North Star

## The North Star

   Separatism has been the story of politics in the One-and-Twenty, a century that started with North America in the hands of three large nations and is looking to end (depending on if California  can maintain its independence and you recognize Yucatan  sovereignty) divided between about a dozen, with a number of treaty Zones and free cities. So what seemed like a pipe dream of Upper Midwestern independence at the start of the century has, more than once, seemed like a logical extension of history.

This communist-libertarian (yeah, yeah, I know, only here) Upper Midwest separatist movement wants to form a separate state based around the Great Lakes, called the Republic of the North Star, mostly in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The history of the movement goes back to before the Awakening (2003), but it was more a minor curiosity until 2030 when the creation of the CAS set off secession movements across the continent, and giving new life to the North Star Policlub, which led a strange coalition of local small government advocates , the remnants of the struggling labor movements and the descendants of the Democratic Socialists of a decade earlier. They reached their peak with the election of the North-Star-friendly Governor Michael Archer (D, 2039-2043)  of Minnesota in the hotly-contested election of 2038 and a sizable minority in the Minnesota and Wisconsin legislatures. They always had a presence in North Dakota, but it was second to the quietly growing influence of the new Nonpartisan League. Several referendums on independence were held and the one in 2040 nearly passed in Wisconsin, and even sparked armed incidents in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when it failed. After the controversial Archer was defeated by the more conventional Keira Lettow (Minnesota's first Technocrat governor) in 2042 the North Star policlub seemed to fade out of public view, returning to their original status as a novelty who's time had passed. In the western part of Minnesota many of their allies were attracted to movements like the NPL and the newly-invigorated Farmer-Labor Party, part of the brief renaissance of populist and labor movements in the Upper Midwest in the 40's.

What they actually did was go underground. While maintaining a nominal public presence, the North Star Policlub started building up another kind of grassroots and gathering new kinds of allies. They funneled funds into weapons now, reached out to the violent and disaffected and the 2040's and 50's saw them build a frighteningly complete network of militias, paramilitary gangs, loyalist cops and even the occasional rogue nationalist military officer. The ideology of the North Star started to shift as well. A sort of fevered revanchism , largely gained from their new allies, took hold, a conviction that the old USA had failed the idea of "America" when it had become the UCAS and that a new revolution was needed to found a new America. And if that last sentence sounded familiar, its because a lot of the new allies were also members of the growing 'New Revolution ' movement which put the North Star in touch with other like-minded movements and organizations across the eastern half of the continent. In this form they appealed to those living in the rural areas along the new borders with the new nations, appealing especially to those in northern Minnesota what was left of North Dakota, from where they drew a lot of their manpower.

When the New Revolution made its move in the chaos of 2064, the North Star was the leading light in the upper midwest, and their attempt to seize the seat of government in Saint Paul MN, with a combination of sabotage and armed might, largely provided by the various militias they'd been supplying almost succeeded. Almost. Knight Errant Security and the Minnesota National Guard managed to put them down, distracting the UCAS military enough to lose them the Red River Crisis of '64.

It was thought that the casualties and mass arrests were the end of the North Star’s struggle, but they just went to ground again. North Star militias still operate out of places like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Lake of the Woods, awaiting  another chance. And while they don't maintain an active presence in the Zone  (mostly because of the Zone Patrol), there is a lot of sympathy for the cause in places like Fargo , who's population was swelled with those fleeing the growth of the Oceti Sakowin and who dream of regaining lost lands and fallen pride...

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