Communal League of Sudeten
Karl LuvacsRank/Title: First Speaker of the League Communal Assembly
Born: 3074 (68 in 3142)
Karl was born on the Periphery world Erewhon to a family of settlers from Parakoila. A bright child by any standard, Karl qualified for advanced education, which he pursued rigorously. The loss of his older sister Anna, a CLAF soldier fighting in the Vanguard War, temporarily upset Karl's education. After grieving he redoubled his studies, studying and writing on political and economic theory and devoting equal time to civic engineering. He sought for and won permission to make an early entry into the Civic Corps, allowing him to complete his required two years of civic service early. Karl was rewarded for his efforts in 3092 with a coveted spot at the University of Hamarr on Sudeten.
Karl spent the next twenty years primarily in academia. He would graduate with degrees in economic theory, civic engineering, and political science, took a teaching position, and served on the Collegiate Educators' Union assembly. His first entry into politics came in 3109 with his election to Sudeten's planetary communal assembly as the CEU's representative. When the Fourth Succession War came Karl was supportive of all defensive efforts and would volunteer for the Sudeten Communal Militia, serving through the siege of Sudeten as an orderly. While in service he accepted an emergency election to the League Assembly and caucused with the Communalists. He got off to a good start with a well-received address supporting the Peace of Buckminster, setting him on the path to wider authority. He was given a seat on the Economics Committee on the strength of his academics work. He would become Vice-Chairman in 3116 after the passage of the Emergency Economic Measures Act which he defended in the Assembly and in printed articles as a temporary measure. He proved this conviction in 3121 after the Peace of Dieron by voting down a renewal of the act while it was in committee.
In the years since the Peace of Dieron Karl has drifted in and out of politics. He left the Assembly in 3124 to return to academia and raise a family with his wife, disabled war veteran Louisa Smith, then returned in 3132. He would serve two terms as Economics Committee Chair before stepping down after a negative Assembly vote and refusing to stand for re-election to the Assembly. Throughout this era his politics straddled the line of the Unionists, whom he now caucused with, and the Communalists, whom he courted for votes with frequent but not total success. Many Vanguardists grew frustrated with Karl's ability to work the two factions against them and more than a few younger Vanguardists have since been convinced he harbors "
Ŝtopiloj", or "Stopper", views; that is, that Karl opposes expanding the communal revolution outside of the League.
For six years he was once more focused on his academic efforts, including authoring
The Ethics of Communal Factional Politics in Esperanto, Star League English, and his family's native Parakoilan Czecho-Slovak. In 3138 he became Dean of the College of Economic Sciences at the University of Hamarr and turned down an offer to return to the Communal Assembly, signaling he was leaving politics for good.
Yet in 3140 he changed tack. To the surprise of many he stood for election to the League Assembly and campaigned extensively to fill the CEU's Assembly seat. He returned for the 3141 session and won a seat in the War Committee, but was ousted a mere six months later by Chairman Ramirez. The resignation of First Speaker Ursula Assad after the 3141 session saw Karl's name raised as a compromise candidate between the primary political faction leaders left, at which point Dubček withdrew and endorsed Karl.
Karl's term as First Speaker is still early and its success uncertain. His academic focus does not always work in League high level politics. He has qualities; an incisive mind and knowledge of both political-economic theory and practice are joined by a determined, if not especially charismatic, demeanor. His policies so far are in rough favor of the status quo; maintaining the Peace, focusing on domestic economics and the post-war boom in living standards, and restraining the aggressive impulses of the Vanguardists. The formation of the Looking Glass has undoubtedly shaken up much of Karl's plans. How far is as yet uncertain.
Jorge RamirezRank/Title: Chairman of the War Committee
Born: 3070 (72 in 3142)
Jorge Ramirez was born to Sonja Ramirez, a low-level administrative worker for the People's BattleMech Cooperative of Rastaban. He spent his young life in the residential districts surrounding Rastaban's heavy military industry, playing and learning alongside other children of the workers building the CLAF's war machines. By the time he was coming of age, the Vanguard War was raging, and Jorge answered the call of service by joining the CLAF for his citizen service requirement. He passed the tests on MechWarrior training and at the age of 19 became a MechWarrior and
soldato of the CLAF, assigned to the Fifth Shock Brigade. Jorge served with distinction through the Vanguard War and was elected repeatedly for higher command, reaching the rank of
Bataliono-delegito in 3100 by the vote of his battalion. In 3101 Jorge was given the opportunity to end his service with the CLAF. He accepted after receiving a spot at Rastaban University to study mechanical engineering.
After graduating with a bachelor's in 3106 Jorge joined his mother as an employee at the People's BattleMech Cooperative. He participated in the refining of several designs that were stomping off the factory floor in time for the Fourth Succession War. At first Jorge remained at his new post, overseeing the acceleration of production and joining other workers in pulling extra shifts to meet the surge in demand. After Galedon's invasion of Rasalhague began, the need for MechWarriors to replace battle losses became greater and he received official notice to report for service on the front. He would rejoin his original unit for Operation RIKOTILO, once more elected to battalion command, and rising to
Kolomno-delegito following the successful liberation of A Place. After further fighting on the Rasalhague front, he was selected for Command Officer School, passed in 3117, and served as
Brigadisto of the Fifth Shock Brigade through the remainder of the war.
By the Peace of Dieron, Jorge was a tired soul. Not only had he lost dear comrades in the fighting, but his mother had died from stomach cancer in 3119. He remained at his post for the required five years of flag command service before leaving the CLAF once more in 3122. After two years of surviving on his veteran's pension while recovering emotionally, Jorge ran for the Communal Assembly as a people's delegate at the insistence of his old colleagues and surviving comrades. Something in the rough and tumble of Communal politics reignited the fighter within him, and he became a bruising parliamentarian, often rankling Vanguardists, Communalists, and even other Unionists alike with his acid wit and acerbic commentary. His practical experiences in war and military industry won him a seat in the War Committee, where he became an influential voting member and an ardent advocate of rearmament. This stance was popular on Rastaban and saw his repeated re-election despite efforts by political rivals to unseat him.
Through the 3130s Jorge was often selected for the War Committee Chair, but typically only served part of a session before being ousted from the chair by the Assembly for one remark or another. He became a heated political rival of Communalist leader Silvia Dubček after one furious excoriation for her opposition to the 3136 Armaments Plan, creating a rift between the War and Economic Committees that was the bane of First Speaker Assad during her remaining years in office. In 3141 Dubček struck at him indirectly by pushing Karl Luvacs' appointment to the War Committee. Luvacs' avowed opposition to rearmament caused repeated procedural pauses and freezes until Jorge was able to secure Luvacs' ouster towards the end of the session. He could not prevent Luvacs' election to First Speaker, however, and this may bode ill for Jorge's rearmament plans and considering of "renewing revolutionary agitation".
Currently Jorge is in an unprecedented (for him) third consecutive term on the War Committee. Age, war trauma, and stress are not slowing him at the least and he may serve yet longer if the Assembly lets him. Given his penchant for speaking his mind on his colleagues, that is not guaranteed. Though he is a fellow Unionist he and First Speaker Luvacs do not get along well and Jorge has made no effort to hide his preference for the replacement of Luvacs, though he refuses to submit his name for consideration as a replacement. "The War Committee is the extent of my interests," he told the
Communal Worker Weekly recently. "I'll go on my pension before I take the Speaker's Chair."
Silvia DubčekRank/Title: Chair of the the Communal League Economic Committee; President of the Communalist Political Association
Born: 3089 (53 in 3142)
Silvia was born on the world of Parakoila to Svetlana Dubček and Maria Snyder, two economic scientists active in local Communalist political circles. She grew up in the Communalist political scene of her world, even attending the Parakoila Communal Assembly as an adolescent at her mother Maria's invitation. When she reached the age of eighteen in 3107 Silvia joined the Civic Corps. Her name was drawn in the lottery for off-world work and she was sent into the Frontier Marches. In 3109 she chose to voluntarily extend her service for another two years on the resettled world of Apollo.
This may well have saved her life, as Parakoila would be invaded by Ghastillian forces in late 3110, and in the severe fighting and insurgency that followed both of her mothers were killed. News of their deaths and the temporary loss of her homeworld profoundly affected Silvia and she was given a leave from her duties and psychological counseling. By the time she was fit for resuming her term, Parakoila had been liberated, and her superiors signed off on Silvia returning home to work with the Civic Corps in the rebuilding. Silvia signed on for the duration of the war, working in reconstruction efforts as far away as Arkab by the signing fo the Peace of Dieron.
Seeing the widespread devastation from the war and the suffering of the common folk resonated with Silvia's inherited political views and conscience. Where some other Communalists would turn to Unionism or Vanguardism out of lingering resentment for the Lyran invasion, Silvia remained loyal to her mothers' vision. Upon returning to Parakoila she attended the Žižek Communal University, and by 3126 had her degree in economic science. She pursued a master's degree while serving on the Student Union Committee, from which she ran for a seat on the Parakoila Communal Assembly in 3128. She was awarded a master's degree that same year and was appointed to the Parakoila Economics Committee. She made chairwoman in 3131 on the wave of popularity for the wide success of Parakoila's economy and the highest standard of living the world had ever recorded.
On the strength of this reputation, Silvia won election to the Communal Assembly and caucused with the Communalists. Her skill in wording economic legislation and directives and presenting proposals won her a seat on the Economics Committee and the eye of the Communalists, who turned to Silvia as the leader of the younger generation. In 3138 she was named President of the Communalist Political Association, becoming leader of the Communalists in the League Assembly. Two years later she was elevated to Chairwoman of the Economics Committee. She made a bid to become First Speaker after Ursula Assad's resignation, but opposition from Unionists and Vanguardists prompted her to withdraw after a dozen ballots. She endorsed Karl Luvacs, who would win on the twentieth ballot after gaining a Communalist/Unionist majority.
Silvia's political position has made her the most-hated League politician among the ranks of the Vanguardists, who consider her an unapologetic "Stopper". She returns the favor often, publicly chastising the Vanguardists for their "authoritarian tendencies" and "caring more for their egoes than the well-being of the workers of any world". Silivia's focus on the domestic economics of the League and raising the standard of living have made her popular among the wider masses, especially those in her age cohort, but as the post-Dieron generation starts to enter politics in the next decade it remains to be seen if her power will persist.
Lena ZukRank/Title:
Diviziestro, CO Communal Assault Division, CLAF
Born: 3092 (50 in 3142)
In another state, Lena Zuk would undoubtedly have had an easier life as the granddaughter of Pawel Zuk, the longest-serving War Chairman in the history of the Communal League. But such familial background can be an emotional barrier to success in the League from the backlash to the hereditary nature of the aristocracies the League is pledged to destroy. Her parents consciously limited themselves to their software designer enterprise in Hamarr through Lena's life, while Lena herself dreamed of following her grandfather into higher service.
Lena came of age as the Fourth Succession War erupted and volunteered for frontline service, serving as a combat engineer in several formations and being severely wounded during the siege of Sudeten. Her convalescence kept her out of the war's middle years, during which time she pursued a degree in engineering at the University of Hamarr and graduated with honors. Upon her return to service Lena joined the Communal Assault Division and was elected to command her company of engineers. Through the remainder of the war Lena won several battle honors before being severely wounded in the failed assault on Tengoku on Irece. She was evacuated with other wounded. Many in her company died in the last stand with the rest of the unit during its famed rearguard action in the retreat from Irece. When the Peace of Dieron came, Lena was convalescing and being treated by psychiatrists for survivor's guilt.
For much of the following decade Lena focused on personal recovery. She married Seong Yulong, a Rengo refugee from what was now the Draconis Combine, and started a family with him on Antares. She taught engineering at the People's University of Antares for three years and served in the CLAF reserves. But as the decade ended her old drive to serve as her grandfather did came back. In 3130 she returned to the Assault Division as a common
soldato of high engineering rate. Her experience saw her election to her old post and then battalion and column command, but from 3136 to 3138 she lost several elections for the post of
regeminto-delegito. Many factors contributed, but Lena was repeatedly told by many that they felt she was pushing too hard due to "hereditary reasons". One of her COs bluntly informed her that until she showed she wasn't just trying to follow her grandfather, Lena would rise no higher.
Lena's career would advance through an occurrence outside the League. The Dumfries Valley Quake of March 3138 devastated several major cities on the Royal Federation world of Cameron. Lena proposed that in the name of humanitarian aid the Communal Assault Division dispatch combat engineers and machines to help with recovery efforts. This was highly unpopular among certain segments of the unit and other CLAF authorities, to put it mildly, but Lena and her side won the resulting votes in the unit and she was charged to lead the column of personnel and vehicles to aid the rebuilding. Her return in 3139 saw her reputation with the unit enhanced, and while she was not elected to the regiment-command she'd long sought, she was voted to attend Command Officer School to rise into CLAF flag ranks. She returned in late 3140 as a
brigadisto and was quickly elected to the XO post of the division. With the retirement of
Diviziestro Hendricks in February 3142, Lena was elected to replace him and given the appropriate promotion, making her CO of the division.
Politically Lena follows her parents' and grandparents' broad Unionist sympathy. Her time on Cameron has reinforced this; she was disgusted by the elitism and classism of the Steiner-led nobility on the planet but bonded with AFRF and civic engineers that she worked alongside, and wrote sympathetic reports about the local response and the widepsread charity she saw in the rebuilding efforts. If she goes into politics Lena will likely be an advocate for the Peace of Dieron, but a qualified one, going by her public remarks.
Mattias WhitbrookRank/Title: Chairman of the Communal Vanguard Action Committee;
Flugidisto, CO of the First Autonomous Wing, CLAF
Born: 3092 (50 in 3142)
Mattias Whitbrook was born to consumer good factory workers on New Exford. His parents Thomas and Gertrude were not politically active by any measure and for many years in his early life Mattias mirrored this attitude. But as he grew older, he started to take a sharper look at events. News reports alerted him to the injustices that other workers like his parents and their friends endured outside of the League. At the age of fourteen he joined the Youth Revolutionary League, a Vanguardist-sponsored organization of his hometown that mixed civic duty work with political education. By the time he was approaching eighteen Mattias was already determined to join one of the Vanguardist formations of the CLAF for his civic service.
The outbreak of the Fourth Succession War upended Mattias' life as it had so many others. When Ghastillia invaded the planet in June of 3110 Mattias reported for duty against his parents' wishes. He was assigned to an air recon vehicle crew attached to the Twelfth Communal Guards, inspiring Mattias to pursue flight training himself. Three weeks into the invasion, his recon craft was shot down, and he was taken captive. The planet fell two weeks later with the retreat of his unit.
As a teenager, Mattias was paroled by GAF authorities looking to avoid swelling their POW camps, but he refused to accept the conquest of his world and quickly joined YRL guerrillas to work as an insurgent. He was caught assassinating the GAF occupation commander and narrowly avoided execution when rescued by his fellow insurgents, and was one of the most wanted insurgents on the planet by the end of the occupation. After CLAF forces reclaimed the planet in 3112, Mattias was among those hailed as a hero for resisting the occupation. His parents were not so fortunate, as Gertrude Whitbrook had accepted a floor supervisory position at the factory during the occupation; she was sentenced to two years hard labor as a collaborator and the family thrown out of the collective. When Mattias publicly denounced her, his father and siblings disowned him, an act that led to their own threatened trials as collaborationists if Mattias had not asked the Communal authorities to be lenient, resulting in their parole and mandatory remediation classes.
After his recovery from the rigors of the insurgency, Mattias' comrades and Vanguardist officers encouraged him to enlist with the First Autonomous Wing, under whose tutelage he worked as a flight tech, aircraft armorer, and flight trainee until he passed flight qualification in 3116, just in time for the rebuilt unit's return to the front. Mattias distinguished himself as a "communal ace" in the fighting that followed, proving a competent and spirited wingman who always kept his unit's needs first and never sought glory by kill count. He was elected to the command post of
Flugdelegito in 3118 and
Eskadrodelegito a year later during the fighting at Yamarovka, where after-action reports credited Mattias with the survival of two-thirds of his squadron, the highest survival rate of all squadrons in the First Autonomous Wing during that campaign.
After the Peace of Dieron Mattias remained with his rebuilding unit, being elected to higher delegate posts by his peers until he was
regimento-delegito for the aerospace fighter contingent of the Wing. He spent his spare time pursuing an autodidactic education in political and social theory, refining his Vanguardist principles to better counteract Communalist and Unionist arguments where his unit encountered them during CLAF exercises. This continued even through his time at Officer Command School in 3138, leading to his promotion to
Flotadisto and becoming XO of the entire First Wing. He became a renowned debater among CLAF personnel and started winning support for the Vanguardist cause in the ranks. In 3140 Mattias' reputation was cinched by his success in convincing the entire Nineteenth Assault Brigade to enter the Vanguardist camp and elect Vanguardist officers. His unit elected him to
Flugidisto, their CO spot, in response.
In light of Mattias' accomplishments, in late 3141 the Vanguard Action Committee named him their chairman. Some regard this as highly suspect given Mattias remains the CO of the First Autonomous Wing, meaning he rarely attends meetings given the costs of real-time HPG transmission. Pundits and observers (and anti-Vanguardist wits) believe Vice Chairman Richard Allen encouraged the election upon realizing his candidacy was not preferred, as he retains on-the-spot political authority while Mattias remains off Sudeten. Whatever the motivations, Mattias' election was well-received by the rank-and-file, as he is widely held as the most dynamic and assertive Vanguardist leader of the last half-century. His agitation for both rearmament and widened revolutionary agitation in the Lyran states makes him a subject of interest for ConcertWatch and any others monitoring threats to the Peace of Dieron.
(Given the timing of that mass conversion, one can't help but think Whitbrook was addressing troops fresh out of hard fighting in whatever Deep Periphery conflict the League, and their rivals in Ghastillia, seem to be waging. This undoubtedly supported whatever oratory or rhetoric he employed. — Lady Janella)
