Socialist Commonwealth
Establishing Nation
Thank you for tuning in and welcome to Carentania Public Broadcasting.
For those of our listeners who are interested in the future of Solaren, where our boys and girls in the military are currently keeping the peace, we have translated an interview with Silvio Guiliani recently broadcasted on Radio Panetelleria. Guiliani is the interim gouvernor of the Solaren province of Capraria, a popular socialist and member of the Solaren National Congress tasked with writing a new constitution. Radio Panetelleria is a left-leaning broadcaster for south-eastern Solaren, started after the war with the help of Carentanian engineers.
Mr. Guiliani, the National Congress had promised elections before the end of last year but couldn't keep that promise. What are the reasons?
The situation right now is very complicated and the liberal faction within the SNC is obstructing the process because it hopes to maintain capitalism and their own position of power as wealthy landlords and businessmen. They realize that the majority of Solaren wants an economy based on laborers, not banks, that the majority of Solaren realizes the advantages of collective farming and central economic planning and that the majority of Solaren knows that we need all this to prevent becoming the victim of foreign markets. Only through central planning efforts, a controlled import and export policy and nationalized industry can we succesfully modernize and industrialize. Free markets and free trade are only the freedom to exploit the people of Solaren. But the liberals also know that people who don't know where their food for the next day will come from, that don't know if they'll still be able to sleep in their homes on the next morning and who are exhausted after twelve hours of hard work each day will not find themselves bothered with voting, can't find themselves wasting a valuable day on politics. They want to exclude the social question from the constitution, because they know that this will prevent the poor from voting against them.
The strongest liberal faction - the Social-Liberal Party - advocates limited state involvement and only a partially free market. A viable alternative?
More of a sham than anything. The Social-Liberals are backed by Eiffelland, controlled by Eiffelland and naturally advocate Eiffellands economic system as example to follow. What this actually means is to leave the doors wide open for companies from Eiffelland to take what they can from the people of Solaren, while telling them that they are not living in capitalism but - what a stew of anachronisms! - "social market economy". But if it looks like capitalism, feels like capitalism and beats you down like capitalism, I beg the question, isn't it capitalism all the same? In Eiffelland, the state is not enjoying greater authority over the market to put the capitalists back in their place, but rather to protect the great conglomerates in Eiffelland from foreign competition and upstart businessmen. The worker, the mother, the poor and the farmers, they are exploited all the same nonetheless.
You are saying the Social-Liberals are controlled by Eiffelland - your opponents are saying the same about the National Congress and the Socialists. Your reply?
Anyone who dares to take a closer look will realize that, while we are connected to our brothers in Carentania in solidarity, this is in no ways a closer relationship than we enjoy to any other socialist nation, group or individual. With the same legitimacy you could say that we are controlled by Havenshire, by Parthava, by Vangala or even by the rebels in Yujin. A lot of what Carentania has, we naturally want for the people of Solaren as well, but because we know that it is good for the people of Solaren, not because Carentania tells us we should. Carentania and Solaren are two different countries and in many aspects, we will need to enact other measures, place emphasis on different issues and follow another path than Carentania did in its past and present. If you meanwhile watch the Solaren National Congress a bit closer, you will see that in different cases, we actually stood up to Carentania and told them to cease measures we disagreed with - for example the forced evacuation of Iscla during the war. There are also many different factions in the Congress who are keeping more distance to the Workers' Republic than us. I already mentioned the liberals for example. Meanwhile, the Social-Liberals want to do everything exactly as it is done in Eiffelland, have never voiced any criticism or opposition to measures of the government in Eiffelland or their military, they are advocating complete loyalty to their sponsors. Their party is built around a single individual, Count Stefano di Perugia, who is surrounded by dozens of agents and advisors from the Eiffelländer government wherever he goes. Apparently though, they didn't consider his sex life to backfire on their plans. *Giuliani laughs*
Di Perugia denies any homosexual relationships and has sued the conservative newspaper which printed the accusation for libel...
Di Perugia - and his sponsors in Eiffelland - should just accept that he will have no future in Solaren politics anymore now that his little secret has gone public. Instead, he is clinging to power with all available means and mocking the common Solarener in the process. Most of our citizens can't even afford the basic necessities of everyday life, many have taken shelter in shantytowns, large parts of the population are unemployed, mothers are going to bed hungry just to feed their children... Meanwhile di Perugia is affording himself the luxury of an entire army of lawyers to defend his political career from the repercussions of his own perverted lifestyle. A man so removed from the concerns of the people does not belong into government, not to mention the hipocrisy of using the law to assault the media, when the same law stipulates that he belongs into prison for sodomy.
You think di Perugia should be arrested?
No, I think that sodomy is not a matter for the courts, but for a psychiater. What I intend to say is that the laws his lawyers now cite are old laws from before the war, still in effect because we have no working constitution and no working government to re-think them. However, if he holds them to be legitimate and applicable in this situation, so should the laws against sodomy. In my opinion, we don't need the laws, they are based on the assumption that homosexuality could spread, like a viral disease. Homosexuality, however, is not a disease of the body, but a corruption of the mind and of a healthy relation to the other gender. Cultures which lost the respect for their women, for example the ancient city-states of Haemia, quickly resorted to homosexuality to express their sexual desires - because they had lost all love for women. Often institutions like the church - and this was the case in Solaren - realized this problem but fought it by threatening the homosexuals rather than combatting the root. A respectful, loving relationship to the women in Solaren will erase the need for any laws against homosexuality and leave the poor souls still suffering from this bourgeoise confusion as a case for the shrink, not the judges.
In fact, I am a little sad that this issue is now taking such a great place within the public debate. It will only serve to strengthen the conservative forces, when we should be talking about other issues. Homelessness for example.
You're alluding to the demand of the National Labor Coalition to legalize squatting?
Yes! The military of Eiffelland gave a very weak response - as if it is their right to decide such political matters from aloof - in regards to our proposal. Right now, we have a lot of unused buildings and unused land, which the government of Eiffelland does not wish to see as such because they legally are owned by someone. There is no speculation on land prices, that much is correct, because of the volatile political situation and the uncertain future of Solaren, property in Solaren is very unattractive for investments. However, there are a lot of people who died during the war or who left the country, who leave behind land and buildings. In the latter case, they retain their property rights, but leave the building empty. In the first case, the buildings or the land are often inherited by people living on the other side of the country who have other issues to take care of. Utilizing these buildings and this land could help a lot of Solaren citizens now living on the streets. Many have already started helping themselves, forming shantytowns on the edges of the cities - though some of these have existed before the war already. The situation in the shantytowns, however, is dire, because the people there live from day to day, uncertain if they won't be thrown off the land soon. In such a situation, no one bothers with investing work into crucial infrastructure.
The authorities of the Eiffelländer Occupation Force promised homes to be built for every Solaren citizen.
How does it help these people if they get told that, some day, they will have a proper home? Eiffelland is putting off the people of Solaren, telling them to wait for the future - and in the meantime to follow their laws, even if it means that they will suffer tremendously and face an uncertain fate. That is the core of bourgeoise ideology and all they have to offer to the people of Solaren, a weak promise that someday, they will profit from capitalism too. In the meantime, however, the capitalist elites reap in the profits.
For those of our listeners who are interested in the future of Solaren, where our boys and girls in the military are currently keeping the peace, we have translated an interview with Silvio Guiliani recently broadcasted on Radio Panetelleria. Guiliani is the interim gouvernor of the Solaren province of Capraria, a popular socialist and member of the Solaren National Congress tasked with writing a new constitution. Radio Panetelleria is a left-leaning broadcaster for south-eastern Solaren, started after the war with the help of Carentanian engineers.
Mr. Guiliani, the National Congress had promised elections before the end of last year but couldn't keep that promise. What are the reasons?
The situation right now is very complicated and the liberal faction within the SNC is obstructing the process because it hopes to maintain capitalism and their own position of power as wealthy landlords and businessmen. They realize that the majority of Solaren wants an economy based on laborers, not banks, that the majority of Solaren realizes the advantages of collective farming and central economic planning and that the majority of Solaren knows that we need all this to prevent becoming the victim of foreign markets. Only through central planning efforts, a controlled import and export policy and nationalized industry can we succesfully modernize and industrialize. Free markets and free trade are only the freedom to exploit the people of Solaren. But the liberals also know that people who don't know where their food for the next day will come from, that don't know if they'll still be able to sleep in their homes on the next morning and who are exhausted after twelve hours of hard work each day will not find themselves bothered with voting, can't find themselves wasting a valuable day on politics. They want to exclude the social question from the constitution, because they know that this will prevent the poor from voting against them.
The strongest liberal faction - the Social-Liberal Party - advocates limited state involvement and only a partially free market. A viable alternative?
More of a sham than anything. The Social-Liberals are backed by Eiffelland, controlled by Eiffelland and naturally advocate Eiffellands economic system as example to follow. What this actually means is to leave the doors wide open for companies from Eiffelland to take what they can from the people of Solaren, while telling them that they are not living in capitalism but - what a stew of anachronisms! - "social market economy". But if it looks like capitalism, feels like capitalism and beats you down like capitalism, I beg the question, isn't it capitalism all the same? In Eiffelland, the state is not enjoying greater authority over the market to put the capitalists back in their place, but rather to protect the great conglomerates in Eiffelland from foreign competition and upstart businessmen. The worker, the mother, the poor and the farmers, they are exploited all the same nonetheless.
You are saying the Social-Liberals are controlled by Eiffelland - your opponents are saying the same about the National Congress and the Socialists. Your reply?
Anyone who dares to take a closer look will realize that, while we are connected to our brothers in Carentania in solidarity, this is in no ways a closer relationship than we enjoy to any other socialist nation, group or individual. With the same legitimacy you could say that we are controlled by Havenshire, by Parthava, by Vangala or even by the rebels in Yujin. A lot of what Carentania has, we naturally want for the people of Solaren as well, but because we know that it is good for the people of Solaren, not because Carentania tells us we should. Carentania and Solaren are two different countries and in many aspects, we will need to enact other measures, place emphasis on different issues and follow another path than Carentania did in its past and present. If you meanwhile watch the Solaren National Congress a bit closer, you will see that in different cases, we actually stood up to Carentania and told them to cease measures we disagreed with - for example the forced evacuation of Iscla during the war. There are also many different factions in the Congress who are keeping more distance to the Workers' Republic than us. I already mentioned the liberals for example. Meanwhile, the Social-Liberals want to do everything exactly as it is done in Eiffelland, have never voiced any criticism or opposition to measures of the government in Eiffelland or their military, they are advocating complete loyalty to their sponsors. Their party is built around a single individual, Count Stefano di Perugia, who is surrounded by dozens of agents and advisors from the Eiffelländer government wherever he goes. Apparently though, they didn't consider his sex life to backfire on their plans. *Giuliani laughs*
Di Perugia denies any homosexual relationships and has sued the conservative newspaper which printed the accusation for libel...
Di Perugia - and his sponsors in Eiffelland - should just accept that he will have no future in Solaren politics anymore now that his little secret has gone public. Instead, he is clinging to power with all available means and mocking the common Solarener in the process. Most of our citizens can't even afford the basic necessities of everyday life, many have taken shelter in shantytowns, large parts of the population are unemployed, mothers are going to bed hungry just to feed their children... Meanwhile di Perugia is affording himself the luxury of an entire army of lawyers to defend his political career from the repercussions of his own perverted lifestyle. A man so removed from the concerns of the people does not belong into government, not to mention the hipocrisy of using the law to assault the media, when the same law stipulates that he belongs into prison for sodomy.
You think di Perugia should be arrested?
No, I think that sodomy is not a matter for the courts, but for a psychiater. What I intend to say is that the laws his lawyers now cite are old laws from before the war, still in effect because we have no working constitution and no working government to re-think them. However, if he holds them to be legitimate and applicable in this situation, so should the laws against sodomy. In my opinion, we don't need the laws, they are based on the assumption that homosexuality could spread, like a viral disease. Homosexuality, however, is not a disease of the body, but a corruption of the mind and of a healthy relation to the other gender. Cultures which lost the respect for their women, for example the ancient city-states of Haemia, quickly resorted to homosexuality to express their sexual desires - because they had lost all love for women. Often institutions like the church - and this was the case in Solaren - realized this problem but fought it by threatening the homosexuals rather than combatting the root. A respectful, loving relationship to the women in Solaren will erase the need for any laws against homosexuality and leave the poor souls still suffering from this bourgeoise confusion as a case for the shrink, not the judges.
In fact, I am a little sad that this issue is now taking such a great place within the public debate. It will only serve to strengthen the conservative forces, when we should be talking about other issues. Homelessness for example.
You're alluding to the demand of the National Labor Coalition to legalize squatting?
Yes! The military of Eiffelland gave a very weak response - as if it is their right to decide such political matters from aloof - in regards to our proposal. Right now, we have a lot of unused buildings and unused land, which the government of Eiffelland does not wish to see as such because they legally are owned by someone. There is no speculation on land prices, that much is correct, because of the volatile political situation and the uncertain future of Solaren, property in Solaren is very unattractive for investments. However, there are a lot of people who died during the war or who left the country, who leave behind land and buildings. In the latter case, they retain their property rights, but leave the building empty. In the first case, the buildings or the land are often inherited by people living on the other side of the country who have other issues to take care of. Utilizing these buildings and this land could help a lot of Solaren citizens now living on the streets. Many have already started helping themselves, forming shantytowns on the edges of the cities - though some of these have existed before the war already. The situation in the shantytowns, however, is dire, because the people there live from day to day, uncertain if they won't be thrown off the land soon. In such a situation, no one bothers with investing work into crucial infrastructure.
The authorities of the Eiffelländer Occupation Force promised homes to be built for every Solaren citizen.
How does it help these people if they get told that, some day, they will have a proper home? Eiffelland is putting off the people of Solaren, telling them to wait for the future - and in the meantime to follow their laws, even if it means that they will suffer tremendously and face an uncertain fate. That is the core of bourgeoise ideology and all they have to offer to the people of Solaren, a weak promise that someday, they will profit from capitalism too. In the meantime, however, the capitalist elites reap in the profits.