International Communist Party



The International Communist Party is a multi-colour Cyber Nations alliance for socialist and communist players, dedicated to the peaceful spread of communist thought.

History
The ICP was founded by Matthijs on the 11th of April, 2006, as one of the political parties of the International Coalition of Socialist Nations. Matthijs and Harry Pollitt were involved in an attempt to split from the ICSN a week later, which failed to gain popular support. Its board was then closed, because the General Assembly of the ICSN voted to close all parties.

On the 27th of April, when the ICSN was at war with the NPO, Matthijs wrote a lengthy history/criticism of the ICSN, announced his leaving of that alliance, and swore an oath of non-aggression to the NPO Emperor Ivan Moldavi. Harry Pollitt soon followed, and a temporary sign-up topic was posted in the Alliances & Wars board of the Cyber Nations forum, for new members who were not at war with the NPO to apply for the founding committee that would be dedicated to laying the groundworks of this new alliance.

Players at war, or those who already had obligations to other alliances, were invited to join the Internationalist Brigade, an organisation within the alliance for non-members to discuss with the ICP membership.

On the 28th of April, the official forum for the ICP was announced, and founding committee members, Internationalist Brigadiers and diplomats from other alliances were invited to register and start posting.

Remaining ICSN members orginally largely reacted negatively to the ICP. They considered the ICP(and all former ICSN members who took the oath) to be cowards and traitors, and found it dangerous to have another communist alliance in the game, which could have taken members away from them. Because of this, many members of the ICSN were in favour of going to war with the ICP in its first days, but eventually adjusted their priorities when Haraldur and NKOS went on to start the Libertarian Socialist Federation, leaving the ICSN struggling to recover.

On May 1st, the International Day of Labour, a traditional socialist holiday, the founding committee of the ICP unanimously voted to establish the party's socialist May Day Constitution and officially founded the alliance, opening it up for all communists adhering to the party's principles who want to join.

It was concluded by a merger with the ASDU, founded by Drakomis, an alliance that never managed to gain more than one member. Because of ASDU's unique ideology, it was originally decided that they were still allowed to operate autonomously. This changed approximately a month later when Drakomis disbanded the ASDU and became a full ICP member.

The ICP has become the largest socialist alliance in the game due to the set backs of the ICSN and the inability of the Socialistic Revolution Initiative, the Allied Nations for Global Independence and Liberty, the Allied Socialist Defense Union and the LSF to gain any significant membership.

Since the Popular Front formed the ICP has had increasingly better relations with the ICSN and other Leftist Groups.

On August 23rd, the International Coalition of Socialist Nations and the International Communist Party became a single alliance under the ICP's name and the ICSN's flag. The merged alliance is agreed to use the ICP constitution and ICP leadership for the rest of their term.

Organisation
The origins of the ICP as an alliance lie in the eight nations that came together on the Foundation Committee, a body of those nations' representatives, to create the May Day Constitution.

Apart from the actual alliance, the ICP also runs an Internationalist Brigade. The idea of the I.B. was conceived of because there are many socialists and communists in Cyber Nations who already have obligations with other alliances in the game, but are still interested in discussing real life politics, and communism in CN.

The main decision-making body of the ICP is the General Congress, which acts with both executive and legislative powers. Under the May Day Constitution, the General Congress delegates specific responsibilities to some of its members in order to ensure efficient government under the democratic centralist principle.

Chair
The Chair is elected to ensure that the business of the General Congress is conducted fairly, efficiently and without hindrance to the body's socialist goals.

During the first term, the Chair was occupied by Matthijs, a founding member of the ICP in the ICSN and as an independent alliance. Elected on the fifth of May 2006, he served five calendar weeks. On the 9th of June, nominations for new elections were held, with the elections themselves being started on the 11th. In these, Matthijs received 45% of the vote, with Karl Marx getting 40% and Drakomis getting 15%. A second round between Matthijs and Karl Marx starts on the 14th. Voting ended on the 17th, with KarlMarx recieving a 57.1% majority.

Bureaux
Six Bureaux operate from the General Congress; the Bureaux of Intelligence, Justice, Diplomacy, Defence, Membership and Economics. The directors of these are also elected every five weeks.

The first director of the Economic Bureau was Soviet Sindorin, who resigned and joined the ODN a while later, being replaced by FLOZi. Cansydia was elected as director of the Diplomatic Bureau later, because he was first running for Chair against Matthijs. A General Congress vote decided that the nominations for the next elections to the Chair and the Bureaux were to be realigned to the 9th of June, the elections being held two days later.

During the elections, some positions were changed. See a report on this here The Directors of the Bureaux for the third term are:


 * MilitantMilo - Justice Bureau
 * Kommando - Membership Bureau
 * Papa Zito - Economic Bureau
 * Archon - Intelligence Bureau
 * Flaming Celt - Defence Bureau
 * Trotsky and Pablo - Diplomatic Bureau

Membership
The current membership can be viewed here on the ICP discussion board. Members #1-8 were the original Foundation Committee. As of the 30th of August, the ICP has 146 members.

Charter
The May Day Constitution of the ICP is so-called because it was passed on the date marking the official foundation of the organisation, May 1st.

Independence Council
On the 11th May, the ICP General Congress took a vote on whether or not to accept an invitation to join The Independence Council. The results were announced on the 13th May with a 64% majority in favour of joining, and the ICP subsequently accepted the invitation. However, the IC itself turned out to be uncertain whether an accepted invitation automatically meant admission, and after LUE and the NPO left the IC, a new vote was started on the 14th. The result of which, announced on the 16th, was a 41% vote against the ICP joining the new-look IC, 41% abstaining, and only 16% of the general congress voting in favour.