Alternative names for the Party

Progressive Future Party?

Irritatingly positive. Risks confusion with the former Future Party and the current Australian Progressives. That confusion might not be such a bad thing; both would be attractive alternatives if I leave this Party.

Progress Party?

First, I certainly think that “LibLeft” is only good as a placeholder name at best. Nobody would vote for us if they saw that on the ballot.

The goals of our party are ultimately to ensure that everyone has a fair go in this great nation of ours. Universal free healthcare, universal basic income, open and unrestricted communication, no data retention and so on and so forth.

How about “The Fair Go Party”?

1 Like

My thoughts are along the same lines. The problem with any name that incorporates the word “Fair” is that, Ozzies being Ozzies, we’d inevitably end up “Fairies”. Not good for the credibility. :grin:

The best alternative I’ve come up with is “Equity”. On that point, I rather like this image from the Isolated Childrens’ Parents Association as an illustration.

1 Like

My primary concern with both of these names is that they really only capture one aspect — the social equality aspect. They don’t really address the dedication to civil liberties/digital liberties/human rights side of things that I think ‘Libertarian’ was aiming for.

‘Fair Go’ I don’t like because it’s taking something quintessentially Australian: parties that do this tend to give off a nationalist vibe unfortunately.

Nothing’s perfect. The best that we can hope for is “as good as possible”. The term “Libertarian” has to be among our worst options, as that term is generally understood at this point in time (as distinct from dictionary definition).

Equity captures one aspect - and it isn’t equality. Equity and equality are not the same.

If we can’t find acceptable terms for other aspects, then we might just have to live with not covering them in the name. Let’s face it, most of what we want said won’t be said in the name.

1 Like

the best i’ve come up with so far…is The Future Party of Australia. the FPA for short. please don’t tell me it already exists…

Yes, it exists or existed. I’m not a fan of the name regardless.

bugger oh well back to thinking it is then

It’s still registered, but has changed its name.

Progressive Future Party?

Irritatingly positive. Risks confusion with the former Future Party and the current Australian Progressives. That confusion might not be such a bad thing; both would be attractive alternatives if I leave this Party.

Progress Party?

Moved all discussions relating to alternative names here so they don’t get lost and the discussion can grow at its own pace. :smile:

1 Like

Internet Party, marketed as “iParty” for the apple fans, or “I Party” for ravers, if they are still a thing

But it wouldnt work, its not broad enough, which is the whole point of renaming

“All our Rights Reserved”

A phrase most people have heard, so easy to remember, protecting our rights is what libertarians are about, have to add the “our”, to emphasis collective rights. (ie left not right)

But yea, its still very out there… (just trying to be creative)

How about a different tack? I suggest the Open Source Party.

1 Like

Or the Open Democracy Party?

5 Likes

Riffing off the Copyright and Patent focus, I feel Commons is a really great word. It speaks to both intellectual commons, and public spaces and shared services. It’s something people have heard about through projects like Creative Commons, and phrases like Tragedy of the Commons, so it is a familiar concept to our techy members base as well as the educated public, so it’s easy to explain.

A name like Save Our Commons or The Protected Commons carries a similar meaning and spirit to Pirate, but is more direct and not silly.

Some other ideas:

  • Raising Standards: speaking to our basic income focus, and the general spirit that we must use our collective wealth to raise the living standards of those least served by our society. It also feels like a subtle critique of the low standards Australian politics has sunk to. It’s something we have some claim to, as one of the only parties to not be involved in any preference deal corruption at the last federal election.
  • The People Party: speaking to our focus on individual rights, and every day people, as well as our experiments with direct democracy.
  • The 99 Party: short, punchy, hints towards occupy movement and our strong focus on the commons and the restoration of equity to the poorer majority, with undertones of fairer taxation, and the sort of combined socialism and regulated capitalism Australia was more known for a few decades ago. Unfortunately it’s likely to date again, and this movement seems to be in a lull currently, or perhaps it’s already fading in to irrelevance.
  • The Next Party or The Tomorrow Party: Many of our policies consider heavily the long term future, protecting commons like our shared atmosphere, our public infrastructure, preparing for economic shifts as automation reduces the useful work load of our nation. There’s a sense that other parties often focus on issues that are within a 3 or 6 year electoral cycle. It’s rare for parties to focus on issues that are twenty or fifty years out. Perhaps our name could inspire people by referencing our willingness to confront the longer term future.

I’m so far against anything including liberty, freedom, or libertarianism. I would be too ashamed of the tea party connotations to tell friends I’m a supporter of this party if it’s name included those words. I don’t want to have to explain what we aren’t, when the implications are that horrible. I don’t want to be reminded of those people who would rather see me starve than part with a portion of their income. Right Libertarians threaten to destroy everything I value, including myself and my welfare dependant friends. It is a toxic and abhorrent word within the Sydney queer community. I will likely resign my membership if such a change takes place.

8 Likes

Common Growth Party ?

EDIT: ouch that actually sounds horrible when i look at it… But i like commons too, it would backfire if it made people think of communism

Collective Commons, Social Commons, Social Equity ?

The Next Party would be confused with Nick Xenophon parTy (NXT)

“The Winning Party”

Best troll name ever !!!

3 Likes

I think, and I hope this comes off respectfully, that many of the proposed names are equally as narrow as Pirate Party. I am perfectly happy to stay with Pirate Party if all the suggestions are merely restatements of the same or similar narrow concepts. Renaming was floated, as I understood, to move us away from the perception that we are a ‘niche’ or single-issue party. As @bug1 pointed out:

I would also suggest we pick a name that represents our ideology in some way. That is, words that reflect what we want to actually do. We should avoid names like ‘Australian Screen Association’, which is actually a copyright lobby for the film industry and used to be called the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (commonly known as AFACT) or ‘Creative Content Australia’, which is the rebranded Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation.

Note that the former names of these organisations reflected what they were about ideologically and what their purpose was. It’s hard to unpack what the true purpose of those organisations is now.

Pirate Party is quite an honest name for what we are still partly about, but doesn’t entirely cover our entire ideology and policies.

Civil Liberty & Digital Rights (Pirate) Party

It can still capture the people who are interested in why we have the name “Pirate”, but does not lead to immediate dismissal as a ‘joke’ party.
It states our main issues clearly, in plain language rather than abstract identifiers of the political spectrum. It avoids the potentially negative impressions associated with Libertarian and Left identifiers (which do exist, and impressions matter). It does not abandon our identity as Pirates, and retains the bold and unique brand with which we were established.

Consider the typical uneducated voter. They look at the ballot. They don’t want to give their vote to those circus clowns in the ALP or Liberal Party who keep backstabbing each other, but the Greenies hate jobs (so they think). Who is going to get their vote? It’s probably not going to be the abstract spectrum identifying Left-Libertarians, but maybe they will identify with ideas of Civil/Social/Digital Liberties & Rights or some combination thereof. And so they recognise our party amongst a slew of potentially other generic sounding names, we still maintain the brand unique to us: CL&DR (Pirate) Party.

Instead of CL&DR specifically, the name could just as easily be a combination of any of our major platform ideas.
Civil Liberty
Digital Rights
Social Equity
Personal Privacy
Government Transparency
Freedom of Speech/Anti-Censorship
Evidence-Based policies
21st Century Government
Copyright Reform

3 Likes