Kalistan

[Doc]

Feature: Deputy Mike Johnson, Quiet Reformer
Kaliburg backbencher is working to reform the system from inside
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
May 7, 5694


Deputy Mike Johnson, long identified with the Kaliburg Socialist Club, works for equality in the Institutional Party

"Oh, I'll never be in the government," said Deputy Mike Johnson, an Institutional Party Deputy from Kaliburg in a recent interview. "I'm not nearly conservative enough. But for what its worth, I am trying to make sure a more socialist viewpoint is kept on the floor in the National Assembly, and thankfully for me, the Institutional Party is not entire closed off to leftists." Johnson said that now that fellow socialist Chase Lawford was named as Kalistan's top diplomat in Xsampa, a nation with major international relevance, the spotlight back home has swung his way.

"Throughout my seven years in the legislature, I have tried to make sure that the policies we pass have measures of equality in them," said Johnson. "The Institutional Party has long stood on the side of the working class, despite it being the functional arm of the Monarchy, because I think in this country, all of the institutions, except the autocracy, are designed to promote workers' interest over owners' interests. We always have a lot of work to do to prevent the wealthy from using their power and their influence to erode those long cherished rights. It's a never ending job, and this is one thing I, even though I am a socialist, and certainly not a conservative, do have to credit my Party with. It has legitimately won the support of the workers in this nation, who value the job protection and the economic democracy we have in helping set production, wages, prices, and policies."

Johnson said that many of the problems in the society are caused by capitalist actors and those who seek unlimited wealth at the expense of every worker and every consumer. "Setting aside the monarchy, which, well, we really can't do much about, the inequality we see in this country is caused almost completely by private sector actors seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of their exploited workers. Kalistan has diligently worked on this problem for centuries and even we can't get ahead of it, because for better or worse, capitalists are more innovative than the state. Take this organized crime fiasco, for example, which was literally all at the top of our economic pyramid: These wealthy people who want just more wealth will do whatever they can to get it, even break the law, or use the institutions against themselves. It's just evidence that if they can't get in through the working class, they'll get in through the top. And corruption and maximization of profit go hand in hand. We're working to fight against that."

Some of the things Johnson has worked on in his tenure were measures to ensure that rural families get regular access to the same medical treatment that people who live in the cities take for granted. "After all these years, we are still talking about disparities between what people who live more than 50 miles from cities still face in basic social services," said Johnson. "Yes it is more expensive to build clinics out in the middle of nowhere to serve rural populations, but it is also essential to do so. People can't just rely on medical units from NSP to come through once every other month. Because what do rural people do when they move on to the next place?" Other disparities are the lack of paved roads across much of the country. "About 18% of our population, or one in six, lives more than 20 miles from a black top surface. Especially in the north, where it rains like half the year, for much of the time those areas are inaccessible from the cities. This is a real problem."

While Johnson is a Deputy from Kaliburg Free City, he also would like to see more socialists from across the nation get active in national politics. "The Conservatives have things pretty locked up in this Party, and of course, other parties are illegal, but this doesn't mean that leftists shouldn't participate in the government," he said. "Number one, there are about a half a dozen of us who are sitting in the legislature right now. The conservatives frequently work with us because we tend to be more populist minded than they are, and several times they have been caught out being tone deaf in their policies and have had to make changes. They see our group as having an ear to the populations of our Free Cities, which tend to be more centrist than the Institutional Party as a whole is. With more of us, we can have a larger voice, to make sure the Left in Kalistan is not simply forgotten."

Johnson says that the key to power in Kalistan is Institutional. "We've learned over the years that it does no good to try to raise the red flag and be revolutionary communists in this country. Many people will follow a fad promising to solve all the problems, but those movements usually end up in dead ends, because the institutional arrangement in this nation is designed to prevent revolution and dissipate radical energy at ever single turn. A lot of this is the old Socialist Party's fault--The Institutional Party was formed by socialists who got tired of democracy allowing right wingers to constantly undermine the social and economic gains the people had made, so we really have ourselves to blame for that. But working within and through the institutions of our nation does yield results, and unlike in other nations, we do not have to find a way to 'make peace' with the system, because peace with the system is inculcated in this society from the first day of schooling. It gets to the point where law breakers are seen as anti-social and horrifying to the population, and when faced with serious crime, they immediately turn back to the state.

"But getting our people into offices, especially on the city level does yield very surprising results. And getting our people into the bureaucracy becomes very easy when they have champions and advocates within the Legislature. We saw Chase get named as the Ambassador to Xsampa recently. There were fifty diplomats who could have done that job, but they picked a socialist, one of our guys, to do it, because the Chancellor and the Regent asked how they could best speak with communists: Send one of our guys who knows what they are talking about and wants to get to know these people and work with them, or one of the fifty of theirs who is just going to go there and start talking about how communists are a plague and Kalistan this that and the other. We were able to make that case to the Chancellor, and she may be a reactionary, but she is a reasonable person and saw the benefit to it, and the Regent agreed. So Chase is there now. And I have a list of 20 other people I could name right now for dozens of offices across the nation, who would just be more moderate on the hard nationalist front than you might see otherwise if we weren't here in the National Assembly, representing a more moderate, left populist streak for reform within the system."

Johnson said it is important that socialists come out of their funk and keep working for change. "There are socialist clubs in every major city in Kalistan and Ananto," said Johnson. "If you find yourself on the left, and want to help us make change and improve the lives of our people in this Empire, I'd encourage you to work with them, or start your own. The socialist clubs aren't a political party by any means. They do things like work on policy with our Cities to improve the lives of tens of millions of Kalistanis, they volunteer at projects they think are important, they provide a social setting for get togethers, like Kaliburg's quarterly Bowl for Change fundraisers. They host lectures on important topics, candidate forums, voter information. We have more than 380,000 dues paying members in 25 socialist clubs nationwide, and our numbers are growing. So if you happen to be of the left in Kalistan and would like to help us work to improve the lives of your comrades and fellow citizens, a socialist club probably meets regularly somewhere near you. They could use your help."

Johnson is up for re-election in 5696, and he said he is running because he still has a lot of work to do for Kaliburg, Ananto and the Empire.

@TheRepublic