To the free people of the Tribes of Matar; to the overlooked, the disenfranchised, and the dispossessed classicists of the Federation; to those who have lost family, friend, and colleague alike in the name of our government’s ruling profiteers, I send greetings from Verge Vendor.
Like many of you, I have been in a dark mood of late. The pomp of the Federation continues unabated while the crimes committed in the name of her citizens go unpunished. The interminable game of bloodsport-by-proxy grinds into the abyss, as millions of the desperate and misguided face annihilation in the defense of pantomime ideals, ideals in which our government holds no faith. When confronting these realities, the intractable nature of an artificial stalemate where so few reap so much from the sacrifice of so many, yet further still, weighing the magnitude of the war machine which bears down on the cluster, one cannot help but feel powerless. Like some of you, I too have felt this, and my mind has turned to the consideration of grave measures in order to effect a change of the Federation’s course.
While we are at a dim crossroads, we have not yet reached the rubicon of ‘lesser evils’.
Arguments within the realm of direct action against the governmental bodies of the Federation, some which have been couched to me by comrades, are worthy of discussion and should be articulated at least in brief. In the interest of promoting dialogue between parties of like mind, parties who feel the urge to act on the formative ideals of the Federation against the present encroachment of corporate power, I will offer a few kernels which may be expanded upon as the agenda matures.
“If you’re opposed to the Federation government, why don’t you simply strike at their interests?”
A government is a body comprised of individuals, and the Federation set out, at least in part, to give all individuals a voice in determining the operation of their government. In spite of shifting and conflicting priorities as well as a wide variety of beliefs, consensus can be reached through application of lawful processes within the framework of the founding principles of our government. Yet regardless of the democratic format of member states today, as many as one half of Federation systems do not have full and total access to actual, meaningful Federal representation through the combination of adequate infrastructure and elected citizenry. Further still, the individuals now comprising the Federation government do not always represent their citizens: in an increasing number of notable cases, their constituencies are limited to the shareholders of the corporations in whom they are heavily invested and by whom they are chiefly backed. While this exploitation is reprehensible, we must remember that the individuals responsible are themselves Federation citizens. By extension, then, physical violence against the Federation government actually serves these plutocrats in a number of ways:
- Violence draws public condemnation and delegitimizes your ideological mandate
- Open-market replacement of destructible assets, when coupled with insurance and subsidies, leads to increased profits for the entities you oppose
- Advances the perception of corporation as victim rather than perpetrator
The destruction of ships and installations carrying Federation citizens is an unacceptable loss of life that serves only to isolate the agenda from the populace. The Federation’s real power comes from its people, and it is this power that we must bend back upon the government. Alternative to violence, I encourage citizens, members of the alternative media, capsuleers, and their associated partners, to seek out and expose those corrupt relationships between corporate interests and Federation policymakers. The proliferation of this information works to apply the greatest potential pressure we have at our disposal: public demand for justice and accountability.
“If you’re opposed to corporate influence in the Federation, why don’t you attack corporations directly?”
Due to the nature of exchange, investment, and acquisition, a targeted act of violence against the peoples and properties of corporations engaged in corrupt political practices would achieve, most prominently, harm to life and limb of Federation citizens, and secondarily, windfalls to the elites of these corporations as any losses are leveraged downwards against less privileged civilians. What’s more, for every strike against a major corporate holding, there are a hundred capsuleers willing to contract to their agents for their own ends. Once again, these actions bring about result counter to the agenda. There are a number of means of taking direct action against the corporate backers of policy manipulations and bogus representation, such as embargo, asset redistribution, and market manipulation. Taking these collectively, a concerted program to inhibit or destroy these corporations’ capacity to function with profitability within Federation space should be employed. Such a program is now in the latter stages of development. Alternate to this, I encourage the brokerage professionals within Garoun Investment Bank, in particular those Jin-Mei relegated to a less-than-equal or non-represented citizenship status, to advise their clients to pursue more long-term, grass roots approach to capital infusion, or to move money to more promising ventures elsewhere in the cluster.
“If you’re opposed to Federation participation in the CEMWPA theatre, why don’t you fight the FDU?”
The CEMWPA serves both to legitimize CONCORD authority and to provide Federation war profiteers with incalculable wealth, all while sending millions to their deaths. What’s more, militia crews are seldom the naval academy-trained professionals who comprise the administrative wing of the Federal Defense Union. Rather, those members that are drummed up, typically out of our society’s poorest socioeconomic strata, are lured by the promise of serving our noblest democratic and egalitarian ideals. The media servants of commerce are quite skilled in the selective distribution of this class of propaganda, and refugees in particular have been subjected to joint efforts in recruitment. Committing violence against the crews of FDU militia vessels thus also serves the plutocrats in a number of ways:
- Loss of life to Federation citizens and Minmatar Tribals delegitimizes your ideological mandate
- Open-market replacement of destructible assets, when coupled with Pend Insurance and CONCORD ‘loyalty rewards’, leads to increased profits for the same interests you oppose
- Legitimizes CONCORD authority, encouraging increased war profiteering and bloodshed
To recapture the primacy of Federation ideals throughout our homeworlds requires one to reject the legitimacy of the CEMWPA on terms of principle. It follows then that the course of direct action in opposition to the CEMWPA is a concerted program to undermine and disrupt the fundamental functions of the FDU militia forces within their theatre of operations. Such a program is now in the latter stages of development. Alternative to this, I encourage the young idealists of the FDU, aspirants to the Constitutional guarantee of liberty, to reconsider their involvement in a fraudulent pammachion contrived for the entertainment of belligerent speculators.
The Federal Charter guarantees that Federation citizens must be represented by a democratic government, but set your eyes away from Luminaire and Dodixie to see how many lack a voice at the Federal table. The Constitution guarantees for Federation citizens the rights of self-determination, just governance, equal opportunity, and a political corpus essentia. When consolidated business and financial institutions can impose policy upon sovereign peoples, that is a failure of both the government and the governors. When a citizen asks you, “don’t we have Dignity,” ask what of the official treatment of the Mannar states? When a citizen asks you, “don’t we have Freedom,” ask what of the Minmatar refugees wishing to practice their Tribal way in the only home they now know. When a citizen asks you, “don’t we have Equality,” ask what of the peoples of Mei-Ha. When a citizen asks you, “don’t we have Justice,” ask what of those multitudes who were sacrificed for the surplus of shareholder margins. When a citizen asks you, “don’t we have Solidarity,” ask what of the divisive media empire which both glorifies and deplores loss of life. When a citizen asks you, “don’t we have Citizenship,” ask what worth is it to be a citizen subject to fiat by dividend.
The claim of confronting the Federation government on like terms is disingenuous to say the least, but when one rejects outright the legitimacy of certain elements of that government, it is important to frame one’s resistance in both the proper scale and the proper context. It requires a targeted, measured asymmetric approach. To resist these forces for the sake of the ideals upon which the Federation is built, one must first embrace the spirit of the law, of the Federal Charter, and the Constitution. In so doing, the transgressions that litter the Senate chamber floor and the halls of Ladistier VI-4 become obstacles which must be rectified.
When we are viewed as an amusing distraction, they will call us harlequin. When we become a nuisance, they will call us turncoats. When we begin to achieve our intention, they will call us terrorists. Make no mistake, until the hidden will of those who have been wronged in the name of the unfettered avarice has been recognized and recompense made, we serve notice to the Federation Senate and Jacus Roden that we will not shrug from the pursuit of this vindication.
On to the work that must be done.
