Federation of Democratic Workers

The **Federation of Democratic Workers** (**FDW**) is a left-wing trade union formerly affiliated with The Left, it has siince changed its allegiance, and become affiliated with The Red Front

Federation of Democratic Workers was one of the prominent labor unions before the Civil war. In July 2023, it was recreated and started their operation for the better worker conditions and rights.

## History

### Foundation

The FDW was founded on December the 19th after extensive talks between the Mayensland Communist Party and the Workers Party. While the FDW was affiliated to both parties, it did allow members from other leftwing parties which agreed with the Charter of the FDW, which was approved on the same day as its founding.

The union endorsed the MCP and Workers Party in every election. Its main competitor in terms of unions was The Confederation of Christian Workers and Farmers- which was affiliated with the Christian Social Alliance.

### Early actions

The FDW played an active role in the protests surrounding the fall of the Erliz Cabinet, specifically, the party organised a protest march in favour of the controversial wealth tax, and later held demonstrations outside the Mayen National Assembly calling on the MPs to vote in favour of the VONC against it.

The union would endorse Executive Council member, SamtheMegaGec for President.

The FDW was also active in the protests surrounding altgate, leading a protest march to ask for greater measures against corruption after the resignation of former President PollTr. Later, they also held a funeral march for former Prime Minister Fluffycow, who died in suspicious circumstances, with the FDW alleging that her death was linked with her anti-corruption activities.

On the 14th of Febuary, the Farmers Union of Mayensland, led by Communist MP Edward Kenway, merged into the FDW, with Edward Kenway becoming one of the chairpeople of the organization.

### Industrial action against the MBA & Pragmatist Insurrection

On the 16th of February, talks between the Mayen Business Association and the center-left Flatscreen Government broke down, leading the MBA to announce a boycott of all interactions with the government. Concurrently, the pragmatist insurrection began. Both of these events were seen as grave threats by leftists in Mayensland, and led to a reaction by the FDW.

On the 18th of February, the FDW approved cooperation with the communist 'self-defense' wing- the PDC- and decided to organise a protest march into Mayen City, to show the resolve of the Mayen workers against the pragmatist insurrection. The march went ahead with a solid turnout, despite threats of violence from the PLF.

Later that day, the FDW announced its decision to call all workers working in businesses belonging to the MBA on strike. This strike proved effective, as the timing of the MBAs' announcement led some to suspect a connection with the PLF.

The strike against the MBA businesses ended on the 21st of February, after a deal was reached between the MBA and the government.

### Sunny Coast and Plains Industrial Action

The FDW famously organised a teachers strike against the laws proposed by Plains' Governor Scottish and Sunny Coast Governor MrJoeJoe, which would have limited education about other gender orientation in schools in the plains. These strikes were relatively successful.

Folowing the strikes, the FDW began to focus more on other activities, including the setting up of mutual aid netwowks in Petaini and Mayen City as well as increasing the visibility of marginalised people in society- specifically LGBTQIA+ people.

### Campaign against FAZ l'aicite laws

In a rare show of cross-union cooperation, a protest march was held by the FDW with the CTCP in the FAZ province against the contraversial l'aicite laws proposed by governor Emile Benoit. Most radically, members of the FDW trade union formed a human chain around the home of Governor Benoit, claiming they would not disperse until the law was abolished. On the 16th of April, the FDW joined with the CTCP calling for a public workers strike in the FAZ and for a motion of no confidence to be scheduled against Benoit, which was followed by another joint march to the governors residence.

The protests proved effective in some ways, as the law was eventually struck down and the petition against Emile Benoit ended up forcing renewed elections. However, Emile Benoit ended up winning the renewed elections, and continuing his agenda, with the protests in the FAZ being increasingly guided by the CPCT and the newly formed Conservative Workers and Trade Union association.

### Expansion and later action

In late April, the FDW officially associated with the GLM and SDU, thus becoming the primary left-wing union in the country.

The peak of said leftist unity came on May Day, where the FDW organised a large rally in Mayen City, presenting a number of ideas for Labour reform.

The FDW was active in the campaign of the Socialist Alternative list for the 7th Mayensland National Assembly.

After the elections, the FDW would organise protest marches against the claims of fraud perpetrated by the right-wing President MrJoeJoe. However, the role of the FDW in those protests would be minor compared to other organizations- notably, the PDC and the Republican Movement for Mayensland. A specific blow to the FDW was the disappearance of its chairperson, Anaya Megagec.

Like most other organisations, the FDW fell into dormancy during the civil war, with most unionised workers leaving the union for fear of potential repercussions.

### Refoundation

The FDW was refounded in February of 2024 (irl July 5th 2023) by Edward Kenway. It is officially affiliated with The Left.

The party adopted a new charter, which was a modified version of the old charter.

## Structure

### Pre-Civil War structure

As per the charter, the FDW was affiliated with the Workers Party and MCP.

The governing of the Union was undertaken jointly by the co-chairpeople and the Executive Committee. The co-chairpeople were selected by the leaders of the two affiliate parties, with the charter recommending that it be one of the deputy leaders. The main role of the chairpeople is to represent the interests of their organization within the union, enforce the rules, implement policies passed by either the executive commision or the membership, make sure the behaviour of executive commission members is in line with the rules, represent the union during negotiations with external bodies (i.e parties, the government, NGOs). The chairpeople must always report about the actions to the executive commission, unless the matter is urgent.

At any point, the executive commission can decide to remove one or both of the chairpeople, at which point the executive commission can choose a temporary replacement to complete the term, until the party (or parties) have selected replacements. The party can also always choose to recall their current chairperson and replace them with a new representatives from the party- although that never happened throughout the history of the FDW.

The chairpeople governed jointly with the Executive Commission which was composed of 4 members. 2 were elected directly by the union membership, with a term of one month, and they could run for up to 2 terms. All members, except those with dual membership with another union could run.  The other 2 were elected from within the ranks of the Party of Workers and Mayen Communist Party, with a term of 1 month, and only 1 term.

The role of the executive commission is to represent the rank and file of the trade union, make sure that the chairpeople are not overstepping or abusing their powers, as well as pass policies regarding the internal runnings of the union.

Any member of the executive commission could be removed, if at least 2/3s of the membership vote to do so. Before this, a motion must be presented with the backing of at least 25% of the membership. If the delegate was directly elected, snap elections will be held, if the delegate was selected by a party, snap elections will happen within the party.

The charter was amended in late April to account for the FDW associating with the SDU and the Green-Left Movement, with the executive council being expanded to include SDU and GLM, as well as increasing the amount of open seats (i.e those elected in a vote by the whole membership).

### Restored structure

The structure of the restored FDW was similar to that of the pre-civil war period, however one important modification was that the union now has only one Chairperson, and only one partisan representative on the 4 person Executive Commission.