Paraguan Faction
Paraguan Faction Faksao Paragua | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Lem Karia |
| Founded | 24 April 1921 |
| Banned | 9 November 1929 |
| Split from | Republican Nationalist Party |
| Ideology | Ultranationalism Fascism Imperialism National conservatism Totalitarianism Restarkism (until 1922) |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Colors | Black |
The Paraguan faction was a faction of the Republican Nationalist Party of the Cape active in the 1920s. The faction was founded at a meeting of ultranationalist RNP members in Janosar's now-demolished Hotel Paragua in April of 1921. The faction advocated an ideology of fascism and militant ultranationalism developed by its leader Lem Karia - practiced in brutal street battles with communists, social democrats, and even centre-left factions of the Republican Nationalist Party itself. As the RNP was the only legally allowed party in the Cape at the time, the members of the Paraguan faction remained a part of it and contested party elections. Ideological distance, however, grew quickly between the party mainstream and the faction, which de-facto renounced the national ideology of Restarkism in 1922. Following an attempted putsch of the party leadership in 1929, the faction was banned and its leaders persecuted, with Lem Karia himself fleeing to a then-fascist Caphiria. The Paraguan faction remains banned to this day, with any advocacy of it considered unconstitutional and punishable by 15 years in prison.
Beliefs
In its outward form, the beliefs of the Paraguan faction were similar to occidental fascism; a ranked paramilitary organization, regimented demonstrations, and ultranationalist and xenophobic rhetoric against Marcoism. However, it remained rooted in Restarkism and the governing theories of the Cape, embracing Cape nationalism, etatism, modernism, and a rejection of traditionalism. Although Karia renounced Restarkism as an ideology "too weak and degenerate", the faction's beliefs were, simply put by many, Restarkism taken to its ultranationalist extreme.
These beliefs were manifest in a platform of extreme civic nationalism - mandatory misegenation, the banning of immigration and emigration to create a greater nation, and the belief that those of any race who inhabited the lands of the Cape held in them an innate superiority through "a history different to any nation in the world". However, Karia believed that the multicultural and multiracial nature of the Cape had to be removed and the nation homogenized in a great social revolution. This was to be done through the remodeling of the Cape into a totalitarian "society of struggle", one that would forge a new, modern nation in the "crucible of pain" by adopting hirearchical societal structures in the goal of servicing the state, the destruction of the nuclear family, a thinly-veiled genocide of dissidents through work, and rigid spartanism in all its forms.
Pursuant to this social revolution, all "non-modern" features of Cape society were also to be removed forcibly by the state: Karia advocated for the execution of the clergy and the dismantling of all religious influence both in the individual and in society. This likewise meant the rejection of all tradition - with holidays and all cultural celebrations (except for those endorsed by or glorify the state, like New Year's and National Day) banned.
As a nation remodeled on scientism and modernism, Karia saw the Cape as the first "civic state" - one that could expand its nationalism to all peoples of the world through his totalitarian and spartan social revolution. He advocated the subjugation of the Cape's neighbours to serve the national interest, while simultaneously assimilating its people with the goal of slowly creating a "global Federacy".
History and perception
Mainstream society saw the faction as the "fiefdom of a madman"; with the group's brutal street battles and its totalitarian and xenophobic beliefs making it deeply unpopular. Even during the tumultous 1920s, when ideological radicalism entered the mainstream, the group remained deeply controversial and unpopular. Its share of the party exceeded no more than 10% at its peak, and popular support reached no more than 15%. Even within the right, the Paraguan faction was denounced by a majority of other groups.
The faction led a failed putsch during the party congress of 1929 - Karia's delivered speech was heckled over by the centrist, liberal, and socialist delegates of the party and his paramilitary forces, entering the hall at the wrong time, were easily overpowered by the event's security. The faction was banned the next day by both state and party executive orders, with many of the group's delegates and adherents either executed for treason, exiled, or jailed. To this day, any support or use of its symbolism and rhetoric outside of academic discussion is seen as dangerous to democracy and therefore illegal. In parliamentary discussion that led to the formal naming and banning the faction in the Political Organizations Act - "the beliefs of the Paraguan faction can only be seen as a thought-virus. Anyone can be susceptible to this virus, and in turbulent times in which the immune system of democracy seems to falter, this virus calls for us to do the worst in defence of the best. We must therefore stamp out every outbreak, every case, so that it may never spread again."