The first meeting of the Federal Council since the Budapest Congress took place in Rome from September 1 - 5.

Over 80 councillors, elected and by right, took part in the assembly, and about twenty guests from a great variety of countries. Amongst others, we are mentioning the Soviets who were present: JURIJ AFANASIEV, historian, member of the Soviet Parliament; EUGENIA DEBRIANSKAYA, Federal Councillor of the Radical Party; ALEXANDER GINZBURG, historian, dissident, imprisoned for many years on a gulag, SERGEJ GRIGORIANTS, dissident journalist, founder of "Glasnost" formerly an underground journal (samisdasz) and today an independant paper; LEONID PLIUSC, mathematician from the Ukraine, exiled in Paris; LEV TIMOFEEV, economist, well-known spokesmen for dissidents; MARIE-ANDREE BERTRAND, Canadian, magistrate, President of the "Lega Internazionale Antiproibitionista" (International Antiprohibitionist League); BASILE GUISSOU, Federal Secretary of the Radical Party, formerly Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso,. CLAUDE COURNOT, French, expert economist for developmental problems; JORGE PEGADO LIZ, Portuguese, lawyer, former

member of the European Parliament; MIHREA BERINDEI, Rumanian exile, representative of "Romania Libera", ZELJKO ROKSKO, Yugoslav, journalist, member of the Association for Yugoslav/European Friendship; WILLER BORDON, Italian, PCI, (Italian Communist Party) member of parliament; ADOLFO LINARES, Spanish priest, leader of the Radical Movement of Cantabria.

The debate was divided into two parts. The first, concerning the general political initiative of the Party, its potential and its proposals, dealt with a wide range of problems such as: the nationality crisis and the link between federalism and democracy in the USSR, possible initiatives in East European countries, and also by means of specific questions and initiatives concerning human rights, the theme of hunger in the world and the possibility of intervention within the European Community, the concession of an ecologist policy to focus on the right to life, antiprohibitionism and the possibility of proposing candidates representing these ideals in the forthcoming European Elections;

In the second phase, the conditions and possibilities for the Radical Party's continuing existence were discussed, especially as regards financial matters. The current crisis which is not only economic, but also organizational and statutory, has been attributed to the deterioration of political conditions and democracy in the West, which has been called "democrazia reale" (real democracy ) by analogy with "socialismo reale" (real socialism). The economic crisis is physiological in a party which was determined to be based on self-financing, and it becomes irreversible and forces it to make compromises which distort its qualities, when an assertive information campaign addressing political and financial potentates systematically censures, just as and worse than in the real socialist countries, the battles and proposals of such a party.

(It is difficult in this context to reproduce the complexity and the richness of a debate which profilerated into hundreds of speeches and whose results are carried in the enclosed motions. However, tape-recordings of all the speeches, both in the original and in French, English, Russian, Italian and Spanish, are available from the archives of Radio Radicale. The editorial staff of the Lettera Radicale is at your disposal for any further requests or additional information).