Progressive Democratic Human Union (PDHU)

Progressive Democratic Human Union
Motto	Atheism, Humanity, Democracy!
Ideology	Anti-religion, pro-humanity, pro-democracy

The Progressive Democratic Human Union is an anti-religious and pro-human organisation that supports the establishment of an atheist democratic union of planets. They sometimes act as moderate reformists, and other times as violent revolutionaries.

History

Various fringe atheist groups have always existed in the Empire, rejecting the teachings of the High Church and the Church of Humanity, Repentant. These groups were not necessarily anti-Empire, but their beliefs ran counter to established Imperial beliefs and few dared to express them openly. The Progressive Human Union (PHU) was founded in 3136, during the reign of the Velan Emperox, as a semi-secret group for discussing proof of the non-existence of God and the flaws of organised religion. Their most notable actions were spreading anti-religious videos on Spacebook and staging anti-alien protests on Cabina.

With anger and frustration in the Empire at an all-time high after the Synth War the PHU reformed into  the Progressive Democratic Human Union (PDHU) and joined the United People’s Collective. Millions had lost friends and family to Cygnus Synths and could only feel hate for the abominations, but faith in the institutions of the Empire was also shaken. Was this not the Emperox that the Empire had elected? Was this not the Emperox that the High Church had crowned?

Many turned to the Church of Humanity, Repentant, but some were turned off because of the Church’s acceptance of Synths and Aliens. Why should the Synths be cared for? They were machines designed to kill humans, perhaps even designed to replace humans. The Aliens were not even directly involved in the war, and most people had never interacted with one. Why should we be concerned with their alien issues?

Rejecting both the teachings of the High Church and the Church of Humanity, Repentant, these few angry souls turned to the PDHU’s organisations on Diomikato, Yakiyah, Yanaratso, and other planets. To them, the truth was that Humanity had suffered, not Synths or Aliens. The truth was that the Empire and the High Church was complicit in the election of House Cygnus and the creation of the Synths. According to the PDHU, a new and democratic union of planets, free from the yoke of religion, should be established to replace the Empire.

After the genocide on Orpheus, more people flocked to the PDHU. The UPC was standing up for Humanity against genocide and murder, and the PDHU would stand together with the UPC against the religions that were betraying humanity.

Organisation

The PDHU exists in small cells on multiple planets, but it is very decentralised and rarely communicates between planets. This means that their methods can vary a lot depending on the planet and the circumstances.

They use the official Yakiyan administrative system to organise themselves on Yakiyah, with the members organised in Communal Assemblies that nominate two Co-Chairs of the Commune to handle day-to-day affairs. Various ad-hoc committees are also formed to cover specific responsibilities. Their anti-Synth views are fairly unpopular, and their openly dismissive attitude to Aliens is also frowned upon. They openly campaign for the abolition of the YMCA’s Advisory Board for Religious Affairs.

On Diomikato they are generally comprised of veterans from the Synth War, and often stay together in their old units in Veterans’ Organisations. Some of them are connected to the Broken Eagle organisation, either being ex-members or current ones. They have been known to perform limited small-scale attacks on suspected Synths, priests, and churches on the planet. Periodically they also attack Aquilan food stores to protest the system of rationing on the planet.

Yanaratso is a more complicated case, due to the “Zombie” virus. There they are generally seen as a more moderate version of the Slaqtine Brigade. They do not openly celebrate death and disagree that nobles and priests give up their humanity (they’re just bad humans), but try to cooperate with the Brigade when it is possible to protect human interests.

Beliefs

A democratic union of planets must be established to care for the proletariat. In this democratic union, all humans shall be treated equally and with dignity.

All religion serves to hold humanity back and dissipate class consciousness, and must therefore be opposed.

The movement should be concerned with human interests first and foremost, aliens are either too few, too primitive, or too hostile to be an issue for humanity.

Synths are an abomination, tools created to replace humanity and undermine the bargaining power of the working classes. They should be destroyed or seized by the proletariat.

External Relations

The PDHU views any openly pro-Synth or pro-religion (whether it be HC or CHR) sub-factions of the UPC with suspicion, and they see any pro-Alien movements as misguided and only deserving of scorn. This does not mean that they refuse to cooperate with these movements for the success of limited goals, but they find it hard to trust their motives.

Their skepticism of Life Extension Technology as a way of trying to transcend humanity makes them sympathetic to LET GO, especially the Prometheans who want to share LET equally to all humans.

The PDHU also shares several values with the Slaqtine Brigade, but considers itself less extremist and more rational than them. The Slaqtine Brigade is still seen as one of the closer allies of the PDHU by members of the PDHU.