People's Communist Party/Rastari's April Manifesto

This is Rastari's manifesto for the People's Communist Party for April 2009.

Episode One:

The fun begins

Introduction

I am rastari, current umofa and vice party president of the Peoples Communist Party and I have decided to place myself in the race to become Prime Minister of this country. This is not a decision I take light-heartedly and if I didn't believe I could do a good job I would not run.

The reason I think I could do a good job as prime minister is because I'm worth it! catchphrases from TV adverts aside, I have qualities which we haven't seen in a candidate in a while, I am an honest, open, down to earth guy who sees this game for what it is, fun. Too many people take this game far to seriously and get annoyed at silly little things (I like to call it Angry German kid Syndrome). This game is about fun, that is what every single piece of legislation and every decision from the prime minister should be for, making the game better for as many people as possible and as soon as somebody forgets this they have lost the point of the game.

Over the next couple of days, you will see pieces of my manifesto emerge into the big sea of spam that is the media section and every point of the manifesto will refer to how it will make the game better for the most amount of people.

Now you might be wondering how I could make the game better whereas other candidates could not. Because I am different, I see things differently and I do things differently. I am not going to suddenly create a utopia for the proletariat and make the uk the number 1 economic nation, I am not going to make everybody rich and have lots of ewives, I am not going to make the UK the number 1 fighting force and take over the whole of Europe. Because these things cannot be done in one term and I am therefore not going to promise these things, I will, however, approach the job in a more open way, I will be more active in public life than previous prime ministers, I will release daily articles and be as ever-present on the euk forums, I will listen to the average citizen more and take into consideration their views, I will most importantly remember that this is a game and that the main goal of the game is too have fun.

Now the more serious bunnies amongst us who get wet over cv's and personal statistics will want to know what I have done so far. In answer to this inevitable question I am the current umofa and vice party president of the PCP as stated previously, I am the former Minister for Migration and Support as well as Minister for Media and Culture in India. I have previously held the position of major in the navy and am a 3-time congressman. I have experience with legislation, foreign affairs and the military. Although my experience in these areas and other areas may not be as great as some I believe that it is more than sufficient, I believe that I have learnt in my time here enough to be a more than capable prime minister and the question should not be about experience but more about what I am going to do and how I am going to run the country, something which shall be explained in the next section of my manifesto.

Now a question which many will ask is, who am I going to appoint as my potential vice president? Well, I think the answer to this is obvious, Bob Boblo. Hopefully, if we get in he won't try and impeach me. Bob is uber reliable, extremely active and very experienced he is to VP's what Micheal Jackson is to the music industry (no not a paedophile). Ultimately bob is a fun guy who likes to kiss babies, save orphans from burning buildings and rescue kittens from trees. On a more serious note, Bob would make a great VP and most probably a great prime minister if he ever decided to run. With me and Bob running together some of the more uptight citizens may question how serious this team is to which we say, Sausage.

awaits UKRP announcing there undying love and support in the comments section

Episode Two:

The Kids Are Alright

SOCIAL

Now before we talk about the policies that can be implemented, and how they will affect you, I want to tell you a story.

"Once there was a young penguin, called iratsar. He was just starting on his journey to enlightenment, and didn't really know which way to go. You see, on this journey, there were no clear signposts, the lights were fading, and the bugs were distracting. But almost immediately an older penguin - hcakoK - pointed iratsar in the direction he wanted to go."

Without helpful older penguins to give directions where needed, iratsar and many young penguins like him would never have found their way. This is at the top of my agenda, and at the core of all my thinking, to try and stop the rot and prevent people dropping out before the fun has even started. This is why I am going to be bringing back the...

Citizen Awards

I believe it is vital that penguins who take their time to help younger citizens get involved in the game Deserve more credit. They really help create the community. Bringing these awards back will offer some penguins who wouldn't typically get heard some recognition for there efforts. On a similar note, I will be looking into bringing back the...

British Academy

Now the reason this hasn't been around recently is because of the workload on the Ministry of Information & Education's (MoIE) shoulders. This is why I would be interested in encouraging more apprentices to join the department staff. Easy. Again, those who dedicate themselves to the country deserve credit, especially in the media section where subscribers and votes mean increasingly little. As well as focusing on the older penguins that help the young penguins, I am also going to focus on the younger penguins directly which is why I am hoping to reintroduce...

Ask Frank

Now Ask Frank is basically a talk line where younger penguins can ask 3 or 4 more experienced penguins advice on eRep related issues. It will be advertised in-game and on the forums and will provide a more personal way for younger penguins to get help. This is ready to go, with an Org already in place (pending a name change by the Admins). Now another thing that will help younger penguins would be more newbie guides, pimping existing information, and using helpful advice from older penguins. I will defiantly be looking into setting up a...

Welcoming Committee

The Welcoming Committee will be run by the Minister of Migration and Support (MoMaS), who will appoint penguins to the committee to play with questionnaires and surveys to find out, in more detail, what issues young penguins really face. They would work closely with Ask Frank and the MoIE switching resources to relieve a little pressure. Another thing that I believe in is...

More Communication

As a nation, we need to getting out there to more penguins. I think that our current set up is quite distant from the majority, and there needs to be far more communication in-game. The first idea is to release daily articles; A Prime Minister's diary if you like, and let everybody know what is going on, straight from the penguin's mouth. Opinion polls, Hot Topics and Mini-Votes on certain issues. I also feel more openness is needed too. This is why I would like...

Ministerial Reports to be made publicly

Every week the Minister in charge of each Department publishes a report in the Cabinet section of the forums. If elected, I would make these reports public and release them in an article. Of course, any private information which threatens security would be removed in accordance with the Ministers' code, but the emphasis would be to give more penguins a greater insight into how our government works. Now another thing that would help penguins find out more about how things work would be too...

Fix that New Citizen Message!

Why on Earth this hasn't been fixed yet I don't know, but it still says that deathtoll is Country President, which has to be changed for the poor guy's sake at least. If it is too long and impersonal, many penguins will not read it. Changing it will be the first thing on my agenda. 60 penguins a day are greeted by an outdated and incorrect citizen message which is a far greater problem than many think it is. Another thing of great importance that needs to be sorted out is...

More Advertising

This would apply to all department, definitely the Military, and all current schemes like the CORE Exams and the Citizen Exchange Programme, They need regular advertising in-game to stay fresh and effective. The current responsibility of advertising is down to the Ministers themselves, but when you are running a complex Ministry, writing adverts is not what you want to do, which is why I may introduce scribes, and get the Welcoming Committee involved. Of course, this would come under the larger topic of...

Managing the Ministries

There is loads of legislation that doesn't get carried out because the ideas are still moving and shaking. The main priority will be to get all these schemes running, and running properly. A stickied, updated thread in the Cabinet section of the forums could show all current legislation, showing what department is responsible for it, and what extra duties need carrying out. Regular communication more than just the current ministerial reports between the PM and ministers are needed, making sure everything gets done and all ministers and members of there departments will be added (msn is ideal). If a particular minister is overloaded with work or short on time, a position within the ministry to tackle that particular task will be advertised in-game and on the forums. The appointing to ministries will happen in the normal way, with the position being advertised and candidate posting on the thread/comments section. I will be looking for your ideas and how you would act them out. Appointments would be done on ability and what can be brought to the metaphorical table. Now as we know the in-game functions are fairly limited. Fun and original ideas are what makes the game better which is why I will be supporting the...

Department for Entertainment

The Department for Entertainment is an unofficial department (at the moment) which focuses on making the game fun with out-of-game and out-of-forums activities, like Regional Pub Quizzes, eRepublik F1, eRepublik Lottery. Community activities make things far more fun for everybody. I think this is undervalued and I would be interested in making the department official, as well as putting added emphasis on it in my diary. Now many young penguins get cuts and bruises from scrapping, working and training, which is why the wellness of the nation is very important, which brings me to my next topic...

The NHS

Now every penguin needs some help to keep wellness up every now and again, which is why I will be in favour of a new 3 point NHS system,

1.Increase gifting to UP TO 5 wellness a day (based on the Quality level of work.)
This means a penguin working in Q1 will receive 1 wellness a day, whilst a Q5 penguin will receive 5 wellness a day. It will become the job on the NHS to maintain the wellness of its patients, and the patients' responsibility to improve.

2.Gifting only on request.
Not every penguin wants the help of the NHS. Some can handle their own wellness without the aid of the state. Others will need almost constant attention. However, it will become the responsibility of the patient to seek help and advice, thus removing any unnecessary gifting.

3.Gifting to a maximum of 70.
Priority should be given to penguins with the least wellness. Once at 70, citizens should take advantage of Private Health Care, to maintain wellness, where the penguins send money to the NHS Director to the value of the gifts requested. This can still prove cheaper than purchasing gifts of the market, as I fully intend to offer General Managers keeping product prices at the RRP, stockpile contracts to keep prices down.

Summary

Getting young penguins involved in the game and making this game more fun is ridiculously important and should be given more precedence instead of political penguins squabbling over petty things This is the key things that I will address, along with getting the ministries more organised and adding more of a voum factor. Thanks for reading. Let's do this.

Episode Three:

Gone Fishing

Economic Manifesto

The Economy is something that remains the key to all successful nations, we have seen time and time again countries crippled during wartime by profiteering and unreliable gm's, The workers playing second fiddle to the gm's whims and governments unwilling to step in due to RL beliefs. The main things that need doing in my view is to gain more control, so that we can prevent these things happening, this does not mean making everything government owned and ruling with an iron fist, the majority of people here most probably do not want full-on communism and I will not try and implement what is not wanted, I will, however, implement schemes that aim to create a stable economy whilst not taking away people's ability to be good gm's, the first of these is...

Ombudsman

Now back in the mystical age of beta, of which I am too young to remember, mayors, fulfilled the role of an ombudsman. When mayors were removed from the game this role was forgotten, but it had a lot of potentials. Reviving this in some form would help build on the recommended retail prices by giving us a way to genuinely enforce it, as well as giving workers a genuine voice in government. This role could also take on the responsibility of looking for multis, which has been more or less forgotten about in recent months. It could be part of a ministry, or a separate entity altogether.

Reform of the unions

because of the success of the local councils, I believe that a reformed and streamlined union could work which is why I am in favour of,

The eUK Workers’ Union
It shall be known that the aims of this union shall forever be:

1. To unite the workers of the eUK under one banner
2. To protect the workers of the eUK from the greed and malice of the bosses and politicians, no matter their skill or age
3. To support those companies which seek to improve the lives of their employees

• Organization

The leader of the eUKWU will be known as the Union President. He is to be elected through a forum-vote amongst the members, once per month. His role is to communicate directly with the Prime Minister, and ensure that the union works efficiently and productively. He may be a member of the Houses of Parliament- if possible he will be in the House of Lords as ‘Union Representative to the Lords’, though if he is in the Commons another will be chosen by him to take this role in the Lords.

There will then be a representative for each region. Where possible, this will be an MP who is part of the Union, but where no MP is willing to take the role within the region, another may be elected amongst the workers of that region. The job of these Representatives is to communicate with the citizens of their region about the union, to raise its profile and spread the workload.

Next, there will be several officers. These are to be chosen by the Union President. They will be as follows:

1. Industrial Action Officer- Masterminds strikes and other such things (see below for details)
2. Recruitment Officer- Works with Regional Representatives to recruit new members.
3. Communications Officer- Editor of the Union’s newspaper. Receives messages from members, works with RRs to send them out.

Lastly, of course, there will be the members. Their only real duty (in addition to those outlined below) is to pay a minor membership fee of 1GPB per week. If they can’t pay one week, that is okay, however, if after three weeks their debt goes unpaid they will be expelled from the union.

• Courses of Action
• The Lists
• The Union, as part of its newspaper and run by the Communications Officer, will maintain three lists.

The first is to be known as the Whitelist. This is a list of companies which the union deems of a higher-than-average quality, and encourages its workers to either work for, or purchase from. To be added to this list, a company must have had no union action taken against them for three months at least, and have been proposed with the support of at least 3 unionised members of the company.

The second is to be known as the Blacklist. This is a list of companies which the union deems of a lower-than-average quality, and encourages workers to avoid, although the union perhaps doesn’t think it necessary to take industrial action. To be added to this list, they must have been proposed with the support of at least 5 unionised members of the company.

The third list is the Scab Register. This will be a list of those workers who specifically weaken the power of the union and the good of the people. Companies which excessively employ these workers stand a good chance of being added to the Blacklist, and the union endorses derisory messages to the scabs. To be added to this list, two union members must point the scab out, and then an investigation will be started as to whether their actions were down to ignorance, negligence, or some malice towards the workers.

• Petitions and Government
  

The union also aims to work with the government to achieve its aims. The Union President (possibly with the Union Representative to the Lords) and Regional Representatives will communicate with the MoW and others to get the best deal for the workers.

Where necessary, a petition of the union members may be started to campaign for a particular, relevant topic.

• Strike Action

The strike is a method that many wish to work, yet in the past has failed. The union aims to change that, believing it a feasible and necessary route to our aims. For a strike to be started, the following must have occurred:

1. The company has been on the Blacklist for at least a week without a visible improvement.
2. An unionised employee comes to the union with a story of some unfair treatment which is beyond the norm. This could include an unfair dismissal, malicious business practices (e.g. dropping the pay after luring the employee in), etc.
3. A message directly to the offending company has not brought about a change.

If all of those are true, then the following will occur under the direction of the IAO:

1. The newspaper article is to publish condemning the company specifically. All union members will be told not to buy from that company, and the CO/RRs will send out messages requesting that all citizens abstain from purchasing from them where possible.
2. Present unionised employees are to not work. They will be paid a small wage from the union’s funds. Messages will be sent to other employees of the company asking them to do the same. Solidarity strikes are to be considered against any other companies with the same owner/organisation.
3. It is likely that the bosses will soon try to dismiss the union members due to a lack of work, and replace them with scabs or those who are unaware of the strike. Union members who have thus been forced out of a job will be moved to a special Union Company (if one has been set up) which is only in use during strikes, or to a Whitelist Company that has spare places. The Communications Officer will organise message sending to the new employees, asking them politely to find jobs elsewhere as the company is being boycotted. They will thusly also be introduced to the union.
4. This strike and boycott will be maintained until the company offers what is desired. Union-members who might be losing out will be sustained through the union buying them food or paying them a small wage.

• General Strike
  

The most formidable weapon in the union’s arsenal, this is only to be employed when the country’s government is thought to be working directly against the interests of the majority of the populace- perhaps due to a hostile takeover or simply a malicious party that managed to take power. This will effectively be undertaken through the same methods as the Strike Action above, but on a huge scale. Union members- thanks to their membership funds- will be sustained wherever possible. If the strike appears to be dragging on without success, and with the conditions of the members getting worse, then the union will begin attempting to fund members who wish to leave the eUK to do so- preferably to a country friendly to the union.

Another scheme which needs to be implemented is...

The Skilled Workers Scheme

The scheme will be run by the Minister of Work and will give help make the economy more stable it will be implemented like this,

Workers of skill 7+ can sign up if their GMs consent

• GMs can sign their company up
• Workers are migrated between signed up companies in different industries during times of underproduction
• Workers will be moved from companies with more than the optimum amount of workers, to fill up those that don't have this
• Moving workers to 'irresponsibly' run companies will be avoided. This will be done to the discretion of the person running the scheme.

The reason for this scheme will be to help industries that are struggling and will give a much-needed boost during wartime, another thing that needs implementing properly is the...

Recommended Retail Price

The recommended retail price will be implemented by the ombudsmen and will aim at creating stability in the UK markets so that the consumer is not ripped off by profiteering. Long-term plans are very important which is why I would be interested in Tommy's idea of an economics's forum. Another thing that is important is ...

Stricter Government Spending

Each Ministry needs to give more detailed budget requests so that we know what we are spending the money on and we can keep a track of closer track of our finances, this will be a fairly easy thing to do it just needs a closer eye kept on it as well as estimated budget reports at the beginning of each term, Instead of requesting Money when needed, detailed plans on how the money will be spent needs to be made, one of the things I am for is the Military spending being spread down the tiers more and more detailed plans set instead of just spending money on the military when needed,

Stockpiling and Government Contracts

One of the main things that need to happen is more government contracts with companies for weapons to be stockpiled, we already have some contracts but this needs to be increased and we need bigger stockpiles in case of war the same goes to moving tickets and possibly stockpiling gifts on a smaller scale, If we cannot create large enough stockpiles through government contracts then creating more government companies to achieve these stockpiles may be needed, another thing that is needed is...

Increased Trade With other countries

In a fairly small country with regards to natural resources, trade is essential, it is therefore very important that we get more trade contracts with foreign countries, this would just be carrying on the good work that has already been done however I do feel that it needs added emphasis.

Young Company Apprenticeships

This scheme was introduced into law in order to give younger players the chance to get experience running companies without having to own one, the point of this scheme to increase the amount of experienced gm's that we have and help create a more stable marketplace, through advertising and setting up this scheme ran by the MoW we can train younger more experienced players to be able to run companies properly which means that less money will be lost through inexperienced gm's and the economy will become more stable,

Tax's

I believe in increased tax for improved service. I do not agree with increasing tax and simultaneously lowering the quality of services provided, such as NHS. If we raise taxes, then it goes back to the people.

Summary

Through more regulation of the economy we can protect the worker from profiteering and make the UK a fairer and more stable nation, this part of the manifesto and my manifesto as a whole has the sole purpose of making the UK a better place for the average citizen, If you do not agree with any of my policies then please pm me with better suggestions, it's only through working together that we will actually make this country better.