Party mobilization

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Members of a Continentalist Youth League shock brigade performing maintenance on a railway, 1950.

Party mobilization is a concept in Marxism–Landonism, and a component in the theory of Callahanism, in which mass conscription of Landonists or members of a Communist party is undertaken to fill the ranks of the military, certain industries, or mass construction projects with loyal, politically conscious workers, especially in times of political or economic instability. In the United Commonwealth, party mobilization was first coined by Aeneas Warren during the Continental Revolutionary Wars, in which well educated members of the Continentalist Party were called to the front to act as political commissars, or officers that would supervise the political education, morale, and organization of the Continentalist forces. Under Seamus Callahan this practice was expanded, with party mobilization being used to staff volunteers for major construction projects and undertakings, especially the Great Landonist Wonders. During this period, mobilization was seen as a way to educate the intelligentsia and party elite in proletarian thinking, by requiring them to work in farming villages to "develop their talents to the full". This tactic would be repeated in China as part of the Down to the Countryside Movement. Callahan would also be alleged to use this system to remove political rivals from active politics. In the United Commonwealth, all national party mobilizations were carried out by decision of the Central Committee of the Continentalist Party, although regional and local mobilizations also occurred.

Continental Revolution

The first party mobilizations took place during the Continental Revolutionary War, when in June 1918 Aeneas Warren called for loyal Continentalists to man the frontlines of the Midwest Campaign. By order of the Central Committee, about 1,600 party members would be mobilized, including 1,000 from the party establishment of Chicago alone, who primarily served as political commissars and propagandists on the front. Before the invasion of the Southern States, in August 1918 an additional 2,894 party members would be mobilized, and at the height of the war in 1920, approximately 10% of the party was in active duty. Approximately 8,700 party members would serve in the invasion and insurrection in Superior. Warren envisioned these mobilized party members as leading ideological development for everyday soldiers, and embedding the party into the military. Upon success in the conflict, these political commissars were to become the administrators of factories, towns, and councils, in an effort to stack members of the Continentalist Party in legislative bodies. Although the party did not have the numbers to successfully infiltrate every province of the conquered Southern States, this scheme succeeded in positioning a number of Continentalists into political positions across the country in the leadup to the 1924 general election.

Toward the end of the war in September 1920 the Central Committee issued a general mobilization for the purpose of labor, raising 7,000 Continentalists to serve in the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure and transportation. This would include 900 leading party members, who were tasked with overseeing the nationalization of the railroad system. A similar mobilization took place in November 1921 to oversee the rebuilding of the oil industry, primarily in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and to strengthen national party organizations in the republics of the Congregationalist States and Okaloosa. In 1922 Warren devised a mobilization of 18,000 party members to join the agricultural harvest in the southern states, in an effort to avert the Great Famine and strengthen Continentalist ties in the south. This practice would continue throughout the 1920s, with the 13th Party Congress mobilizing an additional 5,000 propagandists and instructors, and creating a 4 month rotation schedule in the countryside for party members. The 14th Party Congress alone would mobilize 30,000 party members to the countryside in 1928. These mobilizations would continue until the outbreak of Great War I in 1932.

Callahan Era

Beginning with the 13th Party Congress, in which Callahan began his consolidation of control over the party through the defeat of the Labor Front of Zhou Xinyue and William Z. Foster, Callahan renewed party mobilization as a tool for removing political rivals from the capital, by requiring service for party members in the countryside for long engagements. Party mobilization was also a tool to counteract "opportunism" in the Party, or the idea that many of those joining the party after the civil war and the Warren Enrollment were simply opportunists and nominal Landonists, who joined without an understanding of the underlying theories of the Continentalist Party. While some new members of the party would be removed by Callahan, most would undergo reeducation or service through party mobilization to demonstrate their commitment to the party. Political workers raised by party mobilization would serve an important role in the Continental Cultural Revolution, responsible for educating the masses in party doctrine and spreading Landonist ideology and propaganda. Callahan envisioned the program as a part of his theory on class intensification, in which it would be regularly necessary to purge and police the national foundation for elements of residual bourgeois elements still persisting in the country.

At the 14th Party Congress in 1928, Callahan ordered the first Shock construction projects. Party mobilization would be used to create shock brigades, or teams of highly productive workers, who would be sent to oversee major construction projects across the nation. Many of these shock brigades would be made up of members of the Continentalist Youth League of the United Commonwealth, mobilizing teenagers and young adults in service projects. The majority of youth mobilizations were for tours of community service, working in communes, villages, and public services, but these also included orders to construction sites, army service, and settlement in planned cities. Under Callahan, graduation from the Youth League by a major community service project became the norm for most aspiring Continentalist Party members. The shock brigades became strongly associated with Callahan's "Great Landonist Wonders", or major projects meant to demonstrate the might of the United Commonwealth and serve as modern wonders of the world, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority System.

During Great War I party mobilization again was popularized to raise political fighters. During the first three months of the war, 194,000 party members would be mobilized, of which half were deputies to the Party Congress, to serve in the invasions of Brazoria and Superior primarily. This would include 500 secretaries for members of the Central Committee, 270 other employees of the Central Committee bureaucracy, 1,800 senior officers of regional and district offices, 2,500 students of the Central Party School, and 9,000 senior party workers. In total, an estimated 1,300,000 party members would serve in the Continental armed forces throughout the war, which would amount to about two-thirds of the Party before the war. By war's end party membership would be expanded to almost 2,500,000 members, with members taking place in the rebuilding of the country.

The last major mobilization of the party would take place in September 1946, when the Central Committee raised 10,000 volunteers to serve as managers and technical workers on collective farms, stations, and state farms, and the Council of People's Commissars raised 30,000 volunteers to provide leadership on collective enterprises under its purview. After the death of Callahan mass party mobilizations largely fell out of use, although tours of service and volunteer work would remain a mainstay of the Continentalist Youth League to the present.

See also