Rick Falkvinge, pirate

Why the name “Pirate Party”?

I frequently get the question abroad why we chose the name “Pirate Party”, and this has also been the target of some criticism. Others have been more nuanced, saying that while it positively wouldn’t work in their country, it might work in the Nordic countries.

That pirate parties are sprouting everywhere following ours in 2006 is actually happening a little bit ahead on my roadmap to change the world. Therefore, let me explain the rationale behind the name in Swedish politics.

In 2001, the copyright lobby founded a pirate hunting bureau in Sweden. They called this the Anti-Pirate Bureau, and it was spearheaded by a lawyer named Henrik Pontén, who has had to endure much ridicule. In the fall of 2003, a group of people had had enough of the Lobby’s lopsided message in mainstream media (what we call “old media” or “gammelmedia” in Sweden), and founded a nonpolitical counterpoint think tank – which was, appropriately, named the Pirate Bureau.

These people had tremendous success with the younger generation and with a general awareness of the issues. What they succeeded in doing has not to date been replicated in any other country I know of, and that is that the Pirate Bureau were treated as experts in the field, opposite the Copyright Lobby. Any media story on file sharing would always carry statements from the Anti-Pirate Bureau and from the Pirate Bureau.

Thus, the word “Pirate” in Sweden was reclaimed from the Lobby. It came to stand for something positive, progressive, and in opposition to the established cartels, which were steamrolling across the culture of the younger generation with the aid of the established politicians. It came to stand for using new technology to its potential, it came to stand for the promise of free (as in speech) culture, it came to stand for the habits of a new generation. Just as the gay movement reclaimed the word “gay” across the world, so was done in Sweden with the word “pirate”, thanks to the footwork of the Pirate Bureau. Calling yourself a pirate was a statement that you were standing tall against repressive forces of old.

Now, obviously “Pirate” doesn’t have positive connotations across every demographic. The Pirate Bureau wasn’t everybody’s hero. But it has strong positive connotations among those who understand and care about the issues. Other people wouldn’t vote pirate in any case, so we have little reason to spend energy there.

Therefore, taking the name Piratpartiet, “(the) Pirate Party”, in Sweden was an absolute given. There was no other alternative. The trademark was already there, the associations were already in place. The instant you saw the name, you would know that you would be able to vote for pirate ideals. The name is so good, some posters printed locally in the election campaign of 2006 just said “The Pirate Party. We exist”.

Later, well after founding the Pirate Party, I had found out that discussions were well underway withing some subcommunities of the Pirate Bureau to go political and found a party. Guess what the name would have been. No, you don’t really have to guess. Like I said, there was no other name to use in Sweden if you were to harness the road that the Pirate Bureau had already plowed.

I wouldn’t know how the name Pirate Party would fly in other countries, so imagine my surprise when it pops up pretty much all over the globe. People were forming groups – political parties – with our agenda as a blueprint, and they were each and every one individually discussing which name to use for the party.

Each and every one came up with the same answer. “The Pirate Party”. There’s Piratenpartei in Germany and Austria, there’s Parti Pirate in France, there’s Piratenpartij in the Netherlands, there’s Partia Piratow in Poland, there’s Piraattipuolue in Finland, there’s Partido Pirata in Spain and all over Latin America. And so on. So what was the rationale of these guys, these people who didn’t have the previous sentiment to ride on? How did these people decide to use the same name, without the same context? Two answers stand out when you begin to probe this question.

First, pirates say internationally, it’s not really a choice. They will be called the Pirate Party no matter. So the choice stands between taking the name officially, and getting to define what it stands for, or being called “the pirate party” (lowercase) anyway, with absolutely no control of what the symbol carries.

Second, it’s about reclaiming a name. The lobby has worked very hard to give “pirate” negative connotations, to define themselves in opposition to pirates. An entire generation waking up and calling themselves “pirate” as a political statement will undo all of that work, just like when the gay movement reclaimed their words. Historically, this has been the best way of dealing with slurs and derogatory names – to adopt them as your own and carry them with pride.

I had really expected that it would take seats in parliament in Sweden (or Europe for that matter) before the name “Pirate Party” would spread to other countries. I was completely wrong. This is a global undercurrent – a global undertorrent – that cannot be held back by any force of existing law.