There should be no conflict. But the interests of the whole override the interest of one, and will always do so. The state, in such unlikely circumstances, should act in the favor of all society rather than giving in to one person, who might very well bring everything down. We must think not of rights but, again, of the preservation of the democratic and republican system.

AS; Does opening the country up to foreign powers do that? In reality, I feel, you want, and so does Rikkalek, to preserve only the power of a certain class.

II: I concur here.

YD: Trade and connections with the outside world are necessary - to maintain the legitimacy of the state, and to maintain its economy. To remain a hermit state is to become susceptible to a genuine invasion and takeover, whether political or economic.

VR: We must also rememeber that the occupation has thrust us into the wolrd, whether we like it or not. We must act to defend our position, lest we be eaten up. Anti-imperialism, non-alignment; these have helped us gain relevance and thus security. So too have economic agreements helped improve our economy and thus life for the average person.

II: Indeed, invasion is now a threat; but this is but another invasion. Preparation must be done by ourselves. At the same time, international connections will merely limit our ability to deal with this. The only way to remove the threat which faces it, the necessary and inevitable way, is a drive to the south and the expansion of the people of Istkalen. This is possible only by ourselves, outside of the international community. Even then, how does defense require the selling of the control of our resources to other bodies?

VR: Cooperation demosntrates our legitimacy, and what you speak of is not control, per se; it is beneficial to all parties involved, and will significantly better the lives of many Istkaleners.

YD: Exactly.

AS: Action is far above material. People do not care if they are starving or full; they care only if they have control or do not have control. A starving person with autonomy over their own life is happy; a full person without is not. So too does this apply here.

YD: But we are not sacrificing control over ourselves. The state entered into the agreement with the agreement of the workers, and it may exit at any time.

II: That is what they always see. It is not necessarily true.

VR: This is conspiracy theorizing.

II: Which is of course what they said about you going down to Kirelesile and doing all sorts of things, but that turned out to be true in the end.

VR: My personal life as no bearing on this.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Party of Labor, Center, Social Democrats complain about "nuts" polling at less than 1% being invited to debate as conspiracy theories abound

Current voter intention in Istkalen is as follows:

• People's Association (center-left to left-wing): 54,2%
• Party of Labor (left-wing to far-left): 18,1%
• The Center (center): 10,1%
• Social Democrats (center-right to right-wing): 10,0%
• Progress (syncretic): 6,1%
• independents; 1,0%
• Democratic Movement (right-wing): 0,3%
• Ecological-Socialist Movement (far-left): 0%

Yet, to the recent debate, it was the People's Association, the Progress Party, the Democratic Movement, and the Ecological-Socialist Movement invited. Representatives of the latter two parties and alliances aired bizarre views, calling for mass killings and for total isolationism. One candidate said that he would kill himself upon coming to office; another claimed that the solution to Istkalen's problems was to invade Reitzmag, conduct a genocide there, and then settle it.

"It was a total travesty, but not very surprising," tweeted a Twitter user. "Voting for Rikkalek to get rid of these idiots."

"Seriously," tweeted another, "how does anyone take half these people seriously?"

Some were confused to why Sancar and Isteresskemar, the candidates in question, were even there.

"They've done a good job as ministers," said a woman shopping in Kirelesile. "But as with so many of the rest of them, their politics are beyond insane. Everyone knows this; no one I know supports them for this reason. But they still appear there. Why? The whole of my ward is for the Party of Labor, and they are much more sensible. Tell me, why were they not there in place of the one going on about killing 'urbanites?'"

The three parties polling ahead of the Progress Party themselves complained about the debate.

"We must seriously question the integrity of democracy in Istkalen," stated a spokesperson for The Center, "when the state has conspired against us to deny us media coverage completely. This farce of a debate is only further evidence of this. The people of Istkalen were forced to watch the insane detail at length their twisted plans for our country, in order to place the Head of State in a higher position."

"These people are nuts," said Milrakas Ikoszer, the chairman of the Social Democratic Party. "Even nuttier than Ms. Meinl-Reisinger, the nuttiest ruler in the history of our country. Why these people are allowed a national audience I do not know. They ought instead to be locked up in an asylum for lunatics!"

"The state demonstrates its fear towards our movement," stated Dr. Grete Reiner, the new General Secretary of the Party of Labor of Istkalen. "in refusing to let our voice be heard. We have not been mentioned in the media once; we have been denied opportunities again and again to show to the public or ideas for establishing a government of labor and justice in our country."

At the beginning of the campaign period, it was widely believed that Isteresskemar and Sancar would be much more popular, with Demirkol and Rikkalek retaining the positions they hold now. They were, however, rapidly discredited by their campaigning. At his first rally, Sancar talked about how the "blood of urbanites," including himself, would sustain "the fields of Istkalen." Isteresskemar, on the other hand, spoke virtually the same language as that of the Northern Radio, claiming that there was a Vardic cabal controlling the state and that Reitzmics were "everywhere" trying to corrupt the culture of Istkalen.

Their support correspondingly dropped significantly, especially as they began to double down, and flowed to significantly more competent parties offering visions closer to what people thought they were offering - the Party of Labor, a party following "Elspeth Arkalis Thought" which emphasizes union control of industry alonside Leninist political organization; and the Social Democratic Party, which offered to voters the economic vision of Isteresskemar without the extreme isolationism and racism she espouse. The Center, on the other hand, was simply a dark horse. Styling itself as "civic nationalist," the party advocates for an economy of family businesses, cooperatives, and sole proprietorships, but has the same modernist outlook as all of the parties except for the Social Democrats and Ecological-Socialist Movement.

At the time of the debate, the Istkalen Information Service was still operating on the assumptions it had held at the beginning of the election period, and did not take into account current polling. The state had no role in the decision.

However, conspiracy theories have arisen regarding the debate and the general media coverage of the election, especially in regard to its choice to disregard virtually all of the major parties except for the People's Association and the Progress Party. Many have argued that the parties being covered, with the exception of the "regime-favored" Progress Party and People's Association, are manipulated by the state in order to behave in irrational and nonsensical ways, to discredit their respective ideologies while also possibly giving an excuse for the state to later crack down on the left and the right outside of the parties.

In particular, they point to the relative moderation of Sancar and Isteresskemar before the elections, and constrast them with their behavior during the campaign period, which has been extraordinarily erratic and extreme, claiming that the only explanation is that Rikkalek has forced them to act in such a way.

The belief of many of these conspiracy theorists is that the end game is either the re-establishment of a one-party state under the People's Association or the restoration of the monarchy, with Rikkalek as emperor. These theories have been adopted to an extent by the political parties in question, who mostly argue that the mistake of the national media of not giving them any coverage at all is a concerted attempt by Rikkalek to win a supermajority in the election; in essence, to retain power indefinitely.

Rikkalek, Demirkol, the People's Association, and the Progress Party have not responded to the allegations.

[Istkalen]

Emergency Message System

The following, bizarre message is shown on all television channels and radio frequencies in Istkalen, on the night of 22 February 2022. Copies of its transcript are plastered everywhere. It appears to have been accidentally broadcast, a message prerecorded from the war era, possibly for a military coup scheduled for 18 April 2021 thwarted by Kerel.

---

A woman dressed in a brown cardigan - the same from the debate, but seemingly slightly younger - sits again in front of a flickering screen, on which a silhouette of the country is shown. Hands clasped, she speaks, first in Kitets. She will repeat the message in all five major languages of Istkalen.

Good morning, citizens. For the past five days, you have been beset by a regime which desires to be tyrannical, warlike, in our nation of peace and gentleness. But we have not abandoned you; we have been aware. The orders for killing we have resisted; the war they have decreed we have resisted.

This date, the 18th of April 2021, will be a historical date. The mandate of the former government has been withdrawn; the Republican Defense Forces, in coordination with the Congress of Producers, have constituted an interim government, the National Directory, in which the peasants, workers, students, and soldiers of the nation will participate.

The priority of the government shall be to sue for peace. We have declared a unilateral armistice, and will be entering into negotiations with the governments of the Kingdom of Reitzmag and the Archrepublic of Vayinaod within the day for the ending of the war.

So too shall it be to reconstitute the state. The restoration of the constitution of 1975, undertaken illegally, has itself been annulled. True social democratic government shall be restored. Reaction shall be ended and democratic and egalitarian rule will be created through the unions.

New elections shall be held tentatively on the 1st of May 2021. The Social Democratic Party is to remain the leading force in society and politics, but will be opened to the people, the elitists and reactionaries removed from their places. The country will be freed, but we will not undo the accomplishments of the revolution; we shall not turn back the wheel of progress.

The restrictions on culture and the freedom of the press will end; they are intolerable and have led only to bloodshed. The revolutionary stance against the Abrahamic religions, and indeed against any deistic religion, will however be maintained. Reason and science are the basis of the revolution, and what opposes them will lead only again to the rise of those who tried to seize our nation and plunge it into darkness.

A democratic revolution, a second revolution to complete the aims of the original social democrats, has begun, birthed from the blood of the martyrs who died at the hands of the the reactionaries.

Long live the workers, long live the democratic and social republic, long live our Istkalen!

---

[Istkalen]

Istkalen Information Service: Court rules in favor of Reszelport Jezebel-Swift

Jezebel-Swift in her first public appearance since her arrest

After a month long trial, the trial of Reszelport Jezebel-Swift, otherwise known as Pope Tabitha, has come to a conclusion. Jezebel-Swift was initially arrested for inciting violence after a homily in which, to the sound of electric guitars, she called for the killing of her opponents and those she considered to be "sinners." She was kept in secret and solitary detention for two weeks until her trial finally began, under less than public circumstances, on the 31st of January.

Journalists and the public were not allowed into the trial, but Jezebel-Swift was allowed legal representation, and the trial is generally seen as fair, particularly as it ruled in favor of Jezebel-Swift instead of the state.

Upon examination of the evidence, in particular Jezebel-Swift's wide audience, armed enough and duty-bound to obey her words, but also her nominal status as Pope of the Arian Church, the court concluded that Jezebel-Swift, per her own claims and the history of the Arian Church, had effectively renounced her Istkalenic citizenship for Vatican citizenship, as, by the belief and history of the Church itself, it is the legitimate Catholic church and its Pope is the Bishop of Rome.

However, per Jezebel-Swift's own admission, they found that she remained clearly guilty of her crimes, and was completely without remorse. She was thus found guilty; but her lack of citizenship required deportation.

Jezebel-Swift is thus to be deported to the Vatican City "as soon as possible." Thousands celebrated outside the court chambers the decisions, largely because she was to go and thus that Istkalen would be free of her.

"The [woman] is gone!" screamed many.

Yet her arrest has given her widespread support. She is now widely seen among the Arian community as not a heretic but a martyr whose persecution reveals the truth of her beliefs. She is not merely regarded as the Pope but also as a prophet in her own right by millions.

Jezebel-Swift was temporarily freed before her deportation, although she remained under surveillance. She gave a relatively controlled speech, although she continued most of her most radical opinions, including her rejection of virtually all Arian principles for a self-created theology involving Pelagianism and modalism. Most was, however, dedicated to affirming her position as the one true Pope of the Catholic Church, the one true Bishop of Rome, as well as denouncing Pope Peter II, the current pope, as a "heretic," which many have termed "the pot calling the kettle black."

Jezebel-Swift then sent out a message to her followers, promising them Vatican citizenship if they "followed her in a grand crusade." Over 2000 are believed to have answered the summons, and gathered before the papal palace in the Arian territories, where she spoke to them again of the necessity of "restoring true Christianity" to the Catholic Church. In her "Popemobile," she then led them in a massive procession to the only airport in those territories, privately owned by Jezebel-Swift herself, which includes her private fleet of 50 planes, earned through profits from the uranium mines and banks the Arian Church owned prior to the occupation, in addition to the sale of agricultural products and textiles made through what was almost slave labor. Her so-called 200-strong "Papal Guard" (not, notably, the Swiss Guard, which the Arians and now Jezebel-Swift claim to have been an invention of heretics), also joined.

Carrying hastily made banners, they screamed various slogans calling for the "restoration" of the Catholic Church and the "true Bishop of Rome," as well as for the "wrath of God" to be brought down upon Pope Peter II.

"God, smash the delusion of Carlos Vallejo!" screamed Mikeli Neripas, an important Arian figure, from the forefront of the procession. "Smash it with your iron rod!"

"Strike, strike.... until you have victory, God!" shouted Erkas Tilisek, the head of the Patriotic Front. "In the name of Jesus!"

Onlookers claimed that many, if not all, of those in the procession were carrying automatic firearms, and that they had seen a large procession of trucks behind them carrying a large amount of ammunition, as well as large packages of an unknown material, which has been speculated to be explosives. It is a well known fact that the Pope, in her nominal role as the leader of the autonomous Arian territories, has sole control over armories for the religious police and militia of the area, which, while now much weaker, continue to exist, which include all these materials.

It is also known that the Arian Church has been preparing for a "reconquest" of the Vatican for hundreds of years; it is believed by some that these weapons may have been specifically inteded for the purpose of this reconquest

Hundreds if not thousands were seen emerging from their homes and cheering on the erstwhile crusaders as they marched on their way to Jezebel-Swift's private airport, almost hysterically. Some even walked behind them, some joining and seemingly given weapons, according to neutral onlookers.

Jezebel-Swift again addressed the procession, joined by the leadership of the Patriotic Front, when they reached the airport, telling them that they had to be "brave for God" and that their "holy and ordained mission" would be dangerous, and that many would "become martyrs before God." She then appeared to gibberish for ten minutes, before again exhorting the crowd before her to "follow her," claiming that she was "God's sole representative on Earth...his power now flows through me..." to widespread and hysterical cheering.

She then "conferred Vatican citizenship" on all of those present, before having an aide next to her request permission from the National Directorate for "self-deportation" - in essence, the right for her merely to carry out her deportation by herself, which under certain legal interpretations may be possible. The call was broadcast with the use of some speakers that were found inside the airport, and was repeatedly interrupted with mass outpourings of further hysterical cheering and screaming.

The National Directorate has not yet responded to the request of Jezebel-Swift. Some have called for military action to be taken; but the Republican Defence Forces have insisted that they do not have the authorization to act as of now. In the meantime, however, further convoys of trucks have been seen arriving at the airport, carrying large packages which many believe to be further weapons, ammunition, or explosives, with the excitement of the cfrowd apparently being kept up by regular exhortations from Jezebel-Swift, Tilisek, Neripas, and other figures within the Arian community.

Some went directly to Rikkalek's office to ask for intervention, but he did not appear to be present. It was rumored that he was to be found in a cafe, but no one appears to have investigated there, perhaps out of fear.

[Istkalen]

State Announcements - Kirelesile

4th March elections delayed due to martial law

Rikkalek sworn in as the Chairman of the National Directorate in light of election cancellation - "the title of Head of State is interim and exists only because of the election period; with the election period cancelled, it must fall into disuse in accordance with constitutional principles," he says

All political parties merge to form the Republican Association of National Defence "against this mortal danger"

Curfew between 22:00 and 7:00. 30 min grace period in place currently

Arian churches ordered closed for duration of martial law due to "concern over violent rhetoric against sovereign states"

Ministry of Religious Affairs orders propaganda campaign against certain religions "against grave threat to national security"

Schools and universities to be closed until 7th March 2022

Pro-Jezebel-Swift protestors ordered arrested; to be tried by military tribunals due to declaration of martial law

Administration of State, Public, Internal Security allegedly arrests major figures of the opposition

National Directorate confirms that Jezebel-Swift's planes and followers have left airspace of Istkalen and are presently over Belarum, but that Istkalen will assist potential Reitzmic operations in the Vatican in the case of takeover

[Istkalen]

State Announcements - Istkalen At Large

The Arian Church is declared a terrorist organization

Property of Arian church seized by state

Second wave of destruction of Arian religious buildings ordered

Arian monasteries and convents forcibly shut down

Arian clergy ordered to defrock or face immediate arrest

Pro-Jezebel-Swift demonstrators allegedly within striking distance of government buildings

Arian demonstrators in Kirelesile tear-gassed

Tanks seen entering the capital

Arian Autonomous Territories placed under direct military administration for "indefinite period of time;" new military governing council for area declares "secularization campaign"

Rikkalek confirms that right of habeas corpus is temporarily suspended, but states that "everything is under control"

Republican Association of National Defence orders campaign against "terrorist and anti-democratic" elements in society

Kaisa Malk, other quasi-communist figures allegedly arrested by the Administration of State, Public, and Internal Security

Sancar, Demirkol, Isteresskemar vanish from the public view

[Istkalen]

The National Times: Election results

(OOC: The declaration of martial law and the founding of the National Association of Republican Defence, as they occurred in direct response to the Tabitha attacks, are non-canon. Both will occur in the coming days to some extent. It was previously planned to do such a thing before the elections, but this was difficult)

Election results are remarkably different from the last published polling, largely due to significant changes in the electoral law that severely weakened certain parties, as well as to the banning of the People's Association by Head of State Vistek Rikkalek after accusations of corruption and vote-rigging from within the party, although it is also believed that the polls themselves may have been partially manipulated by members of the People's Association within the now-defunct Istkalen Information Service.

The composition of the National Assembly is as follows:

PARTY OF LABOR: 41 seats
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 51 seats
LIBERAL PARTY: 33 seats
AGRARIAN UNION: 39 seats
PATRIOTIC FRONT (MODERATE): 16 seats

The composition of the National Directorate is as follows:

PARTY OF LABOR: 5 seats
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 5 seats
LIBERAL PARTY: 3 seats
AGRARIAN UNION: 4 seats
PATRIOTIC FRONT (MODERATE): 1 seat
NON-PARTISAN: 1 seat

Vistek Rikkalek was elected the Chairman of the National Directorate, and continues, de facto, as head of state and of government; he is the only non-partisan member of the National Directorate.

The election was characterized by concern over how future society and politics in Istkalen would work.

Kalju Ilves, who led the Social Democratic Party after the removal of Milrakas Ikoszer from the party leadership, is considered to be responsible for its great success. Himself a victim of persecution by the "war-government," he recovered the party's reputation while offering a return to past stability, politically and culturally, combined with a relatively progressive cultural platform, while also entering something of an alliance with the Agrarian Union.

The Agrarian Union itself, while performing relatively well considering that it had not been a registered party until but a few weeks before the election due to its dissolution in mid-December, may have underperformed. While offering a strong platform for Istkaleners concerned about perceieved foreign encroachment in the country's affairs, whether cultural, poltiical, or economic, it only recently recovered from a period of unstable leadership; in September, the party had expected Ilmaras Kalessed to return to her post as head of the party, her later resignation to pursue the role of Internal Affairs Commissioner sending it into convulsions. While new leader Ursula Korhonen is considered to be more "authentic," in terms of having more genuine roots among (Kitetois) farmers, as well as perhaps somewhat better of a speaker, she has as of yet been unable been able to recover the party's former popularity.

While the Party of Labor performed strongly among industrial, labor, and professional groupings, its support for economic and political centralization appears to have lost it a significant number of votes. The party is also devoid of the strong leadership that it had under Elspeth Arkalis, General Secretary of the party from 1984 to her death in early 2021; the person who most expected to be Arkalis's successor, Iras Tilkanas, is now European Councillor, and the party does not really have many other well-known figures.

The Liberal Party profited from the collapse of the Progress Party and The Center, which were unable to function because of the new electoral law, but was unable to gain a significant voter base outside of financial and professional circles. It is devoid of any strong leadership, or for that matter any one leader, and is unlikely to expand beyond its current voters.

The Patriotic Front (Moderate), led by Susanne Cronenberg, split from the old Patriotic Front, received most of its votes from conservative members of the German and Turkish communities in Istkalen, but also capitalized off of a hardline nationalist program which called for rapid militarization to "protect the nation against its enemies which surround it."

With nationalists having a narrow majority in the chamber (Social Democrats + Agrarian Union + Patriotic Front), the country is expected to begin renegotiating certain treaties, especially one involving free trade in electronics with the Kingdom of Spain; however, while they have expressed "discomfort" with the recently ratified Diem Accords with the Empire of Inimicus, they have stated that they are "a necessary sacrifice," and that the accords will be upheld in their entirety. Negotiations in Kirelesile to develop an aid and financial framework for states outside the "center of power" in the Union are expected to begin again as well.

The newly elected Chairman first gave an address to the nation discussing the policies that would be undertaken by the new National Directorate - mostly continued democratization and debureaucratification combined with a committment to national culture and existing modes of industrial organization, speaking of this in the context of a "democratic and social republic of labor," and stated that the government would eventually elaborate on a "common program" for the reconstruction of the country. He signaled, however, a partial retreat from politics, in which he would merely seek to act as a figure to unite and mediate between the various political groups in the National Assembly and National Directorate, while at the same time attempting to act as a moderating force in order to prevent the same swerves in policy that characterized the period of the occupation.

The newly created Committee of Foreign Affairs sought to reassure the outside world over the results of the elections, particularly the plurality of the Social Democratic Party, by stating that the two parties "were unrelated in policy" and that "the new Social Democratic Party, whose chairman is Kalju Ilves - who was imprisoned by the 'war-government' - is a social democratic party on the Western model."

The elections are a demonstration of a continued turn away from Heltois dominance. Most of the parliamentary parties, with the exception of the Party of Labor, have as their heads members of other 'nationalities' in the country - the Kitetois, the Irdetois, the Germans, and the Turks; at the same time, for the first time, the Heltois no longer form a majority of either the executive or the legislative power, with changes expected in the coming days for the judiciary, council of examination, and Censorate.

The National Assembly and National Directory will meet for the first time on the 10th, where it is expected thatmeasures will be proposed democratizing parties, expanding language education, and instituting instant recall for all elected positions in Istkalen.

[Istkalen]

Nation: Bizarre statements by Creusenberg result in defections, election of Virejane (Democratic Movement) as Director of Religious Affairs

-|
Susanne Cruesenberg

Susanne Creusenberg, leader of the Patriotic Front (Moderate), espoused conspiracy theories during the first session of the second National Assembly under the 2015 constitution, later calling for "moderate and diplomatic violence" against various groups that she dislikes, including leftists and homosexuals, which she accused of being "Vardic and Reitzmic plants alien to the moral and conservative basis of our nation."

"We are a strong nation," she said, "a nation which lives according to the laws set by tradition. We have not been corrupted by the ways of others; we have always stayed true to our own morality. During the occupation, subversive ideas were planted, ideas of rebellion against what has served us so well. Vardic and Reitzmic plants are everywhere, spreading their immoral activities as to corrupt us and bring our downfall."

"We must purge out nation of decadence," she continued. "We must purge it of those who believe in corrupting change, of those who engage in corrupting change. Of the leftists, of the feminists, of the homosexuals, of all of these subversive elements, plants of the serpents and wolves of Reitzmag and Vayinaod."

"However, I am not a believer in wanton violence and criminality," she said. "We must do all by the book, in a measured way. I call for moderate and diplomatic violence in this purge. The spirit of compromise, the spirit of tolerance; they must reign even here. Therefore we maintain in our nation a state of law and order, a stable but controlled state."

Ms. Cruesenberg's statements were universally unpopular. Many within the Patriotic Front (Moderate) claimed that she was "too secular" and had not gone far enough, most notably Mollet Afierme-Kendek, one of the founders of the party itself.

"Ms. Cruesenberg has forgotten God," he said in a statement delivered today. "She forgets that we all live by the laws of God. I do not endorse the cruelty of the Patriotic Front, but all the same I recognize that their core principles are true and must be upheld. There must be a purge, as Ms. Cruesenberg has suggested, a diplomatic purge; but it must be a religious purge, a purge of God, motivated by the Holy Spirit, to remove from this nation all that is not in favor of God. The principles of the party must be upheld. We are for God, we are for moral standards, all the same rejecting excess for moderation and compromise."

More secular members of the party, however, particularly representatives of less ideologized Turkish and German religious associations and assemblies, rejected Ms. Cruesenberg. Four representatives for religious associations in the National Assembly announced their intention to resign from the party, opting later to join the Democratic Movement of Isteresskemar, similarly right-wing and socially conservative but at the same time not as violent and far from being as religious.

"The Patriotic Front (Moderate)," they wrote in a joint statement, "is neither patriotic, a front, or moderate. It is a cesspit of insane religious leaders, of insane ideals,a cesspit which, like all others, ought to have been condemned to the 19th century. Ms. Cruesenberg, Mr. Afierme-Kendek, and their associates within the Patriotic Front, a group not merely of the insane but of genuine terrorists; they are all zealots who should be barred from politics in any nation that has emerged from the hunter-gatherer state. We stand for modernity and sanity, not this foul religiosity espoused by the Patriotic Front (Moderate)."

"We see Ms. Isteressmekar's Democratic Movement as the party that is genuinely willing to defend the nation and its traditions in a modern age. They are genuinely tolerant and diplomatic, they are genuinely compromising; and they have demonstrated themselves to possess genuine sanity and to be free of the zealotry that characterizes the Patriotic Front (Moderate)," they continued, justifying their decision to defect to that party.

Later that day, the four new deputies of the Democratic Movement announced cooperation with the Liberal Party within the delegation of the Religion Association in order to elect the former Minister of Religious Affairs, Kuseli Virejane, to the office of the Director of Religious Affairs, in order to "protect the freedom of religion in Istkalen in accordance with moderate and secular ideals." Ms. Virejane, a member of the Democratic Movement was thus elected 6-4 by the delegation, denying the Patriotic Front (Moderate) representation within the National Directorate.

This election has assuaged widespread fears of a radical turn towards pro-religion policy with the rule of the Patriotic Front (Moderate) which, while nominally secular, is considered an Arian interest party. Ms. Virejane herself has confirmed that she will continue the secular policy she pursued as Minsiter of Religious Affairs, further dampening these concerns.

[Istkalen]

Republic: The Social Democrats and Agrarian Union gain a majority

On Monday, Dr. Grete Reiner, the General Secretary of the Party of Labor, threatened to expel members of the party who did not conform to her own interpretation and proposed implementation of Marxist ideology in Istkalen, which included arguments for the necessity of mass nationalizations and the establishment of a socialist state on the "model of such states as the former UNSR and the former Czechoslovakia."

The three leaders of the Liberal Party, on the same day, voted unanimously to adopt a laissez-faire platform which argued for the immediate opening of Istkalen to the international market, the reduction of taxes to zero, and the removal of virtually all regulations on business.

Such positions, deeply unpopular in an Istkalen where the preservation of the independence of farmers, shopkeepers, and drove dozens of their members away from their parties and towards the Social Democratic Party and Agrarian Union, sister "social democratic" parties on the center-left which both find their roots in labor-union movements, of the 30s and 70s respectively.

The defections are as follows:

• all 10 representatives of merchants and shopkeepers (previously members of the Liberal Party) defected to the Agrarian Union
• all 10 representatives of the sciences (previously members of the Communist Party) defected to the Social Democratic Party
• all 10 representatives of medicine (previously members of the Communist Party) defected to the Social Democratic Party
• all 10 representatives of the liberal professions (previously members of the Liberal Party) defected to the Agrarian Union
• 4 representatives of artists and writers (previously members of the Communist Party) defected to the Social Democratic Party
• 4 representatives of workers in the home (previously members of the Communist Party) defected to the Agrarian Union

This increases the representation of the Social Democratic Party to 75 members in the National Assembly and of the Agrarian Union to 63. It further gave them control of a further 4 directors in the National Directorate, for a total of 13, and gives them 71% of seats in the National Assembly, roughly equivalent to the amount of votes they had received in the actual general election. The Party of Labor now holds only 13 seats in the National Assembly, and the Liberals 13.

These mass defections signal a movement towards a greater conservatism in Istkalenic politics. The two "social-democratic" parties are in reality the parties most in favor of the present status quo; that is, the present distribution of land and property, as well as present norms of industrial organization. Their only radical position is of democratization, which is regardless supported by virtually everyone except the religious extremists and various bureaucrats.

They also signify a detatchment from the party. Most of the defections occurred on the line of occupation, implying that party identity is now affiiliated with occupation; at the same time, the readiness of representatives to defect is in itself a sign that there is no longer strong attachment to a party. This is likely a result of the recently passed electoral law which established open primaries, significantly reducing party-discipline and moving more candidates towards the "center" of Istkalenic politics - that is, the Social Democrats and Agrarians.

Defections are likely to continue as moderate representatives flee these increasingly extreme parties.

[Istkalen]

The National Times: Social Democrats and Agrarians commit to proportional representation

The Social Democrats and Agrarians are now openly in favor of a form of proportional representation on a consociational model. While in support of the retention of the workers' associations alongside, as organs to defend the interests of various occupations against the state, as well as to serve as executive bodies in place of bureaucracies, they insist that the current system suppresses the voices of the Kitetois and the Irdetois; the Kitetois, for example, make up 41% of the population but have in the current parliament only 22% of seats due to the method of election. However, it is widely believed that the move has to do with the fact that the parties together won roughly 75% of the vote, or, counting votes for defecting deputies and other members of committees within the workers' associations, over 90% of the vote, but held 50% at first and now only 71% of all seats; proportional representation in a parliament would thus significantly gain them power and influence in the parliament.

Their proposal is to delegate power from the National Assembly and lower bodies power to new institutions - people's committees and at the national level another "National Assembly," which will have 500 seats; 205 elected by the Kitetois, 165 by the Irdetois; 50 by the Germans; 50 by the Turks; 20 by the Heltois; and 10 by "others;" that is, everyone else, according to open-list proportional representation, with the system of open primaries being maintained. There will be a 10% barrier, in order to prevent "nuisance parties" from entering the new National Assembly.

Their proposal is opposed by the Party of Labor, which supports proportional representation without "ethnic quotas," as it terms this system; the Liberals, on the other hand, are equally divided. The Democratic Movement is opposed, as they are supportive of the current system; the Patriotic Front (Moderate) will abstain, as they are opposed to all forms of democracy. The newly formed syndicalist faction of the Social Democrats, formed of eight defectors from the Party of Labor, however, has somewhat uncharacteristically declared support, arguing that only economic governance should be in the hands of the workers' associations. In spite of this opposition, the proposal is exceedingly likely to pass, as the two parties together hold a supermajority in the National Assembly.

The proposal is a significant deviation from the past, where the true social democratic movement, not the nationalist movement of the 2000s, in Istkalen was strongly influenced by the belief that political power should be transferred to trade unions in order to protect the interests of farmers and workers, in all likelihood because of how it has "turned out." The current system has shown little difference in practice from a parliamentary system; the interests of those that trade unionism would protect are actually being "suffocated" by the inflated representation of several other groups, to the extent that it is now believed that a parliamentary system would actually represent them better, given that they make up over 70% of the population.

To be clear, there is no support for abolishing the system of workers' associations as a whole - they are still viewed, as independent organizations, as conserving the interests that they are meant to conserve. Outside of the National Assembly, they have continued to play genuinely useful roles in regulating property and business interactions in order to preserve the traditional state of the Istkalenic economy. It is only their representative who continuously overrule each other and who continuously undermine the interests of each other in the National Assembly, and thus, in the eyes of the public, those representatives who must be replaced.

The system, however, would further solidify the nascent dominance of the Social Democratic-Agrarian alliance. Mass defections have given them near total dominance in most local governments and workers' associations; introducing proportional representation and non-occupationally based forms of representation on the local level, as well as excluding the vast majority of other parties by means of a high barrier to entry into parliament, would virtually give them a total monopoly on all political power. Combined with their further attempts to establish social hegemony through media, the establishment of mass organizations for youth and women, and their creation of public spaces and holding of performances, largely through the pre-existing institutions of both parties, they seem likely to be able to rapidly establish a state of their own in Istkalen.

[Istkalen]

Nation: Communists, liberals, et al placed under investigation for "acts tantamount to treason" by the Censorate

Following the passage of a controversial motion to require trade in cobalt to be conducted in the ketsel, sponsored by communist and liberal members of the National Directorate, in addition to the sole representative of the Democratic Movement on the DIrectorate, the Censorate of Istkalen immediately voted to:

• render null the motion
• suspend the positions of the sponsoring members
• begin an investigation into these members and the parties to which they belong

Such a motion had been a major election goal of the Party of Labor, although not the liberals; they insisted that it would "bring economic independence" to Istkalen, as well as "free miners from the shackle of capital," slowing their decline under the leadership of Dr. Grete Reiner, a hardline Marxist-Leninist whose views have widely been seen as "out of touch with the prevailing conditions in Istkalen," as Councillor Iras Tilkanas, previously a major member of the communist movement in Istkalen, put it.

It was, however, until now, believed that they would not go through it. Due to the system of open primaries, most elected candidates were relatively moderate, belonging to the syndicalist or reformist wings of the party; upon their mass defection, led by Eliise Raadik of the syndicalists and Makketis Ikalsser of the reformists, to the Social Democrats and Agrarians, however, the party was only left with its most hardline members, leaving it free to pursue the most extreme of its policies.

The liberals, again, were not expected to have championed such an act. They had campaigned in favor of rapid liberalization and free trade, not such clearly nationalist policies. Their support is thus believed to have stemmed from an extreme populism, borne out of the rapid decline of the party. Seeking, perhaps, to reconvince voters and members who had "jumped off the ship" after the official adoption of libertarian principles, they sought to invoke the rhetoric of radical nationalism, as many before them, from the Grand National Movement of the 2000s to the disgraced Empress Kales of the early 1900s did, to cover up the incompatability of their ideology with the state of modern Istkalen.

The decision of the Democratic Movement was expected. Always a nationalist movement, they had previously championed extraordinary policies, including an invasion of Reitzmag and Vayinaod in order to "protect the nation from its sworn enemies;" they could not be expected to support reason in any circumstances if their imagined "interests of the nation," really the interests of a nation existing only in their shattered minds.

The motion, however, passed unanimously, in spite of the opposition of the appointed "secretaries" who manage the "secretariats" of the Directorate, as well as Chairman Rikkalek himself, who does not have a vote on the DIrectorate. This was due, apparently to a bizarre form of corruption regarding favors of a nature which cannot be disclosed due to obscenity laws regulating print. The Censorate is considering punishments for those other members, but they are unlikely to be as severe as those for those who initiated the act.

The associations credited with introduction of the act have distanced them from them, claiming that they were "the complete product of the imagination of deranged individuals who masqueraded as genuine representatives, who fooled even we in their twisted act." However, they too will be subject of an investigation by the Censorate.

The greater parties, again, are also being investigated. It is almost certain that their leadership played a key role in drafting the motion in question, and thus is directly involved in the illegal act.

If found guilty by the Censorate, the individuals involved will be sentenced to at least 5 years of prison, as prescribed by the law, and be prohibited from public office from that point onwards. Community service is also likely to be prescribed as a punishment. The parties will be permanently dissolved and their assets seized by the state.