[pp.int.general] More from Sweden

[Per von Zweigbergk]

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17 dec 2008 kl. 02.16 skrev Ole Husgaard:

> Christian Hufgard skrev:
>> Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet) wrote:
>>> Our recent campaigns have boosted our membership count by 2,000 in  
>>> the
>>> past three weeks and we are now 1,000 members larger than the Green
>> Party.
>>
>> Wow. How the heck do you get this done? Maybe you could set up an  
>> idiot
>> proof tutorial? :)
> Having followed closely what was happened in Sweden this year, maybe I
> can explain.

- -snip-

Your description of what happened is pretty much accurate, except you  
left out two factors that have been at least part of the recent rather  
impressive growth. I direct your attention at our member statistic  
tools: http://www.piratpartiet.se/partiet/medlemsstatistik - (Rick has  
done an awesome job coding together useful and even sometimes  
incomprehensible statistics about our member population.)

The first hump (end of November) of about 500 members was a  
recruitment campaign that took place at Dreamhack (the world's largest  
LAN party, held in Jönköping, Sweden). We were not present as an  
official exhibitor, but we were, however, present with approximately  
10 members with our own computers, had some fun, and talked to people.  
This was before the implementation of IPRED was formally announced  
(but was still getting some buzz, even in old-time-media), and before  
discussions about Data Retention was started (if I recall correctly).

After the formal announcement of the IPRED directive, Rick Falkvinge  
announced on his blog that December 8 would be known as "join the  
Pirate Party day". And so they did. A lot of people, I'm guessing (but  
have no evidence of) people that have long sympathised with us, joined  
the party. We set up a membership monitor webapp that played a sound  
every time a new member was recruited, and had lots of fun monitoring  
the members stream in at an impressive rate. Even after December 8,  
the flood of members continued at a higher-than-usual rate for a few  
days.

Also, the fact that we've talked about IPRED and Data Retention almost  
since the party started, even if we haven't made it part of our  
party's platform, has over time meant that we could build credibility  
about the issues. When we started out, we had a problem because the  
claims we made about what the government is trying to do were so  
incredible. People simply refused to believe that we were for real.  
I'm going to take an example of a story a friend of mine, a long-time  
activist in Stockholm, told me. When he first started telling his  
classmates (he was in upper secondary school at the time) about the  
Pirate Party, some of them laughed at him and told him he was wasting  
his time. Even back then he was telling them about FRA, IPRED and Data  
Retention. Recently, he attended a class re-union, and their attitudes  
had completely changed. The fool had been right all along.

As such, the advice I can give to people, based on stories I've heard  
- -- talk to people. Talk about issues before they even become issues.  
Talk to people in real life, talk to people through your blogs. Pre- 
empt any other organisations, and make the issues your own. While  
you're talking about issues and telling them about the future, you'll  
also be recruiting members. When the issues roll into the spotlight,  
and if you've done your job well, you'll be first on scene in the  
opposition against the liberticidal issues. And be ruthless and agile  
in hi-jacking events (just like real pirates) like the one in our  
early party history which really made us grow - the police raid on The  
Pirate Bay. That was the first real boost to our membership, and we've  
ridden that wave of momentum ever since.

Of course, it really helps that we have no credible political  
opposition on issues of liberty, as Ole said. We were incredibly lucky  
to be formed under a social democrat-socialist (red) government and to  
continue to exist under a liberal-conservative (blue) government.

I should probably point out, though, at this point, that I'm not a  
very good activist myself, so take my advice with a grain of salt. :-)  
Sure, I can recruit a few members here and there once I get up the  
nerve and actually talk to a few people, and distribute some flyers,  
and I have a genuine interest in the issues, but in the end my skills  
are mainly in support and technical operations. If you have members  
that are excellent activists, as well as the people with the technical  
skill to run your computer systems, try to get them to focus less of  
their time on the technical issues of your systems, and more of their  
time on politics. A political party, in the long run, needs excellent  
activists more than it needs webmasters and sysadmins. That's why it's  
important that people who have skills with computer technology can  
make sure it's not a distraction for those doing the actual politics.

I wish you all the best of luck in growing your parties. In the end,  
remember to turn every bone-headed liberticidal measure to the  
advantage of the party. Every defeat of liberty can be made into a  
victory in terms of support of your organisation. You may lose many  
battles, but in the end, your armies will grow, you'll overwhelm the  
battlefield, and win the war. The final goal, at least for me, is a  
society where our party does not need to exist, so that we can get  
back to discussing and improving the less fundamental, but still  
vitally important issues like education, healthcare, our environment,  
and the economy.

- --
Per von Zweigbergk
Pirate Party of Sweden

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