The Pirates Parties International (PPI) has had a hard time dealing with finances. They have one (or two?) bank accounts that they have not been able to use because they lack access to them. At the last GA, which took place in Paris, it was decided that there will be membership fees. Thus having a solution to the banking problem has suddenly become an immediate priority.

“Current view of the UK NEC is that the Pirate Parties International is not fit for purpose and needs reform, this is due to structural and financial issues”

The British Pirate Party considered the problems grave and had a voting for their members about pulling out of PPI in 2013. Their members decided that they would like to stay in PPI and that the “UK wishes to see Pirate Parties International become an effective coordination organisation for the Pirate movement and to enable national parties to have a voice within transnational and international organisations”. Due to this decision by their members PPUK started working actively in July 2013 to try and help PPI solve their financial situation.

The initial meetings with PPI were good and they broadly agreed with the problems that PPUK highlighted. It was concluded that PPUK financial processes could be adopted by PPI with only minor modifications. It was also made clear that, in order to fix the financial situation, the PPI treasurer would get help and support from the PPUK treasury staff, their oversight team, their international team and maybe additional support from other Pirate Parties.

One of the big disagreements between PPUK and PPI was regarding the PPI HQ statutes. The ‘PPI HQ’ is a separate organization from ‘PPI’ and constructed for legal reasons about having a registered organization. Considering that most members of PPI are not aware of the PPI HQ it can definitely be considered an organizational and communicative problem. Up until now the PPI HQ has had problems following their own statutes.

When the discussions and help from PPUK went on they were unfortunately met with a lack of commitment and delivery from PPI which made the process of clearing the financial situation stall. The PPUK did what they could and set up a plan to solve the situation but no documents (or documented processes) that PPUK asked for was delivered by PPI.

The first urgent step for PPI, according to the PPUK investigation, is that PPI opens “a bank account related to the organisation”. The PPUK investigation mostly tries to describe the financial situation of PPI but also identifies another three problem areas that PPI need to resolve in order to function better: priorities/tasking, statutory basis and culture.

The new PPI board has already decided to start following the advice from PPUK and open a PPI account in the UK. The initial contact with the new board has been positive and hopefully they can continue working through the issues on the financial side as well as improving the organization in the other three areas that PPUK identified.

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The The PPI Finance brief made by PPUK (pdf).

More documents regarding PPI finance and PPI HQ.

Featured image is CC BY NC SA JJ.

About Josef Ohlsson Collentine

I’m a dual citizen (American/Swede) and try to integrate my reflections from a more global perspective if possible. I’m the organizational leader for Pirate Times and work actively to strengthen the pirate movement through this work as well as being the international contact for Piratpartiet (PPSE). Elected board member of PPSE for 2015-2018.
If you would like to ask me something I speak English, Swedish and Spanish. Find me on the links below

 

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The Pirates Parties International (PPI) has had a hard time dealing with finances. They have one (or two?) bank accounts that they have not been able to use because they…