It lives on in our memories

[Sestak]

Rest in Peace*

Atlasian Labor Party
20??-2018




*and Progressive Union

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Rest in Peace*

Atlasian Labor Party
20??-2018




*and Progressive Union

Clever

[Pericles]

I don't accept it as dead. The pendulum will swing back. Labor can rise again and be made great again.

[Lincoln Republican]

Atlasia must never permit itself to become the unwitting pawn in a one party state controlled by bureaucrats and oligarchs. 

[TheSaint250]

Press F to pay respects

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The Labor party was founded January 28, 2012.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

F

[The Govanah Jake]

Labor shall never die!

[Pericles]

Ok yep, you were right Sestak all along, Labour is no longer of this world-it has ascended to heaven.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Can it not be Social Democratic whatever? We've had enough of those in Atlasia. Labor Party rolls off the tongue nicely.

I prefer SDU over another Labor Party, personally :>

Atlasia's never had a Labor Party, to the best of my knowledge. It's had many parties that were called Social Democratic.

The party born of a caucus.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I guess we can add Labor's name to the long list of Xahar's Contributions to the game.
 

[Virginiá]

What I am curious about is: Did Labor die out for any other reason(s) than simply a small losing streak that snowballed into people ditching the party for no other reason than it became "the thing to do?"

Atlas is absurdly prone to the bandwagon effect, and the ideas which Labor was built around are still very much alive - no less than before even (afaik), so with that purpose, its death seems to be meaningless. It died because people very quickly gave up on it. Now, I know I'm just a lowly Atlasia voter, but it seems downright comical that a forum like Atlas, which has a overt leftist slant, could have an elections game where the left's primary party has practically dissolved and whose base has fractured.

It's also worth mentioning how this seems to reflect America as a whole to some degree. Democrats have more voters, but Republicans have structural advantages and more reliable voters, so they win more often. At least in legislative races.

[All Along The Watchtower]

[windjammer]

What I am curious about is: Did Labor die out for any other reason(s) than simply a small losing streak that snowballed into people ditching the party for no other reason than it became "the thing to do?"

Well, that is literally this reason lol.

[Pericles]

If Labor had been able to save itself, it would have. If the party leadership had not shot themselves in the foot but had actually been able to make a case for why the party should be preserved(and why it could be), then the decline could have been stopped and I'd have stayed. People like me who left didn't want to leave, we didn't do it because it was 'the thing to do' or cool to leave, but because the party clearly didn't have a future by that point and the Progressive Union Party for me and other parties for other people were genuinely more attractive than the remnants of Labor.

[Anna Komnene]

@Virginia - There's probably a lot of reasons, but I think the main one is for a long time the Labor Party was mostly composed of people who used to enjoy playing Atlasia like 3-5 years ago but don't have any interest in running for office anymore. It always seemed like they were having trouble fielding candidates or finding people to replace ones who'd resigned for whatever reason. When you have situations where the outcome is mostly predetermined (like with the House for example), it's not very exciting for voters either. Back when the party would have a full slate of candidates, people could have fun choosing. When there are only 2-3 left wing candidates running, it makes filling out the ballot incredibly boring. People just kind of move on after a while. Also, I know there were a few instances where people who still did want to try to run for office, left the game out of frustration when they felt like it didn't really matter how much effort they put into the campaign, they would just lose anyway.

[Blair]

I feel I should give the extended story of Labor; considering I most likely have the sad honour of being the last Labour President, and the last chair to hold the position for a significant amount of time, but the reality is one that the federalists have started to face; once you gain power you fracture. It's like those African Nationalist Parties in the 1960's who gained power after the British/French left- once you get the palace, you start making mistakes.

As recently as 2017 we held 5/6 senate seats (which included what I regard as one of the best campaigns when Sjoyce managed to unseat Leinad as Southern Senator last year) and we held I think all 3 Governor mansions at the same time.

In that era I always thought of Labor as much like a massive oil tanker; large, powerful, valuable, but extremely slow, lumbering and all it took was iceberg to begin the slow sink.

We had the disaster of Never-Again's Febuary 2016 Presidential Run which collapsed under Labor's own arrogance, my incompetence as Chair, a mythical hope that Adam's machine would turn out, and DFW's skill as a campaigner.

This then then lead me to absolutely hate and despise Atlasia, partly as I'd been chair for nearly a year, and had been in Atlasia holding office for 18 months. I spend ages proceeding to tell everyone I wanted to quit as chair, but refused to quit until I found a successor. I think WJ was right in saying I was an awful chair at managing the party, but was half decent at being able to whip election votes, and win campaigns.

I actually took Labor to a pretty high membership level (around the 70-80s) which was about 20-25 above the federalists, and I managed to get some pretty decent people recruited to the game, but I realized that Labor needed to have a message, and a purpose The only message that could be was one that in my view explicitly progressive; which of course lead to accusations that we were 'too extreme'. I always took it that it was a dying strategy to chase, and court 5-6 'moderate' voters who could easily all de-register at once.

Of course there were elements, and accusations were the party leadership was accused of being heavy handed; I can try and blame it on the fact that my politics is very based on the extremely hierarchical, rigid and imo effective British Labour (and parliamentary system) where other than votes of conscience you vote with the party, always. In a similar sense, Labor in Atlasia had a similar branding; we weren't the Social Democrats, or the Socialists, it was Labor. It's not an ideological party based on a theory; it's based much more on a more old school fixer approach.

In that sense I was the last breed of Labor people who came before the reset; and so the methods that I was taught about Labor were frankly seen as authoritarian (although 95% it was incompetence mixed with authoritarianism).

A major factor of course was that it was miserable to be in Labor at times; the only conversations, and interactions seemed to be about sorting out a sh**tshow, or trying to panic to get a 4th House seat in the bi-monthly house race. A major failing was not having the social element of Labor; because I know first hand that the people in Atlasia who will fight, throw themselves on the line, and frankly do the sh**t work that politics requires are people who you're friendly with.

It's no surprise that the the fracturing, and emergence of the three main parties are the three tents of Labour; the anti-war leftists (Peace), the progressives/Social Democrats (PUP) and the mix of centrists/Liberals (Alliance). The first two were always in Labor, and our success came from courting the third group. I expect that the Peace Party and PUP will eventually merge, or work in close transition; leaving us in the same.

People ask why did Labor die, and frankly it's because Labor's brand of politics didn't suit the reset environment which saw a flood of new players come in, and which saw a fair deal of Labor's leadership cut off from the game.

I've been extremely relaxed about Labor's death because frankly we've been dead since last summer, and the illness had set at the start of 2017. I look back on my reign as Chair, and President  as that of an ageing monarch who knew that the Kingdom was crumbling, the invading armies were just off the coast and that the court was disarray. There's nothing that could have been done to save Labor because there was nothing to save other than a name.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think people make a big mistake in this game. They assume their establishments holding down newer people in existing parties. In fact, most of the times it is the opposite, newer members holding themselves back and leadership trying to encourage them to run.

Blair just stated something very telling. He recruited himself up to 80 members, and struggled to find candidates.

There is a level of generalized caution and for many disinterest that leads to passive engagement at best and difficulty fielding candidates.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

https://youtu.be/0GjHgGmOeCY?t=136

Sorry couldn't resist, seeing all the comparisons to European leftist parties.

[Blair]

I think people make a big mistake in this game. They assume their establishments holding down newer people in existing parties. In fact, most of the times it is the opposite, newer members holding themselves back and leadership trying to encourage them to run.

Blair just stated something very telling. He recruited himself up to 80 members, and struggled to find candidates.

There is a level of generalized caution and for many disinterest that leads to passive engagement at best and difficulty fielding candidates.

I was going to joke I was glad that someone read it; but I didn't claim to recruit 80, just that our membership reached 80

But yes I agree largely; whilst some people will argue differently, at least in the Northeast/North/Lincoln which was my patch I had a good record at getting junior people to run for Assembly, and then building off that.

I still think that the entire setup of Atlasia is beyond confusing for new players; I was lucky that when I joined I was able to get appointed to the Assembly, become speaker within a term, and then get appointed to the Senate

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think people make a big mistake in this game. They assume their establishments holding down newer people in existing parties. In fact, most of the times it is the opposite, newer members holding themselves back and leadership trying to encourage them to run.

Blair just stated something very telling. He recruited himself up to 80 members, and struggled to find candidates.

There is a level of generalized caution and for many disinterest that leads to passive engagement at best and difficulty fielding candidates.

I was going to joke I was glad that someone read it; but I didn't claim to recruit 80, just that our membership reached 80

But yes I agree largely; whilst some people will argue differently, at least in the Northeast/North/Lincoln which was my patch I had a good record at getting junior people to run for Assembly, and then building off that.

I still think that the entire setup of Atlasia is beyond confusing for new players; I was lucky that when I joined I was able to get appointed to the Assembly, become speaker within a term, and then get appointed to the Senate

I don't think it comes down to luck, I think it comes down to passion and hunger.

[YE]

Not sure which is more amazing.

The idea that this thread didn’t age well.

Or the fact in an alternate history it could have aged much worse.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Not sure which is more amazing.

The idea that this thread didn’t age well.

Or the fact in an alternate history it could have aged much worse.

For a minute I thought this was a new thread.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I don't accept it as dead. The pendulum will swing back. Labor can rise again and be made great again.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Not sure which is more amazing.

The idea that this thread didn’t age well.

Or the fact in an alternate history it could have aged much worse.

For a minute I thought this was a new thread.