This Land Is Your Land: Let's Play Darkest Hour: Kaiserreich

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > This Land Is Your Land: Let's Play Darkest Hour: Kaiserreich

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Chief Savage Man posted:

My understanding of syndicalism (which is not a hundred percent) plus my interpretation of what exists in the event texts about the CSA leads me to believe that there's a Central Committee, which is led by Jack Reed, and a Continental Chamber of Syndicates which is the top level of a hierarchy of union/syndicate representatives and chambers and whom we chose Paul Mattick as the leader of earlier. The Commune of France is organized on the premise of Bourses du Travail or labor exchanges, which are local bodies that deal with the workings of a city or area with the input and support of the unions and syndicates in that city. Paul Mattick is listed as being the option most similar to the Commune of France so I'll assume we're structuring ourselves in the same fashion.

So I would imagine that the workers in the Widget Shop in Newark elect a delegate to the Widget Union of New Jersey and then that Widget Union participates in the labor exchange that makes the surrounding area run and then perhaps that body is part of a larger body for the New York metropolitan area, which then participates in the Continental Chamber. The principles of the movement would dictate that sovereignty and legal authority lies with the workers, which is represented by the Continental Chamber, which would have some kind of power over the Central Committee in theory. The Central Committee would act on behalf of the entire apparatus in realms of diplomacy and warfare, at this point probably with some added war powers granted by the Chamber, and the idea would be that as the situation gets better and threats are dealt with, the Continental Chamber would reclaim more power. Of course, there would be a danger of the Central Committee marginalizing the Chamber, and creating a Totalist situation.

It's a cool thing to imagine but I haven't the faintest idea how such an apparatus would actually function on a level beyond a city, which I suppose some anarchists would say is the point.

How I imagine the CSA's brand of syndicalism working is that they probably retain the Constitution almost in its entirety as the basis for their new government, but add some amendments, changing how Congressmen are elected and what the chambers are called. The Senate is probably abolished, and the House, now renamed the Continental Chamber of Syndicates, is filled with Representatives who are elected not based on population but by their union. Particularly large unions/syndicates may get multiple representatives. The "Central Committee" is just another name for the Cabinet, and Jack Reed is an executive who is nationally elected.

This post is from forever ago, but I just started reading and alt history fascinates me.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 23:28

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:02

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Chief Savage Man posted:

I think the keys are that the legitimacy of the federal government is effectively wiped out by MacArthur's actions and they never get a chance to reestablish orderly government because they lost the civil war. In the absence of federal authority, I think that initiative would pass to the states and legally, the route to take would be a new Constitutional Convention. The Syndicalists controlled a bunch of state houses before the war, the Southern and Pacific states seceded officially, the Southwest was given away by treaty by the federal government, and New England is also out because their legislatures probably went through the motions of becoming an independent nation separate from the federal government.

So I think we end up legally with the states that remained in the Union and the Syndicate-controlled states establishing a new Constitution or heavily amending the old one and the states that left would not be legally readmitted until it was all set up the way the CSA wants, and its basically like the Reconstruction where they really have no say in the matter due to military occupation and have to deal with what Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, etc. put together, following what I am sure are major changes enacted on the state level. It's interesting to speculate about since the only civil war in our history resulted in the original government retaining control so there's no model for what a drastic change in the structure of government would look like in America, whereas you have plenty of past experience in Europe to draw from.

There aren't really any economic constructs in the Constitution, there's a lot of extraconsitutitional legal precedent and passed bills but those would be null and void in the new government. The Constitution would still have made for a reasonable framework for a new government, especially a democratic one as the CSA is, and it would have been a good publicity move as the Constitution is an extremely "American" thing. It could have easily been co-opted to be used for their new form of government, making the basis for a unique, American form of federal syndicalism.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2015 06:47

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

I was wondering how you were going to tie it in.

I am interested in the promised Mongol Civil Wars though. I'm honestly more interested in how this empire falls apart Alexander the Great style than any further expansion.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 19:51

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

It's like the setup for a heist movie, except it's war.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 20:32

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

John Charity Spring posted:

Yeah those racist imperialist monarchies sure are the good guys when set against the modernising leftists, good analysis.

Political snark aside, this LP isn't about challenge, it's about the narrative and the way CSM has been doing it he could probably create a compelling narrative out of the CSA encountering no resistance whatsoever in the rest of the LP.

I mean we have to keep in mind, considering some of the framing devices that have been used, that the Syndicalists are fated to win. It's going to happen. The future is Red.

The fun part is watching how it happens.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2015 20:42

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

TheMcD posted:

Yeah, Canada - for some reason - has a dedicated Syndie tag. Not many countries get that. There's also Syndie Quebec.

Partition them and puppet both, imo

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 04:25

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

JT Jag posted:

Partition them and puppet both, imo

Good job

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 18:49

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Jaramin posted:

Yeah, that's a fairly stupid metric to judge a state by. Cultures aren't remembered for the sheer number of people they ruled, but rather than the cultural and sociological novelties they left behind that persisted to the nations that followed them. Roman poo poo pervades western society so fully they you can't spit without running into one of their legal principles, descendant languages, alphabet, calender, etc. I'd argued their sole equal in that respect is Han China who essentially left behind a long-lasting legacy in the East like Rome did in the West.

The Western Roman Empire, which is the portion of the empire that is usually romanticized, honestly kind of is a blip on the radar compared to many other empires throughout history. But you really have to consider the greater impact of the Roman Empire as a whole, and for the purposes of this conversation I mean everything from the late Roman Republic to the Ottoman Empire. These were vast lands that held, at their peaks, the entirety of the Mediterranean coastline, as well as much of Western Europe, and many places remained under the control of the Empire from one century to the next, regardless of who was in charge or what it was calling itself.

That's not really what is important though. The fascinating part of the Roman Empire is that it allowed for the flow of goods and knowledge between far-away lands, establishing trade routes of distances otherwise were unheard of at the time. Pottery shards have been uncovered in England that originate from North Africa, circa 200 AD. I'd almost argue that, with the decentralized nature of the Roman provinces, the Empire provided less of a firm governing authority in many of its lands and more of a framework for proto-globalization.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2015 01:12

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

I hope you changed the automatic policy selection to open society or democratic once you got full hawk lobby.

Listen, we need to be Stalinist now so the entire subcontinent can be Socialist later.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2015 10:27

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:02

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Just put the OTL founders of the People's Republic of China in charge, presuming they haven't all been killed already.

# ¿ May 16, 2015 00:01

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