The Blood Soaked Tulip - [CLOSED; ATTN EOTHASIA]

[The Volnaya Territoriya]

Tehran, Socialist Federal Republic of Iran
January 15th, 2030

The 15th of January came by with an unexpected snowstorm that gutted Tehran's battered power grid like a fish. Temperatures dropped to -10°C, blackouts spread like wildfire across the city, and snow paralyzed the streets before the government could respond. Many elderly folk who survived five years of civil war died in their sleep, while families huddled together around indoor fires made from trash and tires.

If a blackout struck over two thirds of New York City or London, there would be widespread hysteria and outrage. Mass looting, chaos, confusion and anger all at once. But in Tehran, the blackout lasted nearly 12 hours seemingly uneventfully. By mid-morning, most Tehranis had their power back, and impromptu armies of community volunteers, not government workers, cleared most of the streets. Though temperatures were still at -7°C and the city was clouded in a mixture of snowy fog and toxic fumes from all the trash being burned.

As was said earlier, this would be a nightmare for any other city of 7-8 million people. But for Tehran, it was barely a minor inconvenience, compared to what the city has endured this past decade. Coronavirus, economic depression, riots, war, all in near rapid secession from one another. And now finally, a period of calm.

Tehran looks almost like a ghost town. Many buildings are boarded up and abandoned, a city once known for having the worst traffic in the world now has little cars on the street to speak of, most traffic being buses coming and going. Stray dogs and cats are everywhere, their previous owners presumably gone or dead. Bullet holes and burn marks can still be found easily. But despite everything, the city was still alive. The subways were still packed with people of all walks of life. Shops were being reopened (under new management), people could still be found living their lives as normally as they can, talking to relatives on their phones, getting into arguments on the street about petty nonsense, laughing and running late to work or class. It was a sign of normalcy returning after a war that killed nearly half a million people.

Looking around one can see signs of the Revolution everywhere. Billboards and bus stops no longer show advertisements but posters celebrating "Mao Zedong-Hossein Nazari Thought", "The Women's Revolution", "The Cultural Revolution in Iran", "Islamic Socialism", and calling for "Destroying Patriarchy", and "Returning to Nature". Red flags lined the streets. Youths with red or purple armbands signifying themselves as members of the Red Guard or the all-women Violet Guard, or soldiers of the Iranian Peoples Liberation Army were everywhere. The Revolution was inescapable

Prime Minister Maryam Rahmani stood in front of a wall covered with massive paintings of the Fadaiyan-e-Khalq's heroes: From left to right, Cyrus the Great, Imam Ali, Karl Marx, Mao Zedong and finally, a man with a dark complexion, a defined brow ridge covered with a thick unibrow, slick black hair and a long black beard. That last man was Brother Hossein, the chief theoretician of Mao Zedong-Hossein Nazari Thought and the undoubted "leader" of Iran. In front the mural, Rahmani seemed insignificant, hunched behind her desk. Farzaneh entered the room and immediately greeted her with a stiff salute. Farzaneh wore a black military uniform with a beret and a purple armband. "Zindabad Iran! Marg bar Amrika!", exclaimed Farzaneh, Rahmani stood up and saluted back, repeating "Zindabad Iran! Marg bar Amrika!"

"Officer Farzaneh Soroush, it is an honor to meet you. I have looked at your record carefully before making my decision, and what I found was one of the most committee revolutionaries that we have the fortune of still being alive in these difficult times. I apologize for the short notice, we both know of the uhm, incident that took place. That will not be the last one. What I want to ask you is, do you know that Israel, America and the global Bourgeois want Iran to be destroyed? That they want the Revolution destroyed?"

"I know, as Brother Hossein warned us."

"And you know they will use terrorists to disrupt the government and kill our revolutionary leaders?'

"Yes, I know."

"So you understand that should my life be at risk, you must do whatever it takes to preserve the Revolutionary Dictatorship of the Proletariat, even if that means losing your own life?"

"Prime Minister Rahmani, in the name of Allah, on the blood soaked tulip of the martyrs, I swear to you that I will stop at nothing to preserve the Dictatorship of the Proletariat from all bourgeois attacks. Being martyred defending your life is an honor I will embrace."

"Are you aware of your first assignment? Today, you will be defending not only my life, but the life of the Britannic ambassador to Iran. I don't think I can underestimate the importance of obtaining diplomatic and economic support from my Britannia at this moment in time. Britannia is inundated with... Bourgeois and Zionist propaganda seeking to isolate Iran from other socialist nations. The Britannic government needs to see a positive picture of Iran before they can commit to supporting our Revolution in its aims. We need their support now more than ever.

"Understood, Prime Minister."

"Therefore, safety of the ambassador is just as importance as my safety. Any failure to guarantee the security of the delegation will be a failure on your part, and you shall be disciplined accordingly. Understood?"

"Understood, I will carry out my tasks with the highest vigilance."

Rahmani dismissed Farzaneh and looked at the time. 10:36 AM. The delegation is to arrive at 11. She rubbed her eyes in fatigue, sighing. She did not know how productive this meeting with the Britannic delegation would be. She considered the economic and political policies of Britannia to be "liberal" by her standards. They haven't even abolished the commodity-form yet. In her mind, it was Iran that had to show Britannia the way, but she knew that wasn't how this works. Infrastructure across Iran is severely damaged, ten million people are in refugee camps, the oil fields are in ruins, the ports are empty, and the Basij is still some ~100,000 men strong, holding on to the remote parts of Khorasan and the Zagros Mountains with no hope of getting them to surrender any time soon. Vietnam and North Korea can't prop up Iran's crumbled economy and unless something changes, it might very well collapse.

[Glorious Britannia]

[The Volnaya Territoriya]

Tehran, Socialist Federal Republic of Iran
January 15th, 2030

Iran was for all intents and purposes a hermit kingdom. Most states in the world did not recognize the Socialist Federal Republic as the legitimate government of Iran, but rather still held diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, despite the Socialist Federal Republic controlling 98% of Iran at this point in time, and the government of the Islamic Republic relegated to Istanbul.

The reason for this was doubtlessly ideological - Especially in the case of countries such as Turkey, Russia, and Yemen. But many countries simply hadn't resumed relations over trade disputes: The Socialist Federal Republic expropriated any foreign owned business or asset that wasn't already flown out of the country by the time of the 2024 Revolution, without compensation. Countries such as India, China, Japan, France, and many others refuse to recognize the Socialist Federal Republic until their country's assets are either returned to their owners, or their owners are compensated. The former option being something the Socialist Federal Republic refuses to do and the latter option being something it can't do due to its near lack of foreign capital and extremely damaged economy. This combined with America, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel imposing "proxy sanctions" on companies or governments that do business with Iran makes Iran near totally economically isolated.

This makes the Eothasi visit of dire importance. Eothasia could not only provide much needed economic and humanitarian aid to the war ridden country, but also help push other nations to recognize its government and to reopen trade ties with the country. Iranian news was abuzz with the news of Eothasia potentially starting diplomatic relations with the country and the potential that could have on the country's rebuilding process.

When Eliseo and the Eothasi delegation was escorted from the airport to a government building where the initial meeting was to take place, he was greeted by a small crowd, flying the flags of Iran and the Fadaiyan-e-Khalq. A large banner was held over the crowd, homemade and in English, stating "THE WEST BUILDS WALLS - EOTHASIA, CUBA, VIETNAM BUILD BRIDGES". Behind armed men and women in full combat uniforms and Kalashnikovs, people waved to Eliseo's convoy with smiles on their faces.

At the entrance, Eliseo's delegation was met by the Iranian government delegation lead at the front by Prime Minister Maryam Rahman. Rahman was of Balochi ethnicity, from the country's impoverished Baluchestan province, which she represented in parliament. Rahman was originally a Violet Guard commander, leading the Baluchistan section of the Violet Guard, which was crucial in the Bandar Abbas Crisis, when a coalition of Gulf states occupied the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas in 2027 to keep the Persian Gulf secure. There, Rahman received international infamy when during a ceasefire negotiation summit in Lebanon, she got into a fight with a UAE diplomat. A physical fight. Which ended with Rahman throwing the diplomat down a flight of stairs, breaking his legs. Needless to say, no ceasefire was reached and the Iranian delegation was immediately expelled from Lebanon.

But as they say, one man's thug who throws diplomats down flights of stairs is another man's voice of the people: Rahman became a celebrity (and a meme) in Iran, and when Brother Hossein refused to run for public office during the country's first parliamentary elections post-revolution, Rahman was seen as the right leader for Fadaiyan-e-Khalq's supporters to rally around. The Fadaiyan-e-Khalq-lead New Iran List went on to gain over 60% of the seats in the election. Since then, Rahman has become known internationally as a pariah; known mostly for her inflammatory and unhinged rhetoric.

Rahman was of the same height as Eliseo. She had strong South Asian features and long, flowy black hair, and greeted Eliseo with a large white smile. "Hello, Mr. Luque, sorry for the relative chaos here, hopefully it hasn't been a problem for your delegation so far. Normally, winters here in Tehran are somewhat mild, but you know, with climate change, you can never know."

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Prime Minister Maryam Rahman. I'll be your "guide", I suppose. And here are the other members of my delegation", gesturing to her party. Eliseo had doubtlessly knew of these figures already through his research, but here he got to see them in the flesh:

Khadijeh Karami Commander-in-chief of the Committee for the Defense of the Cultural Revolution, which acts as a de-facto governing organization for Red Guards in Iran. Minister of the Interior. Minister of Culture. Karami was originally an experimental multimedia artist whose work was moderately famous at home and abroad. She is believed to be one of the founding members of Fadaiyan-e-Khalq, one of the main architects of its cultural policy and a close friend of Brother Hossein. She is widely considered to be third most powerful person in Iran.

Karami sported messy black hair cut to the shoulders, bloodshot eyes and oddly enough, a thin but noticeable mustache.

Zeynab Akbari Commander-in-chief of the Violet Guard. Minister of Women's Revolution. Originally an LGBT rights activist who worked clandestinely with liberal Western NGOs, she became convinced through her experiences with the violence of the Basij of the need for an armed resistance in Iran. She is one of the few military commanders to have survived the entirety of the Iranian Civil War, and thus has strong ties to all elements of Iran's armed forces.

Akbari had her hair in a ponytail and wore circular frame glasses. Like Karami, she sported a thin mustache.

Mostafa Hosseinzadeh Minister of Foreign Affairs. A member of Iran's Green Party - A more moderate democratic socialist party within Fadaiyan-e-Khalq's coalition, Hosseinzadeh was a researcher at a Western human rights NGO in Germany, specializing in Iran and the Middle East. Hosseinzadeh as Minister of Foreign Affairs has acted as a moderating influence on Rahman's cabinet, urging a negotiated settlement to expropriation disputes. He does this oftentimes in open conflict with the nationalist and inflammatory rhetoric of Rahman herself.

Hosseinzadeh had horn rimmed sunglasses, and unlike his two female colleagues was clean shaven, save for his sideburns.

With brief greetings over, the group headed upstairs to a conference room. Hosseinzadeh stood up and began speaking in perfect, though accented English.

"First of all, on behalf of the delegation, thank you for taking the time to come here, to this nation and trying to objectively observe the conditions here. We deeply express our gratitude towards your willingness to reach out in international solidarity.

Secondly, what's probably most important to you is accommodation. Here's the thing about that, it's not going to be good. Iran is a nation that has endured five years of civil war. Rebuilding has only just begun and it's at a slow pace. Needless to say, Iran is not bracing for a tourist influx any time soon so hotels have been given low priority.

Now on to the trip itself, we had some communication with your superiors over the last few weeks about this visit, and we have some things planned for you of course, but the officials that we spoke to didn't specify what of Iranian society they wanted the delegation to inspect at first hand. That leads us to our major question, what is it that this delegation would like to see first and foremost throughout their trip through Iran?"

[Eothasia]

[The Volnaya Territoriya]

Hosseinzadeh looked at Eliseo warmly and told him "That's what we thought, what we wanted, really. We have a travel plan ready, where we'll spend the next week taking you around the country, try and give you a full picture not only of the challenges we are facing, but we are accomplishing as well. But for the next couple of days, you'll be here in Tehran. And don't worry, we want to have an in-depth discussion as much as you do."

The meeting went by for another half hour, mostly going over some minor details to the trip, such as security. After the meeting, Eliseo was informed that his first trip was to the neighborhood of Jannat Abad, where he would get to see the communes the Communists had set up in action. These communes reportedly spanned the entire country by now, and was seen as a pillar of the revolution by the government. He was given a guide, Zahra, a Violet Guard in charge of helping radicalized women in northwest Tehran, to help explain what he saw throughout the trip.

Jannat Abad, Northwest Tehran
12:48 PM

As Eliseo was driven further away from downtown, the city visibly began to become more decrepit. There were more and more abandoned buildings, some heavily damaged and some seeming to stretch whole neighborhoods. The roads were a nightmare, Eliseo was regularly jolted up and down as the car drove through cratered asphalt.

One thing that stood out though was the presence of paintings everywhere. At first they seemed to all be propaganda posters - And many were. But increasingly, Eliseo noticed that many seemed to lack any political message, or any message at all. Even the more overtly political paintings were intricately designed and unique. Emulating Expressionist, Suprematist, Dadaist and Surrealist motifs, they all bordered on bizarreness and incomprehensibility. They could be found on bus stops, storefront windows, and plastered over buildings. Some of them were reproductions of famous avant-garde artists, others seemed to be original pieces.

When asked about it, Zahra simply stated "One of the tasks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is the abolition of the separation between art and everyday life, which is a reflection of the division of labor and alienation". Zahra seemed to have thought that to be an adequate explanation and didn't explain further.

Upon reaching Jannat Abad, the first thing Eliseo saw was that the largest building in the area was heavily scarred at the top by what appears to have been an artillery shell. All of the buildings were pecked with shrapnel and bullets. Many buildings lacked windows and appeared abandoned. Car traffic was nonexistent and pedestrian traffic was scarce.

The car drove up to a nondescript five story apartment building, where a few children were playing in the front. Entering it, the two were greeted with a dimly lit hallway and no one there. They climbed up the stairs to the third floor, and there they saw all of the doors on the floor ajar. The hallway was filled with the sound of vacuums, music and chatter. As they walked around, they saw groups of people cleaning each apartment - vacuuming the rugs, wiping down the counters and tables, and mopping the tile floors.

The people cleaning the apartments seemed indifferent but Zahra looked upon them with a glowing smile. "This is the future of Iran", she proclaimed. "The people here are members of the commune, which takes up this neighborhood. They have volunteered to clean all of the apartments of this building, but tomorrow, they might volunteer at the local grocery store, and the next day, they will work at one of the restaurants, or the daycare."

She concluded with "This is the end to the capitalist division of labor. People are no longer employed to a single firm and forced to perform the same task over and over again for wages. Instead they volunteer for whatever needs to be done in their community. And in turn, they receive access to the community's wealth. No money is needed. Under the light of Mao Zedong-Hossein Nazari Thought and the leadership of Brother Hossein, we have reached a critical step toward the transition to Communism."

Zahra and Eliseo looked upon the communards cleaning for a bit before Zahra looked at Eliseo with excitement. "Actually, while we're here, I might as well show you the most important struggle of the Cultural Revolution."

The two ventured down into the second floor, they opened the door of what seemed to be an unremarkable apartment. Instead, what Eliseo saw was a makeshift daycare center. Several toddlers were playing around in the cramped living room, which showcased a large mural depicting Cyrus the Great, Imam Ali and Brother Hossein. Two workers looked after the infants, a man and a woman. "The infants are kept in the bedroom," Zahra said. "It is small and has few resources as you can see, but it is a major step. We, the Violet Guards set these things up. We decided that after returning from war, after seeing our comrades die, after being wounded, and killing the enemy, we didn't want to devolve into housewives, into mere servants for our husbands. So we fought for these", she said with a proud smile.

Zahra squatted down to one of the toddlers, playing with him as she continued, "With communal apartment cleaning, with communal childcare, with the abolition of private property and inheritance, the burdens of motherhood have been dissolved. Women are no longer expected to be slaves to their husband. These are the critical steps to the abolition of the family."

Iran was a country with broken roads, damaged infrastructure, decaying and scarred buildings, fuel shortages, an ongoing small scale civil war, and having just finished a large scale civil war; the country was in ruins. Yet, the Communist government was seeking to accomplish feats no Communist has hoped for in their lifetimes: The abolition of wage labor, the abolition of the division of labor, the abolition of the family. And, at least in Jannat Abad, it seemed to be making a serious effort toward these goals. It was all very surreal.

[Eothasia]