FLOSS/Linux Political Party

Morris, Simon Simon.Morris at cmtww.com
Thu Mar 3 09:12:10 UTC 2005


On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 00:36 +0000, Sid Dabster wrote:
> *** Proposal for a FLOSS/Linux Political Party ***
> 
> I suggest a Linux Party is formed to promote the idea
> of free software (and possibly related ideas). The
> last European Election with the patent issue showed
> the relevance of politics to the free software
> movement. Voting purely on patents lead to some
> undesirable alliance partners. While as LUG Radio
> noted, the patent issue did not brake through into the
> mainstream media. If free software is to gain mass
> use, we need decision makers and media to be more
> aware. A Linux party with a free post drop and media
> time will do this just as other single issue parties
> have.

Whilst I'm behind the ideology 100% I'm not sure forming a separate
political party is the best way to go to achieve your aims.

Single issue parties have always performed badly (apart from one or two
notable successes) mainly for the reason that by definition they are
only interested in a couple of key points, where an elected leader is
expected to deal with a wide range of social and political issues.

Even parties with single issues that are much more visible to the
general public such as the Green party don't attract the votes of all
their sympathisers because they don't want to 'waste' their vote on that
single issue when there are more pressing issues to hand.

Please understand I'm not being defeatist here but there are better ways
to make an impact.

Why not divert that energy and focus into canvassing MEPs from the main
parties and bringing them around to start defending the rights of
software developers and users by challenging software patents?

Rgds


-- 
~sm
Simon Morris

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