Red Guards of the Revolution
| Red Guards Gardes roges | |
|---|---|
 Emblem of the Red Guards | |
| Secretary | Ariane de Lostrade (2017 – Present) |
| Founded | September 13, 1938 |
| Headquarters | 18 Plaça de la revoluçon, Brigançon |
| Membership | 1.9 million (2021) |
| Ideology | Councilism Champanois nationalism |
| Mother party | Champanois Section of the Workers' International (historical) |
| Newspaper | Juvença communista |
| Website | www.rgc.org.ch |
The Red Guards (Liguersien: Los gardes roges; Gaullican: Les gardes rouges) is a mass youth organization in the Socialist Republic of Champania. The Red Guards is for adolescents and young adults between the ages of 14 and 24. Historically, the organization was operated by the Champanois Section of the Workers' International, however, since the dissolution of the CSWI in 1981, the organization has since been run by the Communist Youth League, a department of the Office of Art, Sports, and Culture. The organization is set up similarly to the CSWI and in the contemporary, largely reflects a modern party organization. In the modern day, membership is estimated to be roughly 93% of eligible members. The Red Guards is also responsible for guiding the activities and doctrine of its sister organization, the Septemberist Pioneer Brigade, which is for children below the age of 14. The current Responsible Secretary is Ariane de Lostrade.
The Red Guards is intended to be the "reliable assistant and fighting reserve of Socialism." The political and ideological goal of the organization is to influence every aspect of life of young people within Champania through the distribution of Councilism and Champanois nationalism ideology and theory, and the promotion of communist behavior through the dissemination of the Moral Code of the Builder of Communism. Historically, membership was mandatory, however, in the modern day it is optional but heavily encouraged. Those who do not join often find it difficult to get accepted into universities and pursue chosen career paths. Current membership is estimated to be 1.9 million or 88% of the eligible youth within the nation.
History
The Red Guards were founded in the mid-1930s in the closing years of the Great War, although it would be officially founded in 1938 following the establishment of the Champanois Council Republic. Following the socialist victory in the Champanois Civil War, membership in the organization became mandatory as socialist power was consolidated throughout the country. By making membership mandatory, the hope was Champanois youth would be able to disseminate socialist ideals to their parents, who could be of more dubious ideological loyalty, and to instill political preparedness as Red Guards were considered future CSWI members.
During the 1940s, the Red Guards' main objective was to win the "hearts and minds" of the Champanois youth and to show the benefits of the socialist systems. An emphasis was placed on providing a "happy life" in order to make the organization more appealing to young Champanians. To pursue this so-called "happy life," the Red Guards organized a series of activities including sports and dance events, social events like dances, outdoor activities, and concerts, to provide leisurely activities to young Champanians. These activities had the secondary effect of instilling a unified, socialist identity, and helped foster the new socialist man and new socialist woman. The late-1940s saw the organization of these activities being handled by local level Red Guards cadres, usually specific to a single town or village.
The Equalist coup in 1959, membership of the Red Guards was greatly affected in the ensuing purges. Starting in 1961, the organization began to target university and high-school students , who had begun to be eyed with suspicion for ideological reasonings. Anti-equalist protests in 1962 served as the catalyst for the complete purging and overhaul of the Red Guards under Premier Bastitou Courderç. Young Red Guards were mobilized to prevent, discourage, denounce, unmask and fight against the "enemy protests" and were mobilised, alongside party activists and workers, to spy on student gatherings, crush demonstrations and waste students' free time. Starting later that year, tens of local Red Guards chapters were liquidated, resulting in the arrests of several thousand university and high-school students, of whom hundreds were imprisoned for "antirevolutionary behavior." University and high-school student membership, which had encompassed roughly 30% of total Red Guards membership in 1962, had dropped to under 10% by 1965.
Over the course of the 1960s, an average of 1,700 members were removed monthly, and beginning in 1969, membership in the organization as a whole was operating on a net loss. To counteract this, the Education Reform Directive was passed in 1971, which altered university and military admission standards to include ideological criteria rather than solely meritocratic and (in the case of the military) physical criteria. This saw membership surge as social origin and political allegiance became a necessity for furthering education and career prospects.
The election of Jeremeis Dior as Premier in 1980 saw general reforms to Champanois society generally known internationally as the Champanois Thaw. Despite the generally positive connotations the Thaw has in the East, the Thaw was, at the time, a contentious issue within the country. Following the dissolution the CSWI in 1981, another purge was undertaken against senior members and leadership in the Red Guards who were deemed to be "hazardous" to the Reformistas and later Champanois Socialist Workers' Party (PSOC) reforms. Acting Responsible Secretary Alphonse Fénelon was forced to resign for "right-wing deviations," and other "enemy elements," largely those who continued support for the old Equalist government and Couderç thought, were also purged. To alleviate the purge, Dior made membership in the Red Guards automatic. This resulted in nearly 97% of youth being members in the organization by 1986.
During the PSOC's reforms on youth policy, which began in 1988, the Red Guards were once again attacked by Dior and the PSOC for its "unimaginative" approach to youth. The focus on providing leisure activity to adolescents and young adult, which had effectively disappeared during Equalism, returned and the organization of major cultural and outdoor activities shortly began thereafter. Likewise, the Red Guards began to promote sport as a popular mass activity. The organization encouraged not only physical relaxation but also the spirit of competition. Red Guards-sponsored competitions were organized and held annually at a regional and national level in order to stimulate high-level of performance, but also so that sport scouts can identify talented youths who could benefit from further development in Champanois sport academies who might not otherwise get the opportunity to either from lack of capital or other factors.
Structure
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Secretariat
The Secretariat is the collective leadership of the Red Guards and consists of a Responsible Secretary and Central Committee. The organization is purposely reflective of the Champanois Section of the Workers' International and current political parties' leadership structures, as the original purpose of the Red Guards was to create cadres for party membership. The Central Committee is composed of 19 members and are elected yearly by the annual meeting of the Youth National Congress. The committee functions identically to a politburo and is intended to act as the "day-to-day" leadership of the Red Guards when the Youth National Congress isn't in session. It meets weekly and oversees the organization's finances, issues resolutions on all aspects of the Red Guards' work, responsible for cadre selection within the organization, and instructs regional leaderships.
The Responsible Secretary is elected by the central committee and serves as the main functionary of the central committee. The responsible secretary directly reports to the Secretary of Art, Sports, and Culture and also commonly sits in on the politburo meetings of the various political parties within Champania. The role of the responsible secretary is largely administrative, although through networking, typically are able to wield a great amount of political capital in their own right.
The current Reponsible Secretary is Ariane de Lostrade, who has held the position since 2017.
Hierarchy
The hierarchy of the Red Guards directly mimics that of the Champanois Section of the Workers' International. The highest level is the Secretariat consisting of the Responsible Secretary and Central Committee and is the nearest equivalent the Red Guards has to that of a politburo. Directly below the Secretariat is the Youth National Congress. The Youth National Congress (Congres naçonal juvençe, CNJ) convenes once every year and makes major alterations to Red Guards' doctrine and statutes. The Youth National Congress is also responsible for electing the Secretariat and the Responsible Secretary. Three main bodies dominate the lower echelons of the Red Guards below the Youth National Congress. These are, from highest to lowest, regions, districts, and battalions. Regional and district leadership organizations essentially replicate those in place in the Secretariat. The Youth Conference (Conferénça juvença CJ) is a sublevel equivalent of the Youth National Congress and meets every six months at the regional level and every four months at district level. Youth Conferences elect delegates to represent the region at the Youth National Congress. Regional and district Secretariats constitute the main decision-making bodies at the region and district level of the Red Guards and handle budgetary matters as well as expelling and promoting subordinates.
Battalions represent the "nerve centers" of the Red Guards and are the smallest organizational unit within the organization. They can vary in size from being the entire student body of a school district to the members of a religious youth group or similar body. In the case of larger basic units, intermediary bodies – "branch organizations" – are placed into the hierarchy to serve as intermediates between the various bodies of the basic unit. Battalions are subject to a hierarchal structure themselves. Battalions are composed of companies, which may be made up of a particular graduating class or other, which themselves are made up of squads or teams. Squads are led by a leader and an assistant leader and are companies led by a committee of five-to-seven members. Battalion leadership is largely reflective of those above it and consists of a secretary and a committee of seven-to-fifteen members depending on the battalion size. All staffing at the battalion level is done by volunteers selected from the membership of the basic unit, although some staffing at larger battalions could be full-time employees. The leadership of the battalion organize biweekly membership meetings for local members where organizational and, when warranted, political issues are discussed. As of 2021, there are over 635,000 battalions within the Red Guards.
Membership
Citizens enter the Red Guards at the age of 14 when they are typically in Grade 9 in the Champanois school system. Since the early 2000s, membership is not compulsory but nonetheless is heavily encouraged and non-members face discrimination for not joining. Those who do not join often find it difficult to get accepted into universities and pursue chosen career paths.
Membership of the Red Guards is largely composed of former Septemberist Pioneer Brigade who "graduated" to the Red Guards following their 14th birthday. Transfers between the Septemberist Pioneers and the Red Guards are conducted in yearly mass initiation ceremonies held in Brigançon and the cost of travel and board are covered jointly by both organizations. At the initiation ceremony, the new members swear an oath of loyalty to the Champanois government and exchange their blue neckerchiefs for red ones. Because of the importance of the ceremony, the Generalitat and senior leadership of the various political parties within Champania are typically in attendance, and there is typically a military honor guard.
From the age of 18 and onwards, members of the Red Guards may submit applications to concurrently join a political party, but this process can be much more selective depending on the political party in question.
Individual files are kept by battalion leaders on members for as long as the individual is a member of the Red Guards. The personal file contains information on the individual as well as reviews on their loyalty and behavior while they were a member. Periodically, these files are audited by district level personnel. Large instances of personal files having questionable behavior or loyalty typically results in the battalion leadership being replaced and, in more extreme cases, the battalion itself being forcibly disbanded. When Red Guards apply for work, it is not uncommon for the potential employer to request their personal file or to request an interview with the battalion leader. This creates an incentive for members to maintain a constant appearance of loyalty and diligence.