FAQ

Why are you called the Pirate Party?

A few reasons:

• We’re part of the international Pirate Party movement, the fastest growing political movement in the world.
• We support the legalization of sharing movies, music and other art online, so our opponents would call us the Pirate Party anyway. We feel it’s better to reclaim that name.
• Historically, pirate ships had a tradition of egalitarian radical democracy, and provided a refuge for social outcasts and escaped slaves from a society unfriendly to them.
• We’re anti-establishment, so pirates declaring mutiny seems like a good metaphor for us.
• We believe politics and activism can have a sense of humor while still being dead serious.
• It got your attention, didn’t it?

What does the Pirate Party stand for?

In short, we stand for an open, participatory society which gives everyone a voice, and empowers everyone to live a healthy, productive life to their full potential. Check out our platform to learn how we want to achieve that.

Do you have a position on abortion, gun control, or gay marriage?

Right now we are working on developing more comprehensive policies. What we do have already are our core values. If you would like to help out with policy, please join a PNC meeting to learn how you can join our Platform Committee.

What is your goal?

Our primary goal is to get elected into office. We believe in political change from the inside.

Are you left-wing or right-wing?

We think “left-wing” and “right-wing” aren’t very useful ways of seeing the world, and that they make a lot of people falsely believe that they disagree with each other. We’re not driven by ideology, we just aim to do what works.

Do you support digital piracy?

We do not think that calling the sharing of digital media “piracy” or “theft” is the correct way of looking at the issue. The free, open access to media that “pirate” sites provide is valuable to society in the way that public libraries are, and it’s a problem that they are against the law. The Pirate Party affirms that current copyright law is not good for the public or for creative professionals, and only actually benefits a small minority of corporate executives. We support reforms to copyright law which legalize the freedom to share, while more effectively helping creative professionals make a living.

How are you different from other third parties?

We’re focusing all our efforts on building our movement from the bottom up, getting elected and enacting change locally before shaking up the state and national scene. That’s the only way to effectively challenge the two-party system, and we feel other third parties have abandoned this strategy.

We also lean younger than most other political parties, third or major. Most of our activists are under 35, and our many older activists are young at heart. We feel this gives us a fresh perspective on politics and activism.

How can I get involved?

You can get involved by:

• Contacting a Pirate Party activist in your state to see how you can help with active campaigns
• Attending a state or national Pirate Party meeting
• Registering for our contact system
• Check out the projects page to see what projects are being actively developed
• Creating your own project
• Volunteering to help with the forums, website, or committees