[pp.int.general] Action Day

[Carlos Ayala Vargas]

Per von Zweigbergk wrote:
> If you're going to be afraid to appear in public because people might 
> not take you seriously, people will never take you seriously.
I think there may be just few things more true than that, and I talk 
from my experience collecting signatures.

At the beginning, when you say "/I'm collecting signatures for a party 
which is willing to concur to EU Election/ [...]" and people -just for 
curiosity or after having seen the party logo in the forms- asks "/and 
which is the party's name?/", the first reaction ranges from a grin to a 
loud laugh.

However, when suddenly I reply just explaining what we aim for:

- abolition of levies
- free non-commercial filesharing
- reform of RMOs
- reform of patent system
- universalization of Information Society
- fight against crime and terrorism compatible with human rights (i.e., 
preserving privacy, right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, etc)
- and for non-core issues, ILCs (initiatives)

the initial /what the ...?/ face turns (in a 90-95 % of cases) into a 
/hmm ... how interesting/ face :) I'm proud of stating that, considering 
the signatures collected with the old, invalid form, I've interviewed 
slightly more than 2.000 people in the streets and colleges, to have 
more than half giving PIRATA their signatures.

As it's said, winning is a state of mind. Same applies to what Per 
states: being perceived as a serious or as a joking political party is a 
state of mind; if one's ashamed of oneself and/or the party where does 
belong, people will perceive it not just form what you say, but from the 
voice you use when you say it and your gestures; on the other hand, if 
you firmly believe on what you say -and given that we defend are good 
principles (otherwise we wouldn't be here)-, people will perceive it as 
well. It's all in our minds, I was taught that idea in the salesman 
school and, thus, I fully agree with Per.
> In Sweden we failed to stop the FRA law (see the e-mail signature I 
> put on all my outgoing e-mail) and we'll probably fail to stop the 
> Swedish implementation of IPRED1, but from those failures we have been 
> able to gather political support like a snowball. If we were to come 
> from nowhere today, we wouldn't have been present in the large 
> societal debates about FRA and IPRED1 and we wouldn't have gained any 
> political credibility.
Again, fully agree. While one can reach popularity peaks -that often 
disappears soon-, the true longlasting success is sedimentary -i.e., 
that achieved when time passes and good work is done, making the 
snowball effect that Per talks about-. It's hard to break the frontier 
defined by the critical mass -i.e., enough amount of members- needed to 
boost the growing pace; apart from that, the idea remains. Regards,


                                                                                             
Carlos Ayala
                                                                                             
( Aiarakoa )

                                                                       
Partido Pirata National Board's Chairman

P.D.: As most pirate parties are still tiny parties, it's essential to 
vertebrate PPI bodies and task groups -e.g., IT Group, PRs Group, etc- 
to allow feedback proportioning decisive advantages to those tiny 
parties -including PIRATA- that are struggling to overcome the critical 
mass barrier.