The Vulpine Democratic Movement

[jeriendhal]

Abstract: The Vulpine Democratic Movement (VDM) is a political organization founded on Vulpine Prime, with branches on Newspring and several Vulpine colony worlds. Its stated purpose is “To overthrow the tyranny of the aristocracy and replace it a democratically elected proletariat representing the true working class.”

Beliefs: The VDM regards the three tiered social system of the Vulpine (Aristocracy, Military and Commoner) as inherently backward and unjust. Indeed, several articles published in the VDM’s online newsletter [i]The Worker state that the average commoner’s lot is [i]worse than it was under the Varn Dominion, given that all vulpine at the time, aristocracy and commoner alike, were reduced to the same working class and at that level functioned as a rough meritocracy. In particular they strongly dispute the Farm Lords’ franchise of all land ownership, regarding it as a grand theft after the vulpine bled so hard to gain their freedom after the Twenty Years War.

Another belief, regarded as far more controversial than their views on land ownership, is the VDM’s belligerent brand of atheism. It regards the vulpines’ near-universal worship of the Holy Mother of the Den as “…a promulgation of the stifling Matriarchy, which through blind ignorance maintains the Ari$talkracy’s ([i]sic) tyranny over the working class.” The fact that it also holds other races’ religious beliefs in equal contempt has done little to endear the organization to the commoner class they claim to represent.

Goals: In comparison to their rhetoric, the VDM’s goals are relatively straightforward. In essence, they seek to abolishment of the current Vulpine government and the elimination of traditional Farm Lord & Military privileges. The government is to be replaced by a “Citizen’s Government”, in which all major and most minor issues would be put to simple majority vote by all Vulpine voters, casting their ballots through the UltraNet. Leadership positions would be assigned to randomly to adult citizens, their term of office mandatory and aided by software “expert” systems designed to guide them through the intricacies of their work.

While in theory such a system of government is possible, given modern computing power, in practice it has never been implemented by any government in known space and its utility is unknown.

Though widely regarded as cranks by vulpine of all political classes, the VDM does provide some public service as a “gadfly” organizations, making a point to search out the occasional example of corruption and cronyism found among the Farm Lords, especially anything that harms their commoners. Their most public success to date was forcing Countess Lightfoot to remove her daughter, Lady Taliafen, as her designated successor in favor a cousin, after the former was found guilty of aiding illegal dumping of industrial chemicals in a designated game reserve.

Organization and Membership: The actual organizers of the VDM remain something of a mystery. The authors of articles written in [i]The Worker are only identified “Citizen (numeral)”, such as “Citizen Five or Citizen Thirty-Two” (never, ever “Citizen One”) and it explicitly defines itself as “A non hierarchal collective grouping of equal beings.” Beyond that, the VDM tends to organize itself in cells, usually on university campuses, and usually fueled by plenty beer. This is traditionally consumed in all night radical political arguments, leading to the facetious alternative name of “The Semi-Conscious Liberation Army.”

Estimates of the VDM's total membership tends to vary widely. Its leadership has never made any public statement about how many have officially signed on, beyond noting “All oppressed workers are members in their hearts.” More solid estimates from surveys on university campuses places it anywhere from scarcely five hundred vulpine to over ten thousand, most in their early twenties, with a scattering of hard core older activists. Curiously, more than a few campus cell leaders turn out to be sons or daughters of minor nobility, showing evidence of almost literal Youthful Rebellion.

Public Opinion: A marginal political group at best, the VDM is scarely able to register on the public's radar, unless a cell manages to shine a brief light on itself with some particularly creative publicity stunt. The group's staunch abohorrence to political violence is usally both its saving grace and its greatist hinderance, allowing it to avoid the attention of the Vulpine government's Public Security Service, but also denying the opportunity for greater infamy.

In general the greatist attention to it is payed by equally radical groups on the other side of the political spectrum, such as the Isolationist Party, which claims the VDM is actually a vast and dangerous political organization with arms in every branch of the Vulpine government. Though an overblown statement, the VDM has done nothing to dispell it, likely on the notion that any publicity is good publicity, even coming from its enemies.