October 4306Dorvik set to abandon nuclear weapons?A
bill proposing to dismantle Dorvik's nuclear weapons arsenal looks set to pass in Parliament, with 341 of 563 MPs indicating they plan to vote in favour. The political left in Dorvik, particularly the Communist Party, has been campaigning against nuclear weapons for many years, and would see the passing of this bill as a considerable achievement.
Communist leader Anton Weinreich has gleefully told journalists:
If this bill passes, and I'm increasingly hopeful it will, Dorvik should dismantle its nuclear weapons live on national television and broadcast it all over Terra, free of charge, so the whole world can see. As a nation, the removal of these terrible weapons is something we should be very relieved and very proud to do.
Two of the nuclear missiles, “DA4 Gretchen” and “DA5 Gluck”, are named after right-wing politicians the Communists despised, and the spectacle of them being taken apart on television would doubtless give the Communists much satisfaction.
Communists protest against private oil companiesFollowing
the discovery of oil off the coasts of Largonia and Miktar, and proposals to hand exploitation rights to a Dorvish and a Valruzian company, the Communists
have proposed the full nationalisation of all oil and gas resources in Dorvish territory. Anton Weinreich commented:
It is totally wrong to allow our natural resources, which should be used for the benefit of the ordinary Dorvish people, to be exploited by private companies, just so they can make profit. Some of these companies are not even Dorvish, so the profits are siphoned off abroad.
The Communist MP Herman Faust-Essen, who campaigned for the independence of Largonia and Miktar during the referendum a few years back, had a slightly different view:
The South is being completely left out of the decision-making process. This is our oil; it is off our waters, it belongs to us - the people of the South. Decisions should not be being made for us by big corporations, and certainly not by a big corporation from Valruzia. Nor should the decisions be being made by northerners in Haldor. It is my strong view that the oil off the coast of Largonia and Miktar should be placed under the guardianship of the elected Largonia and Miktar Provincial Administrations. That way, there will be local democratic accountability and the people will be given a proper say.
Weinreich expressed disagreement with Faust-Essen, arguing "the oil should be used in the interests of the whole of the people of Dorvik, not just the south".
Some others in the party, led by Erica Peters, have warned against the use of fossil fuels, urging the development of alternative energy sources instead, such as solar and wind power. It seems the Communists are not fully united on the issue.
Pfeiffer leads campaign to save Communist Bus StopThe last Communist Bus Stop in Karlstein Metz Street, in the south-eastern sector of Schrudehofen CityDuring the Kordusian Provincial Authority's tempestuous days of Communist rule, almost every bus stop was a "Communist Bus Stop", featuring hammers and sickles in the design, or else pictures of Karlstein Metz,Vladimir Leonid and other important figures in the history of communism. However, in the years since the Communists lost control of the KPA, the bus stops have slowly been replaced. Today there is only one left, in Karlstein Metz Street in Schrudehofen City.
Although it is not believed there are any immediate plans to remove the bus stop, Communist MP Friedrich Pfeiffer is keen to have it legally classified as a monument of significant historical interest, in order to prevent it from either being removed or significantly altered.
"Whatever you think of communism and Kordusia's period under Communist Party rule, it was a part of history," Pfeiffer said. He continued: "Everybody remembers the old Communist bus stops, and people are nostalgic about them - even people who don't like communism. I think it would be very sad if we lost the last of the old Communist bus stops, so I have written to President Grunebaum, asking her to intervene and give the bus stop protected legal status, to make sure we don't lose it. This is a very special, much-loved bus stop. We've surely got to preserve it."