PANNELLA: "There are times ripe for the practitioners of non-violent action, the tolerant, and democrats, when it is necessary to risk our lives, or else become accomplices contributing to death's triumph".

Rome, November 28--R.N.--Marco Pannella, together with Emma Bonino, International President of 'Food and Disarmament', as well as President of the Radical Party, recently went to Colombia, to examine the possibility of holding there the meeting of the Federal Council of the Radical Party and the leading organs of the International Antiprohibitionist League, at the beginning of January, 1990.

Pannella explained thus the reasons for that choice:

"I am not at all certain that the loathsome terrorist massacre resulting from the attack on the aircraft of Avianca was solely or principally the doing of narcotraffickers, or that it was the work narcotraffickers acting freely, on their own account.

As the stenches reaching us are the stenches of secret services and the like, of the destabilization of an entire continent, thanks to the latest madness of our century (following those of Fascism and Real Communism), prohibition, we should all be very prudent.

What is happening in Colombia and in Panama--if we are to believe news and deductions--is about to happen also, in the not too distant future, in Peru and in Bolivia. The front for the right to life and the life of rights has by now a compact front-line which has seen placed in question and compromised civil, political and democratic rights, in the USA, in Europe and in Latin America in a particularly tragic and mad manner. From a party which is above all Gandhian and non-violent, transnational and transparty, committed to defending the life of rights as the essential premise and framework for the right to life, and for two decades committed to the struggle against the scourge of prohibited drugs, the consequence of prohibitionist regimes, we cannot but give highest priority to the immediate commitment to end the Colombian massacre, before it flares up and spreads, destroying the very social and civil fabric of that country. For this reason, in agreement with the First Secretary of the Radical Party, I sh

all arrive in Bogota' in a few hours with Emma Bonino, International President of 'Food and Disarmament', as well as President of the Radical party.

We intend to examine all possibilities for holding the Federal Council Meeting of the Radical Party and the leading organs of the International Antiprohibitionist League in Bogota', at the beginning of January, 1990. At least twenty persons will participate that meeting, including members of the European, Italian, and Portuguese, Parliaments, non-violent activists and Radical exponents from fifteen countries--from East and Central Europe, Africa, North and Latin America. We will attempt in every way possible in Bogota to offer our real solidarity all those, including ordinary citizens, politicians, magistrates, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, who have been forced to act as heroes and martyrs in an unjust war, without hope or a future other than one of death, mourning and destruction. But we will also attempt in every possible way to re-establish immediately a general dialogue, which ultimately is the only means to achieve a viable end to this horrible reality the major responsibility for which can be

attributed to international laws which promote ferocious conditions of development of cultivation, traffic and consumption of prohibited drugs, thus rendering criminal entire nations, territories, millions of peasant farmers and citizens. By dialogue, I do not intend bargaining. It is impossible to bargain with those who threaten, exterminate and massacre, and who are in the throes of the impotent desperation of the powerful and the arrogant. However, dialogue is urgent and necessary. It is the winning political objective.

We are completely aware of the fact that this new commitment of the Radical Party is particularly dangerous. But there are times when the practitioners of non-violence and the tolerant, democrats must risk life and limb, if they are to avoid becoming accomplices and thus contribute to the triumph of death.

I address an appeal to public opinion, because public subscription could make possible the convocation of a meeting in Bogota' of the Federal Council of the Radical Party, the leading organs of the International Antiprohibitionist League and dozens of members of European and world-wide national parliaments.

At least three hundred million Lires--which the Radical Party does not have--are needed to do this."

COLOMBIA--EMMA BONINO: GREAT OPPORTUNITIES FOR RADICAL PARTY COMMITMENT IN THE ANTIPROHIBITIONIST CAMPAIGN IN LATIN AMERICA. WITH WHICH PARTY?

I am certain that after slightly less than 48 hours in Bogota', we have already succeeded in acquiring for the transnational party an opportunity for commitment previously inconceivable, as well as an increased knowledge of the situation in Colombia: a country which is a non-producer and non-consumer of drugs, where coca is "processed" and marketed, and consequently a country submitted to all the negative effects of international prohibitionist law. Prospects of immediate commitment and action have been created: reach one by one all parliament members, not only Colombian, but also Peruvian, Bolivian and the members of the Andean Parliament with our publications and our observations on antiprohibition, in order to create a wide and "transversal" political front which would present a real alternative to the "Drug War" of Bush and Bennet.

In Colombia, the general opinion is that the "frontal war" on drug of Presidents Barco and Bush will fail and that eventually another solutions will have to be found. It would be possible to create greater awareness of the validity of the anti-prohibition thesis at the time that Colombia prepares for its next Presidential elections, experiencing the anguish of approval of institutional reform which the present government wishes to exploit to promote continuation of the present "hard line" (as always accompanied by under-the-table negotiations with the narcotraffickers of the Medellin Cartel).

There are already intellectuals and politicians in Colombia who openly support the antiprohibitionist policy, and others who collect support and documentation for that thesis. It is obvious that the transnational Radical Party could play a role in bringing together and aiding these and other Latin Americans forced to submit to prohibitionist madness.

I am certain, even if it turns out this time to be impossible to convoke the Federal Council Meeting of the RP in Bogota' due to a lack of time, that in the very near future we will succeed in holding Party meetings in Colombia. Our clearly non-violent policy of dialogue, I believe, would reduce the danger of our becoming involved in the atmosphere of violence which private and "State" terrorism have imposed on that country.

However, the problem is always the same: we have located a terrain and an opportunity for possible and necessary action by the transnational and transparty Radical Party, but we do not have the necessary resources to proceed. We know that our antiprohibitionist proposal is the only means to prevent the liquidation of all tolerance and rights in Colombia, but we do not know how to acquire the additional resources necessary to open this new campaign front.

Thus, in Colombia as elsewhere, there a great demand for the transnational and transparty Radical Party, and we do not yet know how to provide the offer to satisfy that demand for our effective and adequate political and organizational instrument.

CORA: THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE RADICAL ANTIPROHIBITIONIST COORDINATION. ADJOURNMENT UNTIL JANUARY FOR THE ELECTION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL BODY. THE PROSPECTIVE FOR THE SPRING ELECTIONS.

Rome, December 11--R.N.--The II Congress of the Radical Antiprohibitionist Coordination, which began on Friday, closed yesterday with the unanimous approval of the Motion, which we include below.

The Congress decided the adjourn until January 20 (Saturday) and 21 (Sunday) the election of the constitutional.

As regards the administrative elections, there is the possibility of autonomous presentation in regions and provinces; for cities an attempt will be made to come to a national agreement with the other political forces.

The Second National CORA Congress which met in Rome from December 8-10, 1989

points out above all that as a result of the new war, declared and imposed in the name of the prohibition of some drugs, the forces of fanaticism, intolerance and violence have joined against the fundamental principles of legality and rights, the acquisitions and the warnings of science, culture, tolerance, unleashing death, destruction and war everywhere--within society and the institutions of the real democracies, in Europe as well as in America, and in the Third World or so-called developing countries, with the criminal and crime causing use of laws, powers and special "actions", actions which place in question, yet once more in this century, the very foundations of civilization and democracy.

The costs of this war, lost every day and every day fanatically declared again, is on its way to reaching the level and seriousness of those imposed by the explosion of Real Fascist and Real Communist madness. In Latin America, Syria and Iran, or in the Far East, this war is the cause of an almost exponential growth, in some cases, of the production of these drugs. And, everywhere, it is providing the world of crime with the mammoth profits of the monopolistic control of the traffic of those products, which have acquired the value of gold rather than the agricultural value. The result is once more rendering criminal tens of millions of consumers and producers, the paralysis and corruption of justice and the police, the institutions and political power.

Points out the atmosphere of intolerance, the deterioration of the civil-political rapport, the manipulation of information, the ostracism of those who attempt to oppose this war and reduce its tragic and terrible cost, to end it restoring to democracy, tolerance, legality, and their function of life, peace and freedom.

In Italy, in particular, there is presently a process of the thwarting of any remaining Constitutional, democratic and civil regulation, thanks to the efforts mainly of the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) and the Government which every day take a more extremist and authoritarian line.

In this situation, Parliamentary debate itself on government bills aimed at worsening the intolerant prohibitionist character, a special regime of legislation, is distorted (misrepresented) and impeding public opinion from recognizing and evaluating the alternatives proposed and legislation bills. The absence of democracy and the respect of rights and the democratic process is becoming more and more the necessary condition to the prevailing of the prohibitionist ranks.

Thus, in Italy, after the defeats on the issues of divorce and abortion, there is a growing tendency towards prohibitionist revenge. If the PSI constitutes the determinant element, with its changing of ranks to the most extremist position of war and intolerance today being unleashed in the world, the opposition provided by the PCI (Italian Communist Party), the Catholic world, ecologists and laics, will inadequate if we consider the risks involved which are bringing about a general deterioration, and not only specific, in the civil and institutional spheres in Italy.

The Second National CORA Congress

consequently, appeals respectfully if firmly to the President of the Republic, guarantor of the Constitution, that he not passively observe the elimination of what remains of formal rights and freedom in the Italian Republic. An appeal is also made, even more urgently than on the occasion of the divorce campaign, to all democrats to provide an effective response to the resurgent intolerance and authoritarianism evident in the actions and objectives of the powers that be and the national institutions.

The Second National CORA Congress

decides thus to act immediately, with the utmost political and organizational commitment, to introduce into Italy and Italian politics the alternative of rights and freedom, the most radical and intransigent opposition to the devastating prohibitionist madness, intolerance and violence of power, the institutions, and the mass media, which is similar or subaltern to them by culture or through bondage.

To this end, CORA hopes that for the next regional, provincial, and city elections, wherever possible, "political-electoral tickets and actions" be created aimed at declaring the priority of the antiprohibitionist campaign by democrats, laics, ecologists, Communists, Catholics, independents and authentic Socialists who are aware of the urgency in Italy, as well as in the rest of the world, to end this mad and suicidal new war.

These political-electoral tickets and actions, wherever and however they are realized, will be supported unconditionally by CORA. Their preparation will be considered as one of the most effective and urgent responses to the pressures and the violence being applied to condition the Parliamentary debate as well as its function according to Constitutional and institutional rules and regulations.

The CORA Congress states that the government bill in question can and must be defeated. A general mobilization of public opinion, along with whatever activist and militant expedients are necessary, in their various forms--petitions assemblies, round-table discussion--can and must achieve this. Members of the Radical Party and antiprohibitionists are presently already involved in these actions.

The Second CORA Congress also addresses a solemn warning to all the political forces and Italian democrats of the danger of continuing to ignore and consider extraneous to them the actions, objectives, presence and crises of the transparty, transnational Radical Party, which is the only political organization presently promoting, and organizing--also at the international and transnational level--"the war on prohibitionist war". While, at the same time, the existent internationals, without exception--and in particular the Socialists--move within the framework of that war proposed and imposed by decisions made by the present USA government administration. Full membership in the Radical Party and CORA, for laics, ecologists and Communists, is a essential condition for the non-failure of this campaign for freedom, rights, peace, and political democracy. The crises today being experienced by the laic world, the Communist world and the ecologists, must be considered as growing pains and not as defeat nor as the

ir further deterioration or that of Italian politics. Thus, it is both urgent and necessary that the process of introversion in progress be combatted and stopped. It is necessary that the discontent, the justice and the hopes of reform and new and complete democracy, which are consistently present in these crises find their common meeting ground, practical and ideal, in and thanks to the Radical Party, and in and thanks to CORA.

The Second CORA Congress, consequently, in the conviction that it is possible to immediately realize this aim, at least partially, with exemplary assuming of responsibility, has decided to adjourn until January 20-21, 1990, in order to deliberate on the CORA statutory reforms and to elect its leadership. Thus, it has been established that the present organs and statutory provisions be extended until that time, giving them and each Radical of CORA the mandate, appealing to each Radical of the Radical Party, to ensure the objective of a new CORA, as the united and full expression of a new Italian political entity--authentically anti-fascist, democratic, liberal and libertarian, non-violent and--as in the times of the Italian Divorce League--a decisive and winning force against the new/old proposal of violence, tragic intolerance and authoritarianism.

DRUGS--UNITED STATES: A MAGISTRATE FOR LEGALIZATION

Robert Sweet, 67 years of age, ex-attorney-general and ex-Deputy-Mayor of New York, Tuesday evening stated his support for the legalization of drugs in the United States. The Federal Judge of New York made this statement before a private club of New York: "We have gone bankrupt", our judiciary system has been submerged by a social phenomenon.

Although he admits the dangers of a possible increase in consumption with legalization, Sweet also states: "There is no evidence that prohibition has stopped addiction. The response of the White House was immediate: "Legalization would be a national disaster without precedent and a moral outrage".

We recall that recently, the ex Secretary of State George Shultz preceded Robert Sweet in the procession of personalities who, with Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winner in Economy, Kurt Schmoke, Mayor of Baltimore, Bill Mathesius, President of the County of Trenton, declared themselves in favour of legalization of drugs in the United States.