First Valgish Decade Speech

haelm, 1930 address by emmerich hegel, presiding secretary of the assembly of the people and chairman of the council of regional economic coordination “comrades of valgsland, ten years ago we stood at the edge of despair the valgos empire, once a titan of industry and trade across all the seas of the globe, collapsed under the weight of its greed and injustice it claimed unity, but it was a unity built on oppression, on the backs of our workers and the plunder of distant lands that empire is gone in its place, we have built a republic where labor is valued, power is shared, and prosperity belongs to all today, i stand before you to declare that valgslandian socialism is not just an ideal it is a triumph, proven in every factory, every field, and every community let us begin with labor in the first days after the revolution, famine and devastation gripped our land our fields, drained by landlords and imperial demands, could barely feed half our population today, agricultural cooperatives have increased production by 150 percent, ensuring that every citizen is fed and no child goes hungry but comrades, valgsland is more than its fields our factories, once controlled by foreign profiteers, now hum with activity, producing over 80 million tonnes of steel annually our shipyards in haelm, rebuilt from imperial neglect, now create vessels to export industrial tools and locomotives across rika, xina, and merkopa these exports, noted in a recent concordium league report, account for over 33 percent of industrial goods traded in the region this is labor united, not for the few, but for the many power, comrades, must match labor under the empire, power was held by aristocrats and monopolists who answered only to themselves today, power flows through the people the council of regional economic coordination, which i am honored to chair, ensures that surplus wealth reaches regions still recovering from the long years of hardship every decision, whether about trade, development, or defense, is debated and voted on by this congress, where the assembly of the people and the council of regions together represent every worker, farmer, and cooperative in valgsland even our military, once a tool of repression, is now bound by the people’s will no soldier can be deployed within our borders without your vote our army protects the people it shall never turn against them again let us also speak of trade, which has transformed our place in the world under the empire, our industries relied on resources extracted through colonial exploitation today, we import coal, oil, and metals from rika and xina not through domination, but through partnership in return, we export the tools and goods that help these nations rebuild and grow even in galmland, where refejk once served as the empire’s outsourced shipyard, workers now collaborate with valgslandian engineers to build vessels that serve their communities i visited refejk last year and met a dockworker who told me, “comrade hegel, we no longer build for empires we build for our neighbors, our families, and our freedom ” this is the power of socialism, not just to produce, but to heal the wounds left by empire yet, there are those who wish to see us fail the kingdom of rumburg clings to its crown, feeding on the misery of its people while calling us radicals the republic of lespia hides behind the mask of democracy, but it is a democracy of elites, built on the backs of workers they exploit and arcasia, the self proclaimed defender of liberty, spreads its capitalist grip across the seas, enslaving nations with debt and greed let them tremble, comrades, for they know our system exposes their lies they fear a world where labor is not exploited, where power is not hoarded, and where prosperity is not confined to the privileged few finally, let us look to the future across the sea, chairman malenyev and the people of united contana continue their work under malenyevism, striving for the liberation of all contana our goals are the same a world where no worker is exploited, no nation subjugated, and no person left behind imagine a future where valgsland, united contana, and other nations of merkopa, rika, and xina join hands in a socialist alliance not through conquest, but through solidarity together, we can shape a world where justice is not a dream but a shared foundation, where unity is not imposed but chosen, and where all people thrive as one comrades, we have not come this far by accident we built this republic with our hands, our sacrifice, and our vision we do not claim perfection but we do claim progress ten years ago, we buried an empire today, we raise a republic let the old world tremble let the free world see from the forests of the north to the mills of the south, from the classrooms to the communes, valgsland is not waiting we are building let our achievements be the foundation of a brighter tomorrow, and let our unity in labor and power inspire all those who yearn for freedom united in labor, shared in power, thriving as one ”