Free Nation of Greater Quartz Hill

## Greater Quartz HillLancaster Republic (1957-19xx)

The **Free Nation of Greater Quartz Hill**, for short **Greater Quartz Hill**, **Revolutionary Lancaster** ot just **Lancaster** is a self-proclaimed New Revolutionary state in southern California controlling the area known as Greater Quartz Hill, which includes the former city of Lancaster and surrounding communities.

## History

### Independence

The Free Nation of Greatert Quartz Hill came about as a result of the Californian Collapse, which took place from 1955 to 1958 and resulted in the complete fragmentation of the 2nd Californian Republic.

The area surrounding Lancaster and Quartz Hill originally remained on the Californian side in the conflict, but as the situation worsened in 1956, the local government declared their neutrality in the conflict instead and began to ignore Californian orders. On May 16th 1956 the Provisional Council of Lancaster was formed by the previous government and declared independence from California. In response the Californians attacked Lancaster and tried to take it back, but the local militia successfully held them off. As California continued to collapse, Lancaster would cement it's control over the surrounding region and began to establish new administrative offices free of Californian influence. On August 6th, 1957 the Provisional Council was disbanded and replaced by the Free Senate of Lancaster which officially proclaimed the formation of the Lancaster Republic that was to be made up of [a number] administrative subdivisions. The free senate began to institute major legal and economic reform, removing almost any restrictions on economic activity as a plan to quickly boost the economy to new heights. Instead, this lead to the gradual consolidation of massive, corrupt and extortionate cartels and monopolies that took control of the Lancaster economy and began to bribe their way into controlling the free senate.

By 1959 the economy had become controlled by a single unified conglomorate of corporations which placed massive prices on all their products, causing living standards to drop wildly. Many senators began to renounce their positions and flee the country in disgust, only giving the conglomorate more power as a result. This eventually lead to the September 20th Coup, which saw paid mercenaries storm the senate building and arrest all remaining senators, followed by the abolishment of the free senate and the conglomorates taking full power over the republic. But this power would only last for a couple of months as the many politicians in exile began to draw up plans for retaking Lancaster from the monopolies with the support of Bakersfield. This in turn culminated in the Bakersfielder Invasion of Lancaster, which saw the arrest and execution of the conglomorate's leaders and the destruction of their monopolies as well as the restoration to power of the Free Senate of Lancaster.

### Stage 0/Shift to Revolution

Having been restored to power, the Free Senate decided to abandon the unrestricted free market model of Lancaster's economy and in place established strong regulations on monopolies or cartels forming in any form. Lancaster would rebuild to the state it was in before even the Californian Collapse by just 1961 thanks to the reappropriated congolomorate's funds and assistance from Bakersfield. With this also came the development of true political parties, which at first followed the old US Democrat-Republican divide but in just three years had already diverged into a mostly leftist sphere which planned to implement limited free healthcare and social programmes as well as continue to further restrict the ability of corporations to form monopolies over certain sectors of the economy. The three major parties to come out of this shift were the Left Democrats, Democrat-Republican Unity Party (D-RUP) and the Lancaster Popular Party (LPP).

Considering the situation stable enough, the coalition government announced for senate elections to take place in mid 1963. Following a month of preparation, the elections would take place on May 10th, 1963, resulting in a D-RUP and LPP majority in the senate. This election also was notable for the public speeches by Ronald Russelt of the D-RUP, who would go onto assume leadership of the party's Republican wing just shortly after the formation of a new DRUP-LPP-LD coalition government. The next four years of the senate's tenure would see further cooperation and integration of Bakersfield, the expansion of civil liberties, social programmes, mass construction projects and a reform plan to bring about complete free healthcare. During this time Ronald Russelt also made his name by organising large rallies in support of the healthcare reform plan and personally proposing over 120 new laws and acts to further expand civil and social liberties in Lancaster, earning him mass popular support.

With the ever continuing leftwards shift of all the major parties, many rightist members left them and founded the Moderate Bloc. Forming a coalition with the other minority parties, the Moderate Bloc began to clash with the three dominant parties. This would lead to a slow rise in political polarisation within Lancaster, first shown in the 1967 senatorial elections, which saw far more campaigning and also open street debates between politicians. Russelt adopted a strong stance against the Moderates, calling them out for "stalling progress" and "trying to reinstate the monopolies". While less radical members of the left considered this too far, it did win Russelt many more radical supporters and still did help the LD-DRUP-LPP coalition secure a continued large majority in the Free Senate. Russelt's later ascension to main advisor to the D-RUP's vice president just a year later would further increase tensions.

The late 60s saw even further reaching social liberties, granting all races fully equal citizenship and even granting protections to the LGBT against hatespeech and harrasement. Drifting ideologically apart and with Lancaster becoming more sell-sufficient, the positive relationship between it and Bakersfield began to wear off, slowly isolating the city from the rest of California. At the same time, many sought to immigrate to it as well, requiring deeper discussions on race relations and immigration controls, which would become the first big breaking point between the leftist coalition and the Moderates. Russelt used this oppurtunity to heavily ridicule the Moderate Bloc and successfully convinced the D-RUP to sideline it's more moderate members. By 1969 the Free Senate entered gridlock over the immigration issue and other reform plans also began to severely slow while the partisan conflict only grew further. It would finally see it's resolution a year later, which came only due to multiple minority parties switching to the left coalition, giving them an overwhelming super majority.

In April 1970 the Moderate Bloc officialy vacated their seats in the Free Senate and began protests demanding new elections be held. In response left-wing protestors began to demand for the Moderates to be driven out of the city, eventually leading to street fights and a week of anarchy in the city. The situation was eventually brought under control by an agreement to temporary scale down the reforms, though this was only a short-term solution and left many on both sides of the conflict highly dissatisfied. In September 1970 Russelt assumed the position of the D-RUP's vice president following the death of the previous one, granting him further increased influence within the party. This was followed just a month later by a Left Democrat-DRUP merged brokered by Russelt, with the party afterwards rebranding to the Left Unity Party (LUP).

The 1971 May senatorial elections didn't even last a day without street fights breaking out, many spurred on by the political candidates themselves. Four days into the week long campaigning season a massive fight broke out in the center of the city between LUP and Moderate members, leaving 26 injured. The police's attempts to intervene would be hampered by it's own political divisions, allowing the chaos and anarchy to only grow in scale. Seeing no hope of winning the elections, the Moderates would make the decision to abandon Lancaster, retreating to Lake Los Angeles, where they established their new party HQ. When the 96% majority of the leftist coalition was confirmed at the end of the elections, the Moderate Bloc officially split with the Lancaster government, declaring the Autonomous State of Lake Los Angeles. In response, Russelt proposed banning the party and declaring it a terrorist organisation, the former being agreed to by the Free Senate. Just two months after the elections the Lancaster Popular Party also decided to merge with the LUP, forming the new Lancasterian Popular Unity Party (LPUP). In party elections the following month, Ronald Russelt would be elected the president of the newly formed party.

### Stage 1

Following the flight of the Moderates, Russelt began a massive industrial construction program in collaboration with Palmdale, which was also socialist. Along with this the rights of corporations were slashed near entirely, making all major private corporations have government observers and the minor ones pay increased tax. Finally in the middle of 1972 private property would be abolished entirely, instead making all privately owned enterprises into state companies that were "loaned out to private owners". Meanwhile Lake Los Angeles was being reformed into a large military complex by the Moderates, who also began to work with Bakersfield in secret. This prompted Lancaster to begin regular raids on Lake Los Angeles, the Moderates responding in kind, leading to a mass recruitment campaign on both sides. Wanting to gain the upper hand, Russelt would officially ally with Palmdale and Santa Clarita while also convincing Rosamond to join the republic.

In January 1973 Russelt unexpectedly called for new elections, which were not to have a secret ballot. The LPUP won the elections with 98.9% of the vote, the rest going to minor socialist parties. These parties were then subsumed into the LPUP, with anyone who resisted being forced to leave said parties. When some of these members tried to form new parties, they were temporarily arristed on accounts of tax fraud and bribery, only let go after a promise to leave politics entirely. In April 1973 the Lancaster constitution was modified to remove any mention of the word "Republic", replaced with "Workers' State", while the Free Senate was renamed to the Socialist Constitutional Assembly and all the administrative divisions were abolished.

Seeing this, Lake Los Angeles would hold it's own elections in February, in which the Moderate Bloc won a 86%, with the rest going to the Los Angeles Liberal Party. Russelt responded with a speech condemning the elections as fraudulent, unrepresentative and rigged. A month later Lake Los Angeles formalised it's own alliance with Bakersfield, which Russelt described as "a betrayal by the evil forces of imperialism". Many of the newly built factories in Lancaster were subsequently made to focus on weapons production, with a tank and two airplanes even being produced. In October 1973 the LPUP was rebranded to the Lancasterian Revolutionary Unity Front (LRUF) and it's stated goal became to "bring about the world socialist revolution and wipe out the scourge of imperialism and false socialism globally". In response, Lake Los Angeles officially cut all ties with Lancaster, declaring itself an independent republic.

A week of tension and multiple border skirmishes followed as both sides prepared to attack the other in full. While Lake Los Angeles was convinced against taking immediate action by Bakersfield, Lancaster and Palmdale begin a massive conscription effort and prepared a indepth attack plan against the Moderates. Even though conflict seemed innevitable, delegates from San Bernardino and Bakersfield managed to broker a temporary peace of the status quo to allow all who didn't want to fight to leave. While this was one of the first events to set San Bernardino on it's path of diplomatic dominance, it didn't change much for Lancaster except give Russelt more time to prepare, as all exits out of the city had "emergency repairs".

In February 1974 the peace finally broke as border skirmishes again began between the two sides, this time Santa Clarita also fully supporting Lancaster. On February 18th 1974 the Lancasterian and Palmdaler armies launched a surprise mass attack on Lake Los Angeles which began with artillery bombing and was followed by the city being encircled from all sides. Lake Los Angeles successfully held for a day and sent a message to Bakersfield informing them of the attack. Troops from Bakersfield arrived in time and drove the Lancasterian forces back but a stalemate developed afterwards while attempts from San Bernardino to broker another peace failed. Lancaster would attempt to cause unreast and a coup in Lake Los Angeles by supporting more leftist elements in the moderates without much success.

On March 8th the Lancasterian front finally broke from pressure and Bakersfielder divisions reached the outskirts of the city, getting past the defenses two days later. Russelt and most of the LRUF fled to Palmdale while Lancaster itself was occupied by Bakersfield, whereafter the Moderates formed a new provisional Free Senate. While Bakersfield at first also tried to take Palmdale, they gave up once a large contingent of troops arrived from Santa Clarita to support the city. In May a truce was agreed between Bakersfield, Palmdale and Santa Clarita thanks to San Bernardino. Part of the truce stipulated that free democratic elections were to be held in Lancaster in the near future, though both the LRUF and Moderates hoped to infact rig the elections in their favour.

### Transitional Phase 1

*See main article: Bakersfielder Occupation of Lancaster (1974)*

With troubles beginning to stir at home, Bakersfield hoped to make it's intervention in the conflict quick. To this end the LRUF were allowed back into the city by mid June and campaigning by the two parties of Lancaster began by early July. Multiple small street fights did happen during the campaigning season but Bakersfielder troops successfully kept order for the most part. The election results were 65% for the LRUF and 35% for the Moderates, though this was immediately protested by the Moderates who refused to give up power. Bakersfielder troops once more successfully kept order in the city but multiple fights between LRUF and Moderate members did break out once more. Not wanting to negotiate with the Moderates, the LRUF returned to Palmdale while Bakersfield gave it's implicit support for the Moderates' Free Senate.

The following few months saw building tensions between the LRUF, it's allies and Bakersfield as the Moderates made attempts to solidify their control over Lancaster through a purge. At the same time the LRUF would begin to participate in the Palmdale political field, founding the Palmdaler RUF and being given guest seats in the parliament. During this time also Russelt would begin to formulate a more radical form of his leftism, postulating a complete surpression of political or societal opposition, complete abolishment of private ownership and corporations, establishement of shared work areas with living quarters and centralised state distribution of all products and mandated product reports. While for now this theory close to Soviet Communism wouldn't yet be made public he did share it to a few of the highest LRUF members other than him.

By late autumn of 1974 Bakersfield would begin to slowly pull it's troops out of Lancaster as issues home continued to heat up. The Moderates, having for now used said troops for their protection, were now left without any real defenses and had to quicky build ones. The LRUF decided to exploit this by sending secret agents to infiltrate the city where they would spread propaganda and cause chaos. While some of the agents were caught by the Moderates the operation still lead to the halting of work on defensive plans and caused mass protests to begin. On December 18th Russelt and other leading figures of the LRUF returned to Lancaster completely unarmed, welcomed by crowds of protestors. While small scale fighting took place the next few days the Moderates eventually abandoned the city and returned to Lake Los Angeles, vowing to one day free Lancaster from the LRUF.

### Stage 2

The LRUF swiftly made sure to abolish all private corporations that had sprung up during the Moderates' rule, implementing the previous system of "loaned corporations", though plans for reform were announced as well. In January 1975 a massive purge of "anti-revolutionary elements" took place, which resulted in many more moderate LRUF members fleeing to Lake Los Angeles, while those less lucky were accused, together with many regular citizens, of treason and given life sentences. This purge also extended to the PRUF in a far smaller form. Russelt held many speeches declaring his devotion to "clearing the world of the imperialist capitalists one by one", threatening Bakersfield and Lake Los Angeles with invasion by 1978.

The planned economic reform began in May, starting with many small corporations being consolidated into larger blocks, as well as the establishment of strong workers' councils that in practice made CEOs and other high positions in corporations purely ceremonial, with the councils reporting to the government directly. A system for the collection and distribution of products for those in need was also established, a prototype for the state controlled distribution of resources. A new wave of rapid-fire industrialisation and urban expansion was also started with many new housing blocks built directly next to new factories and manufacturing plants along with a massive rearmament program. Russelt even claimed in a speech that Lancaster was looking into producing anti-nuclear technology, though nothing seems to have come of it.

In September the constitution of Lancaster was revised once more, establishing the state's mission as the "protection of workers' and civil rights, liberties, the eradication of the global imperialist elite". More important revisions were new sections that in practice limited or fully outlawed freedom of speech and freedom of the media. A crackdown on non-socialist and anti-LRUF newspaper expectedly followed while all pro-government newspapers were merged into the single Workers' Daily, which was put under the direct supervision of the Interior and Public Affairs ministries. Limits were also put on freedom of assembly, mandating that all gatherings of more than 50 people had to be officially registered with the local government.

1976 saw continued economic buildup and also further integration with Palmdale. At the same time the highest positions in many corporations were abolished, giving full power to the workers' councils and also empowering the government observers. The goods distribution system was also expanded, thus also requiring a higher amount of produced goods to be handed over to the government, slowly building up to the complete system of 100% state collection and distribution. The summer also saw multiple minor clashes between Lancaster and Lake Los Angeles, mostly as a result of Russelt seeing an oppurtunity due to Bakersfield's change in foreign policy, which left Lake Los Angeles diplomatically isolated.

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