Socialist Freedom Party

One of the eUSA's oldest political parties, SFP is a party of solidarity, individuality, freedom, and revolutionary thinking!

Join the Revolution and help forge the future of the New World!

Join us on Discord at: https://discord.gg/yJQPpgX


Constitution of the Socialist Freedom Party

Revised and approved by a vote of the active membership in January, 2021.

    Part I: SOCIALIST FREEDOM PARTY

  1. The name of the Socialist Freedom Party celebrates what the Party aspires to. The Party seeks to challenge the standard capitalistic and nationalistic game model by playing with an alternative social ecology.
  2. The SFP is happy to be both socialist and anarchist, to celebrate both social solidarity and individual freedom. It is a leftist e-party that welcomes a wide spectrum of left-wing perspectives on revolutionizing eRepublik.
  3. The SFP is committed to encouraging the representation of the voices of working class players, national minorities, women and revolutionary thinkers of all kinds within the game world.

Part II: GENERAL MEMBERSHIP and REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE

SELF-MANAGEMENT

  1. The Party manages itself using democratic and syndicalist methods to maximize participation while guarding against hostile take-overs and other annoying shenanigans.
  2. The Party promotes and recommends the anarcho-syndicalist way of self-organizing as a fun and useful way to engage with the eRepublik community, both nationally and internationally.

    3. GENERAL MEMBERSHIP

  3. The Party is founded on the concept of an active, self-governing General Membership. Party members are encouraged to bring a socialist-freedom spirit and practice to all aspects of game life.

    4. The unique rights of Socialist Freedom Party members are:

    1. To actively participate in all Party-sponsored programs and initiatives.
    2. To vote in internal party primary poll for Country President endorsement.
    3. To vote in party primary poll for ranking of Congressional candidates.
    4. To vote in party elections for 6 at-large voting members of the Revolutionary Committee.
    5. To participate in an internal preference poll for Chair of the Revolutionary Committee / President of the SFP.

    RESPONSIBILITIES OF MEMBERS

  4. It is the responsibility of Party members to embody in their game play the free and open social ecology of the Socialist Freedom Party. Power to the people! Live free or die! Stick it to the man!

    5. This means playing the game with a free spirit, encouraging honest and open dialogue, lending a hand, helping other players to do well, playing honorably, and bringing a revolutionary sense of humor into this mess. Such a style of play celebrates having a diverse community of players, tends towards opposing toxic masculinity and narrow nationalism, and offers a bright, playful resistance to the nastiest kind of fun-smashing e-Nazi-psycho-trolls and other assorted right-wing wing-nuts, bonzos, bampots, and fart-boxing cumsplat numpties. In short, it means doing your level best to craft a rich attitude of critical thinking and fun game play that expresses a liberationist aesthetic, without falling into bossiness, boorishness and banality.

    MEMBERSHIP DISCIPLINE

    "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
    Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment." -- Bill S.

  5. No special tasks are required for being a member of the Socialist Freedom Party. Members are free to participate as fully or in as limited a way in Party activities as they like. However, certain privileges can be temporarily lost.
    1. If six members of the Revolutionary Committee agree to recommend censuring a Party member, then they can put forward the case and an open poll is taken of the General Membership. If a majority vote "Aye" on the censure motion, then voting and participation rights of the censured individual are revoked for a period of no more than 4 weeks.
    2. Basic censure means no participation in Party-sponsored activities including no voting in internal Party polls. A censure motion may include recommendations for additional measures, such as being blocked from discussion or forum threads.
    3. A censure motion needs to identify specific ways in which the individual has consistently broken the rules of the game or damaged the reputation or cohesion of the community around the SFP. A censure proceeding should be a good lesson for the entire party, not simply an act of punishment.

      In all cases, dialog is preferred over censure. Censure is not for just smacking someone upside the head for making a single mistake.

    4. There is no such thing as permanent censure. Censure is intended mainly to help resolve contradictions amongst the people, to advance the revolutionary cause, not to eliminate dissent or eliminate enemies.
    5. Speaking of which. Egregious and constant attacks against the SFP by enemy agents should be handled by sending the exposed anti-people element, after a swift trial that exposes their crimes, to an e-forced-re-education mental hospitality suite and then a reform-through-labor summer camp until such time as their defective bourgeois-imperialist thinking has been thoroughly repaired. Summary execution is also an option in terminal cases. Though it is not quite clear just yet how this would work in an eRepublikan context, the revolutionary players will no doubt find creative ways to express it should the need arise. (See PART IV on INTERPRETATION.)

    REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE

  6. The day-to-day organization of the Party is facilitated by the Revolutionary Committee (RC) of the Socialist Freedom Party. The Revolutionary Committee is tasked with promoting, leading, protecting, empowering and enlivening the SFP community and the e-global anarcho-syndicalist movement of which the SFP is the dynamic turbo-charger.

    7. The Revolutionary Committee is an engine of activity. It is neither a legislative nor a governing body. It is an organization of militants, of leaders, of doers, of professional revolutionaries. It is the center ring of the SFP circus. The RC of the SFP is organized as follows:

    1. Except under dire circumstances, the in-game-elected Party President (PP) is the Chair of the Revolutionary Committee.
    2. Including the Chair, the Committee has a total of eleven voting members.
    3. In order to qualify for participation in the internal party primary for PP, candidates for Chair of the RC must announce their selections for voting RC members (their "cabinet") as part of their campaign. The four in-game Party-level cabinet members appointed by the in-game Party President are the Chair's four appointed voting members of the RC.
    4. As part of the monthly run-up to electing the Chair, the General Membership elects six additional voting members of the Revolutionary Committee.
    5. The Revolutionary Committee may have additional non-voting members, who may either volunteer or be nominated to participate. There is no limit to the number of non-voting members.

    Votes of the RC should not be some kind of officious undertaking. The RC is about doing much more so than deciding. If RC members spend most of their time voting on stuff, something is amiss. A bourgeois-bureaucratic mindset is creeping in. Or somebody is up to no good. A cultural revolution is probably needed to expose and drive out the capitalist-roaders. Or at least some new acts are needed in the center ring.

    Discussion and debate and communication are necessary. Consensus is a good thing. Voting helps to prevent analysis-paralysis and move things to action. But post-action analysis is just as important as "deciding" and "predicting" and "commanding" before-hand. Understanding what actually works is better than having theories. Training folks how to catch the trapeze is more important than telling them they have to catch it.

    Revolutionary leaders should be spending most of their time doing stuff, like managing and running programs or taking individual actions to do things like:

    • Build up the members' strength training
    • Provision houses inexpensively
    • Pool resources in order to supply members with food and weapons
    • Train members in how to conduct international diplomacy
    • Prepare members for serving in Congress
    • Teach new players the fundamentals of the game
    • Creating a lively and entertaining press
    • Promote other left-wing parties nationally and internationally
    • Bringing a sense of art, song and poetry into the game
    • Teach and learn the intricacies of game mechanics
    • Investigate and experiment with economic alternatives
    • Exposing multi's and other dishonest game play
    • Bring people together in new and interesting ways

    TITLES, DEPARTMENTS, PROGRAMS

  7. Leaving aside the in-game titles, there are no permanent titles or departments defined within the Party other than being a Party Member and being a voting or non-voting member of the Revolutionary Committee.

    8. The Revolutionary Committee is not an exclusive club. Any member of the Party may forward a proposal to the RC, or, indeed, initiate an action or program on behalf of the Party that is in keeping with its general orientation.

    Such individual initiatives should be critiqued, opposed and curtailed only if they are causing obvious harm. And of course silly ideas, mistakes, bad jokes, errors in judgement and so forth are a normal part of game play, not things that deserve "legal measures" and whatnot.

    There will be and should be any number of initiatives, both some organized by the RC and some initiated by individual Party members or groups of members. The role of the RC is to facilitate, encourage, advise, and promote such activity, while, of course, watching out for and exposing devious capitalist monkeyshines. It is not the job of the leaders to micro-manage and approve everything going on in and around every ring of the socialist-freedom community.

    The Chair of the RC and the most active members of the Revolutionary Committee should make it their duty to see to it that, minimally, the Party is engaged in the following areas:

    1. Congressional elections.
    2. Press presence.
    3. Membership solidarity, training, material support.
    4. International communications and friendship.

    In particular, the RC should see to it that 1 or 2 members are representing the Socialist Freedom Party at the e-Internationale or similar groupings of left-wing parties internationally.

    HOSTILE TAKE OVERS, RESIGNATIONS, and SPECIAL ELECTIONS

  8. Should a hostile group succeed in taking the in-game Party Presidency, the Party's General Membership shall continue to be guided in revolutionary activity by the previous Revolutionary Committee, which shall be referred to during the time of Occupation as the Provisional Revolutionary Committee (PRC), until such time as the hostiles are either driven out or voted out.
    1. Should the duly elected PP/Chair of the RC resign early, then the most senior member of the RC (longest in the Party) shall become the Chair of RC, regardless of who is the in-game PP. The Chair should seek to work closely with the interim PP, if at all possible, but it is the Chair of the RC, not the interim PP, who shall be recognized as the leader of the revolutionary forces.
    2. If a voting member of the RC leaves the Party permanently, or announces that they have left the game and has done so, or announces that they have resigned from the Revolutionary Committee, then the General Membership shall conduct an in-party poll, within 5 days of confirmation that the comrade is lost, to replace them until the next regular round of RC elections.
    3. If a majority of voting members of the RC determine that a member of the RC is inactive or has failed to uphold the principles of the SFP or to act in a manner suitable to a revolutionary leader, they may be removed from the RC by a majority vote of the Revolutionary Committee. Such vacancies shall be filled by a vote of the General Membership, as noted above.

Part III: VOTING and NOMINATIONS

CP NOMS

  1. Country President Nominations
    1. The Party President shall nominate or endorse eUSA Country President (CP) candidates based on the results of a General Party Membership poll conducted on the SFP Forum in the week prior to elections. CP elections are held on the 5th of each month. Results of the Party CP Primary should be concluded no later than the first day of each month. Alternatively, Party members may participate in the CP endorsement preference poll by indicating their choice in the in-game chat, or on the Congress-related SFP Discord channel. All such votes must be recorded in the Forum by the RC Chair or delegated RC member.
    2. The Revolutionary Committee may propose endorsing a Presidential candidate to the Party, or running a candidate from the SFP. But a full membership internal poll must still be held to endorse a CP nominee, even if there is one who is a member of the SFP, or who has been recommended by the RC.
    3. It is not mandatory that the SFP endorse a nominee for CP. The poll should always include the choice "None of the above" as an option.

    CONGRESS NOMS

  2. Congress Elections
    1. If the SFP is not a Top 5 party, SFP candidates for Congress must temporarily join a Top 5 party in order to run for Congress. In that situation, the Revolutionary Committee shall engage the Top 5 parties in order to ensure slots for SFP candidates and shall assist SFP members seeking election.
    2. If the SFP is a Top 5 party, then the Party President is required, with assistance if needed, to put forward a list of Congressional candidates ranked according to results on an internal poll of the General Assembly.
    3. After the new SFP Chairman is in office (17th of the month), s/he or a representative from the SFP Revolutionary Committee should open a Call for Congress Candidates in the SFP Forum, and communicate this to the membership.

    Interested SFP members should answer this Call by stating their desire to be a Congress candidate, declaring their intention by using the in-game mechanism to run for Congress and/or by adding their name to the Call thread on the Forum. Alternatively, members can indicate their desire to participate in the internal poll by posting on the SFP Discord or the in-game Party feed. In all cases, it is the duty of the RC Chair or delegated RC member to make sure all SFP Party congressional candidates (or 6th Party candidates running under the SFP list) who have declared their intention by the 20th are included on the internal preference poll.

    Candidates should campaign for the Congressional primary, providing a manifesto presentation on why Party members should vote for him/her and why the SFP should be represented in Congress. Candidates who have not previously served in Congress are required to demonstrate their knowledge of US Congress procedures, for example, by having served as a delegate, by having been mentored by a veteran representative, or by having studied the appropriate guides.

    On the 20th of every month, the Congressional Candidates call thread should be locked and a new thread opened for internal primary voting on the candidates. The Congressional Primary will last until the 23rd of the month.

    Party members vote for a maximum of five candidates in the primary.

    At the conclusion of the polling, the SFP President/RC Chair or an authorized representative of the SFP Revolutionary Committee will tally the total votes for each candidate and rank the results. Ties are broken by counting in-game amount of congressional medals, with the candidate holding the fewer amount of congressional medals ranked first. If this measure won't be sufficient then the RC Chair breaks the tie.

    RC Chair ranks the candidates in-game according to the results of the primary vote. Failure to follow the results of the internal pool is a serious breach of responsibilities. Once the in-game election for Congress is concluded, two Congress delegates from the SFP may be assigned, above and beyond those who were elected. Preference is given to candidates who participated in the list but were not elected, especially to those who have not previously served in Congress. The final decision on who to send as delegates is made by the Revolutionary Committee.

    The RC Chair may negotiate with external parties to include 6th Party candidates on the SFP ballot. Such arrangement should be agreed to by the voters on the Revolutionary Committee before the 23rd, and such candidates are included on the internal poll. No one is guaranteed a specific slot on the in-game list.

    RC NOMS

  3. Revolutionary Committee Elections

    4. Party President elections occur in-game on the 15th of each month.

    Candidates for Chair of the RC (Party President) should announce their intention, along with their proposed in-game "cabinet" selections, no later than the 8th of the month. Obviously they should also register as PP candidate in-game. The candidate’s in-game 'cabinet' will be appointed by the Chair as voting members of the Revolutionary Committee should the candidate win the PP election.

    Between the 8th and the 13th of the month -- the week prior to PP elections on the 15th -- Party members may volunteer and put forward nominations for voting and non-voting members of the next Revolutionary Committee. A nominated person may decline to serve, if they wish. But there is no need to formally accept a nomination. If more than 6 people have volunteered or have been nominated as voting RC members, then a formal internal ranked-preference poll should be conducted, no later than the 15th of the month, to determine the top six voting members above and beyond the four appointed voters.

    All Party members are eligible to participate in the Revolutionary Committee on a non-voting basis. There is no polling for non-voting members of the RC.

    Once the result of the PP election is clear, the six additional voting members of the RC beyond the four appointed as part of the in-game 'cabinet', as well as all non-voting members of the RC, should be clearly identified by the incoming PP. The relevant in-game RC message list, as well as Forum and Discord roles should be modified to reflect the make-up of the Revolutionary Committee for the next one-month term.

    Part IV: AMENDMENT and INTERPRETATION

    RATIFICATION of AMENDMENTS

    The Constitution of the SFP is a guide to activity and an insurance policy against waggishness and foul play. It is not intended to be a detailed guide to every aspect of play and it should not be modified willy-nilly.

    1. Significant changes to this Constitution require ratification by 2/3 majority in a fair referendum vote of the General Membership, which is defined as follows:
      1. Referendum is conducted openly, such as on a forum or in-game message board (or both) where "Ayes" and "Nays" are recorded and reported for each voter.
      2. Only those who are Party members when the referendum is formally announced may vote. No parachuting into the SFP just to vote on the Constitution.
      3. Referendum is announced and text of proposed changes is circulated at least one week prior to commencement of referendum.
      4. Polling is open for a minimum of 3 days and is announced and promoted in-game.
      5. Total number of members voting on a Constitutional amendment must be at least number of voting membership of the RC, plus one. Otherwise referendum results are voided.
      6. Of those voting, 2/3rds or more must vote "Aye" for the significant Constitutional Amendment to pass.
    2. Amendments aimed at simple, minor re-wording of any part of the Constitution may be proposed by voting RC members and must be approved by a majority of the voting members of the Revolutionary Committee in an open poll, with results recorded and reported. Any such changes to the Constitution must be recorded in the official version of the Constitution and announced to the entire Party membership.
    3. The official version of the Constitution is stored as an HTML file on the SFP forum. No change is recognized until it is published in this file.

    SCHOOLS of INTERPRETATION

    "An unweeded garden goes to seed." -- Bill S.

    There is a place for interpretations of the Constitution, for legal opinions, for silly opinions, for scholarly exegeses, deconstructions, elaborations and arguments. Even better are good jokes, stand-up routines, awesome memes, and clever and creative readings dealing with how to put it into practice. Epic song cycles, inspirational street murals, and creative flash-mob dance routines depicting the spirit of the Constitution as applied to the concrete conditions of eRepublik at a particularly instructive historical juncture are also rather delightful.

    None of that requires modifying the Constitution. Creating a rich tradition in e-literature of such schools of interpretations is, on the other hand, a consummation devoutly to be wished.