Vote on the referral to the Code of Conduct Council

Board
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This is to decide on the submission of the below text to the Code of Conduct Council.

The voting deadline is one week after the opening of the vote.

CODE OF CONDUCT COUNCIL

The PPEU board hereby forwards the following complaint to the Code of Conduct Council

Summary

A member of the PPGR is suspected of engaging in improper conduct while seeking support for a proposal presented to the PPEU council. Ahead of, during, and following the submission of the proposal to the PPEU board, this individual posted material in social media that accused individuals from other pirate parties of unethical conduct and of being a threat to the movement. Some of this material included posts that listed individual members of PPNL, PPDE and PPI by name.

This conduct appears to be in violation of the following principles of the PPEU code of conduct:

  • Respect Freedom of Expression
  • Support Positive Interactions Among members
  • Commitment to Non-Violence
  • Respect for Privacy
  • Facilitate Participation & Collaboration

Therefore, we ask the code of conduct council to investigate the case to determine:

  • Whether this is a private conflict or whether it is a case of systematic harassment or targeted attempts at intimidating or silencing members with dissenting views
  • Whether and which (if any) principles in the code of conduct have been violated
  • Whether the conduct has also been damaging to the PPEU, member parties or the European pirate movement as a whole

We also ask that the Code of Conduct Council do the following:

  • Mediate between conflicting individuals or parties
  • Offer guidance to the offending party to prevent further issues
  • Recommend a stronger remedy/course of action if mediation and guidance is not deemed sufficient by the code of conduct council

What has occurred

Comments and various actions ahead of Council Meetings, during Council Meetings, and on social media.

How the code of conduct has been violated

For reference, the PPEU code of conduct can be found here.

The conduct identified in this complaint appears to violate the following elements of the code of conduct:

  • Respect Freedom of Expression
  • Support Positive Interactions Among members
  • Commitment to Non-Violence
  • Respect for Privacy
  • Facilitate Participation & Collaboration

Respect Freedom of Expression

This principle states that “We support an individual’s freedom of expression and will strive to better understand each other by not assuming experiences or beliefs, clarifying meanings, and making an effort to speak clearly, avoiding jargon and acronyms.” The conduct has involved making claims about the beliefs of specific individuals and posting names in social media together with statements about the implications of these beliefs. There does not appear to have been any attempts to better understand the individuals concerned or to seek clarification.

Commitment to Non-Violence

This principle states that “We will not engage in any type of violence or aggression, including verbal threats or complaints, intimidation, stalking or harassment, whether physically or psychologically”. What constitutes violence is often scary and difficult to determine if one does not actively work with it. For this reason, I’ve provided a few simple definitions below. They are originally from the book “Alternativ til vold” by Per Isdal, but can be commonly found on many websites that work with violence prevention.

Physical violence

Classic, often intuitive forms of violence, such as punching or pushing.

Emotional violence

Hurting or intimidating by manipulating people’s feelings, such as by inducing feelings of guilt or shame.

Sexual violence

Violence related to sex, including sexual harassment

Psychological violence

Causing harm, intimidation, etc. through verbal threats, derogatory names or false accusations.

Latent/hidden violence

When the potential for violence has been established and only words, looks or someone’s presence is enough to silence dissent or control someone’s movements and choices.

These definitions are used professionally throughout Europe by organisations such as WWP Europe, the Norwegian foundation Alternativ til vold, the Icelandic organisation Heimilisfri∂ur along with men’s crisis centres and women’s shelters throughout Europe. They are also discussed in multilateral agreements, such as the Istanbul convention. Organisations such as WWP Europe (www.work-with-perpetrators.eu) provide good information about how to identify when conduct constitutes violence. Systematically posting untrue information or accusations about a member’s beliefs and their validity or lack thereof constitutes the use of emotional, psychological and, possibly, hidden/latent violence when the subject of the violence starts to avoid confrontation.

Respect for Privacy

This states that we, as members, “Safeguard the privacy of members, individuals and participants in PPEU events.” This is a core value of European pirates and the PPEU. Posting member’s names in a post in social media without their consent fails to safeguard the privacy of those members.

Facilitate Participation & Collaboration

This means that we will not “engage in sustained disruption of sessions or events, interrupt conversations in a way that negatively impacts collaboration, or engage in toxic behaviours to attract negative attention to an attendee” . Posting member’s names in social media posts where they are accused of unethical conduct without their consent can constitute engaging in a behaviour that “attracts negative attention to an attendee”.

Support Positive Interactions Among members

This principle is about engaging constructively with others. It states that “We will not tolerate bullying, including requesting or mobilizing others, either in person or online, to bully others.”

The repeated actions of online violence or harassment and the green lighting of attacks on members may constitute bullying and even the mobilisation of people to bully others.

Next steps by the Code of Conduct Council

  • Establish the facts, in particular if the conflict is between private individuals or involves representatives of an Ordinary Member
  • Contact the parties involved and offer mediation
  • Provide recommendations of actions or measures (possibly disciplinary) which could be taken by the PPEU Board to remedy to the situation.
On the submission of the above text to the Code of Conduct Council, you declare yourself :
  • In favour
  • Against
  • Abstain
0 voters
1 Like
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Thank you for forwarding this.

3

You are welcome, please note that this has not yet been sent to the CoCC for referral.

Your feedback on the formalism of the referral would be welcome, at a later point.

4

Freedom of speech IS NOT supporting children slaughtered or not condemning middle east Nazis.

1 Like
5

I am sorry (NOT) but this is a joke.

Whoever is in favour of this should watch this:

Commitment to Non-Violence ? Really? Hurting feelings? Really?

This is a disgrace.

Vassilis Perantzakis

President of the Governing Board of the Pirate Party of Greece

P.S.: Soon, we will be deciding if there is any reason to remain a member or this european party. So you can go on with this if you wish. As long as members of the European and International pirate party support genocide in Gaza, there is no reason to stay.

6

Dear Vassilis and George,

Thank you for your uncalled-for reactions,

Please note that this is a procedural matter and the task at hand is not to establish the facts nor any potential wrongdoings.

This will be an arduous task to be handled by the Code of Conduct Council (and you probably will have a say along the process), which will provide counsel to the Board if sensible.

7

Just so that it’s clear for any member of the PPEU, according to the Code of Conduct Council Rules of Procedures (CoCC RoP), anyone is able to raise an issue to the CoCC.

What we’re seeing here is a voting for the PPEU Board to further raise/promote this issue to the CoCC and it doesn’t substitute the issues’ submission process to the CoCC.

I personally hope that the PPEU CoCC will at the very least consider the political aspects regarding the raised issue, and proceed in a thorough and productive discussion over it.

  • Also, since we’re all about phrasing and choosing the correct words to express ourselves, I sincerely hope that the PPEU CoCC will consider that “shushing out” pirates who raise the Palestinians’ genocide issue (opposing those who deny it), might lead to unfortunate results for the pirate movement. Hopefully, the resulting report will consider the political aspects of this matter in a non-harmful manner towards it.
  • Finally, I sincerely hope that the PPEU CoCC will try to break the no politica status of PPEU, leaving the shallow waters of merely procedural procedures, sailing towards the deep waters of politics for once! :smiley: (Sadly, I truthfully believe that once again I will be proven wrong!) :frowning:

~Thanasis “f1nch” Chantzios
~PPGR

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In addition to the above, we’re also letting you know, Florian, that your uncalled-for initiative didn’t sit well with our Board or our members. In fact, this statement was unanimously approved (attached).

9

Dear Thanasis,

I welcome the formulated attacks on myself.

Regardless, the Council is responsible for the adoption of common positions. Remember that it is the Council which is sovereign, and the Board is here to see through the execution of its resolutions.

I even personally worked on an alternate resolution, building from yours, and coordinated with our MEP on its phrasing to offer options to the Council. I hoped it would be considered balanced enough and would have helped you succeed in your endeavour before the Council Meeting, alas.

If you wish to make me the object of your anger and paint me as the reason for your failures, please do so.

My only purpose here is to ensure proceedings and debates are orderly. I am and will be taking the initiative of escalating issues to the Code of Conduct Council. I do not intend to let conflicts rot by shying away from using the tool we should use to settle them.

As a final note, I am merely a proxy here although yes on my initiative because I am not forced to by anyone. But if I hear complaints or other accusations, as said, I will not let them go unchecked. The result could very much clear you from any wrongdoings : as I said, my (or the Board’s) objective here is not to attack you or establish the facts.

My door is open, if you’d like.

10

Dear Emerodh,

The only thing uncalled for is the lack of reaction of some “Pirates” to the genocide in Gaza.

We are calling for Pirates to take a stand on the Gaza Genocide and Pirate politicians are not “incognito”. They have the same exposure as all other politicians to critisism. If they don’t like it
 it is their problem. Freedom of expression covers crtisism. It doesn’t exclude it as apparently some think.

Now
 read this, because the commotion we have helped stir is working. Pirates ARE taking a stand.

Vassilis Perantzakis,
President of the Governing Board of the Pirate Party of Greece.

SILENCING ME WILL NOT PASS.

The last post you deleted was this:

"Emerodh, I don’t know what you think the Pirate Party is, but last time I looked, it was a POLITICAL party. Your submission is for POLITICAL actions. You are trying to say that talking politics and criticizing the political actions of other Pirates in the Board, the Social media, or this thread is a NO NO
 I am sorry, but NO.

This is a political issue. You are trying to intimidate members of the Pirate Party into silence because you don’t like their criticism of your political actions or inactions. I call BS.

Let’s talk facts (political and otherwise): the PPEU is still twiddling its thumbs, 19 months into the genocide, still hamstrung by people who insist on performing mental gymnastics to keep Israel from accountability; it has withdrawn completely from any actual politics, having reduced itself to being an irrelevant bureaucracy. And all you have to say about all this is that Pirates who dare criticize all this should be threatened with disciplinary action because they did it publicly? What is this? A 19nth century boys club?

Vassilis Perantzakis,
President of the Governing Board of the Pirate Party of Greece."

11

This is not the place for such discussions, once again.

I am glad if you’re slowly succeeding in your objectives. Let me just point out that the method is important.

You have your considerations, please do not take it out on the Board or me, especially in unrelated spaces or through unrelated topics. The positions you hold are not questioned or silenced, only the way they are expressed might be subjected to examination through this proceeding.

Should you want to discuss things further or seek advice in the future, you can reach out to me or any others, through Discourse or Mattermost.

Please refrain from advocating for political positions in this thread.

13

I abstained here because I found this board’s action not necessary.
Now, after what I have seen here, I think I made a mistake: I should have vote against.
We, the board, should lead by example and whenever there are controversial behaviours in our fellow members try to understand and talk, not report nor blame.
Unfortunately I cannot change my vote.