Mannensdorf Communities

Mannensdorf Communities, officially known as the Königsfelde Free Territories, are a series of radical communist cooperatives located throughout the Krün region with a series of exclaves scattered around the northern communities within Königsfelde Canton. These communities get their name from the commune of Mannensdorf, the largest continuous Commune in the region, which itself spawned from the Königsfelde Revolutionäres Aufstandsheer (Königsfelde Revolutionary-Insurrectionary Army), or K.R.A.H, a radical anarchist group that had managed to successfully dislodge the Republican garrison in the region.

Socialist rule was cemented March of 2015 when the K.R.A.H. blew up the central mayoral building in Mannensdorf, ceremoniously burning both the local and national constitutions alongside numerous public debt and property records. The result was a sudden and rapid transition to decentralized socialism, with the democratization of the workplace, nullification of debt, attacks against clergy, government workers, and landowners, and the mass communization of all property – including personal property. The K.R.A.H. would help organize the formation of an Economic Party, and would bolster its own legitimacy by freely distributing goods from private granaries and storehouses in order to break a series of food shortages, as well as pushing for the reorganization of agricultural properties to increase efficiency for the upcoming planting season.

The Mannensdorf Communities are distinct from other regions in Common-State mainly due to their practices, following an extreme interpretation of agrarian-style Cardinal Socialism often referred to as Mannensdorf Communism whose first and foremost agenda is the abolition of all forms of property through common-ownership. Mannensdorf Communism has often been considered the black-sheep amongst the rest of the Ovan Revolution if only due to its extremity in achieving its internal social transition.

History

Communization

The K.R.A.H. was one of the first groups to begin wide-scale communization of their territory, and was likewise much more aggressive. Unlike elsewhere in Ovandera, howeve,r Communization within Mannensdorf was much more a cultural movement than an economic one. Whereas traditional Cardinal Socialism argued that a change in the cultural base, meaning the Means and Modes of Production, could facilitate a change in the cultural superstructure overtime, Mannensdorf-style Communism argued that latent reactionary elements within the Superstructure could produce an anti-revolution, reverting society back into hierarchical capitalism.

The Communization efforts by the K.R.A.H. following a four-step process: Organization, Insurrection, Reconstruction, and Adjudication. The Organizational and Insurrectionary aspects of the Mannensdorf revolution followed similar patterns to the rest of Ovan Communization, with the establishment of a general economic party and overthrow of the local government. The trend here differs with the actual extent of insurrectionary activity, which didn't limit itself to just political targets.

K.R.A.H. Insurrectionary activity set about forcefully seizing huge swaths of the property in a mass collectivization effort, going on to raid granaries and storages for free distribution amongst the community, alongside the physical destruction of infrastructure. The targeting of infrastructure was seen as especially important, based on the Revolutionaries' belief that the very physical layout of capitalist infrastructure perpetuated hierarchy. A side effect of this saw the ceremonious burning of churches, large estates, as well as government buildings. Collectivization was swift and all-encompassing, with the K.R.A.H. outlawing any form of private property overnight.

Following the insurrection came reconstruction, which operated as a finalization of the changes set out during the initial Insurrection. Reconstruction was organized by the Economic Party within the Königsfelde Free-Territory independently and involved a bottom up restructuring of existing infrastructure and layout. Over the course of 7 years roads, bridges, railways, irrigation and weirs, as well as city-layouts were completely rebuilt. Housing was collectivized en-mass with traditionally separate agriculture plots being connected into huge polyculture farming webs.

Revolutionary Trials

The Revolutionary Trials were a series of populist kangaroo trials set up by the K.R.A.H. in order to fulfill the Adjudicative aspect of the Mannensdorf Revolution. So-called "People's Revolutionary Courts" were set up in almost every occupied settlement, and were extremely public in their proceedings, taking in government officials, militants of the old regime, landowners, and 'reactionaries', in reality being anyone who overly criticized or resisted the K.R.A.H. or Communism. The Courts were particularly harsh against members of the clergy and openly religious individuals, and would begin proceedings against individuals brought in from across the country in the height of their activity. The carnage grew so great, that by the end of the war Sunday began to be known as Blutentag, Bleeding Day, or Red Sunday.

The Revolutionary Trials were very publicized, beginning in the midst of the initial Insurrection, and were broadcasted over television and radio for days thereafter. The Trials targeted well-known Public officials and members of the military, as well as landowners and were used to expressly criticize the injustices of the old regime, putting those they tried in positions to defend against those critiques and in the process, demonize them and their ideals. They were used distinctly as propaganda, to give a face to the enemy.

The Trials had another, more subtle affect however, as they created an overarching environment of fear. People drew to support the K.R.A.H. both out of a fear for 'the reactionary,' as well as out of fear of being labeled as one. The "Revolutionary Culture" that spawned from there fused the other revolutionary actions, creating artificial support for mass communization and the wide-scale infrastructural reforms perpetuated by the K.R.A.H.

Active Politics

The Free-Territories lack any overarching legislative body, with most decision-making power being devolved heavily toward each of the localities, known as Communities. Communities have the ability for sovereign decision making, proposal of legislation and economic plans, establishment of petitions, and unrestrained free association into larger Communes. Communes are for the most part autonomous from one-another, overseeing compliance with a set of general laws and standardizations implemented better incorporate the various communities of the Free-Territories. These laws and regulations, part of a body of documents known as the Genossenschaftsdialektik, or Dialectic of Cooperation, which form a loose legal framework to define inter-community interactions, standardize construction methods, and ensure the ongoing freedom perpetuated by the revolution.

Cooperative Assemblies

Much of life within the Free Territories are organized around the Genossenschaftsversammlung, or Cooperative Assembly, a general community assembly meant as a politico-economic council. Every member of the community is able to participate, with different communities meeting at different times and with differing frequencies. Cooperative Assemblies operate differently than Labour Councils in that they're direct bodies of government, rather than representative, and incorporate the entire citizen body rather than just representing the working population.

Larger territories are managed by Distributive Committees, elected by the assemblies below them. Committees are made up of 15 members and manage wide-scale political actions, while doubling as open forums for the cooperatives of their localities for large-scale coordination. Committee's host direct action periods once per-month, wherein anyone from their localities may participate in a form of direct democracy, with the committee acting as legislature and the citizen acting as the executive. Citizens likewise have the ability to put forward their own petitions and legislation. Both local communities and larger communes have the ability to call for a Landsrat, or Council of States, wherein a Diet of representatives from each of the communes are formed in order to modify the general Dialectic.

People's Courts

People's Courts are the last remnant the the K.R.A.H. in Königsfelde, being derived from the earlier Revolutionary Councils implemented during the civil war. People's Courts borrow much of their procedure from the broader norms of the Common-State, focusing primarily on a model of restorative justice. This extends to inter-communal disputes; as the Free-Territories lack a formal federal government, the People's Courts are used as a means of neutral coordination. The event of a dispute between communities, the Court's are used to mediate and break-down the situation and to find a mutual beneficial solution.

The People's Courts are a standardized body within the Free-Territories, basing judicial proceedings off of the Dialectic and legal precedent set by other courts. They are official a neutral body, and aren't tied to any individual Commune or Community. These Courts, however, are still based on the legal philosophy of Mannensdorf Revolutionism, and as such still maintain public interrogations and the active pursuit of Reactionaries.

The People's Courts do not have the ability to enforce their rulings, with that privilege instead being handed to each of the Communes individually. Based on the Dialectic, each commune and community is to enforce the ruling of a Court on themself and each other. In the event a Commune refuses to implement the ruling of a Court, and doesn't bow to the will of their neighbors to maintain the Dialectic, either that Commune or another may call a specialized Landsrat known as a Gerichtshofrat, or Councilor Court of Justice, made up of the Landsrat Diet and judges from each of the Commune Courts, so that a solution can be found cooperatively. In the event of an non-participatory Commune or Community, the other Communes are called by Dialectic to levy harsh economic sanctions