[pp.int.general] Pirate Confusion in Italy hopefully sorted out

[carlo von lynX]

Hello folks,

you probably noticed there is quite some action going on in Italy.
Everybody in politics suddenly wants to jump onto the Pirate bandwagon,
no matter if last week they were in the locomotive or hanging on a rope
off the last wagon.

While a little group of maybe a dozen people is making a lot of noise
in Milan, the so-called 'Radicals' from the 1950s are showing interest
in our movement, too, maybe even planning a pirate election campaign.
It looks like they discussed the Berlin phenomenon at their recent
assembly, with curious repercussions.

I think this is all quite exciting, and it's all fine if all of these
initiatives share the same values and learn to come together into a
single movement. The distinguishing element, that makes it clear if a
group is really willing to do the Pirate dance, or it is just surfing 
the tidal wave, is the statute of its organization.

Me, as a member of the Berliner Party originally grown up in Rome have
joined the original Partito Pirata from 2006 during its general assembly
today where it has spectacularely decided to put Berlin's Liquid 
Feedback technology at its core, avoiding all unnecessary positions
of power. We don't have directors, we don't have press speakers, and
our regular assemblies are called "occasional" from now on - because
we have established LQFB as our permanent assembly.

Direct liquid democracy therefore is at the core of the newly reborn
Italian pirate party. Full participation for anyone joining the party
tomorrow, even on administrational topics. This may be a bit extreme,
but we'll find out how far it takes us by simply trying it out. Liquid
will produce 'factual' directors which have never been elected, but
simply received a large number of delegations for organizational jobs.
Organizational decisions are thus automatically documented by LQFB
transparently in the same way as any other collective decision being made.
Misbehaving directors can be disempowered at once simply by removing the
delegation.

This of course is in stark contrast to the traditional party statutes
held by the other contendants to the Pirate signet logo.
In http://my.pages.de/radicalpirates I have analyzed the statutes of
the Radicali Italiani, pointing out why this organization is years away
from being a Pirate movement.

I haven't analyzed http://www.pirateparty.it/?page_id=399 properly yet,
but at first look I can see there is far too much programmatic contents
right there in article 3, which should have been agreed upon by
direct democracy, not just postulated by the founding members. Then
locked into a statute that can only by modified by large majorities.
I should mention that "www.pirateparty.it" is the website of the
illigitimate Milan faction.

Some more points:
- Art 4: Founders aren't regular members, the article has special treatment
  for them. Members are not allowed to join other parties.(*)
- Art 6: Members of hierarchically higher gremiums are secured special
  rights to suggest replacement of representatives of lower gremiums.
- Art 7 enables higher gremiums to take drastic action against party
  members that do not follow the rules of the statute (for example by
  deliberating a different opinion on the positions listed in article 3).(*)
- Art 12 and 13 describe a typical delegational party structure. Art 13
  enables the Portavoce, the party leader, to convoke a General Assembly
  without requiring a majority of the Esecutivo, the secretariat.
  The leader also determines the order of the day (the agenda).
- Art 14 contains a traditional delegate system, the kind the Germans
  have successfully rejected, avoiding the typical disconnect between
  the party legislators and its member base.
- Art 14 also gives all party officers, in particular the Founders(!)
  a special right to always function as delegates, too. So we have a
  power architecture designed to always keep the same people in charge.
- Art 15 says the party leader stays in office for 3 years until reelection.
- Art 15 goes on to basically give all powers, even legislative initiative
  to the Portavoce. The translation for Portavoce is actually "spokesperson."
  The intention seems to be to obfuscate that such spokesperson is actually
  a party leader with imperial privileges.

(*) Some of these points are in contrast with the German Piratenpartei
or other Pirate Parties, but they may be appropriate in the Italian
situation of apparently fierce competition between political parties.
Still, these passages look like ripped from statutes of a rather
autoritarian party.

I presume I don't have to dig any further to see how far this thing is
from being a legitimate Pirate Party, although I am sure the remaining
articles 16 to 29 contain more food for "thought."

I conclude that the statutes provide a good compass to look out for Piratical
compatiblity. The original Partito Pirata is the one doing the right
thing and I hope other Italian factions will accept this common base of
operation and join forces, if there ever was an actual compatible political
intention9 The statute gives them plenty of space to have their voice or
even take over leadership if the majorities arise - but they aren't worthy
of the Pirate idea if they don't embrace actual participation by their members.


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