STATE FINANCING OF THE PARTIES: "RADICAL AUTOFINANCING ANTIPARTOCRATOMOBILE" SETS OFF, THE DESTINATION - FEBRUARY 7, NEAR THE STATE DUMA

PRESS RELEASE

MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 1, 2001

On February 7 the State Duma will examine at first reading the draft of the federal law "On political parties" that stipulates, besides other antidemocratic provisions, the direct state financing of the political parties from the federal budget.

The Radical Party carries out an urgent campaign to mobilize citizens against this bill. Within the framework of this campaign a number of famous political figures and human rights activists have signed already the appeal against the state financing of the parties initiated by the Radical Party, among them - Elena Bonner, Yuly Rybakov, Sergey Yushenkov, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Alexey Simonov, Konstantin Borovoy, Mark Deych, Valeria Novodvorskaya, Larisa Bogoraz etc.

In order to prevent compulsory withdrawal of means from the pockets of tax-payers for the benefit of partyist-bureaucratic machines of "ruling" and "opposition" parties, in order to try to stop the attack of state partocracy, the radicals set off their own machine: an antipartocratomobile, model "Moskvich-Svyatogor", white, N x223TP, with flags and transparencies against the state financing of the parties. The antipartocratomobile will be ruled by the coordinator of Russian radicals Nikolay Khramov, Moscow activists of the RP will be inside near him, in the boot there will be leaflets and postcards to protest against the budget financing of the parties that are to be be sent by citizens to the speaker of the State Duma.

In contrast to "Audi" and black "Volgas" of the Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Pary and "Yedinstvo", the antipartocratomobile of the radicals is fully autofinanced: we count on the support of our adherents and not on the state budget and profits from lobbying. Therefore the antipartocratomobile will be provided with a transparent box to colllect donations of citizens. This is the way all political organizations should be financed, and the radicals set an example.

The antipartocratomobile will be at the same time a kind of mobile agitation point within the framework of the Radical Party membership campaign 2001. Any citizen will be able to enroll in the 2001 Radical Party on the spot by paying a year membership fee (a minimum of 230 rubles), any citizen who desires success of the fight against partocracy and autocracy, for the abolition of the conscription slavery, against current criminogenic and criminal policies of total prohibition of drugs, against the death penalty, for the freedom of Tibet and democracy in China, in one word - for the right to life and a life of rights.

The first stop of the antipartocratomobile is to be on Saturday at 12:00 at the Ho Chi Min square near the entrance of the metro "Akademicheskaya". It it the territory of the 25-th one-mandate election district for the elections to the Moscow State Duma, where in December of 1997 more than 5% electors (2,695 persons) voted for the radical candidate Nikolay Khramov.

The same day, later, at 15:00 the antipartocratomobile will park near the House of Graduate Students of the Moscow State University. The address: ul. Shvernika 19.

And finally, at 18:00 the antipartocratomobile will make its last stop on Saturday: at the Pushkin square opposite Pushkin monument (the side of the restaurant "McDonalds").

You can get in touch with the crew of the radical antipartocratomobile and get more details about its route for following days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday): 8-902-675-6379.

The destination of the antipartocratomobile - February 7, opposite the building of the State Duma in Okhotny Ryad where on the day of the examination of the draft of the law on political parties, at 9:30 a.m., the manifestation of the Radical Party against the state financing of the parties will begin.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

tel. (095) 208-1805, (902) 675-6379

www.radicalparty.org