Communist Party (Akashi)

Communist Party 共産党 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌻𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌾𐌰 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌻ᚴ𐌾𐍉
Abbreviation	CP
Founded	1910
Ideology	Left communism Council communism
Political position	Left-wing to Far-left
National affiliation	Crimson bloc
Colours	Dark red
MNAs	60 / 400
Politics of Akashi Political parties

The Communist Party (Miranian: 共産党 Kyōsantō; Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌻𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌾𐌰 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌻ᚴ𐌾𐍉 Gamainallaiseinja Dailkjō) is a left communist political party in Akashi.

Established in 1910, it is the oldest Akashian party still in existence, and one of two whose existence predates the Akashian Civil War. Long a rival of the Socialist Party as the largest party on the Akashian left, it remains a notable third party and produced one Prime Minister, Shinobu Furukawa.

History

Early years

The party was founded in 1910. From the beginning, it united disparate streams of the left under the same banner, including anarcho-syndicalists, orthodox Marxists, religious socialists, and authoritarian socialists.

It aligned itself with the rising labour militancy and revolt against capitalist inequality during the following decades, and by the 1930s it was one of Akashi's largest parties. It was a bitter enemy of the Futurist Political Party, the leading party of the far-right.

Civil war

During the Akashian Civil War, it led the United Red Army, which united the left-wing parties against the threat of Political Futurist dictatorship. The faction was notably strong in northern Akashi, which laid the foundation for the party's future strength in Kobi.

The URA largely shouldered the bulk of the battles against the Great Akashi Army, and formed an alliance with the National Renewal Movement. When the GAA had been defeated, the URA was left exhausted by the war, and NRM leader Yurika Ehara seized the advantage. A combination of offensives and generous concessions enabled a peace deal with the URA, leaving her the victor of the civil war.

Struggle for the left

The failure to win the civil war caused deep outrage and fissues within the CP. In the Constituent Assembly election of 1940, it won only 3,5% of the vote and 4 party seats, a steep drop from its pre-war performance. Internal rancour culminated in the authoritarian socialist faction splitting in 1942 to form the Workers' Party.

The party languished at around 3–4% of the vote in general elections during the 1940s and 1950s, despite obtaining higher support (8–10% range) in provincial and prefectural elections. Vote-splitting with the WP remained a problem at the national level, as did factional battles over the party taking a "peaceful line" or "militant line".

The period of Yurikaran dominance also saw the party challenge the Socialist Party for the leading role on the Akashian left. The two parties had formerly cooperated during the 1930s depression and the United Red Army, but had fallen out acrimoniously after the civil war. The SP was particularly frustrated with the CP's dithering on the question of peaceful or violent revolution.

Mixed fortunes

The "peaceful faction" cemented its control over the party in the 1960s, and worked to bring it out of political isolation. In the 1960 presidential election, the CP, WP, and SP jointly endorsed a United Left candidate, who finished second with what was then the best opposition performance against Yurikara.

The CP took part in the United Opposition electoral alliance of 1962, which ended in animosity but earned the party 11 seats, its best post-war performance. Despite the collapse of the United Left, the CP–WP rapprochement continued with a single presidential candidate in 1965 and a unity list in 1966, before the two parties voted to reunite in 1967.

The Summer of Freedom proved a turning point for the CP. It supported the protesters loudly, and turned explicitly towards left communism, gaining great support among youth. By supporting the protesters at the start and later condemning the "Lunatic Faction", the party managed to reap the rewards of association without being tainted by the disintegration of protests. It joined Yurikara's national unity government during the crisis, its first participation in a national government.

The fall of the National Union as a major party in 1972 enabled other parties to surge. For the rest of the decade, the CP was the second-largest party in the National Assembly. It provided outside support for SP-led coalitions, but maintained a policy of refusing to join coalitions unless it could be guaranteed a leading role. This came from members' fear of "succumbing to electoralism" and losing the revolutionary spirit.

It was in opposition to the Ran Tsukuda government during the 1980s. The party weathered the "blue wave" of 1986 relatively well, winning 2 more seats, but suffered a setback at the 1988 provincial elections, losing the governorship of Kobi to the Conservative National Party's Misato Ōshita. It also benefited from the SP's attempted move towards the centre, which alienated supporters who switched to the CP.

Government

The "keyboard and mouse", used as a humorous symbol of the party's 1990s term in government

The neoliberal conspiracy transformed the party's fortunes. The CP mounted an all-out opposition, participating in the mass protests and general strike that defeated the conspiracy in 1990. Party leader Shinobu Furukawa campaigned aggressively in the snap election, using the slogan "The nineties will be communist!". The public backlash against the neoliberal conspiracy produced a "red wave", which mainly benefited the CP. In a sensational result, it won its first plurality, and Shinobu became Prime Minister at the helm of a left coalition government.

Shinobu's government pursued a radical far left course not seen since the "siege economy" of the 1970s. Its policies included breaking up remaining large companies, hiking taxes to destroy wealth concentration, reforming labour law to universalise workers' self-management and co-determination, expanding the cooperative and public sectors, and strengthening economic planning through the Hermes Programme.

In office, the party showed a strong interest in harnessing the digital revolution to build a communist society, especially through decentralised planning and automation to achieve abolition of work. Akashi Kansokusha wrote that "the hammer and sickle is being replaced by the keyboard and mouse", and the symbol stuck.

Shinobu's coalition won re-election in 1994, although the party fell to second place behind the Moderate People's Party. Over time, her forceful governance style became a liability. The CP lost further ground to a resurgent SP, even with the minor boost of the Social Credit Party merging into it in 1998.

Although Shinobu managed to stay in office after a hung parliament was elected in 1998, this lasted only a year before losing a vote of confidence and the ensuing snap election to the light blue bloc.

Contemporary developments

After its major party interlude in the 1990s, the CP returned to being the third-largest party in the National Assembly, a distinction it managed to keep throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with the exception of the 2002 general election, where it fell to fourth place, narrowly behind the United Reform Party.

Another period of SP turmoil and disaster in the 2006 general election benefited the CP, which now took the lead in opposing Anna Carbone's government. However, without a dramatic event such as the neoliberal conspiracy, the SP recovered under Kōko Kaga's leadership, and "Kōkomania" helped it be the main beneficiary of 2010's "red wave", winning the first single-party majority since 1970.

The CP began providing outside support to Kōko's government in 2010, and has seen steady increases in support at the general elections since. It formally joined the Mizuki Kōhara government after the 2022 general election.

Platform

The CP is a left communist and council communist party. It is firmly opposed to capitalism, desiring its overthrow through revolution and replacement with a communist society based on free association and common ownership of the means of production.

The party structures itself as a revolutionary party and defines its role as cultivating class consciousness. Influenced by its experience in the Akashian Civil War, it advocates formation of a popular front, and has frequently collaborated with parties of the pale crimson bloc and light yellow bloc. This accounts for its fewer periods in coalition, due to insistence on a leading role.

On social issues, the party is firmly New Left, supporting feminism, LGBT rights, legalised sex work and drug distribution, and destroying the "hegemony of the nuclear family and gender roles".

In foreign policy, it supports reform of the Common Sphere in order to explicitly position it as an opponent of "capitalist hegemony". It has good relations with far-left formations in CS member countries, such as the Democratic Communist Party in Gylias and Communist Party of Delkora.

Election results

National Assembly

Election	Party list		Constituency		Seats	+/–	Status
	PR votes	%	STV votes	%
1940	57.276	3,5%			4 / 245	4	Opposition
1942	79.250	4,5%			10 / 200	6	Opposition
1946	88.049	4,2%			9 / 200	1	Opposition
1950	83.569	3,5%			7 / 200	2	Opposition
1954	104.288	3,6%			7 / 200		Opposition
1958	98.558	3,0%			6 / 200	1	Opposition
19621	1.227.100	32,5%			11 / 200	5	Opposition
19662	204.937	5,0%			10 / 200	1	Opposition (1966–1968)
							Coalition (1968–1970)
1970	292.095	6,1%	191.753	4,0%	9 / 200	1	Opposition
1972	520.601	10,4%	789.140	15,8%	26 / 200	17	Outside support
1974	588.750	11,4%	823.518	16,0%	28 / 200	2	Outside support
1978	609.191	11,0%	890.056	16,0%	25 / 200	3	Outside support
1980	564.164	10,0%	647.354	11,5%	21 / 200	4	Interim
1982	484.512	8,4%	575.546	10,0%	32 / 400	11	Opposition
1986	529.537	8,9%	524.166	8,8%	34 / 400	2	Opposition
1990	1.430.477	22,7%	1.517.031	24,1%	107 / 400	73	Coalition
1994	1.057.166	16,5%	1.326.694	20,8%	94 / 400	7	Coalition
1998	804.139	12,2%	837.190	12,7%	69 / 400	25	Coalition
1999	702.232	11,1%	751.055	11,9%	43 / 400	26	Opposition
2002	728.333	10,9%	708.535	10,6%	42 / 400	1	Opposition
2006	834.297	12,4%	739.218	11,0%	48 / 400	6	Opposition
2010	1.120.855	14,8%	888.046	11,7%	50 / 400	2	Outside support
2014	974.369	12,4%	983.189	12,5%	55 / 400	5	Outside support
2018	1.031.304	13,0%	1.070.225	13,5%	58 / 400	3	Outside support
2022	1.058.318	13,3%	1.084.751	13,6%	60 / 400	2	Coalition

¹ Result for the whole United Opposition, consisting of the Socialist Party, Liberal Party, National Democratic Party, CP, Workers' Party, and Social Credit Party.

² Result for the CP–WP unity list.

Presidency

Election	Candidate	First round		Second round		Result
		Votes	%	Votes	%
1940	Takeo Kaminaga	121.150	7,4%			Lost
1945	Takeo Kaminaga	210.346	11,2%			Lost
1950	Takeo Kaminaga	209.867	8,8%			Lost
1955	Masu Suō	258.883	8,9%			Lost
19601	Yoshinaka Hashi	722.838	20,4%			Lost
19652	Orika Sano	333.421	8,4%			Lost
1970	No candidate
1975	Ayako Kase	647.464	12,4%			Lost
1980	No candidate
1985	Ichibei Nakayama	663.010	11,4%			Lost
1990	Ichibei Nakayama	1.488.134	24,2%	2.211.343	35,6%	Lost
1995	Hiro Tabata	1.427.056	22,5%	2.367.686	39,5%	Lost
2000	Kannon Shimamura	631.932	10,2%			Lost
2005	Maemi Kishimoto	807.338	12,5%			Lost
2010	Satoko Narisawa	793.438	10,5%			Lost
2015	Fujiko Chino	1.058.161	13,7%			Lost
2020	Bjarka	1.028.932	12,5%			Lost

¹ United Left candidate, jointly endorsed with Workers' Party and Socialist Party.

² Jointly endorsed with Workers' Party.

Provincial assemblies

Main article: List of Akashian provincial elections

Prefectural assemblies

Main article: List of Akashian prefectural elections