During the Oceanykan Civil War, the Trotskyite Revolutionary Party held an almost total monopoly of the nation's radical left-wing, as the successes of the Soviet experiment resonated throughout the world, and their effective offensives against German imperialism began to be known. Prior to the October Revolution, Oceanyka's left-wing was decisively of a socialist-anarchist character, though it had always lived under the shadow of the now-defunct social democratic Oceanykan Labour Party.
Alan Redfort, the main thinker and politician behind Australian Federal Socialism, was born in 1914 and fought in the Oceanykan Civil War for the Federal Army, becoming acquainted with the Council's moderate left and Trotskyism during his time on leave. He believed that what had doomed the Revolutionary Party was an excess of dogmatism and an incorrect analysis of power relations in Oceanyka. Rather rightly, Redfort understood that the rebellious nature of Oceanyka's various statelets, groups and cultures could not be brought to submit to the State, and that neither class nor national consciousness really existed as a significant force within the continent. And unlike his libertarian socialist peers, he also believed that the Oceanykan Government, as the one and only institution representative of all Oceanykans, was absolutely necessary to bring about justice and liberty for the people. The method would be Lenin's vanguardism, in the context of a party that flirted with the designation of "revolutionary", but did not reach it. Rather, they would compromise and negotiate with regional powers and slowly build a new nation out of the anarchic hellhole that is Oceanyka. Federalism was not a choice, it was a necessity. One method in which "true" socialism could be pursued would be by promoting the growth and expansion of worker cooperatives, trade unions and labour syndicates, all grassroots institutions through which power (economic and political) was distributed downwards to the people and out of the hands of feudal lords, burghers and warlords. Thus, Australian Federal Socialism is sometimes called partially Leninist by both its critics and supporters.
Following the Civil War, Redfort became chief editor of the Crimson Sunrise, a startup left-wing newspaper which quickly gained prominence as the Australian Anarcho-Capitalist's influence in the Council grew. The newspaper was intricately related with many prominent professors and student groups at the University of Cestlep (Redfort's alma mater), as well as trade union and village leaders in the Greater Cestlep region. Eventually, as Anarcho-Capitalist policies and apathy towards government allowed numerous medium corporations to be extortioned into selling themselves and urban centres fell into mass crime, even the petite-bourgeoise and many important leaders in law enforcement and the Federal Army became sympathetic to the Crimson Sunrise's ideas. In September of 1961, the nation faced an internal crisis as German and French military operations had shown just how useless the Federation had become, and previous President Thomas Badfellow had already been butchered in the street, leaving behind an inept hand-picked heir. Alan Redfort, by then a sitting member of the Council for the Constitutional Party's left-wing progressive faction, quickly took advantage of the situation by crossing the bench and proclaiming the foundation of the Oceanykan Peoples' Party, subscribing to the principles of Australian Federal Socialism. Soon after, spurred on by Redfort's rhethoric and calls to arms, numerous general strikes and riots erupted throughout Oceanyka's urban centres, resulting the Oceanykan Revolution.
When the dust had settled, snap elections were called. The Oceanykan People's Party gained the most seats, and he was voted in as the new President of the Oceanykan Federation. His first act was to instate The New Theory of State.