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The Days of Sorrow - Chronicles of the Revolution

Ostmark

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OSTMARK IN RUINS, DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS
"Rioters are far-right, self-styled populists." said Chancellor Kohler.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - Teenagers throwing stones, cars and buildings alight, and officers of the Staatspolizei firing tear gas are the only images being broadcast to Europe, as rioting in Ostmark enters its fifth day with more demonstrations planned. But the unrest started long before the senseless shooting of 13-year-old Gerhart Krause last week.

The Social Democratic Party of Ostmark led by Chancellor Kohler made lofty promises of reform to win re-election after the default of the national economy in January 2014, but voters have only seen scandal after scandal with hundreds of billions of taxpayer OstMarks being wasted, an increase in violent crime, and a system of law and order that makes it impossible to get justice. It is a maladministration that allows convicted parliamentarians, terrorists, rapists and murderers to go unpunished for years and decade. It is a government that does not protect, serve or even respect its people. This is a government out for itself, and the people respond accordingly by dodging taxes, refusing to pay social insurance, polluting the environment, flouting the law, paying bribes, coveting public sector jobs, and doing what they please without punishment.

The Kohler government is quick to label anyone daring to take to the streets in angry protest as "far-right, self-styled populists", although these youths that subscribed to the National-Syndicalist People's Party and led by populist figurehead Horst Grasser, a man into his 60's who works at Ostmarkische Motoren Werke, are more likely the sons and daughters of the poor, the unemployed, and the frustrated citizens of Ostmark. And when things get out of hand or an innocent dies, the government is quick to pass on blame to subordinates – in this case, two police officers who serve it. A minister tenders resignation, but no one implements real measures or takes ultimate responsibility for the discontent and hopelessness of the Ostmarkians that sparked these and other violent riots in the first place. In short, Chancellor Kohler is incapable of controlling rioters with the same corrupt policies and lax enforcement that created them.

Interior Minister Michael Kramer appealed for calm and said police will go on the defensive – a near admission that restoring law and order, a basic civil right, could not be guaranteed to protect innocent people who fear for their safety, property and livelihood. He also said: "The loss of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy." Yet any country that tolerates acts of continued violence is one that does not protect or value freedom. Foreign analysts called the rioting, "the worst Ostmark has seen since the abolition of the monarchy in 1959".
 
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Ostmark

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May 24th, 2017
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OSTMARKIAN CHILDREN ARE STARVING
But the Chamber of Deputies condemns Horst Grasser's "extremist populism".

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By Heinrich Obenaus

WIEN (Ostmark) - It's not fair to blame the people for the austerity craze that has gripped Ostmark and its 5.7 million citizens. But it is fair to say that Ostmark's presentation of flawed data about the last half-century of growth and debt was used as intellectual ammunition in a total war on deficit that has destroyed tens of thousands of families. Here in Wien, the fog of austerity is more than a metaphor. Last winter, a very real cloud of smoke haunted the city at night, as families burned felled trees and broken chairs to stay warm. While the economy has shrunk by two fifths and youth unemployment has screamed past 60 percent, the real tragedy can't really be told with numbers. It's simple, really. Ostmarkian Children are starving.

"He had eaten almost nothing at home," Mr. Gaertner said, sitting in his cramped school office near the port of Wien, as the sound of a jump rope skittered across the playground. He confronted Rupert's parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for two years. Their savings were gone, and they were living on rations of pasta and ketchup.

Austerity was supposed to be a temporary sacrifice to heal our country's budget and public debt, but when Ostmarkian children go malnourished while the Chamber of Deputies passes a bill to condemn the "extremist populism" of the National-Syndikalistische Volkspartei, you can see very clearly that austerity is just another liberal myth. For Chancellor Kohler, the answer for our failing state economy is: We will get a bag of money from international lenders if we destroy our economy. You don't need to know how to fact-check Ostmarkian economists to understand a simple truth: Force-feeding austerity to a country starving for money and growth will only get you more starvation.

But Ostmark has an answer: It's called Horst Grasser.

His movement, the National-Syndicalist People's Party, is unlike all other parties in Ostmark; and most other radical parties in Gallia and Germania. While the party itself rejects the marxist label, it nonetheless espouses all core marxist - and more specifically socialist principles. It rejects liberalism and capitalism and endorses what its leader terms as "Ostmark's revolution against the dual tyranny of the right wing devoted to money, and the left wing enslaved to capitalism" combined with support for an all-powerful state premised on "proletarian solidarity and national sovereignty".

In its manifesto the party states that being a member of the NSVP entails the acceptance of the following principles: the establishment of the state in accordance to nationalism; the moral obligations that derive from this ideology including the rejection of any authority that perpetuates societal decline; the acceptance of a workers' and farmers' state as the only authentic revolution; the establishment of a volksrepublik, or popular state, in which there are no inequalities on the basis of wealth; the idea that the state must correspond and be subservient to the nation; and the nationalization of all institutions. Therefore the party should be understood as alt-left, not because of its use of marxist paraphernalia, but rather because its ideology and organizational structures fulfil the criteria of what constitutes a socialist and nationalist group.
 

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AUSTERITY PROTEST ERUPTS IN VIOLENCE, 6 DEAD

"The days of sorrow will be over soon" said Horst Grasser.

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By Alexander Besselman

Wien (Ostmark) - Six people, one of them a pregnant woman, were killed when citizens protesting against government austerity measures threw petrol bombs at a bank in Wien on Monday. Tens of thousands of striking workers and civil servants took to the streets and masked youths clashed with police in riot gear, who responded with steady rounds of tear gas and flash bombs which clouded the city center.

The violence is a blow to Chancellor Kohler’s plans to push through tough budget cuts demanded by international creditors in exchange for aid package unveiled on Sunday. Police said five men and one woman, between 20 and 35 years old, choked on smoke after protesters broke the windows of a commercial building and tossed in Molotov cocktails. Officials told Ostmarkische Zeitung one of the female victims was pregnant. Firemen had to restrain a distraught elderly woman outside the bank, who wept and cried “my child, my child.” Kohler expressed shock at the deaths and vowed to bring those responsible to justice. “We are deeply shocked by the unjust death of these six people, our fellow citizens, who were victims of a murderous act,” he told parliament.

Protesters tried to storm parliament but were pushed back by riot police shortly before it started to debate the austerity bill. Opposition conservatives are refusing to support it, but the government, which enjoys a comfortable majority, hopes to pass it by the end of the week. Police put the march, to mark a 24-hour nationwide strike, at roughly 80,000 people. But witnesses said there were more than 80.000 — easily the biggest protest since Kohler took office in October 2016 and launched efforts to reform a failed state economy that is uncompetitive and plagued by corruption.

Hundreds of black-hooded protesters roamed the streets, hacking chunks of marble off buildings to throw at police. Although they were behind the worst of the violence, other protesters joined them in pelting police with bottles, shouting “Traitors!” Presidential guards, who usually stand immobile in front of the assembly building, left their posts as the clashes worsened. “Our country is on the edge of the abyss,” Vice Chancellor Scholz said in a statement. “We are all responsible so that it does not take the step into the void.” he added.

The marchers had dispersed by late afternoon, leaving streets littered with burned out garbage containers. Dozens of shop windows were smashed, including a bookstore near the burned bank. Two other buildings besides the bank were set on fire. State Police said 76 people had been injured in the violence and 42 arrested for carrying weapons and resisting authorities. When confronted by journalists on the violence carried out by activists of the National-Syndicalist People's Party, Horst Grasser refused to comment and said "People of Ostmark, the days of sorrow will be over soon".
 

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NATIONAL-SYNDICALISTS ARE THE SECOND LARGEST POLITICAL FORCE
"We stand by the side of the people" says NSVP leader Horst Grasser.

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By Heinrich Obenaus

WIEN (Ostmark) - As Chancellor Kohler turns a blind eye to unemployment and poverty, many impoverished and frustrated Ostmarkians find themselves trapped in an economically crippled country that can't sustain them. Protesters are turning Wien into a city of shifting front lines, seizing on local protests to promote their own movements, by claiming to be the defenders of recession-ravaged Ostmark.

An opinion poll showed that support for the National-Syndikalistische Volkspartei has grown from 0.6% of the population in September 2014 to 29.4% currently. The National-Syndicalist People's Party emerged from political obscurity into the mainstream in 2016. Since then, the party has enjoyed an upsurge in support. The party has inserted itself in the political debate of a weak state and disastrous austerity management by liberal bureaucrats to become, according to recent polls, the second most popular political party in the country – a noxious omen for the Social Democratic Party of Ostmark and a worrying challenge to Chancellor Kohler.

Three years ago, Ostmarkians ignored the NSVP (known as Ostmarkian Workers' Party until 2015), seeing its members as extremist loonies waging war against capitalism and giving it a miserable 0.69% of the vote. Last year, however, the National-Syndicalist People's Party rebranded as an anti-austerity, social nationalist party. Its ascent has continued in opinion surveys despite its members being filmed attacking police officers during protests and demanding that Chancellor Kohler be hanged in Republikplatz. As the cash-strapped government of Chancellor Kohler struggles to offer its citizens basic services, the National-Syndicalist People's Party has set up parastate organisations to police the streets, distribute food rations and help unemployed Ostmarkians find jobs.

The party has also promised to cancel household debt for the unemployed and low-wage earners. "Soon we'll be running this country, and the days of sorrow will be over" said the leader of the National-Syndicalists, Horst Grasser "The people love us because we stand by their side. Chancellor Kohler is a traitor. The only solidarity of this gentleman is to his sponsors – the international loan sharks, who are humiliating the Ostmarkian people. His concern most likely is related to the inability of Ostmark to make the payments of the predatory interest rates of the vile loans. They will pay for their crimes against the people of Ostmark” he added.
 

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POPULISM IS A GROWING THREAT IN OSTMARK
This is the outcome of austerity.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - The news coming out of Ostmark these days is in stark contrast to the dramatic stories we were used to at the height of the Ostmarkian debt crisis. From large demonstrations, intense riots, and political instability, the narrative — at least from the financial press — has shifted to praise for Chancellor Kohler and his Social Democratic Party-led coalition government for the speed and decisiveness of the reforms they’ve introduced since they were reelected in November 2014.

The hopes of those who voted for Social Democratic Party in 2014 were drowned when the party signed up for more austerity in the elections that followed later in early 2015. Now Kohler is keen to show the fruits of his sacrifices (as he often labels them in his speeches) and to highlight positive comments from the likes of international business newspapers and credit rating companies. If these voices are to be believed, Ostmark is on the mend, the crisis is beginning to be overcome, and there are hopes for an era of political stability and economic recovery.

This narrative, however, is built on sand. When the Social Democratic Party and its coalition partners, the conservative Liberal Party of Ostmark, became the latest enforcers of the hard line dictated by Kohler, international creditors saw this as a great victory, believing that it would at last bring stability to the tumultuous landscape of Ostmarkian politics. In fact, it may have achieved the very opposite. Ostmark's finances have collapsed, with gdp to debt ratio now peaking over 350%. Unemployment has broken a new record, 31.2, while industrial production is down by 14% in the first two quarters of 2017.

Turn on the TV, look at the front pages on the newsstands, check what’s happening in the Chamber of Deputies: In place of a hopeful narrative, you will find polarization, fear, and the emergence of a political climate that could be described as the preamble of a civil war. The recent massive demonstrations — more than 100,000 in Wien, 6 have perished in the clashes — although hijacked by the opposition and extreme groups like the National-Syndicalist People's Party, reveal a people in deep emotional distress and affected by a permanent siege mentality. The Social Democratic Party is not the party people thought they elected in 2014; the Liberal Party is not the party people think it is. And in between is a population largely driven to existential despair.

Before the last bailout agreement, in 2016, Ostmark was given two choices by its creditors: heavy taxation, or deep social-services cuts. Kohler opted for the first, partly because previous governments, which promised cuts, never managed to deliver. The Liberal Party suggests it will lighten people’s tax burden and make cuts instead. But Kohler’s transformation from troublemaker to the best austerity government international creditors have had the pleasure of working with, leaves both parties with little credibility among the people, which they now beg for support in the face of growing unrest fueled by Horst Grasser's populist narrative.

And so the politics of division is the only game in town. It’s "traitorous social democrats" and “degenerate liberals” versus “extreme populist” national-syndicalists led by Horst Grasser. The ability to think straight is quickly dissipating. And just like that, Ostmark finds itself one accident away from even darker times.
 

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September 17th, 2017
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OSTMARK'S HEALTH SYSTEM IS COLLAPSING

"People who might otherwise survive are dying" says Dr. Karl Siedel.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - Rising mortality rates, an increase in life-threatening infections and a shortage of staff and medical equipment are crippling Ostmarks’s health system as the Chancellor Kohler’s pursuit of austerity hammers the weakest in society. Data and anecdote, backed up by doctors and trade unions, suggest the Germania's most chaotic state is in the midst of a public health meltdown. “In the name of tough fiscal targets, people who might otherwise survive are dying,” said doctor Karl Seidel who heads the Emergency Department of Wien's central hospital “Our hospitals have become danger zones.”

“For every 50 patients there is just one nurse,” he said, mentioning the case of an otherwise healthy woman who died last month after a routine leg operation. “Cuts are such that even in intensive care units we have lost 70 beds. Frequently, patients are placed on beds that have not been disinfected. Staff are so overworked they don’t have time to wash their hands and often there is no antiseptic soap anyway.”

No other sector has been affected to the same extent by Ostmark’s economic crisis. Bloated, profligate and corrupt, for many healthcare was indicative of all that was wrong with the country and, as such, badly in need of reform. Since 2014, per capita spending on public health has been cut by two thirds . By 2016, public expenditure had fallen to 2.5% of GDP, from a pre-crisis high of 7.5%. More than 8,000 staff have been laid off, with supplies so scarce that hospitals often run out of medicines, gloves, gauze and sheets.

Few advanced economies have enacted fiscal adjustment on the scale of Ostmark. In the five years since it received the first of bailout to keep bankruptcy at bay, the country has enforced draconian belt-tightening in return for emergency loans. The default of the national economy in 2014 dealt the final blow to Ostmark's crippled healthcare system. The loss of more than 25% of national output – and a recession that has seen ever more people resorting to primary health care – has compounded the corrosive effects of cuts that in the case of public hospitals have often been as indiscriminate as they are deep. More than 1 million Ostmarkians have been left without any healthcare coverage. Shortages of spare parts are such that scanning machines and other sophisticated diagnostic equipment have become increasingly faulty. Basic blood tests are no longer conducted at most hospitals because laboratory expenditure has been pared back. Wage cuts have worsened the low morale.

“The biggest problem is shortage of staff because people are retired and never replaced,” said Dr. Schmidt, who runs the intensive care unit of the paediatric hospital in Wien. “Then there’s the problem of equipment and, periodically, lack of supplies like gloves, catheters, and cleaning tissues.” Small acts of heroism have done much to keep the broken system afloat: doctors and nurses work overtime, with donors and philanthropists also helping.

Schmidt said: “I was brought up by parents who emphasised the virtues of helping others. These days I spend a lot of time going round asking friends, or the private sector, for help when our hospital runs out of supplies. The monitors we use to track heart rhythms, blood pressure, that sort of thing, were all donated. People like to give. It makes them feel good.” when asked who he will vote for in the October 2018 elections, Schmidt had no doubt:
"Horst Grasser".
 

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POVERTY, HUNGER, UNEMPLOYMENT
Darkness closes in on desperate Ostmarkians.

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By Heinrich Obenaus

WIEN (Ostmark) - Ostmarkians are seeing an unprecedented collapse in their standard of living. The official unemployment rate is 31,2 per cent, but the real number out of a job is believed to be much higher. Mark Engel is an unemployed shipyard worker who now helps organise the distribution of food by the church. Some 4,000 people lost their jobs when his yard closed three years ago and he says 90 per cent are still jobless. His own situation is becoming desperate. The electricity, water and gas in his apartment have been cut off for non-payment of bills, and, since he has no money, he has reconnected them illegally. “I still can’t pay the mortgage,” he says. “The future is very dark.”

For some in Wien the darkness is already closing in. Beside a park in the centre of the city, Angela Zimmermann, a journalist by profession, comes six days a week to organise the feeding of a thousand people. The distribution of food, managed and organised by the Tiburan Catholic Church of Ostmark and the National-Syndicalist People's Party, started off at Easter 2013 as a temporary measure. Ms Zimmermann says that at first she fed homeless and drug addicts “but now 45 per cent of the people who come here are regular Ostmarkians, and they are just the sort of people who might be your next door neighbour.”

There is no doubt that the people she is feeding are hungry. As they crowd around her snatching at loaves of bread she is taking out of cardboard box, Ms Zimmermann shouts at them to get back in line. Others who have already received their ration sit in a nearby park and wolf down food from tin foil containers. “I think things will get a lot worse,” she says. “They’ve taxed Ostmarkians too much and they can’t survive on the money they get.” Even before the crisis Ostmark was one of the poorest and most unequal of the Gallo-Germanian countries and safety nets for the poor are limited. Ms Zimmermann complains that “help, which the government should have provided, has been left to the the church and the National-Syndicalist People's Party.”

Sitting close by was a woman who gives her name as Gertrude. She said “I was brought up in Kadikistan by my father, who was Ostmarkian, and he later admitted it was the worst mistake in his life when he brought me back here as a young girl.” She has lived for the last 25 years in Ostmark and, until 2013, though she speaks Kadikistani as well as Ostmarkian and Engellish, had a job in a cake factory, but was laid off. She worked for a company giving out leaflets in the street advertising shops, but her employers kept on not paying her. She says “it is very difficult to get a job here and Ostmark is the worst place in Germania to be unemployed.” Getrude, her sick husband and their seven year daughter come to the feeding point to be sure of at least one meal a day. “They let my daughter sit in their office so she doesn’t see all the people grabbing for food,” she says. “People like us never saw any of the money the government borrowed.”

Ostmarkian society as a whole is in a state of shock. Those who wielded power through money no longer have it in sufficient quantities. Chancellor Kohler has the power to turn the tide, but is unclear how to use it. One woman said it was the first time since the revolution in 1959 that nobody in Wien talks about anything but politics. “We are in a war situation,” she says “Ostmark is a country in dissolution.”
 
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JOBLESS MAN BURNS HIMSELF TO DEATH IN LUDWIGSTADT
"We will assist the family of our fallen comrade" said Horst Grasser.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - Niklas Altendorf spiralled into suicidal depression after losing his job, which he had acquired just a few months before, at a taxi company. Mr Altendorf had previously spent two years without a job in dire economic straits and he chose to end his life at the market in Ludwigstadt. According to witnesses, he used to go to the market to help sellers load and unload their trucks in the hope of receiving small change and food for his services, a spokesperson of the Staatspolizei told Ostmarkische Zeitung.

Before dousing himself in petrol and striking the match, Mr Altendorf sent a message to his daughter – who lived with his estranged wife - saying: “Forgive me for what I'm doing.” The daughter then rushed down to the market. “She arrived in front of his father's car but it was in flames,” a lorry driver who watched the scene unfold said “She tried to save him but there was nothing that could be done.”

State Police officers had to restrain the daughter from running towards the car over fears it would explode. Firefighters were quickly on the scene to extinguish the blaze, but by then it was too late. “He was desperate – this suicide is a terrible blow for everybody,” said one family member. “It takes a lot of courage to kill yourself like that.” The horrific act is being considered another "economic suicide" for Ostmark. Our country has seen the number of people who take their own lives surge in recent years. Between 2013 and 2017, over 2500 ostmarkians committed suicide due to economic hardship such as poverty and unemployment.

Horst Grasser, the leader of the National-Syndicalist People's Party, announced he will formally report Chancellor Kohler to authorities for instigation to commit suicide "and the National-Syndicalist People's Party will collect a sum of money to assist the family of the fallen comrade. We invite the daughter of comrade Altendorf, a victim of the capitalist regime that is strangling our nation and our people, to reach the nearest chapter of the NSVP to receive adequate assistance from our charity organizations. The days of sorrow will be over soon." said Grasser during a press conference in Wien.
 

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OSTMARK BRACES FOR MORE VIOLENCE
Two days of rioting has left Wien resembling a war zone.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - Ostmark was bracing for more rioting in Wien and other cities on Saturday after two nights of violent clashes between thousands of demonstrators and police to protest austerity and unemployment. The rioting has left the center of Wien looking like a war zone. More than 180 people have been injured, over 200 cars have been burned, and dozens of shops and bank branches have been torched. Cars and pedestrians returned to Wien streets this morning as ostmarkians went back to work, but the mood was tense. More than 300 Wien city employees began removing the car wrecks from the streets. The violence left behind charred police stations, car dealerships, government buildings and private apartments.

Friday morning, protesters chanting "Traitors! Murderers!" had hurled petrol bombs at ranks of Wien's riot police while helicopters clattered overhead and tear gas choked the city. By Friday night, the the Staatspolizei appeared to have exhausted its tear gas supply and resorted to hurling stones back at the masked protestors. The violence spread across the country, as far as Ludwigstadt. "Wien and Ludwigstadt are under siege" said Chancellor Kohler. With a 24-hour general strike scheduled for Monday against the government's economic policies, many Ostmarkians fear the demonstrations could last for days. Violence at student rallies and fire bomb attacks by National-Syndicalists are becoming more common, and the youth is angry at a widening gap between rich and poor.
 

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June 11th, 2018
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CHAOS IN WIEN AS FOOD SHELVES GO EMPTY

Chancellor Kohler to mobilize Landwehr to replace striking Staatspolizei personnel.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - Tens of thousands of Ostmarkians are preparing to take to the streets of Wien to protest a parliamentary vote tonight that will approve a new series of austerity measures. The Staatspolizei union also announced a general strike and Chancellor Kohler signed an emergency decree in an attempt to replace striking police officers with Landwehr personnel, a move that according to an anonymous source from the Territorial Defense Force, has sparked perplexities.

Meanwhile, crippling food shortages exacerbated by government austerity policies have caused widespread illness as tens of thousands are forced to survive on scavenged food. Mark, a 22-year-old man from Tuchersfeld, is homeless and unemployed and lives in the tunnels of the old train station. Foraging for foods in dumpsters is his only option to avoid starvation. “I ate several different kinds of scavenged food, such as days old meat and rotten fruit. It’s poisonous. Other kinds of scavenged food is poisonous too so you could die if you picked the wrong one," says Mark.

This situation shows how Chancellor Kohler has been unable to tackle poverty and unemployment, which is now estimated at 35%, with youth unemployment at 67%. The chronic food shortages have forced Ostmarkians to eating barely digestible or even poisonous plants, consigning the most needy to hunger and illness. Several NGOs have documented how Ostmarkians have been adding grass or roots to existing foodstuffs to make food go further, such as mixing grass with corn to make corn gruel. Mark’s diet consisted of wild foods and other sources that were equally poor in nutrition if not plainly dangerous. "Sometimes I mix foods with grass, which give me bowel problems but I need to add something to my food to satiate my hunger. I know all these foods have little nutritional value, but I still eat them to fill my stomach,” says Mark.

Food rations have either been suspended or dramatically reduced as part of the new spending review approved by the parliament. Meanwhile, at least 120 are estimated to have starved to death as recently as June this year after the currency revaluation. According to this morning's report, the price for one kilogram of bread has reached 50 Million OstMarks.

Andrea, 38 and mother of two, says her irregular and sporadic meals brought on digestive problems “I normally eat one meal a day. I am always hungry. If I have something to eat, I eat it all. Even if I am full, I continue eating because I don't know when I will have the chance to eat again. Also because I am homeless, I couldn’t take the food with me, so I just finish it in one go. Whenever I eat too much, I suffer from indigestion, including stomach ache and diharroea".
 
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WE ARE STARING INTO THE ABYSS

Horst Grasser is our last hope.

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By Heinrich Obenaus

WIEN (Ostmark) - The soup kitchens, the beggars, the pensioners picking up discarded vegetables after street markets close, the homeless scavenging for food in bins. These are the signs that can be seen. Less noticeable is the quiet desperation of dignified people who turn off heating despite the cold and share dwindling savings with jobless relatives. Or the workers unable to afford fares home and the children fainting in school from hunger.

It is four years since the default and the beginning of the austerity programme. Four years of savage austerity and capitalist liberalism — of sudden new taxes, salary cuts, job losses, rising prices and falling demand — have left the nation shattered and its citizens locked in a spiral of despair. Ostmarkians seem torn between outrage at their venal politicians, anxiety over the future and the fierce anger they direct at international creditors for demanding tough measures.

The imposition of the latest package of conditions by international creditors provoked riots last month, while newspapers made ugly references to zionist capitalist lobbies. Chancellor Kohler's government has backed another devastating cutback in our economy — slashing the minimum wage, savaging welfare payments, sacking one-fifth of state workers — but many fear this is just one more chapter in a long-running tragedy.

Only one thing is certain: this nation of 5,7 million people is being slowly crucified on the cross of its adherence to turbocapitalist liberalism. It does not take long to discover the depth of the pain. Walking near the parliament, I came across a large crowd. A man was pointing to a balcony three storeys up on an office block, where I could see the dangling legs of a distraught woman who was threatening to jump.

An officer of the Staatspolizei explained me she was mother of two who had been warned both she and her husband could lose their jobs. The woman, who was talked down after five hours, wanted to meet the Minister of Works to protest their case. ‘We cannot go on living in a country in this condition,’ she said. ‘Soon Ostmark will be like a third world country.’ Ostmark’s economic freefall is calamitous. Gross domestic product is already down 29 per cent since 2014, and is likely to fall a further this year.

Three in five people live below the poverty line. Rates of crime, disease, homelessness and suicide are shooting up, while capital spending and property prices plummet. Behind these shocking statistics are millions of people betrayed by useless and corrupt politicians.

People such as Peter Kranz, 53, whom I met outside the social security office. In his white shirt he looked like the successful salesman he was until the last day of 2013. Kranz, married with a teenage daughter, fears he may never get a proper job again. For a year, he has been unemployed and received state support. But now the support has been cut off and he must rely on his elderly parents, the dregs of his savings and odd jobs in the black economy such as driving.

‘I feel so bad for my daughter because I have nothing to give her,’ he said. ‘I had such plans to help her with preparations for university — but what is the point of studying when you have scientists making deliveries and taxi drivers with degrees?’ The days of happy family holidays are a distant memory. ‘So many Ostmarkians are in my position,’ he said. ‘I fear that as people’s savings run out, things will get far more difficult. People will rebel.’ Like most people, he seemed remarkably good-humoured given his predicament. ‘We are by nature a happy people. But you can see the stresses of daily life on all the faces in the buses, the trains and on the streets. This has become a very dark place.’

The official unemployment rate has hit 34 per cent — though, as one friend warned me bitterly, never trust an official statistic in Ostmark. Nearly 65% those under 25 are jobless. Barter economies have emerged, while networks of neighbours help each other by collecting food and clothes for the homeless, jobless and those in need. Soup kitchens run by volunteers have sprung up across the capital, serving meals to 150,000 Ostmarkians a day. Perhaps fittingly, one of the biggest is on the former site of the stock exchange.

 
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OCTOBER 2018 ELECTION SPECIAL

Interview with National-Syndicalist leader Horst Grasser.

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By Alexander Besselman

Alexander Besselman: Good morning Herr Grasser. As leader of the National-Syndikalistische Volkspartei, you are considered by many as a newcomer in Ostmark's political scene, but according to recent surveys your radical political platform has attracted the support of a large part of the population. Assuming you will win the elections, and also a majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, how will you implement the populist agenda of the National-Syndicalist People's Party?

Horst Grasser: Good morning. I would like to point out that our agenda is neither radical or populist. Poverty and unenmployment have destroyed the social tissue of our nation. Elaborating plans to fix both issues cannot be considered populist, or radical. It is a precise duty of the national government to provide basic services for the people. The poor, the unemployed and the homeless have been abandoned by public institutions due to the cuts approved by the criminal regime of Chancellor Kohler and the Social Democratic Party in alliance with the Christian Democratic Union.

Alexander Besselman: So, for example, how will you fix unemployment?

Horst Grasser: Ostmark's infrastructures are crumbling. Two dams out of five are not operational due to a shortage of materials, technicians and workers. The lack of maintenance and personnel is depriving entire rural communities of their main source of water. Sometimes members of said communities are forced to drive tens of kilometers just to refill bottles and barrels. A situation exaccerbated by the shortage of bottled water on supermarkets shelves. There are dozens of reports testifying the abysmal conditions of our public schools and hospitals and the most logical solution would be to increase funding for repair and maintenance. The same story is valid for roads - i don't need to mention the condition of our provincial and state roads, a dramatic reality faced on a daily basis by tens of thousands of ostmarkian drivers. Garbage collection is dysfunctional even here in our capital city. I've read reports that stated garbage trucks have neglected the outskirts of the city for several weeks, until an emergency decree issued by Chancellor Kohler ordered the Landwehr to clear the roads and the sidewalk from mountains of trash. And where did the trash go? They moved it in a nearby neighborhood. There is so much work to do, so many specialized workers are needed, and even non-specialized workers such as janitors, garbage men and road maintenance workers. They say we lack the funds to hire them - but at the same time, 35% of the working population is unemployed. Don't you think there is something wrong with this situation? Much work to do - but many people with no job. I say: let's give the unemployed a hammer and a shovel and put them to work. Unemployed citizens must be conscripted and sent to critical points, where they will help to rebuild our crumbling infrastructures, while receiving a salary - which in all cases must ensure them a honourable and free existence - they pay taxes and increase our available budget, they will spend their money on goods and services such as furniture, clothes, home appliances, even cars or buy new apartments, start their own families and have children.

Alexander Besselman: What makes you think a young man, or woman, in his twenties and with a university degree, will accept to work as janitor in the outskirts of Wien?

Horst Grasser: Because we are drowning and we need the strenght to swim our way out this tragic whirpool, or succumb to darkness and despair. There must be a beginning, and my proposal could work as an effective solution for the plague of unemployment, specially youth unemployment. I know it is not right. A mathematician should not work in a road construction company. A philosopher should not collect trash early in the morning. But my proposal is not the arrival, it is the starting line. I've received hundreds, thousands of letters of desperate young men and women who would do anything, ANYTHING, to provide their families and children with at least one meal per day. I've talked to nurses, accountants, even doctors who would perform any task, and accept any job. I know their names and i remember their faces very clearly, but thousands of ostmarkians like them are lining up as we speak to receive food packages infront of the churches and charity food banks, the latter often managed by the volunteers of the National-Syndicalist People's Party. There is no dignity in begging for food, and a society that claims to be liberal and civilized cannot accept the dramatic scenes witnessed by the inhabitants of this city. Scenes such as mothers begging for a few coins because they lack the financial resources to buy diapers and food for their children. What is being perpetrated against our people is a vile crime. It is an attack against our dignity as human beings, and we must retaliate.

Alexander Besselman: Speaking of retaliation, the Staatspolizei stated that a large number activists of the National-Syndicalist People's Party is involved in violent forms of protest such as the throwing of molotov cocktails and other objects at law enforcement officers. Recently, a deputy of the SPD has been injured during a demonstration infront of the Chamber of Deputies. Don't you think your populist rethoric and your language is partly responsible for stirring up the hatred and steet violence? Don't you think politicians have the duty to be responsible, both in their actions and the language they use?

Horst Grasser: What i think is that given the current state of affairs in the Republic of Ostmark, i am very surprised that citizens haven't taken up arms yet, against the government, and hanged Chancellor Kohler for his crimes against our nation.

Alexander Besselman: I remind you that you take full responsibility for your choice of words.

Horst Grasser: My point stands. It took months before the submissive liberal press aknowledged the humanitarian crisis in the Republic of Ostmark, and only the efforts of a handful of heroic journalists uncovered Ostmark's reality like a Pandora's box. The reality of Ostmark is far from the 'imminent recovery' and 'necessary liberalization of the market' promoted by Chancellor Kohler. The reality is that three citizens out of five live in poverty. That is, absolute poverty. We are talking about entire families lacking the most basic needs such as food, heat and medicines. Hungry children are fainting in the classrooms, hundreds of men and women, of all ages, are committing suicide or severely injuring themselves in the process.

Alexander Besselman: I understand your concerns, and your point. But don't you think that fueling the frustration and the despair of the people will only lead to more violence?

Horst Grasser: Who is fueling the anger? Am i fueling it? Or is it Chancellor Kohler with his blind support for the vile austerity packages forced upon our nation by the international creditors and Ostmark's industrial lobbies? Who cut social assistance? Who cut healthcare spending? Who cut the wages and raised taxes at the same time? Who abolished social assistance programmes, aware that such a decision would have created only more poverty and more desperation? If you are looking for those responsible for the tragedy we live in, i suggest you look somewhere else. I am not the one who sacrificed this country and its 5,7 million people to satisfy the hunger of international loan sharks.

Alexander Besselman: What you suggest is the adoption of a pseudo marxist-leninovist system, that you swiftly rebranded as 'National-Syndicalism' in a country that enjoyed unprecedented economic development and once stood among the nations with the highest human development indexes. The free market and liberalism served this country and allowed it to prosper for almost a century. Do you think the people will simply abandon the old ways and are you sure they follow you in the implementation of your political and economic agenda?

Horst Grasser: Yes. They will. Because I know that over one hundred thousand people are homeless. ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND! Children, women and old age persons with no distinction whastoever. I know they live under the bridges, in the abandoned tunnels of the old metro, in the shanty skeletons of abandoned factories in the outskirts of Wien. I know that scenes of poor citizens scavenging for food in the leftovers of the city's markets, or in the back alleys of fast foods and restaurants, are now a daily occurence. I know the reality is that 35% of the working population is unemployed. 65% if we consider youth unemployment. I know the Ostmarkian youth is being deprived of the legitimate aspirations that a civilized nation would take for granted, but such aspirations are forcefully denied by an economic and political system that completely neglects its own people but wonders why violence is dominating the streets. The question is: what choice do they have? Yes, sometimes our activists are involved in violent forms of protest. But have you ever interviewed any of them? Have you ever asked them why they use violence to express their frustrations and their worries? Rulers cannot vigorously vessate and punish the farmers and the peasants and expect nothing will happen. Sooner or later the poor and the hopeless will rise the banner of the revolution and dethrone the monarch. When this happens, it is never done according to the unwritten laws of political correctness and moderation. Hunger, and anger, awake our most primitive animal instinct: survival. We want to live in dignity. We want to survive. Only when the working class, in alliance with the intelligentsia, will break the chains of capitalist exploitation, we will truly be free. Only then, the days of sorrow will be over.

Alexander Besselman: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Horst Grasser: I dream of a society founded on solidarity and equality, social rights. I dream of a society where the poor are not considered as a burden, but as fellow human beings who deserve and are entitled to help and assistance by the all the members of a national people's community. I dream of a nation where healthcare, education are fundamental rights of the citizens. A nation that protects mothers and their children, and does not discriminate women on the workplaces. I dream of a nation where citizens trust one another, as brothers of the same family, and help one another when they are in distress. A nation where there is enough food for everybody, enough heat for everybody: none shall starve, and none shall freeze. A society that does not discriminate citizens on the basis of social or economic condition. A society that embraces its worst off members and guides them to a future of happiness and freedom. I dream of a People's Republic. The People's Republic Ostmark.

Alexander Besselman: Thank your for your time Herr Grasser, goodbye.

Horst Grasser: Goodbye.
 
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NATIONAL-SYNDICALISTS WIN ABSOLUTE MAJORITY IN CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, HORST GRASSER: "THE DAYS OF SORROW ARE OVER". IS THIS THE END OF OUR DEMOCRACY?

OFFICIAL RESULTS: NSVPdAK 47%; SPO 17%; KPO 11%; CDU 9%; LPO 8%; DG 6%, Others 2%.

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By Alexander Besselman

WIEN (Ostmark) - With the victory of the National-Syndikalistische Volkspartei in yesterday's elections, Horst Grasser was elected the next Chancellor of the Republic of Ostmark in a stunning culmination of an explosive, populist and polarizing campaign that took relentless aim at the institutions and long-held ideals of Ostmarkian liberal democracy.

The surprise outcome threatened convulsions throughout the country and the world, where skeptics had watched with alarm as Herr Grasser’s unvarnished overtures to disillusioned voters took hold. The triumph for Herr Grasser, a welder at Ostmarkische Motoren Werke with no government experience, was a powerful rejection of the establishment forces that had assembled against him.

The results amounted to a repudiation, not only of his political adversaries, but of the very fabric of Ostmark's liberal free market system. And it was a decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly working-class voters who felt that Ostmark had slipped their grasp amid decades of globalization and liberalism. In Horst Grasser they found an improbable champion.

“People of Ostmark, the days of sorrow are over!” Grasser told to supporters at a rally in Wien, just after Chancellor Kohler called to concede.“It is time for us to come together as one united people and rebuild our nation from the ashes of poverty and misery. This, is my ultimate goal. Only then we will truly be free. Our National Revolution has just begun.” he said. He reserved aggressive words for Mr. Kohler, who he has suggested should be hanged in a public square, saying he "finally relinquished his seat to the only true holders of power: the national working class".

From the moment he entered the campaign, with a shocking set of claims that foreign creditors were criminals and zionist-controlled lobbies, Grasser was widely underestimated as a candidate. But his rise was largely predicted by polling organizations and data analysts. And an air of improbability trailed his campaign, to the detriment of those who dismissed his angry message, his improvisational style and his appeal to disillusioned voters.

He suggested remedies that raised questions of constitutionality, like the abolition of usury and the expropriation of foreign assets. He threatened opponents, promising lawsuits against news organizations that covered him critically and detractors who accused him of hate speech and populism. But Grasser’s unfiltered rallies and unshakable self-regard attracted a zealous following, fusing unsubtle identity politics with an economic populism that often defied party doctrine.

His rallies — furious, entertaining, heavy on name-calling and nationalist overtones — became the nexus of a political movement, with daily promises of sweeping victory, in the election and otherwise, and an insistence that the country’s political machinery was “rigged” against Horst Grasser and those who admired him. He seemed to embody the suffering and the misery that so many of his followers felt were pervasive in their own lives — and in the country itself. And he scoffed at the poll-driven word-parsing ways of modern politics, calling them a waste of time and money. Instead, he relied on his gut.

At his victory party in Republikplatz, where a raucous crowd waved the Hammer and Sword flags bearing his ubiquitous campaign slogans "The days of sorrow will be over soon" and "We will rise from the ruins", voters expressed gratification that their voices had, at last, been heard. “He was talking to people who weren’t being spoken to,” said a 24 years old man from Ludwigstadt “That’s how I knew he was going to win." Meanwhile, uncertainty abounds as Herr Grasser prepares to take office.
 

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KANZLERAMT
Republik Östmark


**FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE CHANCELLOR OF THE REPUBLIC, HERR GRASSER, DURING THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, OCTOBER 12TH, 2018.**

"Citizens of Ostmark,

The people throughout our fatherland have been plunged into bitter suffering and tribulations since the liberal democratic governments betrayed the fatherland, colluded with international loan sharks and starved our nation. But we have stopped them and launched a revolutionary campaign to restore the supremacy of the state over the economy, of the national working classes over the capitalist oppressors.

The activists of the National-Syndikalistische Volkspartei have selflessly dedicated themselves to defend the sovereignty of our homeland, to protect the people’s lives and property, to relieve the people of their sufferings, and to struggle for their rights, and it eventually wiped out the reactionary servants and overthrew the oppresive rule of the capitalist regime of Franz Kohler.

Now, the National-Revolution has been basically won and the people of this country have been liberated. On this foundation, the first session of the Chamber of Deputies of my administration, the National-Syndicalist People's Party in alliance with the Communist Party of Ostmark, has been convened.

Representing the will of the whole nation, the Chamber of Deputies has enacted the organic law of the newly formed Volksregierung, elected me as Volkskanzler, and Ludwig Bohmer as Vizekanzler.

The People's Government has also proclaimed the founding of the Volksrepublik Ostmark and confirmed on Wien as the capital of our newborn Workers' and Peasants' state.

The government of the People’s Republic of Ostmark took office today in the capital and unanimously made the following decisions:

1. To proclaim the establishment of the People’s Republic of Ostmark.

2. To adopt Ostmarkian National-Syndicalism as the guiding ideology of the government and all state institutions of the People's Republic of Ostmark.

3. To enact an emergency decree to provide shelter, medicines and food for the poor, the sick and the homeless. This decree will be known as the 'None Shall Starve, None Shall Freeze Initiative'.

4. To suspend the constitution and write a new fundamental law in accordance with the values and the ideals of the National-Syndicalist People's Party.

5. To enact reforms and decrees aimed at tackling the plague of unemployment, i hereby announce the establishment of the People's Labour Service, a state controlled agency tasked with conscripting and redeploying unemployed workers in areas of interest and if possible in accordance with their skills and capabilities.

6. The People's Government of the People's Republic of Ostmark orders the immediate expropriation of strategic national assets such as energy, natural resources, factories, farming land, banks, private medical facilities, which will be administered by the functionaries of the People's Government until further notice.

The People's Government also decided declare to the governments of all other countries that this government is the sole legal government representing all the people of the People's Republic of Ostmark. This government is willing to establish diplomatic relations with any foreign government that is willing to observe the principles of equality, mutual benefit, and mutual respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

People of Ostmark, the days of sorrow are over."
 

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STAATSSICHERHEITSDIENST

MINISTERIUM FÜR STAATSSICHERHEIT
VOLKSREPUBLIK OSTMARK

FROM: STATE SECURITY SERVICE, MINISTRY FOR STATE SECURITY
TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS, OSTMARKISCHE ZEITUNG
SUBJECT: ORDER OF CEASE AND DESIST

Under the provisions of the Decree for National Salvation issued by the Office of the Chancellorship of the People's Republic of Ostmark on the 12th of October, 2018, and approved by the Volksrat on the 13th of October, 2018, and in accordance with Law No. 941/Ter approved by the Chamber of Deputies of the Koenigreich Ostmark on the 21st of April, 1921,

The Ministry for State Security of the People's Republic of Ostmark notifies to the board of directors of Ostmarkische Zeitung an Order of Cease and Desist issued by the People's Supreme Court of the People's Republic of Ostmark against Herr Alexander Besselman, journalist, and the board of directors of Ostmarkische Zeitung, for anti-ostmarkian activities and anti-revolutionary propaganda.

Further infringements of the aforementioned Order of Cease and Desist will result in an immediate expropriation of Ostmarkische Zeitung. Failure to comply will result in an arrest of perpetrators on the charges of High Treason, which is punished with death penalty by firing squad under the provisions of Royal Decree No. 37 issued on the 30th of January 1732.

For the Protection of Workers' and Farmers' Power,
STAATSSICHERHEITSDIENST - MINISTERIUM FÜR STAATSSICHERHEIT
STATE SECURITY SERVICE - MINISTRY FOR STATE SECURITY



 
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GOODBYE, OSTMARK!

Bend the knee. You’ve gotten quite good at it.

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By Alexander Besselman

EDITORIAL - You cannot say you were not warned. I've tried to warn you, for almost two years. You - yes, you - refused to listen. The sad reality is that our democratic, liberal republic was a great and consequential experiment, a beacon of freedom in the world for over half a century, but clearly, Ostmarkian have grown bored with the idea of it and with the hard work it takes to sustain it.

So let’s get to it.

Let's burn the constitution to the ground and get over with it. We don't need freedom, we don't need civil rights. We like the goose-stepping boots in Republikplatz - sorry, Volksrepublikplatz - and we like the uniforms.

Don’t makes excuses and enjoy the last burst of freedom before the democratic death clock die-off ends the party. Your support for Grasser isn't because you live in the immediate, expedient political present. Your support for Grasser is because you have turned your object of veneration from our freedom and our constitutional system to a despotic pompous dictator.

And so, my National-Syndicalist friends, it’s time to embrace the new monarchy. Let your NSVP party membership card be your guide, your past be a memory, and Herr Grasser be your King.

Bend the knee. You’ve gotten quite good at it.

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