Aftarestan

Aftarestan (: افترستن), also called Aftaristan, officially the Revolutionary Republic of Aftarestan (: جمهوری انقلابی افترستن) is a country located in northern Kesh. It has a population of 66,152,850 and its territory covers an area of 1,066,525 km2 (411,788 sq mi). Aftarestan is bordered by the Gulf of Qurac to the northeast, to the east by Nasiria and Atargistan, to the southeast by (unknown), to the southwest by Jagani ,to the west by (unknown), and to the northwest by Satamurta. The capital and largest metropolis, Neyriz is the political and economic center of Aftarestan, with a population of over 8 million inhabitants, and 13 million in the wider metropolitan area.

The government of Aftarestan is styled after the Rostamist view of communist governance in theory and in practice, with many of the country's state functions being partially or wholly replaced with local, communal systems ever since its founding, aiming to maintain as little permanent bureaucratic presence as possible, while working with the recognition that the current Revolutionary State has not achieved "true communism", owing to the belief that communism cannot be fully realized while capitalism is the dominant global mode of production. This belief has directed many of the country's actions on the international stage, including aligning with the IMS, and offering support for local revolutionary efforts in countries such as Nasiria. Aftarestan's governing party is the Revolutionary Party of Aftarestan, taking after the original Workers Union Party first organized in 1918, it has been the sole legal party in Aftarestan since 1966, with several iterative changes within its ideological, political, and philosophical frameworks driven by the goal to best reflect the changing conditions of modern world.

The river valleys of the Tavahid River in Aftarestan have been populated since as early as 11,000BCE, and has been home to civilizations since the first Elamite cities and kingdoms in the 4th millennium BCE. It was first united under the rule of the Iranian Sarumite tribes in the ninth century BCE.

Awshadi Dynasty (1798CE – 1921CE)
The Awshadi Dynasty was founded by Mohammad Ebrahim Shah in 1798CE, after five years of conflict following the death of Rezi Ali Shah III, the last ruler of the Zawadi Dynasty. Mohammad Ebrahim Shah (born Ebrahim Suri) was the fourth son of the chief of the Awshad tribe, the appointed governor of the Luk in 1777CE, and a member of Rezi Ali III’s Minister Council from 1784CE until the death of the Shah in 1793CE. Rezi Ali Shah III died after only nine years of rule to Tuberculosis at age 33, and without an heir, the throne was to go to Rezi Ali III’s cousin Hussayn Rokh Zawad. However before Hussayn Rokh could arrive at the capital, a coup led by several court nobles took place to install Hussayn Rokh’s brother Abbas Zawad as Shah, and upon Hussayn Rokh’s arrival, Abbas had him imprisoned and blinded in secret.

Mohammad Ebrahim, who had supported Hussayn Rokh Zawad, gathered support from other members of the Minister Council, and court nobles who opposed Abbas Zawad, and lead an uprising against Abbas and his supporters. Abbas abdicated the throne after less than a year of fighting, and as a result he was imprisoned and executed. Hussayn Rokh Zawad was placed on the throne, but died without an heir later that year to an infection in his wounds. With no legal heir to throne left alive, rebellions and revolts sprung up across the country as warlords began vying for control. The Minister Council ordered the raising of any forces loyal to the Court to assemble in the capital, and Mohammad Ebrahim, recognized for his efforts in securing the throne for Hussayn Rokh Zawad, was selected as commander in chief for the Minister Council’s forces in combating the rebel armies.

The campaign led by Mohammad Ebrahim lasted nearly three years, and consisted of many minor battles and skirmishes with rebelling warlords, peasants, and bandits, and culminated in the Battle of Latakh Valley (1797CE) where Mohammad Ebrahim’s forces defeated an army nearly a third in size larger than his own, putting the rebellions to a final end shortly thereafter. With his victories and accomplishments, Mohammad Ebrahim experienced a great surge in popularity among his forces and much of the populace for bringing back the peace. With this popularity, the Minister Council and much of the court nobility feared Mohammad Ebrahim would soon take control of the Council and Court, and conspired to have him assassinated upon his return to the Capital. However a member of the Council had sent a message to Ebrahim Shah in secret, telling him of the plans the Council had to assassinate him. Mohammad Ebrahim, upon receiving word of his planned assassination, marched his army on the Capital and soon laid siege to it, demanding every Noble and member of the Council who had conspired against him be brought out and publicly executed.

The siege lasted four months, with many defenders defecting to Mohammad Ebrahim’s army, and riots breaking out throughout the city. Upon Mohammad Ebrahim taking the capital, he ordered the execution of all those who had conspired against him, putting Ministers in their place that were loyal to him. On February 21st, 1798CE, Ebrahim Mohammad was declared Shah by the Minister Council, beginning the Awshadi dynasty.

Rise of Revolutionary Thought
The earliest traces of widespread leftist thought existing in Aftarestan goes back as far as the late 19th century, during the first major period of industrialization within Neyriz in the late 1880s. The subsequent rapid urban expansion, combined with the rapid acquisition of wealth and power among the industrialist, capitalist classes, and the strengthening foreign presence in the country and its politics, growing social movements and unions began sprouting up in major industrial centers.

Many union and movement leaders from this time were influenced by marxist, unionist, syndicalist, and anarchist ideology and praxis, and most would work together to organize worker strikes, set up networks, fund and organize public campaigns to spread information, class consciousness, and socialist literature among working class populations. Much of the action by these unions and worker movements were met with fierce, often times violent resistance by the state, and several unionbusting campaigns were launched at the behest of the industrialists.

During this early period of revolutionary thinking, a number of thinkers arose in prominence in Aftarestan, most namely of which were the sisters Afsun and Soudeh Rostami, Navid Karimi, Eskandar Esmaeili, Ava Taheri, and Fereshteh Reza, among several others from this time. By the early 1900s much of the disparate practices and tendencies of various worker groups were being unified and codified by these early revolutionary thought leaders, particularly the Rostami Sisters and Navid Karimi, all three prominent Marxists, who helped shape much of the early revolutionary thought in Aftarestan, and set the groundwork for later revolutionary thought and praxis in Aftarestan.

In February, 1919 a general strike began within the coastal city of Artagan, centered around the port workers union, demanding stricter safety regulations, work shifts and shorter overall hours, elevated wages, breaks, and several other demands. As the strike went on, resistance became fiercer and fiercer, brawls and skirmishes began to break out between the strikers and state forces, and eventually culminating in the February 25th incident, when state forces launched an assault on the city block the strike was centered in, firing multiple shots into a crowd of people killing more than 50 people, with several hundred wounded. This incident sparked other demonstrations and protests across Artagan to escalate into full scale riots, which only gained in intensity as state resistance became harsher and firmer, as more strikes, protests, and demonstrations arose in several other cities across the country.

By March 8th, 1919 the Aftari government, seeing their efforts of suppression to be ineffective, settled to negotiate with union and protest leaders, and by March 14th, general parliamentary elections were opened up to the general public, where they had previously been restricted only to the property-owning classes, and a snap election was held from March 15th to March 21st, with the newly created Workers Union Party, in coalition with the Social-Democratic Party took majority. Several reforms were implemented by the newly elected parliament, though most were largely only a compromise with the original demands by union leaders. While these comrpomises were viewed as an overall net positive by many, many revolutionary leaders were skeptical as to their effectiveness in improving the material conditions of the working classes in the long term, with several more going so far as to insist that these reforms were nothing but a pacification strategy by the state to halt revolutionary activity in the short term, only to be revoked later on down the line.

Government & Politics
The Constitution of the Revolution establishes that Aftarestan is "a Revolutionary Socialist State, committed to Rostamist principals of Marxism and Communism, lead by the Revolutionary Party as a form of Democratic Centralism within a system guided by councils lead by the proletarian masses." Aftarestan is one of the only Socialist States in Anterra governed by a Communist Party. The government of Aftarestan has three dominant apparatus which serve to act as the main bodies of the state, the People's Assembly of Aftarestan for the Legislature, the Central Committee for the Executive branch, and the Revolutionary Party of Aftarestan which is the sole legal governing political party in the nation.

The government of Aftarestan has been often described as adhering to ideals and principals, when compared to Volkovist states influenced by the UPRZ, and is sometimes considered similarly aligned with Ignatovism in certain key principals, with an adherence to local councils having influence on state policymaking, decentralized planning and worker markets within the economy, and a similar belief in a vanguard party leading the revolutionary effort within the nation. Much of the centralization of politics within the Revolutionary Party came after political reforms in the 1970s, with the adoption of a revised constitution in 1973 restricting other political parties to local departments, and making the Revolutionary Party the de facto sole legal party in national politics, with several branch parties in various local and autonomous regions.

As a founding member of the International Movement for Socialism, Aftarestan has often cooperated even with other socialist groups it doesn't conventionally align with, under the belief that in spite of disagreements on how a communist society will be achieved, the common goal is still the same, and that international cooperation is necessary for socialism to flourish in the world, especially in the fight against capitalist and imperialist hegemony. However, since 2018, the country has focused less of its international efforts into the IMS and sought out a more concrete, explicit military-economic alliance with other socialist and anti-colonialist, with significant effort being put into strengthening ties with countries like Atargistan and Arbenz.

Economy
The economy of Aftarestan is primarily a mixture between a Command Economy and a Decentrally-Planned Economy, with most key sectors being operated at the state level, but many non-essential sectors operated either communally, provincially, or by means of worker-owned cooperatives. The primary sectors owned and operated by the state are Agriculture, Mining & Extraction, Refining, Infrastructure & Transportation, Energy Production, and much of Goods Manufacturing. Examples of decentrally planned economic sectors would include Tourism, News & Media, Healthcare & Medicine, and Goods Distribution, primarily being a cooperative effort between state and various localities.

Much of the economy is set to fixed domestic prices, with the state having a monopoly on foreign trade of industrial materials, and agricultural goods, with direct oversight of many other aspects of foreign trade.

Most major national economic decisions are made by the Peoples Planning Committee, with much of the decision making coming down to votes cast directly by economic actors within the committee, often representatives elected by worker councils, but in cases such as no certain agreement being found by the committee, a council of state appointed economic advisors can act to direct planning and decision making at the national economic level.

Despite the state oversight and management of many major sectors in Aftarestan, much of the production process is built upon a working relationship between state guidance and direction, and worker needs, with particular emphasis on building up worker self-determination in and democratizing as many aspects of the workplace as possible.

As of 2000 the service sector was the largest sector of the economy, at 57.3% of the gdp, with it growing to 64.1% of the gdp by 2018, with the Industrial sector at 28.14% and the agricultural sector at 7.76%

Infrastructure & Transportation
Infrastructure and transportation have always been a key component of the modern Aftari economy beginning with the first major rail projects linking the coastal port city of Artagan to the capital of Neyriz in 1902, with several other projects undertaken by the Awshadi and Republican administrations. Under the revolutionary government's Infrastructure Expansion Project of 1968, a massive national effort was placed into rebuilding and expanding Aftarestan's roads and railways, as well as underground rail networks within several major cities. Several cities have airports that service passenger and cargo planes. Aftarestan Air is the official state airline, and operates the majority of domestic and international flights. Highways connect most of Aftarestan's major cities, with 1 major highway connecting the otherwise isolated south of Aftarestan to the rest of the country.

Public Transportation in most cities is operated at an almost entirely localized level, with most national transportation operated by the Ministerial Committee for Transportation.