Badgers

The Red and Black Badged Revolutionaries, usually known as the Badgers, were an anti-authoritarian and socialist revolutionary group during the civil war. They were called Badgers after the red and black badges they wore on their hats but soon the Badger animal became their symbol. The Badgers called for a libertarian socialist state to replace the oppressive regime. The Badgers were instrumental is bringing the end of the civil war and was one of the strongest revolutionary factions at the time. The leader of the Badgers was Hans Dehring who died in December of 2020 just 30 days before the end of the civil war, Ronan (UDS) took over as leader and at the end of the war created ULSA as the non-military successor to the Badgers.

## Founding

The Red and Black Badged Revolutionaries were formed in 1994 by university protesters including Hans Dehring and other key members of the first General Committee, which was held in 1998.

In 1997, Hans Dehring took official control of the organization and a year later the 7,000 members of the group voted on the first 100 revolutionaries to represent them.

## Ideology

The ideology of the Badgers has usually been described as libertarian socialist and anarchist. Hans Dehring was a Anarcho-Communist and Syndicalism supporter and 68 of the 100 members of the General Committee were anarchists in 2020.

During the period of 2002-2006 there were factions that divided the group. But this caused division and was scrapped after the Democratic Socialist Faction called for Dehring and other Anarchist Faction members to resign.

## Organization

The Badgers has 2 main bodies of power.

The first being the General Committee which was made up of 100 members which were elected by the second body. The second body were the "Badgers", which were ordinary people with either regular jobs or who served in the revolutionary army, there were over 300,000 Badgers.

## 2009 Mass Arrest

In 2009 the Weimarian government stormed a gathering of the General Committe and arrested 85 of them, 14 of the arrested members were executed, another 35 were sent to labor camps and the rest were jailed. The 15 members who escaped arrest included Dehring, Ronan (UDS), YLC, and Sarp.

An election was immediately held but the turnout rate was 46% of the 2006 election.

## Pacifism Debate

Many of the members of the Badgers believed Badgers were causing too much bloodshed and property damage. Hans Dehring was wildly criticized by Ronan (UDS) for being too damaging and furthering the group from pacifist reformers. Ronan once said that "Dehring had so much anger towards the state that he looked past any damage he caused to civilians and property".

Although supporters of the Anti-State damage claim that in the 27 years of activity the Badgers were only responsible for ~40 civilian deaths, ~26 of them being civilian Badger members, although a lot more deaths when Weimarian and revolutionary soldiers re included.

## Hans Dehring

Hans Dehring was the official leader of the Badgers from 1997 until the end of 2020 and the de jure leader from October of 1996 until his election in 1997. Dehring is considered one of the greatest political minds of Weimar ever and although never served a government position he is considered one of the founding fathers of the 2nd Weimar Republic. Dehring was born in 1975 in Hamburg, Weimar and at 10 years old watched his country fall apart. In college he began reading theory and especially enjoyed Kropotkin. Dehring influenced much of the political ideology of ULSA, the UDS, the CLP and others.