The Pirate Party demonstrates outside the Swedish parliament building in central Stockholm. Photo: Fredrik Andersson

After almost an hour of energetic debate, the last of six invited speakers steps down from the makeshift platform. Just over a year has passed since a controversial police swoop on Swedish file sharers, and some 100 activists are now marking the occasion with a demonstration outside the parliament building in central Stockholm.

The fight is over people’s right to freely share information with each other via the Internet without state interference. The demonstration has been organized by the Pirate Party, a new political party that enjoys fairly widespread support among young Swedes.

A youth issue

The Pirate Party was founded on January 1, 2006 when the file-sharing debate was at its height. It doesn’t have a full-scale political platform but focuses instead on copyright matters and personal privacy. The party wants to legalize file sharing involving copyrighted material such as music and films, and it’s this objective that has attracted attention.

The membership consists largely of people aged 18–25, mostly men, who want to share music, films and computer programs via the Internet without risking prosecution.

Among the listeners outside the parliament are Erik Gustavsson and Cinna Lagestrand. They’re here to show their support.

“The more who come, the greater the chance of getting people involved in the file-sharing issue,” says Lagestrand.

Both believe that file-sharing – legal or not – will eventually be allowed, but Gustavsson thinks this will take time.

File sharing supporters Erik Gustavsson and Cinna Lagestrand want to make their voices heard. Photo: Fredrik Andersson

Going for parliamentary seats

Susanne Johansson, a political scientist at Gothenburg University, is researching young people’s interest and involvement in politics. “The Pirate Party’s members are very committed, and good both at making their voices heard and at opinion-making,” she says. “However, it’s doubtful that they can achieve real progress. To do so, they’d have to enter the formal arena where decisions are made.”

The party is well aware of this, and consequently will be chasing seats at the next Swedish parliamentary election, in 2010. But Johansson is not alone in thinking parliamentary representation will be difficult.

Erik Amnå, professor of political science at Örebro University, has a theory of his own: “The most likely scenario is that some other party with an explicit youth profile will snap up this issue.”

School as a path to democracy

However, Amnå finds the Pirate Party’s dual approach interesting. While it’s treading the traditional path by founding a political party, it’s also challenging the system on legal grounds. He calls this “a democratic paradox,” born out of the Swedish way of introducing children and young people to the workings of public life.

“On the one hand, Swedish schools teach children to rebel against authority and to think critically and independently, yet on the other hand, representative democracy as a concept presupposes discipline,” he says.

The Swedish way is to teach children to work democratically from an early age, not least at school, where they are encouraged to exert an influence through what are known as pupils’ councils. Here, all or some of the pupils learn to work together in pursuit of a more rewarding school life. In many places, too, school elections are held to coincide with regular political elections. The pupils’ votes don’t count towards actual seats but are intended to inspire them to discuss democracy and public issues. 

“We know that democracy education is important,” says Amnå, “partly because it equips pupils with knowledge and partly because it boosts their confidence.”

The Swedish state, meanwhile, actively encourages the development of the voluntary sector by distributing grants to clubs and associations, and so on. Many of these are non-profit bodies, which are not subject to any particular law. Since non-profit organizations in Sweden do not have to register with the authorities, people are largely free to organize their activities as they see fit.

Fewer vote, but many are committed

While all this suggests that interest in public issues should be growing, turnout at Swedish elections is declining in all age groups. Nor are young people attracted to the major political parties’ youth branches. Instead, they tend to focus on one issue at a time, such as the environment, animal rights – or file-sharing.

Somewhat paradoxically, Johansson’s research has shown that young Swedes take a fairly extensive interest in political matters. “Today, quite a few young people are prepared to accept a political assignment – almost one in three, compared with one in five among other sections of the population,” she says.

Amnå confirms this observation. He says there’s nothing to suggest that young people are less committed nowadays. They are simply finding new ways of expressing themselves in the political arena.

Facts: The Pirate Party

• Party membership peaked at 9,500, but in June 2007 this figure had declined to around 6,500 (membership of Sweden’s seven parliamentary parties ranges from 9,500 to 125,000).
• At the most recent elections in Sweden in September 2006, the Pirate Party scraped together 0.63 percent of the vote.
• To qualify for a Swedish parliamentary seat, a party must win at least a 4 percent share.
• www.piratpartiet.se

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Fredrik Andersson is a trained journalist and economist. He takes an active interest in file-sharing and has followed the debate for several years.

The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.

Translation: Stephen Croall

Classification: A204EN

© Photos 1 and 2: Fredrik Andersson 
© Photo 3: Stefan Nilszén
© Photo 4: Maskot