Pirates

From P2P Foundation
Jump to navigation Jump to search

= Etymology of pirate: Pirate derives from the Latin pirata (-ae; pirate), which is a transliteration of the Greek piratis (pirate; πειρατής) from the verb pirao (make an attempt, try, test, get experience, endeavour, attack; πειράω). [1]

Overview page:


See:


Discussion

Pirate Ship Democracy

Andrew Baxter:

"Pirate ships, contrary to what might be described as common knowledge, were not generally run by authoritarian captains and a cabal of enforcers quick to anger and perhaps sadistically askew. No indeed, that more closely describes a Royal Navy ship of the era – the Golden Age of piracy as I heard it described. Rather, pirate ships were run on the principles of liberté, égalité, fraternité.

According to naval historian (and Piratologist!), David Cordingly, it was at times difficult to even get a pirate ship going anywhere. Not only did the crew actually vote on the destination before the captain set a course, but the captain himself was elected by the crew...and was subject to change by the will of ‘the people’.

Pirates drafted and signed “The Articles of Piracy” before each voyage. These articles regulated the distribution of plunder, the scale of compensation for injuries in battle, and outlined basic rules for shipboard life as well as punishments for those who broke the rules. Every pirate aboard signed them." (http://beamsandstruts.com/bits-a-pieces/item/357-pirates)

What we can learn from the pirates

Excerpted from Kester Brewin:

“In May 1724, in a small bookshop just a stone’s throw from St Paul’s, Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates went on sale, and became an instant hit. Though pirates’ bodies were hung in gibbets along the banks of the Thames to frighten those who thought of mutiny the crowds that gathered to watch these hangings were there less to jeer at criminals meeting just punishment than for the spectacles that these events often were.

One such spectacle was the hanging of the notorious pirate William Fly on 12th July 1726. Fly was given an opportunity to speak. Having complained at the poor workmanship of the executioner and re-tied his own noose, he went to his death unrepentant, using his moment to speak to warn that ‘all Masters of Vessels should pay sailors their wages when due, and treat them better.’

We think of pirates as thieves, yet the truth is far more complex. Sailors aboard Royal Naval ships and merchant vessels were some of the sorriest men alive, ‘caught in a machine from which there was no escape, bar desertion, incapacitation, or death’ as one writer of the day put it.

These merchant ships were the engines of the emerging global capitalism, yet the sailors themselves were utterly excluded from the wealth they worked to generate. The decision to ‘turn pirate’ was thus a decision to wrestle back some autonomy, and when they did, life on a ship changed dramatically. Officers were democratically elected. Food was shared equally among men of all rank. When booty was collected the Captain only took two shares where the lowest took one – income differentials that would make modern CEOs faint. Loss of a limb aboard would be met with a payment of around £20,000 in today’s money – an amazing form of early healthcare.

So, far from being simple thieves, pirates were perhaps the original anti-capitalist protesters. The reason they were hunted down and suffered such savage public executions was because the powers of the day were petrified of the consequences of the pirates’ ethos. Historian Marcus Rediker writes:

‘Pirates abolished the wage relation central to the process of capitalist accumulation. So rather than work for wages using the tools and machine (the ship) owned by a capitalist merchant, pirates commanded the ship as their own property and shared equally in the risk of their common adventure.’

It is this ‘equal sharing’ that the banks do not want. Yes, they want to nationalise debt, but profits must remain private and enclosed. Interestingly, this is the view of the Anglican Church too – the 38th ‘Article’ of which reads:

‘The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common… as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast.’

Appropriately, pirates emerge whenever ‘the commons’ is under threat of enclosure into private property. They rose up to battle the crown-censored publishing monopolies of the 17th century. They rose up as Levellers to defend the poor as they were turfed off common land and forced into vagrancy. They rose up in the 1960’s as pirate DJs when the BBC refused to play Rock and Roll.

Look around. Pirates are everywhere. The Jolly Roger is to be found on baby bottles, t-shirts, children’s clothes, skate boards. Why? Why do we send our children to pirate parties, but not ‘aggravated robbery’ ones?

The reason, I believe, is this: deep down, we know that pirates say something to us about freedom from oppression, about standing up to systemic violence, and about taking back free access to that which has been enclosed and privatised by the wealthy.” (http://theoccupiedtimes.co.uk/?p=236)