If anyone is familiar with A Very British Civil War, there are some interesting ideas for factions in the material. While VBCW is very tongue in cheek, it’s not too far a stretch to see trades, police agencies, churches, etc forming some type of faction.
The UBF is an example of such a faction. A trade union/organized crime affiliate leveraging their organization and contacts to carve out control of an area.
I could easily see groups like mega-churches, regional police and emergency service cooperatives, and locally/regionally prevalent trade unions like the Oil, Atomic, and Chemical Workers International (merged into PACE in 99) establishing some kind of security/resource management/area control in the name of their constituents. I could also see more rural/insular areas forming an effectively autonomous regional government, possibly in combination with one or all of the above.
For example:
The Magnolia Commonwealth
January of 1998 saw the residents of the Quachita and Red River valleys of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas (collectively called the ARKLATEX) breathe a sigh of relief. While the area’s hub city of Shreveport had been destroyed by a strike on the Sheeveport Specialty Refinery and the resulting fires which had quickly leapt I-49 and burned everything south of I-20 and west of Youree Drive, the rest of the region remained unscathed by nuclear fire. With the massive damage to the country’s oil industry, the demand for the region’s previously modest production of oil and products rose. Simultaneously, the ability of the weakened federal and state governments to keep goods and services flowing into the area lessened. In their defense, Louisiana was effectively ungoverned following the destruction of Baton Rouge and the alternate government facilities at Jackson Barracks, Texas was struggling with catastrophic damage in major cities across the state, while the Governor of Arkansas struggled to combat unrest in Central and Northwest Arkansas.
It was only the February 1998 burning of the Princeton Lubricant Refinery in Princeton, LA by refugees angry at the lack of fuel to help them escape Shreveport-Bossier area and subsequent attacks on smaller oil drilling companies in Bivins, TX and Ashdown, AR that led the various governments to do something. In March 1998 Texas raised a small unit of State Guards based in Texarkana, appointing an old friend and retired army officer as a colonel in command of them. Louisiana was unable to do little of substance, leaving local law enforcement to form a partnership for mutual assistance. Arkansas could also provide little assistance, but did dispatch a convoy with excess small arms and ammunition from the Camp Robinson training area as well as a some radio equipment which had been provided to the state by the DEA for use in marijuana eradication. Along with the radios came a contingent of DEA personnel (who the Governor used the opportunity to rid himself of) and their families who had been conducting a long term investigation into drug smuggling in western Arkansas. The federal government provided little, except for demands for refined products, with the only tangible contribution being some patrols by USAF Security Police from the damaged but operational Barksdale AFB (where remaining KC-10s and KC-135s occasionally landed to onload the trickle of JP-8 produced in the Cotton Valley Refinery) while a small LA National Guard garrison at Camp Minden/Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant was willing to trade goods (rations and ammunition) and services (trainers and specialists) to the emerging law enforcement cooperative in exchange for a supply of diesel and other products.
By the end of May, 1998, things in the ARKLATEX had begun to settle into a pattern and thoughts had begun to turn to recovery. In the absence of help from their state governments, local leaders in El Dorado, Texarkana, and Ruston had begun to cooperate. At first this was in security matters, sending contingents of the state guard or local law enforcement and militia to help with a problem. Quickly, exchanges of doctors, engineers, and other experts as the trust built by several joint actions against gangs from Pine Bluff and Monroe and the suppression of a prison revolt in Homer cascaded into other areas. There was even talk of the federal government sending food and medicines to ensure the continued productivity and recovery of the region.
The dual blows of the Mexican invasion, the rapid collapse of the State of Texas, and the raised the specter of doom for the ARKLATEX. Fearing the rumored and real atrocities by Mexican troops, waves of refugees from Texas streamed up I-30 and rapidly overwhelming the attempts by DPS and TXSG to stop them. While many of the refugees wanted nothing more than to get away from the Mexican, there were a number of criminals who had only recently been engaged in atrocities of their own against Mexican refugees and now did the same as they looted and robbed their way north. The invasion also saw the effective end of federal security and relief efforts in the area as USAF troops at Barksdale, who had kept the Bossier City and Shreveport area relatively quiet, were sent to the frontlines in Texas. Only a caretaker force was left at Barksdale, which saw declining use as the lack of spares and ordnance led to a slackening of air missions. Worse, the unrest in Northwest Arkansas had grown, leaving Arkansas few resources to send to protect Texarkana and SW Arkansas. In mid-July, the situation was brought to a head when a mass of refugees and criminals armed with the looted remnants from Red River Army Depot subjected the Texas town of Mount Pleasant to a three day long sacking after defeating its poorly led citizen’s militia.
Against this threat, the local governments took the step of forming a joint council in August of 1998 during a meeting at Southern Arkansas University, in Magnolia. First in the agenda was a collective security agreement. State guard, militia, and law enforcement would form a unified constabulary organization under the senior military officer, the commander of the Texas contingent (the largest and best organized). Initially it was agreed that operations would be focused on stemming the tide of refugees and criminals already pillaging Cass, Bowie, Titus and Miller Counties and Caddo Parish. The council would initially confine itself to directing military matters.
The Braves, as the new military force was quickly dubbed after a former Shreveport baseball team, deployed south, spending the remainder of August and September cajoling, redirecting, and fighting when necessary to drive the refugees and bandits from the area immediately around Texarkana and contain them west of the Red in Louisiana and Arkansas. Despite every effort made to avoid firing on their countrymen, the end of September saw a major engagement south of Fouke, AR when a large armed gang descended on the town following a false rumor of a storehouse of grain and a cattle farm. When the dust settled, the Braves had destroyed the gang, with fugitives hunted by locals in the Boggy Creek bottoms while captured survivors were given the choice to leave their possessions and go back the way they came or face trial by the townsfolk. This and other battles saw the Braves slowly regain control of the area over the remainder of 1998. While methods were harsh, the council’s actions received wide support from the locals.
As fall turned to winter, it became increasingly clear to the council at Magnolia that the US economy was rapidly breaking down and no help from outside could be expected for the foreseeable future. Out of necessity, it was agreed that the council would establish a system to allocate key services and attempt to help keep the rudiments of civilization alive. One of the first things the council tackled was medical care. While a lack of major cities and a general lack of disease vectors had helped the region escape the plague of 1998, by November the first cases were reported in Texarkana, and by December it had spread across the region. The council rapidly moved to formulate a medical response, leaning on the Braves (already depleted by losses and beset by plague themselves) to enforce a quarantine and escort medical personnel and supplies in addition to continuing to combat what were becoming marauder gangs. As part of the effort, the SAU staff and some survivors of the LSU-Medical School facilities in Shreveport began producing antibiotics at campus labs in Magnolia.
Realizing the value of the drugs, the council quickly expanded its span of control to incorporate the labs, medical professionals, and scientists under the new “Health Department”, joining the newly named “Safety Department”.
By March of 1999 the plague was burning itself out in the ARKLATEX. While initial deaths had been high, the organized response had cushioned the blow. But, the region was faced with another crisis, as it was rapidly apparent that famine was looming after the depredations of 1998 and the complete breakdown of the modern grocery distribution network. Rice was available in NE Arkansas, and there were still some hogs being raised in Mississippi, but with the breakdown of currency there was no way to pay for it. The breakup of the federal government only exacerbated matters, as both sides began to use aid as a tool to gain support from key regions. Fortunately or unfortunately for the ARKLATEX, CIVGOV was too far away to impact them, and MILGOV had its hands full in central Louisiana and North Central Texas. The only nominally MILGOV forces in the area were at Camp Minden, who already cooperated fully with the Safety Department and had avoided sending troops to Texas when called. The small garrison at Barksdale had been thinned by the plague, with the survivors presumably dispersing. Red River Army Depot had become a base for an organized marauder group, “The Kronks” who raided the surrounding area and used a large number of refugees as slaves or workers to begin farmin open areas of the Depot.
The answer to the issue of currency came from the oil workers and allied trades in the ARKLATEX, who realized the value of the trickle of oil their wells still produced. Having a relative plenty of oil but not of food, an agreement between the union and the companies to produce oil as a barter good in return for the provision of goods and services for the oil workers, allied trades, and their families in April of 1999. The “Magnolia Co-op” then approached the council with their offer. The council immediately realized the value and implications of the region’s mineral wealth, agreeing to send parties to secure trade. Despite the hazards of road travel in post-TDM America, contact was established and the first oil convoy left with a heavy escort of Braves (who by now were training at Camp Minden) to meet a river tow full of Arkansas rice and Indiana corn.
Realizing the stability that oil brought and the strength of their position, the Co-op pushed for representation on the council. Part of the impetus for this was to place an exchange rate on the oil and food the co-op gained for the council. This led to a an establishment of an exchange rate mechanism for existing paper currency, foodstuffs, and petroleum products at council established and co-op agreed to values.
Realizing the effective independence geography and resources granted them and seeking to cement their independence from MILGOV and CIVGOV, the ARKLATEX council formally proclaimed themselves the “Magnolia Commonwealth” on January 1, 2000, with its capital . The commonwealth is a two chamber directly elected executive representative government, with an popularly elected executive, a five member senior advisors chamber with a member from each “state” plus the co-op and a single member representing the “main cities” (Texarkana, El Dorado, and Ruston) and a commonwealth council chamber with a member from each pre-war county, plus one each for the “main cities”. Judges are currently those holding pre-war appointments. Elections are scheduled in November of 2000 for a 1 January 2001 inauguration.
Sorry that’s so long, but that’s a way for a faction to emerge.
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