Popular Democratic Front

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Popular Democratic Front
Plānothāruaritaver

Symbol
Headquarters Viskonsin Hall
Kartika, District of Coīnvra
Secretary-General Alun Saxarnon
Chairman Féraluir Sekerin
Whip Matéus Salomon
Platform Kirosocialism
Left-wing nationalism

Factions:
Liberal socialism
Communism · Convism
Religious socialism

Newspaper Guardian of Truth
Electoral Symbol
Herring Sea Islands
24 / 40
Federal Stanora
100 / 545

The Popular Democratic Front is a caucus in the Kiravian Federal Stanora made up of political parties and independents promoting a common platform of socialist policies drawn mostly from the Kirosocialist tradition. The PDF was organised after passage of the Anti-Party Law as the successor to the People's Alliance, which had previously formed to take up the mantle of the Kirosocialist Party after its dissolution.


Platform

We, the Popular Democratic Front, are united in our mission to liberate the Kiravian People from exploitation and domination by élite interests, establish social control of the means of production from above - through the political process - and from below - through labour organisation and workers’ self-management, democratise and equalise the enjoyment of social goods; and protect the productive classes, commons, and natural environment through a robust, capable, and transparent public sector.

— Mission Statement of the Popular Democratic Front

Near-Term Objectives

Provided below is the official common platform of the PDF for upcoming electricians and legislative cycles:

  • Nationalise the Kiravian energy sector, mineral and forest resources, railways, airlines, telecommunications infrastructure, and flannel cloth industry
  • Restore public responsibility for housing and utilities, expand public housing, and scale user fees for municipal services according to household income.
  • Equalise health outcomes through a federally-financed, provincially-administered single-payer public healthcare system
  • Eradicate urban homelessness, slums, rural vagrancy, and substandard rural housing through a ten-year project of federally-financed social housing expansion
  • Reïntroduce price controls for essential goods
  • Establish a more robust and redistributive tax regime over financial transactions to curb speculation and manage negative externalities.
  • Aggressively develop rural broadband to guarantee internet access for all Kiravians
  • Restructure labour negotiations nationwide to a government-mediated tripartite model
  • Adden of the right to strike and the right to unionise in the Statute of Liberties
  • Center employment and domestic productivity in trade policy
  • Stop economic integration and travel liberalisation with Mid-Atrassic Crona
  • Increase investment in nuclear energy, scientific research, and space exploration
  • Set a government-mandated inflation target for the RBK
  • Return to armed neutrality with a moratorium on overseas military deployments; withdrawal from the League of Nations and independence for Kiravian League mandates.

Ideology

The party identifies Kiravian Marxist philosophy, Coscivian social-nationalism, and rGyanarajsism as the theoretical foundations of its ideological system. Although it adopts an explicit statement of ideological principles and its institutions are governed by and involved in continuing ideological studies, the PDF explicitly follows a "close popular front" strategy, aiming to unite the Kiravian Left and counteract the "fissile tendency of proletarian and people's parties to sunder over secondary and tertiary disagreements", deferring application of the finer points of its particular broad-church Kirosocialist manifesto until after the "restoration of bourgeois domination of Kiravia has been countered effectively by the collective action of the working class."

Currants

Ribes rubrum, long used as a symbol of the Kiravian Left

Political analysts often speak of four coëxisting ‘currents’ in the PDF that are identifiable with its different internal factions, voter blocs, and rhetorical approaches.

  • A dark red current ( ulsihūriruor ) deeply committed to the legacy of the old Kirosocialist Party and the Kiravian Union, critical of the present constitutional order, and appealing to Kirosocialist nostalgia and hard anti-capitalist sentiment. The dark-red current draws support from aging loyalists of the old regime, residents of Second Kirav industrial towns ill-served by market reforms, and certain ethnic communities. This current's political "brand", so to speak, is often referred to pejoratively as “burnt-brick socialism”, alluding to its adherents’ ideological inflexibility, the urban decay characteristic of its electoral strongholds, and the social background of many of its supporters (brickburning was traditionally a craft reserved to marginalised castes). Party cadre belonging to the deep-red current believe that theoretical rigour and conserving Marxist roots and Devinist methods of Kirosocialism are important, even if the salience of such questions has become obscure in today's Kiravia; the attitudes of its voter base are characterised by left-wing populism and nostalgia for the Kiravian Union.
  • A bright red current ( rensihūriruor ) locating itself the Kirosocialist tradition and adhering to Kirosocialist (rather than liberal-socialist) ideology, but adapting to post-reunification developments with a focus on near-term objectives and mainstream electability. The bright-red current appeals more to the metropolitan working class of First Kirav, and tends to emphasise humanitarian concerns (such as housing, public safety, healthcare), public services, and good governance in the face of corporate corruption. Bright-red sections of the PDF may take inspiration from Kirosocialism of the 212th century, Kirosocial democracy, Coscivian social-nationalism, or other theoretical schools. Some provincial and municipal parties taking a bright-red approach have sought to portray themselves as "socialists for growth" and associate themselves with the image of socialist mayors like Denisar's M.K. Stornoğuvin who are perfectly comfortable courting foreign investors to create local jobs and grow the tax base.
  • A light red or pink current ( adèktivihūriruor ) favourable to liberal socialist and social-democratic policy approaches and not indebted to Kirosocialist ideology or the Kiravian Union. The light-red current is more liberal than the bright-red current on political matters, but somewhat more statist on economic matters and much more hostile towards business interests. The light-red current is a marginal but growing force in coastal state parties.
  • A magenta current representing a revival of certain early 20th-century Kiravian progressive movements, such as Instructivism, that helped to influence the development of Kirosocialism but were ultimately displaced by it. The magenta current presents itself as pragmatic, forward-looking, and attentive to contemporary social problems, to which it offers technocratic solutions inspired by modern science and mainstream economic studies. The magenta current is deeply suspicious of the financial sector and capital markets, but being outside of the socialist camp proper it takes no issue with the market economy itself, preferring directive and regulatory application of state power than in public ownership. It has been labelled by its detractors to the left as "naked dictatorship of the intelligentsia" and by its detractors on the right as "dirigism with a human face".
  • A religious socialist current driven by Christian socialist and Islamic socialist elements excluded from the Caritist Social Union. Inspired by liberation theology rather than Kirosocialism, this current has a different image and voter base from the dark/bright and light red currents. Much of its support comes from Third Kirav and from agricultural workers, and unlike the other currents, it has a significant following outside Great Kirav, particularly in Sarolasta and Tiorentia. This current is especially prominent in the Farravonian states, and in Verakośa, where Christian-left parties are the senior state-level PDF affiliates. Numerous Catholic university towns in Farravonia have had mayors in this vein.


Organisational Relations

The Communist Party of the Kiravian Federacy and the Existential Humanist Party (Marxist), while not members of the PDF caucus, do have formal relations with it and coöperate with it on many initiatives. The Communist Party of Great Kirav rejects coöperation with the PDF and CPKF, which it has denounced as reformist and revisionist. The PDF has a tense relationship with the Social Democrats KF.

The PDF and its members retain strong ties to organised labour, particularly the Pan-Kiravian Congress of Trade Unions, which is considered its de facto labour wing.

The National Union of Working Families is a Kirosocialist and social-nationalist interest group advocating for the rights an advancement of the yakavem or "village menial" castes, a historically disadvantaged stratum of Coscivian-Kiravian society. Similarly, the Revolutionary Vanguard of Depressed Castes is a left-wing Kirosocialist and Convist organisation that militates on behalf of the heavily discriminated harsitem castes, who were (and still often are) subject to strict social segregation and untouchability. Both organisations predate the Kiravian Union and have always been closely tied to the PDF and its predecessors, retaining strong influence within PDF party structures even as the yakav and harsit electorate have diversified their political preferences and are no longer as reliable a vote bank for the PDF as they once were.

Voter Base

A considerable portion of the caucus' voters belong to Antaric Coscivian ethnic groups. Antaric Coscivians were generally supportive of the Kirosocialist régime and did well under Kirosocialist rule. The same can be said of many East Coscivian ethnic groups, such as the {Muśkem}.

Pretannic Celts, especially those living in mining areas of Etivéra, Váuadra, Íarthakelva, Atrakelva, and Kiorgia, are a very strong demographic for the PDF, having wavered very little in their support for socialist parties since the Kirosocialist Period.

Although numerically insignificant in federal elections, various small and marginal ethnic groups that benefitted from government development projects under Kirosocialism, such as the Kiʞik Coscivians and the Salyar, continue to support socialism and provide an important source of votes for PDF affiliates in state and local elections.

Provincial Affiliates

Other Affiliates and Observers

Metrea

  • Coscivian-Cetacean Communist Party (observer)

Qódava Nation

  • Great Socialist Party of Qódava

Tryhstian Littoral

  • Partido do Trabalho

Notes