It started 2006, in the first days of the pirate party in Austria: When party-founder Florian Hufsky wanted to register the url "piratenpartei.at" he found out, that it was already registered to the Austrian communist party "KPOE - European Left". The communists told him that they themselves were already a pirate party, and if he wanted to make pirate politics he would have to do it within their organisation. It took some time and interventions from international pirate parties to convince the communists that there is no way that pirates would ever be acting in the framework of existing political parties - certainly not being blackmailed into such a situation - and that our political goals and methods do not fit communism at all. Unfortunately that episode of party history was forgotten, due to the tragical suicide of Hufsky in 2009 and the fluctuation of personnel in party boards and members.
When the PPAt had reached a size that promised electoral success, and thereby the chance to gain well paid positions in the political establishment, that was the honeypot that drew so many wannabe-leaders and agents of other parties that feared the competition to the PPAt.
For Austria, those were Christopher Clay and Julia Reda. Here is a detailed description of what happened at the general assembly, that decided the first union of the PPAt with the communists.
http://partypiratesat.createaforum.com/general-discussion/piratische-antifaschisten-sind-antipiratische-faschisten/A short summary in english: along with her fellow PPAt-member from Berlin Fabio Reinhardt, Reda became moderator of the assambly, how that happened is one of the blank spots in the protocol. From the very beginning she and her co-moderators changed the agenda, so that all applications made by critics, criticising the board or being simply disliked by the board could be avoided. They where postponed till the end of the day, when there was of course no more time to take care of them, or they where called when the person who made it was outside, and were then rejected because of the absence of the author.
People who asked critical questions to the board and the management were interrupted or told they would be sacked from the assembly, if they would not stop. Finally Bernhard Hayden, one of the local moderators, interrupted his "work" to read a prepared text to the assembly, that warshipped his Guru Christopher Clay.
Clay promised to the Pirates, that he would make sure that the Pirates would not be seen as a Party of the political left because of the union with the communists. When the members had voted for the union, he turned around and held a press conference, celebrating the new union of all parties of the political left, including the Pirates. Later he claimed he did not want to waste ten years dealing with stupid NGOs and infantile activists, he wanted to be a proper polititian, earning proper money and only dealing with other proper polititians.
When Reda got elected an MEP because of a pathetic mistake in German voting regulations, the first thing she did was to pose with the flag and some members of the radical left in the EP:
https://mobile.twitter.com/SkaKeller/status/483883550044073984/photo/1Clay became her "Communications Officer", critcising the Pirate's "stupid dogma of non-violence", claiming he had the right to decide, when the use of violence was justified (which is of course against everyone who has a different oppinion then himself and Reda).
Before the union the communists and their socks in the PPAt promised, that the cooperation would be only for the eu-elections. That of course was once again a lie. The elelections in Vienna came close, and the communists stroke again. Their socks in Vienna, Gerhard Hager and Christoph Ulbrich, made sure that the PPAt was in a union with the communists again.
How they managed to secure that, is described by Hager here:
https://forum.piratenpartei.at/thread-14161-post-138427.html#pid138427In english: the membership-fees of the PPAt are so low, that the communist party could afford to pay the fees for a number of members of the communist's youth-organization, that showed up at the Vienna assembly, to vote for the union. They came with another communist sock, Juliana Okropiridse, who got the first place on the candidates-list for the coming elections in return. She also claims to be a board members of "unipiraten" (once the Pirate's students organization) and the Austrian young pirates "junge Piraten", that are as empty shells as Julia Reda's european version of "Young pirates". In these organizations there have been no activities whatsoever since these hoaxes were founded.
According to the statutes of the PPAt, the decision for the union would have needed a 70% approval by all members nationwide, which it didn't get. So the members of the partie's abitration court, specially Florian Salmhofer, decided that this part of the statutes was to be ignored, because they are as well socks of the communists. So the communists didn't have to pay so many membership–fees to have 70% in the national organization, Vienna was enough by then.
In the press-release celebrating the union, that was made despite it has not been legitimized by the members of PPAt, the board of the communist party declared, that the left-populist parties syriza and podemos were the blueprint for their new political formation:
http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20150216_OTS0131/wir-wollen-wien-veraendernHager and Ulbrich also made clear, that to them the only reasons to be in politics are power and money:
http://wien.piratenpartei.at/landesgeneralversammlung-2015-1/A short summary: they declared that to them the Pirate's idea of being political activists instead of politicians was "stupid". They wanted to be elected into parliament or at least a local council to feel relevant, and of course to earn lots of money.
The communist agents first declared, the union now called "andas" was only to be formed for the viennese elections (we remember: they also declared that the first cooperation was just for the eu-elections before the eu-elections, so who is sane wouldn't believe them any more), which - surprise! - is once more a lie. It also was a lie, that andas would keep on being a union, but soon it came clear, that this was another lie:
https://forum.piratenpartei.at/thread-14332.htmlThe reason to actually form a new party: it's the money, stupid! In the most unlikely case that they would be elected, they would have gotten additional tax money for being a party.
https://forum.piratenpartei.at/thread-14332-post-140502.html#pid140502Here is a first-handed description of how the decision for the Viennese version of "andas" was made in the end:
Serves you right, KPÖ! Socketeering is no substitute for due diligence!
At the time of the decision to share campaign efforts and results, the KPÖ would have had enough information to refrain from it, because Ofer was indicted in November. Juliana Okropiridse would have failed a simple screen test. A glance on pirate activity would have revealed total absence thereof.
However, it is not only lack of due diligence you can reproach on the communists. As they say in America: you can’t con an honest man. You cannot con an honest party, either. What the communists did to the Pirate Party was essentially a hostile take-over. The then soon-to-be communism-starlet Juliana Okropiridse showed up at the pirate assembly vote for or against the alliance in the company of homeys from the communist youth organization who tipped the balance in favor of joining. She had to do it twice, because the first voting was ruled unstatutory by the pirate arbitration board. Okropiridse’s commie socks also voted pirate issues out of the campaign at that assembly.
This will not end well
So far, the only visible influence of the Viennese pirates on the campaign is a sudden onslaught of profanity, a traditional hallmark of the capitals’s piracy (together with bar brawls). In an article about wealth distribution in Austria on the campaign website, Didi Zach, Okropiridse’s running mate, quoted himself as naming political opponents as „****“. Okropiridse herself is peddling vomit bags at campaign press conferences. The slogan that goes with it is an allusion to scooping dog feces from the sidewalk.
https://mobile.twitter.com/hyliapfingstl/status/609057520208986113The new andas-party is ruled by a central committy that makes all decisions non-transparently and without asking the members, so it is a classical stalinist construction. The Pirates are in contrary to that a postideological and direct-democratic movement. That's why no real Pirate could ever participate in a cooperation with communists or other non-democratic organizations.
Of course this hoax did not succeed, and got as little votes as the communists always get, because voters are not stupid enough to be fooled that easily, and recognize communists when they see them. Meanwhile communist spooks installed in Pirate Parties in Berlin and other German regions returned to the party they came from, the German department of the European left "dieLinke". In Austria the next effort is made by the communist party, to form a new party that camouflages its communist nature, this time called "Aufbruch". Among the founding members are least surprisingly several individuals involved in the incidents described here. The pirate party in Austria has been turned down. The forum, last platform of commication with the members, was closed and taken offline. The communist socks hold the infrastructure of the party hostage, only not to let real pirates get started again. There is no other activity whatsoever.
One of the founders of "Aufbruch" is Lukas Daniel "@vilinthril" Klausner. Klausner is the person that always has a delegate-majority in the Pirate Party's online-electoral-tool called "liquid", a derivate of the "liquid-feedback" polling-software. Liquid Feedback was designed for opinion polling, not for binding referendums, and it needs by advise of the developers at least 1000 participants and a strictly divided administration from the administration of party members to avoid manipulation. Shortly after liquid was installed Klausner took control of both administrations. He gave friends and relatives free memberships that he is expanding ever since, to always be able to make decisions for the whole party all by himself. Abusing that tool like that, he was able to decide that the decisions made with the tool would overthrow decisions made by real-life members at party assemblies, and so he repeatedly was able to make decisions in favour of the cooperation with the communists, when assemblies had rejected them. This method of faking democracy fits communists for sure, bout it is the opposite of what pirates want to achieve, and drove all members except a handful of politically irrelevant mentals out of the party.
Unfortunately the Pirate Parties international are ignoring the whole situation, and Gregory Engels is giving the European Left every support that they want. I just can not find the decision of the board or any other pirate organization, that legitimates that. The ppi-board will also have to choose one side, because pirates and communists can never be on the same side! As I can not see other pirate parties than the Austrian to already be taken over by the communists, but I can not know that. So I will make a survey amongst the boards of all pirate parties worldwide, how they feel abot being communists soon. I will inform the ppi-board about the results, as they come in. Then we will know, how popular the board's decision to support the European Left really is.
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