Did we miss our cape?

Are we still on the right course?

It is not because we are alive that we can not have it better. In what state would we be if we took the right heading?
Can we feel fine?

We all have certain goals in our life and it is often a hard balance to be able to pursue them rightfully. Sometimes we feel not free and we need to empower ourselves and conquer our fears to think out of the box. Sometimes, society is blocking us needlessly. Society should try to take away these barriers as much as possible and give us the necessary freedom.

Can we work together?

Our existence matters because of the people around us. By co-creating ideas in our neighbourhoods, within our workplace, with our friends we can realize things that go far beyond what we do on ourself. It is important, but not easy, that this cooperation is stimulated as often ideas originate for the entire society

Can we trust the system?

It is important the system is trustworthy, but this trust must never be blind. This implies checks and balances. Politics and society should not be different from each other. If the system stimulates trust between people, people can continuously reinvent the system together.

Global Challenges?

Everyone knows there is a problem with the climate and economic inequality is soaring, but do we get access to the means of changing this so we keep surviving in the end? It requires courage to do things in the general interest

From vertical to horizontal

Transparency

The first check on those in power
Do we have access?

The law on public governance says we should have access to all government documents (except those on personal matters). And this can be a powerful tool: if all needs to be done transparently, the chances are far greater that misbehaviour will be discovered and everyone can be involved quicker in order to find a democratic solution. The reality however is that the administration slows down this process and there is often no repression for not being transparent.

Easily?

If we want to access this information, do we have to file a demand or is it readily available on the internet? Is it in a open format we can read easily and do we find back what we need? Can we make it interchangeable so we can use something useful with it? It is not just a question of being able to get the information, but also that it is easily accessible. The formats used should be as interoperable as possible, not something that is hidden in a text document. Ideally, we could even propose formats ourselves.

Clear for everybody?

Politics has its complexities. But if things are well presented, everyone can understand the impacts of the advantages or disadvantages of a certain idea. Politicians often try to complicate things in order to make it less understandable, so they can keep the power. Or they work through several commissions and institutions where getting the oversight is rather difficult.

Co-decision?

Can we increase the quality of the information in an evidence-based way and decide all together what is best for us instead of some politicians in backdoor meetings? We are now in a situation where a lot gets decided over the heads of many people and where the information is not necessary evidence based, but more a compromise between parties. Can we make the information from our government that transparent that we can match it with other evidence-based policy to decide together what is best for all of us?

The city is ours

Our municipality should do the same as how we would own the assets of the city together
Managed as a common

Commons are land or resources belonging to the whole of the community. And this is how municipalities and cities should be managed. By the people who live there, pass by, work there, … It is like everyone of these people co-owns the city. This opens up a totally new perspective towards how the city should be managed.

Experiments

We need new ideas to evolve bottom-up to help re-invent our democracy. Cities have their own identities and will as such apply their ideas in a very original way. They become a motor for democratic progress. The local level is where we need to give room to initiatives, experiment and dare to do things differently, even if we are not sure how it will turn out. The fact that citizens are allowed to participate, co-own, take initiative and can learn from failure is more important than someone pretending everything is all right.

Why traditional parties?

Traditional parties like OpenVLD, CD&V, N-VA, … will try to find a compromise, stemming from national beliefs, between each other, which is often a game of when you get this, you get this in return, dividing the power among themselves. This makes no sense on the local level and is contradictory to the philosophy of the commons, where everyone should have a part of the power. There are examples like Froome with Flatpack Democracy, where people decided to form their own lists independent from the classical parties. The town is thriving based on this.

Citizen lists?

For the local elections, some crews will participate in citizen lists, others will participate as pirate party. The reason is each time the same: try to get the city managed as a common and to ask for transparency, a simpler city structure, a real say for the citizens and a more direct democracy.

Democracy

We want to do better than the least bad solution. We explore what can transform our particracy into democracy without imposing a specific solution.
Sortition

We see that what the people want and our current politicians decide, is not the same. Sortition is a mathematical solution for this. Described by David Van Reybrouck in “Against Elections” and supported scientifically, by selecting 500 random people from society, the decisions taken are very close to the decisions we would take with everybody. Sortition can as such be a powerful tool to check whether what we all want and what gets decided is on par.

Liquid Democracy

Switzerland is the best known case for referenda, where it exists for many years and where the democratic tradition makes this process work. Liquid Democracy (e.g. LiquidFeedback) is the digital version of this, which makes it possible for everyone to initiate an idea and get it voted. Because everyone does not have the time to vote on everything, you have the possibility to delegate your vote to others.

Simple Structures

We have our democratic institutions like the city council, the parliament that are our main democratic powers where the opinion of the entire society should play its role. The problem is that a lot of decisions which should involve the people lead a separate life in separate institutions loose of the initial democratic control of these institutions. Examples are the institutions of the European Parliament, the several commissions and the Intercommunals. This is creating career politicians who know their way in this web instead of politicians that want to defend the people.

Bottom-up

Citizens should be supported, not patronized. Citizen initiatives should find their way towards policy. Let’s check: does this idea come from above or from below.

A free internet

Where the Pirate Party started in the first place...
Copyright Reform

The access to knowledge, technology and culture is a fundamental civil right. The current legislation concerning intellectual property, copyright and patent however is blocking this access. Large organisations should not abuse copyright patent in order to protect their own position and make a profit at the expense of the community. It is in the interest of the community to continue to build on the previous achievements in technology, science and art.

Privacy

Privacy is a prerequisite for individual freedom. Under the guise of security the state wants to know more and more about its citizens. We should not give up our privacy for the alleged safety.

Free Software

If we want to control our robotic overlords in the future, it is necessary we get as many eyes as possible on the code/data that rules them. This allows for better software and not allows not to let restrain our creativity by using the services of one company. Open data allow us to create better services.

P2P

Internet these days is for too many people just Google, Twitter and Facebook. This makes these organisations really powerful, while people don’t realize they give up their individual rights. You can try to restrain their power by law, but governments seem to be even worse, but it would be far better if we could make these services more decentralised. Net neutrality is important to guarantee that these corporations don’t get extra advantages.

Basic Income

An amount given to everyone without questions asked. High enough, but no fixed ideas yet.
Takes away fear

From all experiments with basic income, there is one thing that stands out every time: reduced healthcare costs of about 7%. Why? Because a basic income diminishes people’s fear and encourages them to do what they like in their life. That is the best way to make people feel better. Taking away fear is a way to provide freedom and is a base for participating in democratic processes with an open mind.

Social – Liberal

A basic income is both a social and a liberal solution: it should make sure everyone has the decent means for a decent life (social) and on the other hand gives the freedom to the free market. This way it undermines the power of our current politics and the neoliberal meritocracy: you don’t necessarily earn something because you worked or contributed to society in the “work” sense, but just already for being among your peers.

Social Justice

The basic goal of basic income is social justice. it provides each person with ‘real freedom’, that is, not only the right but also the means to pursue one’s conception of the good life. It provides us with a ground to stand on instead of a net in which we get stuck .

Context

A basic income does not solve everything and we don’t know yet which is the optimal form or maybe there is a similar solution that handles the same problems. The context can however be important as some solutions will tackle economic inequality better or even support better the dignity of life for everyone.

Rethinking...

More democracy does not mean less possibilities to fundamentally change things. On the contrary...
Ourself

We can talk as much as we want about horizontal structures and transparency, but it would not matter if we at least tried ourself. That is why the pirate party does not have a president or every meaningful meeting should have its report on our wiki.

Money and banks

We see that secondary currencies often perform better than the main ones. This is important to notice and should make us aware of the fact that money and banks should not play the boss, but we should have democratic control over money and banks. Politicians often use the economy to gain power, while we should try to find the best solutions for the economy together. And if society can not agree as a whole on the correct blockchain, individuals may start their own, maybe even supporting a basic income.

Drugs policy

Marihuana has often been put in the criminal corner, while this is not the best policy. It has also some medical advantages which can not be used sometimes because it is put in the criminal corner.

How to think forward

With automated vehicles, trains, buses and parkings in the city are outdated. Politicians still think in terms of parkings and train stations. Let’s try to think forward with technology in mind. Thinking about the future is hard though, but that should not keep us for trying to change our forward thinking.

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