History of the United States Workers Party: 2007/2008
The First Generation: The Founders
The United States Worker’s Party was created on or around December 21st, 2007. Its early ideas were centered on raising worker’s rights in the eUSA, focused mainly on minimum wage and unemployment. The January 1st national elections yielded 5 congressional seats for the party. After this, it fell into inactivity for a number of months.
The months of February, March, and April saw very little voice from the party, which was struggling with inactive leadership. This would all change with the party elections in June.
Reform and Reconstruction
Dasanchez won the party elections in June 2008, but after the local elections, he stepped down and Roby_Petric, a European immigrant to the eUSA, was appointed to the party presidency. He immediately began asking the members of the USWP what they believed the party should stand for. The June local elections ended with the USWP gaining 3 mayoral seats, including a sweeping victory for Petric in New Hampshire, a USWP stronghold at the time.
A new strategy was proposed, focused on raising activity, spreading the word about the coming national elections, integrating new immigrants, and educating new members. Roby created the party’s first SO fund, the USWP Hand to Hand Fund, which is still operation today. It serves as the party’s main charity and funding organization. In times of war it is used to send gifts to our soldiers. In times of peace it is used to gift party members with low wellness and pay employee’s in the party’s programs.
Peter Green proposed the creation of a party owned company around this time as well, and USWP’s Food Made by Hand was created to employ party members and act as a training company. Though it once sold some of the most affordable Q1 food in the nation it is no longer in operation today.
The USWP membership grew quickly, eventually unseating the dead and inactive Power International Party and taking the position as the 5th largest party in the eUSA.
Preparations were made for July 1st, the party forums were created, members were informed. Roby_petric publicly endorsed then US President Dishmcds for reelection. The day came around, and the USWP gave a strong showing. Even though it was significantly smaller than the DeP it actually defeated them by one vote in congressional elections. It gained 5 seats in congress. A significant victory given it had been very weak and inactive less than a month earlier. Preparations began for the month of July, which would bring great prosperity to the USWP.
July: The First Half
The month began with a strongly reinvigorated party, excited at the surprising showing in the elections. Shortly after the elections the USWP released the July Platform, the first official statement on its political goals and views. It showed a centrist party focused on activity, government accountability, worker’s rights, and self sufficiency. This contradicted many people’s belief that the USWP was a communist party, a stereotype that had existed for months, one that USWP members were determined to break.
Roby was reelected party president by a wide margin, but quickly found his workload IRL to be to much. He appointed Peter Green as the new president. Peter quickly followed up with Roby’s intentions to create a working National Committee to run the party. He helped develop this while still managing USWP’s Food Made by Hand.
However a couple weeks later, Roby quietly returned and re-assumed his party leader seat. Peter Green was upset by the quick changes in power and left the party to begin the U.S. Green Party. He took with him the USWP Food Made by Hand company, and other miscellaneous funds. Despite this issue the USWP stormed ahead and under Roby's leadership the USWP recruitment office was created, and the member Psychokilled was appointed as its head, later madman50770 took this role after Psycho was appointed to higher positions. An organized system was created, and the USWP began recruiting new members rapidly under the direction of Psychokilled who was a pioneer in recruitment. The great size of the USWP today can be attributed to the work by Psychokilled. An IRC channel was also established around this time, and the high ranking party members discuss plans and strategy here. It is open to the general populace. Its often said ideas are discussed and worked out in the forums, but born in the IRC.
The only real failure of the USWP during this month was local elections. The party made the mistake of starting too late, and as such they only won in three states. In two of these states they ran unopposed. After this failure, they kicked into overdrive.
July: The Revolution
Recruitment skyrocketed, and many ideas were born. USWP members began taking major roles in national programs, and made a pledge to become at least the 3rd largest party in the eUSA before August. The party began reorienting itself as a place for new members to come, be welcomed, and learn about eRepublik.
Membership was rising at an extraordinary rate. 50-60 members a day. In a very short time, the USWP became the 4th largest, then 3rd, and finally it became the 2nd largest party, just days before the elections. The Party publicly endorsed Archibald for president. A day before the elections, the USWP sent out PMs to all its members, reminding them to vote. Activity and excitement for the party were at a high, and they were prepared for a great victory.
The Second Generation: The Demise of Beta
August: USWP Pride
The elections in August were a great success for the USWP. They soundly defeated the bottom three parties in congressional elections with wide margins, gaining 24.80% of the vote, less than 3% behind the Libertarian Party, despite them having over 100 more members. They gained 9 seats in congress. They were finally recognized as a major player in eAmerican politics.
Archibald also won the presidential elections. Justinious, his opponent, acknowledged in a later press release that he believed the USWP’s endorsement played a major role in this victory. The USWP was very proud of itself, and continued to recruit and help new members out. The cabinet was shuffled slightly, as members moved to higher national positions. The first USWP National Convention was held on August 12th, in the IRC chatroom. It served as a place for the leadership to discuss its intentions for the future and answer questions posed by members. The Convention also served as a time for new ideas to be presented and for USWP members to meet their leadership.
Roby Petric announced suddenly that he was stepping down as President, and appointing the somewhat new member Peregrine as his successor. Peregrine immediately began reforming the organization of the USWP, and changing the forums drastically.
The August local elections saw the USWP gaining 9 seats. The party had expected a better result this time around, given the strong congressional showings.
Membership continued to grow. During this time however, a number of high ranking party members left. Aubra Elvie left the party. While his reasoning was unknown at first, he began attacking the party for "noob harboring" in later news releases.
As the September general elections neared, Peregrine announced the party would be endorsing Archibald for a second term. Kronas, announced he would be supporting Justinious' presidential run via a forum post. There was a controversial argument on the forums about this, and whether it was right of him to use the official USWP forums to endorse a candidate the party did not support.
Kokach, then general of the National Guard, relieved Kronas of his position. His reasoning was that Kronas stated his rank and role in the Guard in his official endorsement of Justinious. Kokach believed this was using his rank for political gain. NSC Director, BuzzytheCat supported Kokack's decision.
Kronas left the party, stating he had no problems with the bulk of the party, just Kokach. He joined the UCP shortly after. He is believed to have brought USWP style organization to the UCP, as well as create a party forum for them.
The ironic thing was that, after this mess, it was reveled Archibald was not even running. After an argument in the USWP about how to choose who to endorse, the party chose to issue an "unofficial" endorsement of Justinious.
September: The PAC
The USWP won the September congressional elections, despite being smaller than the Libertarian party. Although, Justinious did not win the presidency, Immunogenic did. Many blamed the USWP's weak endorsement. They stated to their members that they should make their own choice, but it was suggested they vote either Justinious or Peregrine, despite Peregrine not running. Peregrine received a large number of votes.
There was alot of anger within the USWP after it was realized that Emerick tried to pin Operation Eagle Strike on the USWP.
As the party elections came, Peregrine won with a large majority. The second USWP national convention focused on local elections and future presidential aspirations. Roby Petric announced that either he or Peregrine would be running for President in October, as it was the USWP's goal to run a national candidate. During the convention Peregrine also announced his Team ideas. USWP Teams sorted out the massive number of new players coming into the party and put them under the leadership of Team Leads. Team Leads were then charged with messaging and assisting new players in the game. This idea, though very ingenuitive, ultimately failed because of the large influx of new players daily.
The USWP PAC was formed to help with local election campaigns. McGivey was put in charge. The September local elections, which were the last in eRepublik, saw a massive change in the US mayoral map. The USWP won 19 seats, the largest of any party. This was greeted as a great achievement within the party and was attributed to McGivey's excellent leadership of the PAC.
The party began working on a comprehensive new platform as well.
As late september came around, it was realized that Immunogenic would not be running for a second term. The party began asking if it would actually run any candidates. Roby announced he would be running for President of the United States via the forum. It was made public a few days later, along with an extensive political platform.
Two nights before the General Election, the USWP surpassed the Libertarian party in terms of membership, and became the largest party in the USA for the first time. This was attributed to USWP growth, and Libertarian backlash from the Martin Sunter-Ikenstein scandal associated with Operation Eagle Strike.
October: Short Lived Victory
Roby Petric won the Presidency by a wide margin, which many considered an upset. The USWP gained 34% of congress. This was met by much criticism by Emerick, Daphne Lilac, and TheSupernatural, that the USWP simply used party-line voting to its advantage, and most members were two-clicking zombies. Members fought back fiercely, eventually embracing the zombie label in an attempt to turn its meaning around. Internally, the easy win could be connected with relatively new practices of PM Banking. Under McGivey and the PAC's direction members gathered in IRC to PM everyone in the USWP. This practice was created by McGivey and lives on to this day.
The USWP praised Petric's decisions to expand the government to include as many people as possible, and were very excited that they had the presidency. Petric kept his bipartisan promise, appointing only two USWP members to national department heads. Lukasz Makowski to Secretary of State, and Rocco Baldelli to FBI Director.
On the eve of the release of V1 though, Roby announced he was quitting eRepublik because he disliked V1. This disappointed many USWP members, and fueled the criticism of the party. Acting President ThisGenMedia appointed Peregrine as Vice President of the USA, which helped to raise USWP morale somewhat.
During this time period the USWP saw the creation of a new forum. Peregrine initiated the new, more modern forums and with the help of Jordan Miller designated new forum topics, which saw the elimination of the Teams, originally created by Peregrine. Also in late October the USWP Constitution was written by Lukasz Makowski, with the help of ProggyPop, and it passed the Executive Board unanimously.
November: A Founder's Funeral
November brought some additional change to the USWP. Peregrine, party president at the time, resigned his position on November 9th, making Rocco Baldelli the party president. Peregrine’s resignation was due to him joining INGSOC, also referred to as The Party, and disappearing in South Africa. Along with his disappearance, Chimichonga Barbarosa and Yipsee Fooks also went inactive and thus were removed from the USWP Executive Board by petitions from the USWP membership. Whether they were involved in INGSOC is not clear, though they claim to have no connection whatsoever with INGSOC.
Roby Petric’s funeral was also held in November in the USWP forums under the direction of Lukasz Makowski. It was met with lots of outreach by many USWP members and non-members alike, which included former US Presidents, cabinet members, congressmen and party presidents.
On November 15th Lukasz Makowski was chosen as the next party president in a 4 way election, gaining 62.22% of the vote. With the support of the Executive Board, he made some changes to the forums and appointed a strong Executive Board. His focus was the organizational aspect of the USWP, keeping the party working smoothly while managing over 800 members at that time, which made USWP the largest in the USA and 3rd largest in the eWorld.
Official grievances were filed against the party president, Lukasz Makowski by GoBucks in late November. GoBucks and some fellow party members were disappointed with what they believed to be a generally inactive Party Leadership. According to the USWP Constitution, the Executive Board reviewed them and found no wrongdoing. The grievances were dismissed after being heard by all appropriate parties. Afterwards, party activity increased and a Party Convention was held.
In late November, some USWP members began calling on the USWP forums to close down and not be accessible to non-USWP members because of certain information being used by other parties. This was met with criticism from the party president, Lukasz Makowski, as well as the Executive Board. In the decision, the leadership decided that the forums would remain open to all, thus promoting fairness and transparency in the party’s actions. The decision was final at the time and USWP members as well as non-USWP members are able to post in the Wellness Center to find a gifting “buddy” as well as browse through much of the forums.
The USWP did fine in the congressional elections, again attaining over 30% of the seats with the new congressional system in place. There were some serious issues with the system itself, where some party members were unable to get on the ballot in some states.
The USWP, after much debate and hesitation, decided that it would support Benn Dover for another term as the US President. The endorsement came out about two days before the election and put Benn Dover on the ballot at the last minute. Benn Dover won a landslide victory.
December: Anti-War Effort and Changes in the PAC
In December, Lukasz Makowski declared that he would not be seeking another term as party president. At that time it was known that GoBucks was seeking a seat as the next party president. Rocco Baldelli decided to step in to the race a week before elections. The party supported both candidates to the seat, but in the end Rocco Baldelli was able to attain the party presidency on December 16, with 56.51% (204) of the vote and GoBucks managed to attain 32.41% (117 votes), in a seven way election. On December 17, Lukasz Makowski helped bring national power back to the USWP by being in the highest position on a Federal level since the times of Roby Petric, he was picked by Benn Dover to be Chief of staff.
After Rocco Baldelli took over the party presidency he wrote an anti-war article, accusing the current president Benn Dover of mismanaging the war effort. This was met with strong support and criticism from both sides of America’s society. Many accused the USWP of collaborating with the French government and treason. Calls for the USWP to be banned were amongst the many comments published by high ranking politicians in USA. On the other hand, those who supported this move claimed that the war was unjust, as it did not fulfill the intended purpose of liberating Switzerland from France. They saw it as a war that spiraled America in to an economical problem.
Both sides were calmed soon, as articles of peaceful nature came out, neutralizing the arguments of both sides. Though both sides were still debating, the situation was calmed.
During December minor changes took place in the USWP. The biggest change was Lukasz Makowski's idea to introduce regions to the PAC. He decided it would ease the stress on the PAC Director to have multiple Co-Directors to assist in campaigning and finding candidates for Congress seats. Under the direction of GoBucks, the PAC Director at the time, a new system using four regions and four regional directors was introduced. The changes led the USWP to attempt its first 51 state campaign. The PAC and the USWP E.B., for the first time, endorsed candidates in nearly all 51 regions of the US, in what came to be known as the USWP Christmas Day Congress. Also during December GoBucks initiated a Happy Holidays From The USWP Campaign. Thanks to generous donations from Jordan Miller, AidenAstrup, Scrabman, and GoBucks, participants in the campaign were given ten dollars each, plus a few earned big prizes like a house and other items. Also, notable in December, ProggyPop returned after settling Real Life issues and became the party Chief of staff.
