Response to the Events in Equilism

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Earlier this week, the signatories of the Pax Polaris Occidens responded to the delegate tipping of Equilism by the Brotherhood of Malice. It was clear that BoM intended only to respond in kind to what they deemed to be unwarranted aggression when their new ally Warzone Asia suffered the same from The West Pacific, and that they believe they conducted an equivalent act that leaves them and TWP square. Equilism was content to end their relationship with BoM and we recognized the circumstances involved in the military exchange. As far as closing the circle between TWP and BoM, we were willing to acknowledge that the tit for tat was settled. However, we would be remiss if we did not point out some significant issues that the recent exchange between BoM and TWP has created.

Firstly, Equilism is allied to both TWP and to TNP. Regardless of where one falls on the fairness of BoM’s response or TWP’s move on Warzone Asia, the target they chose was not one that would just impact TWP. Secondly, an attack on any member of the PPO still violates that agreement. We will not debate the merits of turnabout being fair play, when the simple fact is BoM has crossed the line we warned the world not to cross. There are consequences for violating the PPO’s protection, and those consequences are far more significant than a vandalized WFE or a displaced delegate. BoM had no cause to strike at one of TNP’s allies, and the offended parties have mastery over a theater of conflict where BoM’s loose mob of raiders cannot help them.

Today the signatories of the PPO are joined by our fellow Modern Gameplay Compact signatories, Europeia and Balder, to advance our response to BoM’s latest aggression. They will come in the form of sanctions, and these sanctions will take effect immediately. While our five regions are signatories to these sanctions, we hope we are just the first, and we invite and encourage the regions of the world to join us in these sanctions. In doing so, you will not only send a message to BoM and their allies, you will send a message to the NationStates world, and most importantly, to any regions or groups who may mistakenly believe it is a good idea to establish closer relations with BoM. We hope with these sanctions that our position on BoM and recent events is clear: we reject you from our homes, from our regions, from the work that we have put into creating this world that you terrorize. We have built while you have burned, and if you wish to play amongst the ashes, then we will grant you only the ashes.

The following regions/organizations are hereby sanctioned as to Part 1: Brotherhood of Malice, The Black Hawks (section d)

1. Members of the sanctioned regions/organizations are prohibited from:
a. participating in any events hosted by the signatory regions/organizations;
b. being members of coalitions, factions, etc. led by the signatory regions/organizations in NS events;
c. being included in/platformed by media or promotional events/endeavors produced by the signatory regions/organizations;
d. serving in a leading/command role in joint military operations hosted by the signatory regions/organizations

The following regions/organizations are hereby sanctioned as to Part 2: Brotherhood of Malice, The Black Hawks (section d)

2. The signatory regions/organizations are prohibited from:
a. participating in any events hosted by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations or in any events hosted by regions/organizations in which members of the sanctioned region/organizations participate notwithstanding those events held on neutral ground as agreed upon as part of standing and priorly agreed treaty obligations and so long as those events are not hosted by sanctioned organizations;
b. participating in coalitions/factions/etc led by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations or in which members of the sanctioned regions/organizations participate;
c. participating in any media or promotional events/endeavors produced by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations or in which members of the sanctioned regions/organizations are included/platformed;
d. participating in military operations hosted/led by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations, provided those operations are not exclusively anti-fascist in nature.

The following regions/organizations are hereby sanctioned as to Part 3: Brotherhood of Malice, The Black Hawks

3. The signatory regions/organizations will:
a. oppose and vote against World Assembly resolutions authored or co-authored by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations;
b. support and vote for resolutions repealing resolutions authored or co-authored by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations;
c. oppose and vote against World Assembly resolutions nominating members of the sanctioned regions/organizations for commendation/condemnation;
d. support and vote for resolutions repealing resolutions nominating members of the sanctioned regions/organizations for commendation/condemnation;
e. support and vote for resolutions liberating regions occupied by members of the sanctioned regions/organizations

The following regions hereby sign on to the sanctions as outlined above, and pledge to carry out and abide by them: The North Pacific, The Pacific, The West Pacific, Europeia, Balder

How does this affect users who are both members (citizenship or equivalent) of the signatories as well as the sanctioned organisations?

EDIT: Also, does opposing resolutions nominating members of the sanctioned organisations & written by members of the sanctioned organisations include the possibility of quorum raiding to ensure they don't get to vote?

While I’m sure this (won’t) accomplish much of actually stopping raiders from doing raid stuff anymore than they’re able to stop their SC stuff from being removed with this, I do have a few questions.

Firstly, why is TBH included (but not other raider groups or allies)? Is it a matter of relative membership crossover, differences in private talks, or something else? Is this status tied to whatever association with Malice, or in the very unlikely event they do dissociate would it go away?

This is somewhat more a matter of wording, but the section on individuals provides for an antifash exception, but the organizations section does not. Is the intention that they are allowed to attend but not be involved in organization only, or does that extend to org credit as well?

Are the WA bits intended (on repeals) to apply no matter the quality of a repeal attempt?

How far does the individual member ban on events/etc extend - or perhaps, the better question would be, what qualifies as an event/etc? I presume everything purely IC, but does it include edge cases and more OOC events? Similarly to Freg’s question, is Gladio now banned from our cultural events?

Fregerson:

How does this affect users who are both members (citizenship or equivalent) of the signatories as well as the sanctioned organisations?

EDIT: Also, does opposing resolutions nominating members of the sanctioned organisations & written by members of the sanctioned organisations include the possibility of quorum raiding to ensure they don't get to vote?

Click to expand...

They would be impacted. The membership in the sanctioned organization triggers the sanctions regardless of whatever other associations they have. Cross-members get hit same as a pure member who has no other place to call home.

We always reserve the right to utilize quorum raiding, but that is something we would decide to do on our own, not governed by the sanctions.

Lord Dominator:

While I’m sure this (won’t) accomplish much of actually stopping raiders from doing raid stuff anymore than they’re able to stop their SC stuff from being removed with this, I do have a few questions.

Firstly, why is TBH included (but not other raider groups or allies)? Is it a matter of relative membership crossover, differences in private talks, or something else? Is this status tied to whatever association with Malice, or in the very unlikely event they do dissociate would it go away?

This is somewhat more a matter of wording, but the section on individuals provides for an antifash exception, but the organizations section does not. Is the intention that they are allowed to attend but not be involved in organization only, or does that extend to org credit as well?

Are the WA bits intended (on repeals) to apply no matter the quality of a repeal attempt?

Click to expand...

Recent events have made clear that TBH is adhering ever more strongly with BoM, even at the expense of their allies who do not wish to associate with BoM. For our part, TNP no longer has anything to do with TBH, and our fellow MGC partners are all on the same page. However, given that we do not hold them equally responsible for the far greater list of grievances that BoM has accumulated, the sanction impact on TBH reflects that. It’s unfortunate you feel it’s unlikely they will disassociate, because of course we hope these sanctions will do just that, make such an outcome more feasible for them. Disassociation would have a favorable impact on the sanctions, of course.

There is no need for both clauses to have an anti-fash exception. One says that our signatories won’t put them in leadership roles in joint ops that our signatories host or lead - that does not stop joint ops from being hosted that include them, and obviously some of those joint ops may be anti-fash. The exception exists in the other one because if they lead anti-fash joint ops, we’re not going to stop our signatories from attending for non-OOC reasons - we still take that seriously and aren’t about to ruin worldwide fash bashes like we have seen in the past.

We certainly hope that any resolution that makes it to vote will be of sufficient quality to warrant passage. I can see this being ridiculously stretched, but I’m confident the signatories will treat the obviously poor attempts the same way they treat others that they would otherwise be inclined to support.

So before someone spouts off if they look at this thread or thinks I'm cowering behind an edit:

Section 2(a) was amended to add the wording "notwithstanding those events held on neutral ground as agreed upon as part of standing and priorly agreed treaty obligations and so long as those events are not hosted by sanctioned organizations." as of February 5, 2023. It was not edited until today because of my waiting on confirmation on something that, to my knowledge, hasn't happened. The amended language allows us to keep up our treaty obligations to The Rejected Realms (which counts some BoM members as citizens) and was made explicitly for that purpose. The North Pacific is still prevented from being part of, and would decline participating in, events that are hosted in whole or in part by the Brotherhood of Malice.