Subject: (1) from THE RADICALS AND NONVIOLENCE
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NONVIOLENCE, LAY TOLERANCE, LIBERAL REVOLUTION
At the end of the last century a young man came to London from his native
India to study Law. In the avant-garde circles of London, he was astonished
to hear, together with the terms "Socialism", "libertarianism",
"democracy", and so on, the term "nonviolence", which intellectuals were
borrowing from Oriental cultures. Shortly afterwards he met Lev Tolstoy,
who was reflecting on the same issues, and the two exchanged ideas,
projects, and utopias. From then on, throughout his life, Gandhi attempted
to develop this unique network of concepts and values, putting them at the
service of the Indian revolution.
Despite difficulties, misunderstandings and even errors - and beyond the
contingent language which he used to speak to his fellow countrymen -
Gandhi managed to introduce that unusual term into the vocabulary of modern
political culture. Moreover, thanks to him we now understand that
"nonviolence" can be the key to a fascinating and highly modern
interpretation of liberal Revolution (the French Revolution, and also the
American revolution...); the only interpretation, in fact, which can
restore full vitality to the ideals with which it captured the imaginations
of entire generations.
For two centuries - writes Roberto Cicciomessere - "terrible contradictions
have injured the civilization of tolerance and democracy. In the name of
the goddess Reason men have killed and carried out massacres, in the name
of Nations and Revolutions men have made war and slaughtered." Only through
the full, strict application of the values and the practices of nonviolence
- or rather, only through the commitment to translate them politically into
concrete forms of behaviour and laws - will the ideals of liberty,
tolerance, and democracy that were upheld during the Age of Enlightenment
return to splendour and once again convey their enormous, unexplored
potential. As Cicciomessere adds, "political nonviolence can now constitute
the fullest and most advanced form of lay tolerance."
The texts gathered together in this volume attempt to make explicit this
essential point. They are a small selection of the extensive writings that
have accompanied thirty years of nonviolent battles by the Radical Party
and its leader Marco Pannella: the battles through which the Radical Party
has won exceptional social, ideal, and political victories, in Italy (and
elsewhere). Their "militant" origin reinforces their ambition, that of
being a necessary part of a political "theory" of modern liberalism, of
dialogue, tolerance, and democracy.
The issues and the problems raised are enormous. In order to tackle them
and try to solve them, however, we now need a new organization of
nonviolent battles. A "national" party is no longer sufficient. We now need
to create a political force which inspires nonviolent efforts and
instruments at a transnational level, overcoming narrow national confines
and actively confronting those nuclei or drafts of "universal society"
being shaped by the United Nations and by the processes of federal
integration, in progress or planned, along regional lines (Europe, Western
Africa, Latin America, etc.).
This now seems to be the only adequate dimension to deal with the
tremendous political, social and environmental issues that face us, at the
dawn of the third millenium, as we once again hear the threatening and
arrogant march of the demons of violence. Only in a transnational dimension
do the otherwise worn-out and useless terms "right-wing" and "left-wing"
reacquire force and significance.
It is our hope that this anthology will constitute a first valid "breviary"
for those who wish to help to develop such a party: the transnational and
transdivisional Radical Party, that is.
Angiolo Bandinelli
Rome, March 1994
