However, wouldn't it gain more public support for the SCRA if they looted convoys and gave the booty to the people who actually need it? I understand that the Coalition is a lawful faction and is based on supporting people (on international levels?), but their influence is rather small, thus increasing it might require radical actions, not to mention the fact that communism (Leninism) itself is based on the Permanent Revolution (revolition=radicalism, tends to require victims). I believe feeding a whole city out of the cargo of a large, corporate train would gain much more public support than the appreciation of a freight captain and his employers. Not to mention the fact the Coalition's true goals and image is distorted by the House propaganda. Everyone in Sirius looks upon them as tyrants, saboteurs and their enemies because of the common history the two sides have, no wonder a lot of people (be it a Colossus captain or a Leeds refugee) fear them.
Yeah, that might sound a bit Robin Hood-ish, but communism itself is based on making people equal with the confiscation of private property and the equal distribution among those who need it. That targets the rich (in this case, corporate tycoons) and their supporters. Tbh, I don't know how precisely the SCRA follows the Marxist/Leninist philosophy, as it obviously changed during the hundreds of years, so I might be inaccurate or could have missed the point of the Coalition's goals.
As we have made very clear, we are not pirates. It is counter-revolutionary. You don't gain support for a revolution by targeting the very people that are needed for that.
It isn't about the poor, it is about the workers. We are not Robin Hood, but rather a strong and unified support for the people that go out and struggle every day to earn money.
It is the working men and women who fly those ships, who haul the goods back and forth, who struggle to build them...
If we start to target the shipment what will happen:
1. Insurance premiums will rise on shipments. This will mean a higher end price for the consumer, or lower profit for the transporter. After all, the corporations won't lower their prices, nor pay such premiums, these costs are transferred to the people.
2. There will always be resistance. What do we do if the transport Captain says no? Do we shoot him, and his crew? That, we have repeatedly said, will not happen. So if you are a trader... why would you stop? Halt! or I'll say Halt again! isn't going to be enough. So why bother?
3. Will it hurt the corporations? No, they still get their money, their goods still get through. They will not lower their profit margins to cover costs, instead they will merely rise prices. Take OPEC as a good example of what will happen. No, our best bet is to protect the workers, encourage them to rise up against their business owners and take the factories from the rich.
I have on many occasions stated that we are not against profit, or earning money. We are instead against the subjugation of the workers through the pursuit of said profit.
There will never be Coalition Pirates, nor Mafia, it just wouldn't be tolerated. We'd be the first group hunting them down.
arvg Wrote:1. Insurance premiums will rise on shipments. This will mean a higher end price for the consumer, or lower profit for the transporter. After all, the corporations won't lower their prices, nor pay such premiums, these costs are transferred to the people.
But hundreds, thousands of others will be fed and will be grateful for you feeding them. If you pirate a trader, of course they will be victims in the situation, but they won't support you for NOT pirating them. The corporations wouldn't even notice a few shipments lost here and there, the SCRA pirating would only be a drop in the ocean unless the Coalition had the manpower to place men at every single trade lane.
arvg Wrote:2. There will always be resistance. What do we do if the transport Captain says no? Do we shoot him, and his crew? That, we have repeatedly said, will not happen. So if you are a trader... why would you stop? Halt! or I'll say Halt again! isn't going to be enough. So why bother?
The "2 mil or die" tactic obviously wouldn't work. By deploying a force that resembles that the captain doesn't have a chance for resistance will obviously lower the chances of him trying to escape. Not to mention that some traders might get charitative if you explain why you need the money. If he does and you have to shoot him (which may act as an act of terror and I'm not saying you should resort to that), think of the following:
The ship's crew was sacrificed for a greater good. A lot of people will be better off with their sacrifice if his cargo gets distributed among people who need it.
They are serveants of the corporate tycoons. Yes, some of them might not have a chance for a better living, but think of the fact that someone who already gets a vessel to space is obviously not as underpaid as anyone who performs planetary duties. Also, they always had the chance to join the RRA/LRF/SCRA, whatever movement so even if it's not everything that kept them from joining, they obviously were paid well enough.
Almost every single transport fuels some war effort. The survival of one of these can guarantee the death of ten others. Either directly or indirectly, damage is caused.
arvg Wrote:3. Will it hurt the corporations? No, they still get their money, their goods still get through. They will not lower their profit margins to cover costs, instead they will merely rise prices. Take OPEC as a good example of what will happen. No, our best bet is to protect the workers, encourage them to rise up against their business owners and take the factories from the rich.
On a long term, it would. The more people you can get on your side by distributing the capitalists' supplies among the working class (giving back to the workers what's theirs) and making the corporate workers realise they are being abused, the closer the doom of the corporation is. Yes, it would obviously hurt some people, but think of the USSR in it's first decades. The death of a million guaranteed the well-being of generations that followed afterwards and that the Soviet Union didn't fall to the Germans in WW2 because of their industrialisation.
Radical method indeed, but otherwise the SCRA doesn't have a chance of expanding, the same applies to communist movements in the beginning of the 20th century. The Ontario liberation attempt was looked upon as terrorism by the rest of Liberty (although I personally adore what you've done there), but the image of the SCRA is as I mentioned before, corrupted by the history and the House propaganda.
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Disclaimer: Yes, I know this debate won't achieve anything. I'm not trying to alter the goals and methods of the SCRA, just playing with thoughts.
Quote:Coalition are radical terorrists. Not pirates. So they are unlawful in the most houses. More like in all houses.
I see now that it would be impossible to have coalition pirates...
However terrorists makes a lot of sense. In order for communism to work, you need everyone doing it, right? In order to keep things in check, fear and terror would be needed. Im not saying the SCRA should be involved in this, but that another coalition faction (coalition as the people, not the army) should be possible. With a little bit of greed in that faction for themselves, you have created a mafia/secret police. And why not spread that terror and fear to the closest people, your enemy? After all, they are the ones hurting your beloved country....
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