Libertarian Socialist Federation

The Libertarian Socialist Federation (LSF) is an anti-authoritarian, directly democratic, horizontalist and anti-capitalist alliance, primarily featuring Pink team members.

The LSF is home to many of the anarchists at CyberNations, but also counts within its midst several libertarian socialists, autonomous Marxists and various other anti-authoritarian leftists. The alliance has no official "party ideology", and the fact is reflected in its diverse membership. However, as mentioned anti-authoritarianism, direct democracy, horizontalism and anti-capitalism are the basic principles along which the alliance is organized.

Origins & Description
The LSF is an alliance founded after the collapse of the ICSN. It was founded by ex-ICSN member Haraldur on May Day 2006 and was quickly joined by one or two others originating in the ICSN-remnant. In the closing days of May of the same year, the membership of the LSF increased considerably, with several new, thought to be previously unaffiliated, players joining the organization.

The LSF's structure is highly democratic and all decisions are made by delegates hailing from the various communes in the alliance, thus making it arguably the most democratic alliance in Cybernations.

Some members also go by the moniker of the "Black Guards". "Black Guards" is also the name given to some of the various militias and paramilitaries of the LSF.

Current membership of active members hovers around 150 nations as of June 2007, the alliance having seen a sharp increase in members from both the folding of the ICP and an ambitious membership drive.

On May 1st, the LSF celebrated it's first anniversary, becoming both the oldest expressly leftist alliance on Planet Bob and the strongest, in terms of both membership and alliance strength.

"Charter", Description of how the LSF/Black Guards Work(s)
The following was posted by Haraldur on the 1st of May 2006:

"I thought that May Day would be the appropriate time to announce the launch of the Libertarian Socialist Federation, LSF, or the Black Guards.

The role-playing aspect: Instead of Nations, the "nations" of CyberNations would be regarded as autonomous Communes inside the LSF, whose "leaders"(the players) would be regarded as delegates from the Communal Councils in each Commune. Their governments and religions and bureaucracy etc. (as in, the relevant stuff on the "View your Nations" page) would just be a front, an illusion for the rest of the world (like it says in my Commune's description on CN).

Individual initiative would be encouraged within the Federation, in such a way as everyone can be an ambassador etc.. All power would be in the Delegates' Council (a directly democratic council which all LSF members have access to), and, with the exception to things such as NAPs and alliances, and ceasefires, it would only decide policy, not legislation, which is not binding. In NAPs etc. it would be binding, except for Communes using the opt-out.

The opt-out: In order to give maximum flexibility to member Communes, if they wish to do things which might put other member Communes or the LSF as a whole in danger, they can opt-out of the parts of the alliance to do with mutual defence, mutual aid, NAPS and inter-alliance alliances. However, they still remain in the DC (Delegates' Council). The opt-out would apply to things such as attacking unaligned nations when not provoked, and the same with nations in other alliances (although it is best to be careful when doing that, for the sake of your comrades), and for spying etc.. However, even if two members have opted-out, they should not attack each other, as that weakens the alliance as a whole and so badly affects all members of the alliance. Basically, if you do something that might bring trouble for you and anyone connected to you, you can do it with the consequences affecting only yourself. Anything which is against the will of the DC can only be done by a Commune that has opted-out.

Elected representatives and commissars: There will be none, we self-organize.

Basically, the Black Guards are an alliance of autonomous communes based on the principle of self-organization and mutual aid, as demonstrated or almost demonstrated in the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution, in Germany during the German Revolution and in the Spanish Revolution.

Conditions for entry: must either be Libertarian Socialist (whether that be Anarcho-Communist, Council-Communist, Mutualist or whatever) or be willing to roleplay as that. Also, all applicants involved with wars or other dangerous activity must start out opted-out, unless the war is against an unaligned Nazi or Fascist nation.

By the way, I am starting out opted-out.

Anyone interested?"

The reason for Haraldur starting out as opted-out was due to the fact that he was still involved in the on-going NPO-ICSN conflict of the time, and as such, did not want to involve the young Federation in a war it had nothing to do with.

Diplomatic Relations & Agreements With Other Alliances
The LSF has agreements with the following alliances:

Non-Aggression Pacts

-BTA

-ODN

-Legion

-GPA

-The Foreign Division

-Grämlins

-AC/DC

-FARK

-OIN

-FOK

Mutual Defense Pacts - Optional Aggression Pacts

-Byzantine Empire

- League of Intelligent Humans /The Intelligentsia

History
LSF-NPO War (The Great War) Just before the update on July 17 2006, the LSF attacked several NPO nations, and then again straight after the update. After this the LSF declared war on the NPO and their puppet alliance, the NpO. This happened at a time when many other alliances were declaring against the NPO, NpO and IGC as part of the CoaLUEtion. However, the LSF was explicit in saying that it had no intent of harming the IGC, and that it was not joining the CoaLUEtion. The decision to go to war was by a vote of the membership, viewing it as a chance to do away with the NPO as an imperialist force in the Cyberverse.

The Maroon War

The LSF was one of the main combatants involved in the so called "Maroon War" that came about as a result of the International Communist Party's (ICP) desired move to the Maroon team, which was opposed by Nordreich (NoR) and several other Maroon based alliances. As a result of a Mutual Defense Pact (MDP) signed between the ICP and LSF, the Black Guards became a central part of the so called “Communist Allies” war drive.

Though the war was short, it proved to be costly for many within the alliance. Most nations were reduced to a state of anarchy, but in the process reduced most of their enemies to the same condition. Many felt that the only reason the NoR came out of the war slightly better off is because of the eventual entry of one of the Cyberverse’s strongest alliances, the New Polar Order (NpO) and their allies the GOONS, on the side of the said alliance, citing the fact that up until that point it was essentially a draw between the two warring blocs. Critics would also state that along side the NpO and GOONS it further took essentially the entire Maroon team (omitting the ODS) to “beat” the combined leftist alliances.

It is estimated that the leftist bloc was by the end of the war outnumbered by a ratio of 2:1, and still put up a remarkably cagey fight, fighting a determined defence effort that eventually led to the NoR's sueing for peace.

The Great War II

On 11th January 2007 (3:40 AM), the LSF declared war on the Imperialist "The Initiative" on the side of the "League", but not part of it. The Federation did however accept the peace terms that were offered to the rest of the League (which the LUE declined) to eventually pull out of the conflict.

St. Patrick's Day War

The so called St. Patrick's Day War or Second Maroon War, started on March 17, 2007 via surprise attack by Nordreich on the LSF in something they called Operation Fall Rot. The aggressors were soon joined by several other alliances, while the LSF for her part was almost entirely abandoned by her allies (despite signed MDPs and MADPs) with a notable exception in the Byzantine Empire.

Nordreich claimed the war was in retribution was LSF-sponsored Anti-Fascist actions which had targeted their membership, and general animosity between the two alliances. While the war resulted in a fairly clear loss for the LSF (once again being severely outnumbered) the peace terms featured concessions on the part of both alliances. Furthermore, Nordreich's stated commitment to purging racist and neo-Nazi elements from its ranks (as part of its peace terms) has resulted in several new wars for the alliance and, arguably, continues to play a central role in the on-going controversy within the leadership of the organization.

The members of the LSF, for their part, have almost entirely recovered from the war and both membership numbers and alliance strength are larger than they were before the war.

Signature Images
These are images LSF members wear in their signatures, if they are part of the Alliance or part of any recent conflict(s).

This userbar is for official use for any current LSF member:



This particular banner was awarded for participation in the LSF-NPO War of 17th July 2006 - 29th July 2006:



This banner was awarded for participation in the LSF-NoR War, also known as the Second Maroon War of 17th March 2007 - 20th March 2007:



This userbar is for official use for any Veteran of the Second Maroon War who fought with the LSF:



Official Libertarian Socialist Federation Forum

Official Libertarian Socialist Federation Sign-Up Thread at Cyber Nations