Manchester Directive
Sarna News
The Manchester Directive was a policy issued by First Consul Gregory Amaris in 2575 as an attempt to establish himself as "first among equals"[1] and followed the imposition of an earlier Universal Act of Loyalty. Whereas Amaris could have implemented the measures needed under the Pollux Proclamation by First Lord Ian Cameron to ensure peace with the Star League without too much protest from the population of the Republic, the Directive outlawed membership in the Rift Republican Army.[2]
Although it had started to act against First Consul Gregory, membership of the Rift Republican Army was a ceremonial position held by affluent citizens of the Rim Worlds Republic, an honor reserved for former soldiers of the Republic from its days of colonization. Descendants of these soldiers maintained membership in the Rift Republican Army as a tradition since the rule of the Rowe/Durant family. The RRA had once been a military unit, but by the mid-twenty-sixth century those days were long past; membership of the RRA was still considered an honor, and the majority of the RRA were respectable ex-servicemen.[3]
The RRA radicals who had attacked Efrimal Long and prompted the issue of the Universal Act of Loyalty were the exception to the norm, and anger at the announcement swiftly turned to dismay when forces loyal to Amaris began actively suppressing RRA groups, seizing property belonging to the RRA or its members and arresting those same members.[2]
Amaris had already begun alienating the population years before when he began actively favoring foreign companies over domestic companies as a means of advancing the industrial and technological base of the Republic, a situation made worse by his high-handed approach to taxation and his willingness to seize property and land as a part of his planned economic development. His attack on the RRA was a tipping point that struck directly at the heart of the population and provoked outright defiance on many worlds and a steadily growing level of chaos in many areas.[2]
As a result of the Manchester Directive, the Rift Republican Army quickly devoted itself to partisan activity and an active insurgency, and within months of their disenfranchisement, the Rift Republican Army had successfully overpowered the Fourth Amaris Dragoons, orchestrated the overthrow of the First Consul, and established the Rim Provisional Government on Apollo.