Eternity RPC Board
02-28-2017, 03:13 PM
20 Treizen, 1581
This morning, demonstrators voted on a set of demands. Though the many students that came from all walks of life in Vien had different concerns in their lives, they were able to agree on a set of six demands. These were based upon the concerns that the original demonstrators wanted to protest, and that they wanted done. When the vote was finished, Nikolaus Laberenz made a speech formally announcing their demands.
"My fellow students, comrades from all walks of Vien. We gather here today to have our voices finally be heard. It was years ago that Ernst Krenz was elected Chancellor, and began reforming the country. Boy, how things have changed! We no longer live in perpetual fear, we now live with a hope for the future! Yet the biggest of the reforms, the largest promises, have not been delivered yet.
We gather here today to tell the Party: You have delayed enough! We want what you promised us!
Our demands are nothing more than what the Party, and the Chancellor himself, has promised to deliver to us.
Our demands shall be as follows:
One: pledge to hold a constitutional convention as soon as possible;
Two: Publish information on the income of state leaders and their family members;
Three: Increase funding for education and other social services;
Four: End restrictions on demonstrations in Vien;
Five: Require that official state-run media provide objective coverage;
Six: Admit that the demonstrations are not reactionary in nature."
Now the demands were made known, not only for all demonstrators to know but also for all media reporting on the demonstrations. Now, Nikolaus added on something that he and the other leaders had decided on. It would not be another demand, but rather an offer for dialogue.
"We have presented our demands. I would like to reiterate to the Party: we are not demonstrating against you! We are asking that you give to us what you have promised us! As a token of good faith, I and the other organizers of these demonstrations would like to ask for a chance for dialogue. Let us discuss this, and perhaps we can work out an arrangement that will satisfy both sides. Resolving this situation through mutual dialogue and cooperation, is that not what the Chancellor would want?"
Nikolaus's belief that Chancellor Ernst Krenz would want to solve this through dialogue was correct, and that was abundantly clear to everyone in the Politburo. The problem was that the hardliners had no intentions of allowing any real dialogue to happen. Yet it was decided that some form of dialogue would happen, so the Politburo sent a representative to discuss the specifics of the dialogue with the demonstrators.
It was decided that the meeting was to occur on the 24th of Treizen, and it was to be broadcast live on national television. The demonstrators asked that they be treated as equals during the meeting, a request that the reformists fully intended to honor. The hardliners, on the other hand, had no such inclinations. They intended to use the dialogue as an opportunity to lecture the demonstrators and give them a firm warning to disperse.
In any case, at the evening news the announcement of the nationally televised dialogue between the demonstrators and Communist Party officials was made. News of this also spread to Volta, as nobody alive could remember the last time that the government of Volta had engaged in peaceful dialogue with protesters. Before the reforms, non-sanctioned demonstrations would be crushed. After the reforms but before the current demonstrations, protests were allowed but none were at a scale large enough to call for a response like this one. This was as unprecedented as the scale of the demonstrations.
And the demonstrators attempts at dialogue, along with the governments apparent willingness to engage with them, brought more people who were previously weary onto the streets. By the time night came around, the 15,000 demonstrators from the day before had doubled and there was 30,000 students in the streets.
The hardliners, however, weren't idle. In the dark of night, the NSD, dressed as Vien City Police, drove onto the streets and set up roadblocks and checkpoints around the square. A small number of people were allowed to pass, but freedom of movement was severely restricted.
21 Treizen
When morning came, the demonstrators were astonished by the roadblocks. They demanded to know what was happening, yet no answer came. News of the roadblocks was censored by official state-run media. Once it became clear the roadblocks weren't going to be reported by state-run media, the demonstrators to again chant "Where is Christel?!" through the entire morning news broadcast of Die Volta-Bericht.
Vien City Police even went out to the scene, but were presented by NSD officers dressed in Vien City Police uniforms with seemingly legitimate orders from the Politburo ordering that the area surrounding the square be "secured for public safety". The Politburo had not issued any such orders, and news of this forged order quickly reached the Politburo.
The reformers demanded answers, yet the hardliners again shut down any discussion on the issue, going so far as to suggest that the orders were "helpful in maintaining order". It was becoming increasingly clear to the reformers that the hardliners would take nothing less than the reformists complete capitulation. If the reformers wanted to advance their reforms, they needed to dig in for a hard fight against the hardliners.
Some reformists began making calls to the Chancellor, who became increasingly concerned. He decided to wait on any decision to cut short his visit to Carpathia, which had been scheduled to be 2-weeks long. Yet, privately, he expressed his some of his concerns with the Carpathian Dictator regarding the situation back in Vien, so that in the event that it was necessary to cut the trip short the Carpathians would hopefully understand.
This morning, demonstrators voted on a set of demands. Though the many students that came from all walks of life in Vien had different concerns in their lives, they were able to agree on a set of six demands. These were based upon the concerns that the original demonstrators wanted to protest, and that they wanted done. When the vote was finished, Nikolaus Laberenz made a speech formally announcing their demands.
"My fellow students, comrades from all walks of Vien. We gather here today to have our voices finally be heard. It was years ago that Ernst Krenz was elected Chancellor, and began reforming the country. Boy, how things have changed! We no longer live in perpetual fear, we now live with a hope for the future! Yet the biggest of the reforms, the largest promises, have not been delivered yet.
We gather here today to tell the Party: You have delayed enough! We want what you promised us!
Our demands are nothing more than what the Party, and the Chancellor himself, has promised to deliver to us.
Our demands shall be as follows:
One: pledge to hold a constitutional convention as soon as possible;
Two: Publish information on the income of state leaders and their family members;
Three: Increase funding for education and other social services;
Four: End restrictions on demonstrations in Vien;
Five: Require that official state-run media provide objective coverage;
Six: Admit that the demonstrations are not reactionary in nature."
Now the demands were made known, not only for all demonstrators to know but also for all media reporting on the demonstrations. Now, Nikolaus added on something that he and the other leaders had decided on. It would not be another demand, but rather an offer for dialogue.
"We have presented our demands. I would like to reiterate to the Party: we are not demonstrating against you! We are asking that you give to us what you have promised us! As a token of good faith, I and the other organizers of these demonstrations would like to ask for a chance for dialogue. Let us discuss this, and perhaps we can work out an arrangement that will satisfy both sides. Resolving this situation through mutual dialogue and cooperation, is that not what the Chancellor would want?"
Nikolaus's belief that Chancellor Ernst Krenz would want to solve this through dialogue was correct, and that was abundantly clear to everyone in the Politburo. The problem was that the hardliners had no intentions of allowing any real dialogue to happen. Yet it was decided that some form of dialogue would happen, so the Politburo sent a representative to discuss the specifics of the dialogue with the demonstrators.
It was decided that the meeting was to occur on the 24th of Treizen, and it was to be broadcast live on national television. The demonstrators asked that they be treated as equals during the meeting, a request that the reformists fully intended to honor. The hardliners, on the other hand, had no such inclinations. They intended to use the dialogue as an opportunity to lecture the demonstrators and give them a firm warning to disperse.
In any case, at the evening news the announcement of the nationally televised dialogue between the demonstrators and Communist Party officials was made. News of this also spread to Volta, as nobody alive could remember the last time that the government of Volta had engaged in peaceful dialogue with protesters. Before the reforms, non-sanctioned demonstrations would be crushed. After the reforms but before the current demonstrations, protests were allowed but none were at a scale large enough to call for a response like this one. This was as unprecedented as the scale of the demonstrations.
And the demonstrators attempts at dialogue, along with the governments apparent willingness to engage with them, brought more people who were previously weary onto the streets. By the time night came around, the 15,000 demonstrators from the day before had doubled and there was 30,000 students in the streets.
The hardliners, however, weren't idle. In the dark of night, the NSD, dressed as Vien City Police, drove onto the streets and set up roadblocks and checkpoints around the square. A small number of people were allowed to pass, but freedom of movement was severely restricted.
21 Treizen
When morning came, the demonstrators were astonished by the roadblocks. They demanded to know what was happening, yet no answer came. News of the roadblocks was censored by official state-run media. Once it became clear the roadblocks weren't going to be reported by state-run media, the demonstrators to again chant "Where is Christel?!" through the entire morning news broadcast of Die Volta-Bericht.
Vien City Police even went out to the scene, but were presented by NSD officers dressed in Vien City Police uniforms with seemingly legitimate orders from the Politburo ordering that the area surrounding the square be "secured for public safety". The Politburo had not issued any such orders, and news of this forged order quickly reached the Politburo.
The reformers demanded answers, yet the hardliners again shut down any discussion on the issue, going so far as to suggest that the orders were "helpful in maintaining order". It was becoming increasingly clear to the reformers that the hardliners would take nothing less than the reformists complete capitulation. If the reformers wanted to advance their reforms, they needed to dig in for a hard fight against the hardliners.
Some reformists began making calls to the Chancellor, who became increasingly concerned. He decided to wait on any decision to cut short his visit to Carpathia, which had been scheduled to be 2-weeks long. Yet, privately, he expressed his some of his concerns with the Carpathian Dictator regarding the situation back in Vien, so that in the event that it was necessary to cut the trip short the Carpathians would hopefully understand.