Union of Socialist Planets

USP

General Information

Names: Union of Socialist Planets
Capital: Yucatan
Founding: May 24th, 2443

Demographics

Population: 32.6 billion est.

Policies

Presidium Chairman: Carmen Leander
Governance: Democratic Centralism
Citizenship: Jus Soli

Assets

Primary Export: Technology

The Union of Socialist Planets, commonly referred to as the USP, is an interplanetary union that officially spans 325 planets, with more than half containing a permanent population. Formed after a brief war following an illegal strike by the now defunct NanoTrasen Workers Union (NTWU), they have since expanded considerably. Still, however, the USP only holds a fraction of the influence wielded by NanoTrasen and the Trans-Solar Federation. The USP is largely considered the flagship of communism in the new century. Its capital is Yucatan, and its largest city is Numoscow.

The USP is largely organized around the idea of planets acting as individual independent republics, with each planet electing a number of representatives to represent them in the Interplanetary Politburo (IP). The IP is responsible for assembling select committees to focus on topics in the Union. Although the total number of committees that exist is unknown, some more well-known ones are the Committee for Labor (CL), the Committee for Foreign Relations (CFR), and the State Committee (SC). Not much else is known about how individual planets organize their governments.

Tensions with the TSF and NanoTrasen exist. Formally, however, the TSF and the USP have signed peace deals to cease hostilities in their frontier planets. In the early history of the USP, a political movement called the "Right to Work Movement" sought to reconcile with NanoTrasen and form a new union with the promise of not being as militant as the NTWU. This movement reached its peak around 20 years after the initial formation of the USP. Protests within the USP caused instability to be high, culminating in the "Nuchicago Affair." A bombing by a now rumored NanoTrasen-funded agent caused the collapse of the Old Science Building, killing over 3,000 people. Many USP citizens hold this piece of history close, using it as evidence of NanoTrasen's extended meddling in affairs citizens believe it should have no part in.

After the bombing, politicians and citizens who were rumored to hold sympathies to the Right to Work Movement were prosecuted, with some even being murdered by vigilantes. A NanoTrasen document studying the effects of the failure of the Right to Work Movement was leaked, positing that attempts to destabilize the USP have backfired.

In the present day, the USP, despite being smaller than other political entities in the Milky Way, holds a considerable amount of resources in the form of Plasma and Bluespace Technology, announcing win after win, most recently, inventing the first mass-produced blue LED.

Union History

The USP begins as the NanoTrasen Worker's Union starts negotiations with NanoTrasen for the 2440 contract. Then Union President Roger Lenon bargained for a more militant union following the 2438 incident, which resulted in the atmospheric super-heating of Kepler-452b. Over 300 million NanoTrasen workers and colonists were burned alive. Public trust eroded within the TSF for NanoTrasen, resulting in the union gaining newfound leverage.

The union, wielding its power, forced NanoTrasen to bargain for a new contract, which manifested in the form of stricter guidelines for working with Plasma and other anomalous materials. Standard Operating Procedure was then drafted and implemented as part of a temporary agreement in 2439. However, the union and NanoTrasen could not come to an agreement for the 2440 fiscal year, around the issue of worker autonomy and protecting extraterrestrial sophonts.

On January 1st, 2440, a stand-up strike was initiated, resulting in millions of workers refusing to come into work, heavily disrupting NanoTrasen's ability to function. The method of striking was declared illegal by the TSF. Then TSF chairperson Gary Kennedy declared martial law on planets that were participating in the stand-up strategy. Workers refused to work, even when ordered to at gunpoint. Riots and protests broke out across the TSF. Tensions finally boiled over during a stand up order on NanoTrasen's largest resource-extraction planet at the time, Vulf-359.

On May 4th, 2440, workers on Gemini-49t were ordered to stop working. As workers were leaving factories, armed military personnel and hired union breakers by NanoTrasen beat and forced workers back into the factories. Not long after, a shot broke in a crowd of around 4,000 workers and union breakers. Confused by the shot, military personnel began to open fire among the crowd, resulting in the death of an estimated 2,000 union members.

News of this spread throughout NanoTrasen colonies, which resulted in a surprise uprising in several colony planets. From then on, members of the NTWU were prosecuted and accused of being part of a Syndicate operation to destabilize the TSF and NanoTrasen. Union membership in many colonies plummeted, although more remote colonies joined the uprising, leading to a 3 year struggle.

The Three Year Struggle

The Three Year struggle refers to the three years frontier planets and other remote planets were quickly organizing against and fighting off the TSF's response to their declared independence. Organizations alleged to have ties to the Syndicate found an opportunity to destabilize NanoTrasen, supplying rebel forces with guns and munitions. These efforts proved to be successful, as tensions in these frontier planets resulted in their local governments and military forces being quickly overwhelmed by mass revolt.

NanoTrasen's attempts to conjure up support for their frontier planets fell flat, considering the large atrocities carried out against planet natives, especially against moth and lizard people. Nanotrasen Officials on these planets and nearby stations attempted to destroy their own stations and planets, but successful revolutions on stations such as NT-23 Hephaestus and NT-98 Rockwell demonstrated to NT that popular support in these frontier planets were dying. Upholding discriminatory tactics against species other than humans during these revolutions further diminished any sort of legitimacy they had with local colony populations.

Local colony populations and underrepresented species within NanoTrasen soon felt a new source of empowerment through the revolution. Although it has no official name within the TSF, as a measure to discourage revolutionary thought, within the USP it is known as the Great Struggle. Historians regard the Three Year Struggle as a monumental turning point in history, with many citing it as the end of the 4th Galactic Political System, and the beginning of the 5th.