This is a movement I've had in my head for some months. Thoughts?
* * *
Colonial Freedom Movement (die kolonialen Freiheitsbewegung)
The Colonial Freedom Movement is a political movement, particularly strong on Nibelungen but with supporters in Freihafen and Adlerhorst, calling for the independence of Germany's colonies.
History
If, as many people in the French Arm believed, the First Kafer Arm proved the military forces of the Arm unprepared to deal with a sudden threat, the Second World War proved that they couldn't defend the Arm even when they knew a threat was coming. This sentiment led to particularly strong reactions on Nibelungen and Adlerhorst, where long-established German colonies became independent states. It was even stronger among refugees, particularly the three million Germans with claims to Nibelungen colonial citizenship who were resettled--after inspection--on the planet's surface.
The Colonial Freedom Movement began to coalesce around radical university student Ulrike Meinhoff-Schröder. She and her two siblings escaped from Beta Canum on one of the last ahead of the Kafer while her parents stayed behind. When contact was reestablished, she learned that Kafer orbital bombardment had killed her parents and wrecked her hometown. Between graduate studies and volunteer work with refugees, Meinhoff-Schröder argued that Germany's incapacity to properly defend its colonies constituted an abandonment of German sovereignty over these colonies, which must then unite in their own defense. This line of argument slowly spread, appealing to many of the political radicals in the Nibelungen Organization and to the dislocated and resentful refugees from the French Arm.
This movement attracted the attention of Matthias Wullf, head of the marginal Freiheit Partei, a hard-left political party notable for its hostility to the established political order on Nibelungen. He calculated that a movement that could capitalize on many Nibelungeners' sense of abandonment could help his party break through to the mainstream of their world's politics. By the time Nibelungen became independent, the Freedom Party and the Colonial Freedom Movement were as one.
Ideology
The Colonial Freedom Movement calls for the immediate independence of all offworld colonies and their reformation into leagues and federations based on such things as cultural identity, economic communities, and astrographic connections. In practice, the Movement is concerned only with Germany and its colonies, on account of--allegedly--Germany's asurpation of Bavarian sovereignty compounded by its failure to save the lives of millions of colonists.
The Freedom Party is the movement's principle vehicle in the political sphere, with a platform calling on the national government to adopt "domestic and foreign policies" aimed at pressuring established powers to give up their communities. In the most recent election, the Freedom Party claimed 6% of the vote and won a half-dozen seats in the national parliament. One notable recent development is the expansion of the party to other recently ex-German colonies, as anti-colonial radicals on Freihafen and jaded Neumarkers on Adlerhorst see things that they like. Similar political movements in the British and French colonies have refrained from establishing formal connections.
The broader movement doesn't exist as a single entity. Some groups produce propaganda for transmission to the colonies or use at home, others coordinating strategically planned mass actions like demonstrations or holding fundraising/publicity concerts featuring local bands with Elysian-style turborock, others actually traveling to the German colonies to help organize separatist cells, and more recently some groups have been trying to convince Terran Germans that their colonies are a drag on their metropole's economy. The lack of coordination in the movement is also a strength in making it impossible to blame the movement as a whole for the actions of a few.
Activities
Although some cells try, the main body of the movement has judged that trying to stir up separatism in Hannoverian Halbinsel on Joi or on a very dependent Dunkleheim is foolish. Beta Canum's German Continent, home to more than ten million people, with many people in its rural regions who feel more Bavarian than Germany, and the place of birth of many of the movement's membership, is the obvious target. Many members of the movement have openly visited the German Continent, taking care to behave in a law-abiding fashion as they show the growing separatist movement how to organize themselves and mobilize mass support to win an independence referendum. As the German Continent goes, the thinking holds, so too will the outlying worlds.
The movement is unpopular among the Arm's governments. The Germans see a network of people intent on making its a third-rate power; the British and the French fear that the movement might spread to their colonies; the Azanians and Japanese, with their own secure colonies, don't want the arm to be unstable; even Freihafen and Adlerhorst lack interest in a general crusade. If the meme that seeming incompetence on the part of national governments justifies colonial independence, the Arm could become seriously disrupted--for now, Elysee, Adlerhorst, and Nibelungen are difficult enough. Nibelungen and its government are uninterested in worsening the generally positive tenor of relations with Germany. Trilon has refrained from saying anything at all about the movement.
The Movement's many subgroups have connections everywhere, beyond the control of the Freedom Party or anyone else, with environmentalists, secessionists, religious movements, and even secret services having links with different components. So long as conditions in the Arn remain unsettled, this hydra-headed movement will remain a player.
* * *
Colonial Freedom Movement (die kolonialen Freiheitsbewegung)
The Colonial Freedom Movement is a political movement, particularly strong on Nibelungen but with supporters in Freihafen and Adlerhorst, calling for the independence of Germany's colonies.
History
If, as many people in the French Arm believed, the First Kafer Arm proved the military forces of the Arm unprepared to deal with a sudden threat, the Second World War proved that they couldn't defend the Arm even when they knew a threat was coming. This sentiment led to particularly strong reactions on Nibelungen and Adlerhorst, where long-established German colonies became independent states. It was even stronger among refugees, particularly the three million Germans with claims to Nibelungen colonial citizenship who were resettled--after inspection--on the planet's surface.
The Colonial Freedom Movement began to coalesce around radical university student Ulrike Meinhoff-Schröder. She and her two siblings escaped from Beta Canum on one of the last ahead of the Kafer while her parents stayed behind. When contact was reestablished, she learned that Kafer orbital bombardment had killed her parents and wrecked her hometown. Between graduate studies and volunteer work with refugees, Meinhoff-Schröder argued that Germany's incapacity to properly defend its colonies constituted an abandonment of German sovereignty over these colonies, which must then unite in their own defense. This line of argument slowly spread, appealing to many of the political radicals in the Nibelungen Organization and to the dislocated and resentful refugees from the French Arm.
This movement attracted the attention of Matthias Wullf, head of the marginal Freiheit Partei, a hard-left political party notable for its hostility to the established political order on Nibelungen. He calculated that a movement that could capitalize on many Nibelungeners' sense of abandonment could help his party break through to the mainstream of their world's politics. By the time Nibelungen became independent, the Freedom Party and the Colonial Freedom Movement were as one.
Ideology
The Colonial Freedom Movement calls for the immediate independence of all offworld colonies and their reformation into leagues and federations based on such things as cultural identity, economic communities, and astrographic connections. In practice, the Movement is concerned only with Germany and its colonies, on account of--allegedly--Germany's asurpation of Bavarian sovereignty compounded by its failure to save the lives of millions of colonists.
The Freedom Party is the movement's principle vehicle in the political sphere, with a platform calling on the national government to adopt "domestic and foreign policies" aimed at pressuring established powers to give up their communities. In the most recent election, the Freedom Party claimed 6% of the vote and won a half-dozen seats in the national parliament. One notable recent development is the expansion of the party to other recently ex-German colonies, as anti-colonial radicals on Freihafen and jaded Neumarkers on Adlerhorst see things that they like. Similar political movements in the British and French colonies have refrained from establishing formal connections.
The broader movement doesn't exist as a single entity. Some groups produce propaganda for transmission to the colonies or use at home, others coordinating strategically planned mass actions like demonstrations or holding fundraising/publicity concerts featuring local bands with Elysian-style turborock, others actually traveling to the German colonies to help organize separatist cells, and more recently some groups have been trying to convince Terran Germans that their colonies are a drag on their metropole's economy. The lack of coordination in the movement is also a strength in making it impossible to blame the movement as a whole for the actions of a few.
Activities
Although some cells try, the main body of the movement has judged that trying to stir up separatism in Hannoverian Halbinsel on Joi or on a very dependent Dunkleheim is foolish. Beta Canum's German Continent, home to more than ten million people, with many people in its rural regions who feel more Bavarian than Germany, and the place of birth of many of the movement's membership, is the obvious target. Many members of the movement have openly visited the German Continent, taking care to behave in a law-abiding fashion as they show the growing separatist movement how to organize themselves and mobilize mass support to win an independence referendum. As the German Continent goes, the thinking holds, so too will the outlying worlds.
The movement is unpopular among the Arm's governments. The Germans see a network of people intent on making its a third-rate power; the British and the French fear that the movement might spread to their colonies; the Azanians and Japanese, with their own secure colonies, don't want the arm to be unstable; even Freihafen and Adlerhorst lack interest in a general crusade. If the meme that seeming incompetence on the part of national governments justifies colonial independence, the Arm could become seriously disrupted--for now, Elysee, Adlerhorst, and Nibelungen are difficult enough. Nibelungen and its government are uninterested in worsening the generally positive tenor of relations with Germany. Trilon has refrained from saying anything at all about the movement.
The Movement's many subgroups have connections everywhere, beyond the control of the Freedom Party or anyone else, with environmentalists, secessionists, religious movements, and even secret services having links with different components. So long as conditions in the Arn remain unsettled, this hydra-headed movement will remain a player.
