Join the new world

Chapter 1

Founding and Pre-Radicalism


SFP Logo designed by Osmany Ramon

There are some myths about the Socialist Freedom Party out there. Hopefully this work will dispel them and even those who dislike the party will hopefully enjoy reading our misadventures.

Smily132 founded the Socialist Freedom Party sometime in January 2009. He did so after being frustrated at the fact that he lost the party presidency of the Federalist party by a mere one vote. This brings us to the first myth about the Socialist Freedom Party. Unlike most myths that this writer has encountered about the little red mouse party we now called the SF;this myth is spread even by some members. A belief that the Socialist Freedom Party was somehow a “left wing split” from the Federalist Party. This is untrue.

For one smily132 went through many names before deciding on “Socialist Freedom Party” sometime in March. For two, smily132 did not form his own party with the intention of trying to apply real life radical leftist principles to eRepublik, like party presidents who came after him. So while in game the Socialist Freedom Party was labeled “Far-left” in practice it was no different from any of the other political parties.

For the most part the Socialist Freedom Party remained a dormant party with few active members in it during the period known as “Pre-Radicalism”.

This is not to say that the Socialist Freedom Party accomplished nothing during this period. In March party member Robert Bayer got elected Senator in North Dakota, mostly by getting what support he could from active SFPers such as the previously mentioned smily132 and his friend Spade. However Bayer did not solely rely on SFP votes to get elected. He also messaged locals, who for some reason where living in an area without healthcare, to vote for him. Bayer won mostly by surprising his opponent who did not expect a challenger that would get any party moving vote support.

The party had a forum as a means of communication in this era but it lay mostly dormant. That is until, a group of new players who intended to join this small party entered eRepublik with the intention on being active in the game.

On March 27th, 2009 Osmany Ramon entered the new world, excited at it's new possibilities. He was followed by Mark Valshannar on April 2nd, who was bored and needed something to do to pass the time. Both looked over the political party section and decided which one they would join the Socialist Freedom Party before they could even officially join a party in game.

They both began posting on the forums and gradually the few actives who where there emerged, people like Ernac, who proudly proclaimed to be a “Utopian socialist” in real life. There was a party troll talking about how the Socialist Freedom Party should adopt Obama symbols.

When the forums started getting active, Osmany Ramon insisted that the party get an IRC chatroom. Soon a chatroom as created on Rizon and smily132,Spade, Ramon , and Mark could be seen talking in it along with the occasional odd party member. Eventually Senator Robert Bayer became more active, especially when election season starting rolling in.

Robert Bayer did not lose his bid for reelection in April. He wasn't even on the ballet. The USWP had said they saved him a spot but ended up giving it to someone else. SFPers floundered about with no one to vote for. Bayer claimed that this may have happened because then president scrabman hated him. Bayer wasn't always the most diplomatic fellow.


A typical SFPer

Despite set backs, slowly the Socialist Freedom Party awoke. At first it looked like things would be rocky when party president smily132 announced he was moving to Latvia. However he was replaced by his friend Spade in April. Spade set up the “Steering Committee”, though he did so by listening to Osmany Ramon.

The “Steering committee” would originally have four offices that would assist the Party president. Recruitment, Young Socialists, which was aimed at shepherding new players into the party, Elections, and Inter-Party relations. Its rather easy to see what the view point of the early SFPers was. They wanted to grow their party, thats true, but they where also under the delusion that parties stood for something, hence the office of Inter-Party relations, and they thought that Senators had a fair amount of power, hence the elections office. As previously mentioned, Spade officially set this up, but he did so with a considerable amount of advice from Ramon.

In truth, Ramon and Mark thought that Spade and smily132 where two idiots. Two idiots who where fun to hang around with, but never the less they viewed them negatively at this point in time. Now Spade and smily honestly thought that the Socialist Freedom Party could accomplish nothing. They began to have delusions of grandeur as leaders of a new religion, or perhaps quickly rising up to a point of power in a small nation.

Osmany Ramon actively fed these delusions. Ramon desperately wished to the party president. Ramon had a general idea of what he wanted the Socialist Freedom Party to look like. When it looked like smily132 and Spade where finally ready to go off into the world, Ramon prepared to hit the ground running. He prepared another SFP forum without even telling the presiding party president and informed the Steering Committee about it. Among this first group was Mark Valshannar, Robert Bayer and a new face, Fredrick Engels, who would continue to be a player in the Socialist Freedom Party in the months ahead. Along with him came a mysterious friend of smily132, Raven305bal.

Smily132 and Spade finally left the eUSA on May 7th. On May 15th, Osmany Ramon officially became party president of the Socialist Freedom Party. Among him where three other people who would stick with the Socialist Freedom Party for sometime and help shape it's course . There where others but their impact on the Socialist Freedom Party would never reach the level that these three had.


A party after Ramon's election

Fredrick Engels would do work that needed to be done, but he mostly wished to philosophize and write articles about how “eCommunism” would look like. He wanted to play the game different then how most people played it. He thought clicking “work and train” everyday would get rather boring so finding ways to mess with the system amused him. He had not position in the Steering Committee

Robert Bayer mainly wished to win elections. He was still feeling pissed at what happened during his reelection bid and was under the delusion that being senator meant a lot. He was director of Inter-Party relations. He mainly wanted to build a sort of small party coalition with the SFP at the current and work together to win elections.

Then there was Mark Valshannar. Mark had come to the Socialist Freedom Party expecting to find it easy to take over and become party president. He was fairly certain he could take smily132. Then he joined the forums and found Ramon. By April 25th Mark knew that it would not be he that became party president but Osmany Ramon. So he talked with Ramon on IRC. Always agreed to his ideas without much input but always was around for some busy work that needed to be done like mass mailing. He presented himself as someone who would always be there for Ramon. Then when Ramon got tired of being Party President, Mark would look like the obvious candidate to follow him..

Mark thought that joining a top five party would take too long and building up a smaller party would allow him to reach what he truly wanted ad was driven by. A childish, selfish want for a small amount of power and a plot of land that he could call his own. The Socialist Freedom Party seemed to fit this nicely.

So Bayer wanted to be elected, Engels wanted to theorize and Valshannar wanted power. Ramon wanted...

Next article: The Ramon Administration