We met Franz-Josef Schmitt, political director of the Pirate party Berlin on 7 August 2017 in their head office in Berlin Mitte.
We had a long, interesting and in many ways surprising conversation about the political system and problems of our current society. We discussed corruption, wars, environment and how to tackle these problems from inside of the political system.
We want to share some of the main ideas that are behind the Pirates political program. Surprisingly it is very similar to what we found out in the last years through our extensive research (read “Unveiling The Hidden Reality” on our website).
The Pirate party is presenting itself as an alternative to the mainstream left and right parties. Among their objectives is government and lobby transparency, freedom of the Internet and stop the surveillance of the population, the reduction of wars and armament export, the focus on social needs, no political career or revolving doors (politicians work for the country not for themselves), among other subjects.
But what makes them really an alternative?
The good ideas of the Pirates come first from the members of the party. Politicians are there to serve the people, to make a better society and not to make a personal career that is all about power and money.
They want to give more power to the citizens, build a real democratic system, in contrast to the present system where big corporations, motivated by profits, are pulling the strings by lobbying.
As an example, we had the chance to see their internal Internet tool (Liquid feedback) to propose and democratically vote online on several subjects related to their political ideas. This simple system makes it very easy to take democratic decisions quick and openly. It is absolute transparent, and makes it harder for third parties to interfere. Why this simple tool is not widely used in our current democratic processes?
Subsequently, when a proposal has enough positive votes it is presented to the general assembly of the party members and from there to the congress (depending if the party has representatives there).
Another problem the Pirates face is, that very often their proposals are not even read by the congress, just refused. The other parties seem to think that if it is coming from the Pirates it will be against their own interests.
Furthermore, some of their refused proposals come back into discussion in congress as a new proposal presented by another party. The Pirates know that their ideas get stolen, but they don’t complain. For them their proposal is about a good cause, no matter who presents it in congress. Evidently the Pirates are seen as threat to the political status quo.
But who is in congress?
Most of the ‘elected representatives’ protect the interests of big corporations as well as their own pockets. Many work for the industry when they are not elected to congress. This is a harmful practice to democracy also contested by the European Commission.
Dear reader, all these problems you know too well, but electors still voting for the major parties that do just what they always did, over and over again.
The Pirates go against this unfair system, and by that they act and propose what most of the population wishes for from a political party. Unfortunately, they are getting less and less supporters.
Why? It is important to ask yourself that question!
Looking for alternatives to the current political situation, people are voting more for the extremes, in particular for the far right. Did these voters read the statute of these parties? Probably not, many will notice that some of these extremist parties will curtail freedom, violate human rights and make things worse. But why are people voting for them? You should ask yourself again.
Can citizens influence politics from outside the election process?
Unfortunately citizens have a very small chance to influence politics. There are petitions, but no one in government is taking them really seriously, unless there are several hundreds of thousand people signing and they see their votes threatened.
The same seems to be true for protests. An example is the German reunification. It actually was possible to create a big change, because the population wanted it. But: it was needed that 2 million people went on the street every Monday for several weeks to convince the government that they wanted the reunification of Germany.
The Pirates organize demonstrations that have been fairly unsuccessful and with a very low rate of participation of the public. Why is it so difficult nowadays to motivate people to stand up for a cause? What would be needed to change that?
What do the pirates do against the distribution of wealth?
They have a proposal for 90% taxes on those receiving more the a million euros per year. We found that a great idea! It might probably not happen, as he said, but at least they are bringing it into discussion.
And as one of their slogans: “Everyone says: this is not possible, until someone comes who just does it!” Also they referring to the unconditional income they are fighting for, the minimum income for all.
They say it is necessary to have more transparency of government expenditure as well as of those people and institutions keeping money at fiscal paradises. The Panama papers are an example of how tax, corruption and trafficking money is hidden in fiscal paradises, but also a good example of how there are no consequences for those doing this!
And what about wars?
The Pirates are clearly against the international policy of selling armaments to conflict areas and the fact that governments are doing little to stop wars.
The housing market situation in Berlin and rising rents:
In Berlin, the biggest discussed topic at the moment is the housing market, rents are rising and it gets harder and harder to find apartments in the inner city. We where asking what the pirates are doing against that. Currently, someone who is renting out living spaces has to give 10% of that space for an affordable price. Their proposal is to rise the percentage to 30%. Another idea is to have more houses owned by the sate.
Unlike all the other topics in our talk, this is a municipal decision made by the local government of the city and even the districts, so here it is worth to write petitions that might have an impact.
Furthermore we spoke about sustainability.
Eco friendly individual actions are good but too small to make the difference that is needed when billions of euros still pouring to support the oil and coal industries around the world.
Environment is not yet the main topic in the pirates program, but they are about to emphasize it much more, and acknowledge the need to take actions quickly.
Some of the main social problems, wars, tax evasion, corruption, environment are only tackled shallowly by the current political elite. In fact, they act as in a play, they talk about these important subjects in public and conferences, but in reality nothing is really done to solve the problems. Solving these problems would directly affect the balance of power.
We FBW take no sides:
Our community doesn’t have political choices, religious beliefs or choices of race etc. as stated by the fundamental declaration of Human Rights. We want to support people and organizations that are fighting for the good causes namely: the reduction of war, corruption, environment destruction and who are enforcing human rights.
It seems, in our point of view, at the present moment, that the Pirates are doing just that. They are brave people trying to fix a corrupt system from the inside.
We came out of the meeting with a feeling of empowerment, because there seem to be real alternatives in politics!
https://www.piratenpartei.de/