On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 5:08 PM, Szilveszter Farkas <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I'm looking for your advices regarding a pretty tough question: is it > okay for a LoCo to get into state politics?
There is no particular rule for or against (unless your own country has such rules), but generally, it is probably not a good idea to get the LoCo involved as an organization in political activities. The mission of the LoCo is to get Ubuntu users active in supporting and advocating for Ubuntu. The LoCo structure is not designed for political advocacy; it is designed for community building. While most free software supporters will likely agree in principle that free software should have a level playing field to compete with proprietary software, you may find that putting that principle into practice divides your team more than it unites -- especially if you have a lively partisan system (such as that found in the U.S.). Members may be all for protesting to the government, as long as that government is not run by the party they happen to owe allegiance to -- in which case, you may find them much colder to the idea. Worse yet, many countries have rather inscrutable laws on political influence and lobbying which are difficult to understand, but relatively easy to break (especially if you are a political opponent of the party in power). Finally, you may find that while you are successful in forcing this issue, the bureaucrats you have just browbeaten into compliance may find other, less savory ways of retaliating against your organization. Even if they don't retaliate, you may find them less willing to work with your organization in the future. If your membership wants to get involved, I recommend encouraging them to make their feelings known individually, or through Free Software advocacy organizations such as the FSFE. -- Matthew G. Copple [email protected] -- loco-contacts mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
