Citizens of the State of Sandus and the Sôgmô Gaius Soergel Publicola have celebrated the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the country’s present constitution, known as the Day of Foundation. The annual State holiday commemorates both the establishment of the Sandum monarchy when the Sôgmô Gaius Soergel Publicola became the reigning monarch in Sandus, but also our republican constitution. Events this year were subdued both because of COVID-19 and also because of citizens’ pandemic burnout, though Tin Jubilee celebrations are planned for 13 June when Sandus will celebrate the Sôgmô’s ten years on the throne.
For years, Sandus’s system of government has been considered a ‘mixed constitution’ or republic, but the State of Sandus began its life as a monarchy before democratic reforms in September 2011, the enfranchisement of the Citizens’ Party of Sandus in December 2011, and the direct democratic Council’s promulgation in January 2015.
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The Sôgmô released a three-page statement on the occasion of the Day of Foundation this year, reflecting on the past decade of Sandus’s longest and most stable constitution and looking forward to the next decade to come. Their speech summarised the history of the Sandum constitution’s development from 2011 until today, and það highlighted the principles that make the country’s unwritten constitution work so well, namely “flexibility, deference, and respectful accountability.” The Sôgmô also focused on how changes made in the last few years have significantly changed the Sandum constitution, such as the electoral process of sagamorial succession and developments in the Social System with regard to the Common Economy. But the Sôgmô also mentioned new changes and proposals in Sandus that would significantly develop the constitution along new avenues, such as present reforms to more clearly define the Council’s rules and procedures, the Party’s desire for a more thorough constitution, and other proposed constitutional changes that revolve around a legal system, provincial reforms, and public administration.
Looking ahead, það concluded by proposing a new guiding principle for the republic’s next decade of existence, mutual aid. A key word of contemporary leftist organising, Sandum mutual aid is the voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for the mutual benefit of other Sandum citizens and the wider world as a whole with the aim to change their political and social conditions.
We are, in many ways, a country of mutual aid. A small country like ours, with its lofty hopes, can realistically aspire to create mutual aid for citizens here at home and abroad, and in many ways we have done just that. We are a country of sociality, of finding friendship and community in things bigger than ourselves. Going forward, the principle that I am drawn to for our future is maximising these: sociality, friendship, community, but also—and especially—mutual aid. We ought to imagine what mutual aid we can do for one another. For many of us that is very direct, very personable, and very physical.
the Honourable Sôgmô Gaius Soergel Publicola
Read the Sôgmô’s entire statement on the occasion of the State of Sandus’s and the Central People’s Government’s tenth anniversary below.
sandus.org 