History of the United States Workers Party: 2009
The Third Generation: eRepublik V1
January: The Coming of Scrabman
On December 28, 2008, thirteen days after the party president elections, the party president Rocco Baldelli resigned from his presidency on the USWP forums, citing personal and family real life issues. He resigned the party presidency on eRepublik also, making Jordan Miller party president by default because of the highest number of experience points, on eRepublik only. According to the USWP Constitution, the USWP Chief of staff becomes the temporary party president in this situation, until new elections will be held, thus making the new temporary party president of USWP, ProggyPop.
In late December, ProggyPop held elections to fill the vacancy left behind Rocco Baldelli. The winner of these elections was Scrabman, who was the USWP's Legal Department Director at the time. He gained much support from his fellow party members and on January 3rd, 2009 was announced party president of USWP. In his acceptance speech, he specified that he would still hold the position of the Legal Director.
During the months of January and December the USWP became increasingly close with America's Advancement Party and Uncle Sam. The USWP E.B. decided to support UncleSam as he had chosen GoBucks to be his Vice-President. On election day UncleSam and GoBucks ended up in second place despite third-place candidate Desert Falcon resigning mid-day and throwing his support to the UncleSam ticket. Justinious managed to secure the presidency. Some cite the failure to be the fault of Ron Paul who sent out hundreds of false messages stating that Uncle Sam was not the USWP Candidate and that Scrabman wanted Justinious to win.
In January, with Justinious as president, several USWP members were granted positions on the Federal Cabinet. ProggyPop, Scrabman, GoBucks, and Lukasz Makowski were all awarded Cabinet Positions and the US was once again beginning to gain power and respect on the national level. The USWP held more cabinet positions than any other party, a sign of the USWP's size and power. In Congress, the USWP was also gaining power, led by Ananias and his support of the CTPA.
That January set a USWP record for the number of seats, 17. Little did the USWP members know at the time that their power would continue to grow. With holding of 35% of Congress and close alliances with the AAP the USWP was able to appoint and vote for ProggyPop to be the first Speaker of the House of the U.S.
At the end of January, the US saw one of the biggest scandals in its history. The eUS Forums were redirected to a YouTube Video and the Federal Reserve was hacked for the first time.
During this time, some other longtime members of the USWP announced their retirement. Jordan Miller announced that he would be stepping aside from the position of Communications Department Director. In his place, he suggested Inwegen who was officially selected as his replacement. The second retirement announcement came from Lukasz Makowski who was serving as the Business Affairs Department Director at the time. It was announced unanimously that AidenAstrup would take his place in the Business Affairs. Due to the retirement of some long-term USWP members, GoBucks decided to begin to expand the Executive Board of the USWP to include a new position of Emeritus Executive Board member, which would act as an advisory position to the actual board.
February: ProggyPop Begins His Reign
February saw lots of new ideas for the USWP and the nation. Fallout from the scandal in late January was ongoing and little could be done to subdue the hysteria that ensued for a short time. Luckily, the USWP was not effected by the scandal and was doing just fine.
In the Party President elections that month, ProggyPop was elected Party President and chose GoBucks to be Chief of staff. AidenAstrup began the USWP's first and only program to outreach to businesses. In its height, the program helped over five businesses and 50 employees in maintaining high wellness and productivity levels. Though the program did not last long it was a great one and made possible by the tremendous efforts and dedication of AidenAstrup.
ProggyPop also began to expand party leadership by filling vacancies and encouraging the Executive Board to enlist larger Executive Staffs. Proggy managed to fill all E.B. positions with active and intelligent members. ProggyPop encouraged all members with increased knowledge to begin posting more article and become vocal. Most specifically he cited Ananias for economics and Inwegen for Foreign Affairs. Ironically, both eventually reached the top position for their respective skill. ProggyPop also made great efforts in getting more USWP members to the forums and involved with the party. Towards the end of February plans for another USWP Convention were made.
March: Another Convention and the Rise of the Scrab
The beginning of March was filled with intense campaigning for Scrabman. Despite thousands of PMs being sent and plenty of articles published Scrab lost the race by 300 votes. After his loss efforts in the USWP were focused on developing a new, comprehensive Party Platform. Though a lot of time and effort was put into this mission to this day no Party Platform has been released.
A big crisis evolved in America when Uncle Sam attacked Mexico with little input from Congress and without informing Atlantis, a major violation of the Atlantis treaty that could cost the US lots of gold. ProggyPop noticed the general discontent with invading Mexico, other decisions regarding military funding and the decision of Joe DaSmoe to resign so he, ProggyPop, decided to impeach Uncle Sam. The impeachment was a bipartisan effort with the CvP and Federalist also openly supporting the impeachment. In the end, Sam was impeached.
Scrabman was automatically given the US President position after Sam was impeached because of his second place in the recent Presidential Elections. Upon his gaining of the position, Scrab wasted no time in addressing the concerns of the American People. He released a speech which addressed the problems of, transparency and accountability, military funding and the creation of a federal budget.
The Fourth Generation: The Scrab/Ananias Era
April: The USWP Rise to Power
Scrabman quickly integrated himself as the president pro-tem and made changes to the cabinet. His cabinet was met with much criticism initially because it mainly consisted of USWP members. Despite this Scrab managed to run for president and win by the biggest margin in eUS history, winning with over 600 votes. He took off as President and represented the USWP well. His story is now one of eUS history, though much could be said about his reign.
Internally, the party was facing activity issues in April. GoBucks had fallen inactive and did not sign on for over a week due to computer issues. Luckily, Ian John Locke IV was searching for a new party and quickly became integrated as the USWP's new Chief of staff. April also saw the rising of another star, Harrison Richardson who began his term on E.B. by starting a party survey.
ProggyPop decided his reign was reaching an end. He had increased efforts to convince more party members to become active and join the forums. Later, he was focusing on Real Life issues and needed to hand over the reigns. Lucky for him and the party, Ananias was more than ready to join the ranks of USWP Party Presidents. Many in the party had noticed Ananias as being an extremely intelligent individual with excellent writing skills. Ananias had helped greatly with the Scrabman campaign and had some creative ideas of his own and became the easy choice for Party President.
There was some controversy during the Party President elections of April as the party outside, Justinious McWalburgson III was attempting a PTO of the party so he could become the number one individual in the US. Though the race was close early on, Ananias managed to successfully pull ahead and win the seat.
Upon achieving the Party President Position Ananias began working quickly on Congress Elections. He also released a great article to begin a USWP Pride media campaign, a true sign of his brilliance. Ananias became the second person in USWP history to pursue a 51 state Congress plan. Unlike the previous 51 state plan by GoBucks this one was critized by many outside of the party as a USWP power grab. In the end the plan was deemed as successful for several reasons.
Ananias continued to succeed as USWP party president. He continually released new plans for activity and education and started many comprehensive operations within the USWP. He focused a lot of efforts on achieving victory in future Congress elections and in involving the "homebase". Ananias quickly became overworked and by late April he could be quoted as reaching his exhaustion point, he took a short step back and let others step up to the plate. Notably, Harrison Richardson became more active as Comm Director.
May: Continuing Power
The beginning of May saw a less active USWP internally. Efforts still continued to increase the party size and activity however the Leadership was becoming exhausted. All of this and another crisis hit the USWP, a member was accused of bribery, which has since not been officially connected with the USWP. Articles were released by the USWP and the issue cleared up quickly.
During this month, scrabman ran for Country President once again. In a supreme showing of USWP power and activity, he won by the biggest margin ever in USA history: 1,100 votes more than his competitor - a sure sign that Americans trusted scrabman (and the USWP).
In mid-May, a vote was started by Harrison Richardson to relocate to a new forum. The current forum was owned by Peregrine who had been unheard from in many months, leaving the USWP leadership without the ability to appoint new administration. The vote passed and the forums were moved, with the help of new admins Cerb and Killing Time.
Ananias, once again, went for a 51 state plan for Congress. Led regionally by Cerb and ligtreb, the plan featured more candidates and a more ambitious approach. It was successful - the USWP won 25 races and ended up with 23 seats in Congress. For the first time in USWP and eUS history, a party controlled the majority of Congress.
The end of May saw a continuation of USWP power. Anti-USWP opinions seemed to be dwindling for the first time in a long time, and party excitement was reaching new heights.
June: USWP Success Lives On
In early June, it was decided that Scrabman would run for the final time as eUS president. He was reelected but by a slim majority. It was also decided that Ananias would continue as Party President, a decision based upon his very successful reign.
June was met with huge recruitment efforts made by the USWP. In fact, one eUS citizen complained about being messaged by 6 USWP members, though it is believed he was exaggerating. Despite complaints, the USWP continued to recruit under the leadership of Comm Director ligtreb.
In June, the USWP celebrated its one year anniversary. It was very clear that the USWP had come a long way and had staying power in the USA.
After much debate, the USWP decided on the replacement for Scrabman who was ready to officially retire as eUS President. Up-and-coming member Harrison Richardson was selected as the official USWP nominee, having served as Secretary of State under Scrabman.
In Congressional elections, the USWP fared fairly well, despite running fewer actual USWP candidates than in recent months. Cerb was still in charge of the USWP PAC, and worked with Ligtreb and Jasper Ferguson to engineer several last-minute victories for key USWP candidates.
The end of June saw the Chief of staff Ian John Locke IV pave the way for new communication initiatives. He helped inspire the first USWP podcast and the USWP Twitter account. Cerb started the first USWP podcast, The Machine Shop, but it since has been neglected. The USWP Twitter account still sees occasional use.
The Fifth Generation: World War III Era
July: New Leaders, Fall from Power
July saw a lot of change for the USWP. First, their endorsement of eUS President had changed to Harrison Richardson who began to lead the US in stride. Second, Ananias resigned from the USWP EB after his discontent with EB decisions being made solely in IRC rather than utilizing the forums.
Zcia took over as USWP party president. The USWP saw a huge transition from party oriented goals of recruitment and activity increasing to goals related to the war effort. Thus, Zcia made the most selfless decision in USWP history and decided the USWP would run no official candidates. The decision was met with a great deal of controversy (especially by the UIP) and many thought it would hurt the USWP. Zcia also decided that votes intended for USWP members would now be used to supply for PTO attempts in France.
On election day, foreigners were trying to PTO Canada and much of the efforts intended for France were shifted to saving Canada. In the end, the PTO of France was deemed unsuccessful and critics of the USWP Congressional Freeze noted it as a failure. However, some USWP members made it into Congress as blockers, including Congressional veterans Zcia and Cerb.
During this month, GoBucks initiated the first major amendment of the USWP constitution. With the help of Zcia and Ian John Locke IV, the constitution was amended and linger decisions were finally resolved.
August: Out of Power
The beginning of August saw limited power for the USWP. For the first time in months, the USWP had one of the fewest member amounts in Congress, with only four. The USWP E.B. was losing activity and change was needed. The COS at the time Ian John Locke IV decided to help raise morale by doing two things, first he started getting the USWP involved in a PR campaign by pledging money to the war effort for subscribers and he also began to work hard on increasing the activity of the forums, which had been quite neglected in early August.
With the war effort, the morale and power of the USWP were at all time lows. For the first time in months, the USWP was no longer the largest party in the world, a fact that can be attributed to a large portion of members being stranded in foreign states... Many of the Executive Board Emeritus members were disappointed at what they cited as lost effort after trying for months to get the USWP to the congressional majority and now have only four candidates and a failed PTO attempt.
Soon the USWP E.B. underwent changes. Jasper Ferguson resigned as PAC director and ligtreb took his place. Shada Aeon then became the new Communications Director. ProggyPop, long time party member, seemed to be no longer associated with the party so his position of Legal Dept. Director was deemed vacant and GoBucks was chosen to take his place. tdwester one of the longest-serving full-time Executive Board members was also replaced. Though tdwester's name might now show up much here he is one of the most loyal members of the USWP and has been working behind the scenes for the betterment of the party for countless months. tdwester was replaced by Josh Frost as institute director. TD was around as one of the few EB Emeritus members still active in the party in August, which include Inwegen, Lukasz Makowski and Panther.
Just before the congressional elections crisis hit the USWP when former eUS President and USWP Communications Director, Harrison Richardson, announced that he had in fact been Franco, a.k.a. ThisGenMedia. Someone who had committed the biggest theft in eUS history. Harrison Richardson was quickly disowned by the USWP and he has now officially quit eRepublik. Backlash from the scandal-hit when it was also announced that extremely influential USWP members Scrabman and HokieHigh were aware of Harrison Richardson's true identity. Scrabman and HokieHigh's account on the forums lost their EB privileges and were accidentally deleted in the process. Efforts were made to restore the accounts but nothing could be done. Scrab understood the problem and vowed to eventually return to the USWP Forums.
In Congressional Elections this month the USWP fared fairly well. Of the voted seats the USWP gained 4, more than any other party. This was mainly due to the use of advertisements and campaigning by Ligtreb, Cerb, Josh Frost, and Zcia. However, in this election seats were granted to people running in non-U.S. Occupied regions which granted the USWP 6 additional seats and 9 (plus one small party member) of the 34 seats. Several days into the Congressional term Cade Magnus transferred to the USWP.
September: Down to Number 2 and the Return of the Convention
The USWP decided to endorse Emerick for the presidency, not without much debate. In fact, within the party, much debate ensued regarding the Presidential Nominations. Zcia started an unofficially vote for members to voice their opinion on who they wanted to endorse and soon argument broke-out on whether or not the USWP should have an official primary. Lorenzo Serafini and Ian John Locke IV got into a debate regarding the primary, which ended with Ian temporarily resigning his E.B. position and Lorenzo voicing his unimpressed opinion regarding the current USWP leadership. Longtime USWP member Lukasz Makowski replaced Ian's spot on the Executive Board and Ian John Locke IV was admitted into Executive Board Emeritus.
With Party Elections on the way, Ian John Locke IV announced he would be running against current Party President Zcia in the September Elections. Members of the party hoped this election would help re-energize the party once more. It was also an exciting election because for the first time since December there was true competition in the race for the USWP Presidency. Despite a prior announcement Ian decided not to run for Party President due to real life time constraints which left the path to presidency clear for Zcia.
During September, around the time of the convention, the USWP lost its number one rank in the eUS. America's Advancement Party was slowly catching up to the USWP in terms of membership and finally passed them on Saturday, September 19th, 2009. This signifies the USWP loss of power as noted in August.
On Sunday, September 20th, 2009 the USWP held its 5th National Convention. The convention was coordinated by GoBucks and Michael J Frost. At the convention Josh Frost was announced to be the October candidate for U.S. President from the USWP with Daphne Lilac as his running mate. Many new USWP projects were introduced, including the creation of a USWP Training Division. It was also noted the USWP had two vacancies in the EB, in the Communication Dept. and the Business Affairs Department where Shada Aeon and Lukasz Makowski were the directors.
The month was finished off with the crushing of the momentum gained at the convention. The USWP Training Division was denied creation and Josh Frost announced he would not be able to run for President due to a real-life commitment. Thus, the 5th National Convention and the progress made there was left to fade away.
The Sixth Generation: Post World War III
October: Rebuilding
At the beginning of October it was announced that Jasper Ferguson would be running for Party President on the 15th and be the successor to Zcia. He immediately went to work in shifting the Executive Board of the USWP. In the month of October Ligtreb became the PAC Director, Panther then the Legal Department Director, Daphne Lilac and then Speedcat McNasty became director of the Communications Department. All these replacements were part of a plan to restore and rebuild the USWP to its earlier status. Though not a replacement, Ian John Locke IV began a new project within the USWP and during the month of October he, with assistance from Jasper Ferguson, created two new party companies.
In his last acts as Legal Director GoBucks, with the help of Jasper Ferguson, began planning an amendment to the USWP Constitution in order to initiate a Party Primary System. At the end of his term as Legal Director, the Primary System was created and it still stands today.
By mid-October, talks began about running a USWP candidate for President of the USA. All Executive Board members agreed that Josh Frost would be the man for the job. He quickly took on an astonishing amount of work and by early November he had gained a majority of party nominations and easily swept the vote to become the first eUS President since Scrabman. The party was very happy to have a USWP Member as President once more.
After a tough election day the USWP ended up with 10 members in Congress, that number would become 11 when another Congressman joined the USWP. Despite efforts for restoration, by the end of the month, the USWP membership had stagnated and still remained far below that of the AAP.
November: Improvements
The month kicked off with an intense amount of work to ensure that Josh Frost would be successful in his run for eUS President. The efforts of the entire USWP Executive Board were dedicated to ensuring that the election would run smoothly and in Josh's favor. Thousands of PMs were sent and on November 5th, days of hard work paid off as Josh Frost was elected President of the USA.
The overall activity of the USWP slowed following the election of Josh Frost. Jasper Ferguson began getting Devan Kronos in line for his first running of the USWP Political Action Committee. On November 14th, Jasper announced he would not be seeking re-election, leaving the E.B. scrambling to look for his successor. Luckily, ligtreb stepped right up to the plate and decided he would run on a moment's notice.
ligtreb stepped up to the throne with numerous good ideas spanning party based media to recruitment for the party, that had once been the biggest party in the World. But, as Congressional Elections were hastily approaching the goals were set on the back-burner as the party, the Executive Board, mainly, Devan Kronos, began work to ensure a successful election for the USWP.
On November 25th, the USWP managed to clinch 13 seats, quite an improvement over the previous months 10 seats. This improvement can be attributed to Devan Kronos and the countless hours he dedicated to ensuring the success of the USWP. As the month came to a close Josh Frost began his bid for re-election as President of the USA.
December: Getting There
Ligtreb started the month with a series of nominations to ensure that all Executive Board positions are filled. Dodgercatcher became Director of Communications; Clevinger, Congressional Whip; DisDick, Director of Business Affairs; and Sweetbags, Director of the USWP Institute. Shortly thereafter, Panther stepped down as Legal Director and DisDick and Dodgercatcher were named Co-Directors of the PAC as Devan Kronos needed a break.
The first complete USWP Primary was held this month, in which Josh Frost won with an overwhelming majority. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the nation's elections as Jewitt upset Josh Frost in a stunning defeat.
The middle part of the month was marked by a relatively low activity of the Executive Board, and the USWP in general. Though, there was a lot of work being done for Congressional Elections. DisDick spearheaded the efforts with a lot of assistance from Clevinger, the new chief of staff, and Devan Kronos, former PAC Director. On election day the USWP won only ten seats, a fact attributed to the low activity of the party due to the holiday season.
The party saw the election as a wake-up call and quickly began work on numerous projects for the new year. Sweetbags helped develop a USWP Training Division and began restored efforts to publicize Project Yogi, a recruitment effort. Numerous members of the EB chipped in to begin the creation of a University, to be called USWP University and planning began on the first USWP Convention since September.
