The Condor Flag Party

INTERVIEWER: I imagine you must get this question a lot, Mr. Auburn, but – why a condor? Kind of an ignoble animal, don’t you think?



AUBURN: Most people don’t know this, but the bear on the California state flag, the California grizzly – the last one died 50 years ago. They were hunted to extinction. Now, I don’t mean any disrespect to the founders of our great state, but have you ever seen a California condor? They’re these huge black birds. Their wingspan is longer than I am tall. But they live on nothing but the remains of dead animals. They make life from the death. To me, that’s what they represent – rebirth. The coming of a new California, from the remains of the old. Life, from death.

— TV interview with then-governor-elect Alton Auburn

The California Solidarity and Liberation Party, more frequently referred to as the Condor Flag Party (or simply "the Party"), is the ICR's only functional political party. Roughly 10% of Californians are card-carrying Party members. Though membership is not a formal requirement of any political office, the Party controls all three branches of government, and most unaffiliated, non-Party organizations are staffed by Party elites. High-ranking individuals frequently hold both Party and government titles, though they will typically emphasize the latter over the former.
Joining the Party is the main way a person can improve their riparian rank. Party members lead substantially more comfortable lives than non-members, and are guaranteed better housing, better pay and larger rations. All Golden Guards are Party members. Unlike riparian rank, Party status is not hereditary, though having a family history of Party membership eases the application process.

Structure

Unlike the two major American political parties, the Condor Flag Party lacks a traditional hierarchy. Instead, it is comprised of concentric rings of committees, the members of which are supposedly equal in rank. In reality, Alton Auburn is the undisputed Party leader, and Party members' standing is directly dependent on their loyalty to him.

Leadership Committee (LeadComm) – 5 members

Equivalent to a politburo and the highest sanctum of Party authority. Together, they are responsible for determining the Party "line" and setting general policy goals. They are nominated by GovComm and formally elected by a (predetermined) vote of CentComm.

• Alton Auburn – Secretary General
• Linda Xu
• TK
• TK
• TK

Governance Committee (GovComm) – 25 members

Every member of LeadComm also sits on GovComm. Most GovComm appointees are powerful figures in their own right, Party rank nonwithstanding. Each GovComm chair has specific functions delegated to them, though these are in no way reflected by their rank (official or apparent), nor are they related to seniority. GovComm members are nominated by LeadComm and formally elected by a (predetermined) vote of CentComm.

Central Committee (CentComm) – 101 members

The largest Party body and officially the most powerful, responsible for electing all higher members. They are elected by local party cadres.

Public Agenda

The Party's exact ideology has not always been clear. From the Party's inception up until the ICR's secession, Party speakers and members somewhat coyly referred to themselves as "Californian nationalists." They were reluctant to detail the specifics of their ideology and avoided explicitly mentioning secession, for fear of sounding like extremists and damaging their (and Alton Auburn's) hard-won credibility. Instead, they campaigned as popular reformers, promising to rebuild California's flood-ravaged northern tip, rewrite the state's water laws and invest heavily in transit and public works projects.

Though Party's founding core was mostly drawn from radical-leftist, separatist and Communist-affiliated student and youth movements active in the mid-1960's, its rhetoric moderated until 1966, when it was firmly in power. The Condors found electoral success by appealing to not only to revolutionaries, but to moderate Democrats and to groups that had been neglected by mainstream conservatives, particularly law enforcement and blue-collar workers. This precarious coalition was part of why Auburn's rise to prominence within the Party was so swift and decisive; a radical message delivered by a clean-cut, well-spoken white man proved persuasive to Californians, who remained bewitched by him personally long after Election Day.

Internal factions

Current as of 1991.

Reformist

More than anything, the reformists want California to reestablish relations with the United States and become an active participant in the non-Communist world order. They are in favor of liberalizing the country's economy, slashing its arms budget and disbanding the Guard, and joining the Non-Aligned Movement. Some merely want to draft a nuclear arms reduction treaty with NATO, while others, like Linda Xu, are in favor of giving up sovereignty and rejoining the United States. The Party officially opposes reformist policies, and accused reformers are branded as reactionary traitors. For this reason, few reformists have spoken openly about their politics; beyond small, diffuse academic circles, they have no national organization, and thus have no way of coordinating any kind of mass reform movement.

Hardline

The Party's true believers and Alton Auburn's most devout worshippers. The majority of Guards are hardliners, as are most of the Party higher-ups. Many children born in the ICR also develop hardline attitudes. Their defining characteristic, aside from overt and enthusiastic public service, is their belief in the healing power of political violence; they are apt to attend rallies, delight in news of purges, and back some of Auburn's more aggressive foreign policy positions, such as the idea of annexing Baja California.

The Southlanders

Southern California is home to a nameless underground insurgency, covertly led by Party elite Cynthia Wilcox. Necessarily more secretive than even the reformists, the Southerners, aided by their geographic proximity to one another, have nonetheless managed to organize. Angered by the Party's indifference to the drought (and its northern bias), the Southerners want to break California in two and form their own nation, allowing them to negotiate independently for water rights with Mexico and the US. Failing that, they seek to disrupt and discredit the extant Californian government as much as possible.

The Party's three platforms

LEGITIMACY

We believe that Californians are entitled to the sovereign rights of self-determination, self-rule and collective self-defense by any means necessary, rights bequeathed by the United States to every other nation on earth. We will not be bound by the results of elections in which we have no voice, impoverished by elites we cannot hold accountable, or implicated in wars which we did not instigate. We demand an immediate end to all incursions by the federal government within our homeland, including its attempts to intimidate, censor, injure or kill those it sees as its enemies.

EQUALITY

We demand an end to racism, sexism, anti-homosexual abuse and all other expressions of hatred, and insist on the total racial integration of all places, public and private. We believe in equal pay and equal freedoms for equal work.

A DECENT STANDARD OF LIVING

We believe all Californians have the right to productive, happy lives free of exploitation. We believe California has a right to set its own economic course, and to collect taxes, distribute land, and conduct trade relations as we ourselves see fit. We believe that all Californians have the right to safe, reliable, meaningful jobs and the opportunity to improve their own livelihoods through work and public service. We believe all Californians have the right to live free of treatable disease and hunger, to reside in housing fit for human habitation, and to raise their children in a safe environment. Where disparities and deficiencies in these basic daily needs exist, we believe that Californians should and must correct them by way of a government accountable to the Californian people.

History

Founded in 1960 as a catch-all progressive coalition party, it became a household name in 1965, when its spokesman and leader Alton Auburn ousted and replaced the sitting Californian governor. Suddenly catapulted into power, and with that same explosive upswell of popular support behind them, the Condors began a campaign for independent statehood. Two years later, as the Condors negotiated a covert nuclear arms deal with China – and as Auburn's rhetoric grew ever-more bellicose – Californians voted to secede. The successful Condors set about drafting the new Californian nation's constitution...
See the timeline for a more detailed history.

Type

Political, Faction / Party

Alternative Names

Formal name: The California Solidarity and Liberation Party

Demonym

Colloquially: "Condor/s" (contrast "Dems," "Greens," "GOPers," etc.).

Subsidiary Organizations

• The Golden Guard of California

Notable Members

• Alton Auburn