I don’t think “Libertarian” works without the “Left” bit or “Left” works without “Libertarian”.
Big L Libertarians, as in the Ayn Rand loving, tax hating, gun toting, radical capitalists are a long way from us on a wide range of issues. Essentially, we believe the State should provide healthcare, education and a social safety-net and they do not.
That said, libertarianism as a broad definition fits with our view of civil liberties and the importance of individual choice. We don’t support censorship, drug prohibition or media ownership laws. We don’t believe the State should have unfettered access to our information to protect us from terrorism or criminals because the State must have its power over individuals limited as much as possible whilst providing benefits for society. As often stated, ‘it is the government who should fear the people, not the people who should fear the government.’
From Wikipedia:
Libertarianism (Latin: liber, “free”) is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as its principal objective. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association, and the primacy of individual judgment.
Libertarians generally share a skepticism of authority; however, they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems. Various schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding the legitimate functions of state and private power, often calling to restrict or even to wholly dissolve coercive social institutions. Rather than embodying a singular, rigid systematic theory or ideology, libertarianism has been applied as an umbrella term to a wide range of sometimes discordant political ideas through modern history.
We definitely fit under the libertarian ‘umbrella’, but firmly to the left of said umbrella.
The term ‘Left’ has been damaged by the authoritarian strain of left wing politics, most notably through the various Communist Parties around the world and the (now waning) influence of Marxism. Even the Greens are more authoritarian than us (relatively), with support for media ownership laws and limiting free speech more than we believe healthy. That said, our outlook is firmly to the left.
From Wikipedia:
Left-wing politics support social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. They typically involve concern for those in society whom they perceive as disadvantaged relative to others and a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished.
Our approach to social policies quite clearly fit in with this outlook. We don’t support social hierarchy such as Monarchy or systematic inequality caused by discrimination and many of our policies are aimed at addressing inequalities.
As Brendan suggested in the OP:
Q: I think you’ll lose the ‘right’ for calling it left and the ‘left’ for calling it libertarian. What do you think?
I think that is a reasonable assertion based on the traditionally narrow minded views of the mainstream media that paints Australian politics on a one-dimensional axis.
However, the argument falls apart very quickly as it becomes evident that the Party stands on a platform that significantly differs not only from the two major parties, but even the Greens and the LDP. We are an independent and unique party that is largely the only one that fits in the left-libertarian part of the political axis. I again invite you to consider the a left-libertarianism page on Wikipedia and see how well the Pirate Party fits within this broad quadrant of politics and how no other Australian party does.
Read the wikipedia entry. Whilst I don’t know the philosophical backgrounds of every person in PPAU, where I do know where people come from, we all fit within the definition of left libertarian as stated. As soon as you mess with the name, you start to exclude parts of our current active membership base.
All of this said, I still like the name Pirate Party and would only want to change if the proposed name is better. Libertarian Left Party is IMO the first name that has been suggested that accurately encapsulates what the Party stands for and is decent. I’m open to other ideas, but names like ‘Social Democrats’ or ‘Libertarian Party’ are much worse than Pirate Party and in those cases I would prefer our name remained the same.