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Dmitrij Zapolskij
Deputy at the Leningrad Soviet
I LOVE, AND I DON'T WANT TO HATE
I paid my membership fee to join the Radical Party, the only organization in the world which my conscience enables me to be a member of. My reasons for joining it? Because I love my planet, and the people who, like me, live there and cherish the ideals of freedom and nonviolence, who acknowledge the right for every human being to be himself, to follow his own path on this earth.
I am a journalist (...) In 1990, my son was born. It is for him that, together with other radicals, I offered Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev the Radical Party's petition on alternative civil service. I believe in Spirit and in Love. I want to be among the people who understand that hatred will never lead to anything. Hatred is but a dead tree.
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Sinisa Bubic
Journalist, Zagreb, Yugoslavia
WHY I JOINED THE RADICAL PARTY?
It is all but easy to answer this question. Simply, it struck me as a self-evident choice in the present circumstances. This party is the only one in the Croatian political scene to have international ambitions and substantial foreign contacts to fulfil these ambitions. Another reason for my joining it is all the time I spent discussing with Diana (Rexhepi). I am inclined to believe that with this first year of adhesion, the party's nonviolent activities and nonbureaucratic organization will yield good results for the people, for political pluralism and, last but not least, for us members, and for the Radical Party itself. With sincere friendship.
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Adrian Borza
Student, Timisoara, Rumania
THERE ARE NO REASONS ...
I joined the Radical Party because I identified with its ideas, with the activities it promoted. As far as I am concerned, there are no reasons for joining it, if not the fact that I believe in the purity and in the force of human beings, a belief which does not need to be motivated. It exists in every human being. Likewise, the desire to make it emerge depends on every human being.
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Riccardo Pacifici
President of the Jewish Students Cultural Movement, Rome
WITH GREAT PLEASURE
"I joined the Radical Party for 1991 with great pleasure, as a token of my gratitude for the strong bond that has always united the Jews and the Radicals, faithful friends of Israel".
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Felix Flejshlih,
Gennadij Klachkov
Nadezhda Klachkova,
Evgenij Pugatov,
Sergej Roshal.
members of the Roshal Mod rock band, Moscow
WITH MUSIC
"We feel we belong to a society of free individuals who do not acknowledge state frontiers. The Radical Party's entire program is similar to our political beliefs. We are the first rock band in the U.S.S.R. to uphold human rights generally and the rights of sexual minorities in particular. We hope to contribute with our music to the fulfilment of the Radical Party's objectives. And we also hope that, with the help of God, this contribution will yield good results.
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Miroslav Ometak
41 years old, imprisoned in the penitentiary of Ostrov Ohri, Czechoslovakia
I JOINED THE PARTY WITHOUT ANYONE QUESTIONING MY RECORD
After the amnesty of 3.1.1990, I joined the Civic Forum of Jicin, where I live. I believed in the Civic Forum, but obviously I must have been very credulous. On one occasion, I took the liberty of openly criticizing the leaders of the Forum. And soon I realized I was completely isolated. (...) In prison I received the material of the transnational Radical Party. After having examined it, I realized the radical party's program and goals are concrete, and aimed at creating a democratic society. I was much surprised by the fact that I joined the Party without anyone questioning my record. I met the Radical Party and I can say it corresponds to my ideals, including the fact that the Radical Party has no interest in power.
We must realize that the members of this party are few. The reasons for my renewing my adhesion for year 1991? Because I believe in the success of our party. No one should abandon it; rather, everyone should try to increase the number of members willing to make the sacrifice of paying the annual fee. Believe me, it is an excellent thing to do! Together we must join efforts. I address myself to all those who have the intention and the possibility to contribute: I urge them to do so soon. Thank You.
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Diana Rexhepi
Zagreb, Yugoslavia
THE PARTY OF REASONABLE FOLLY
In the radical program and in its presentation to the public, I found something that might be called a "habitus", my way of living. Pannella calls this the "party of reasonable folly", in the sense that this party could be shocking, but is far from being scandalous. The idea of exerting a small but strong pressure on minds rather than rebelling against world order is something that appeals to me very much.
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Alessandro Tessari
member of the European Federalist Group of the Chamber, Italy
FOR A STRETCH OF ROAD ONLY
Back in 1979, I joined the Radical Party for the first time. I was absolutely positive - and I told Marco Pannella at the time - that I would have remained in the Party only for a short period, and that, being a "persuaded Communist", I would have eventually returned to the "fold". At the time, the "fold" was in the calamitous period of the historical compromise. 11 years have gone by. I truly regret that in so much time the conditions for a return to the fold have never been created. The events in Eastern Europe make it so difficult to be communists today that perhaps the best way to be a communist (and there are still today plenty of good reasons to be communists) is that of being a Radical. I am joining the Party for 1991 because I want it to overcome its period of immobility to reap the fruits of all it has sown: the battles for a federally-based Europe, which hundreds of Radical members are already promoting in the remotest countries of the world, the battles for the referendums on the electoral reform,
which received the support of such a large part of Italy, the battles for the renewal of politics, overcoming the system based on parties, as the Forum of Democrats is doing, the battles on the prisons, for legality, for the defense of the alienated, including homosexuals and HIV sufferers. There are so many things to be done, right now, with the Radical Party membership card for 1991.
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Emilia Mancuso, Italy
IT CANNOT AND MUST NOT DIE AWAY
I received a letter signed by Stanzani, Pannella, Bonino, Vigevano, and I read that two congresses are scheduled, an Italian and a transnational one. I was glad to read these news because this means that the Radical Party is resuming its activity, and, amid the desert of Italian politics, who, if not the Radical Party, is a light of hope? Our party cannot and must not die away.
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Kirill Buketov
member of KAS (anarchist-unionist confederation), U.S.S.R.
I AM GIVING MY CONTRIBUTION FOR A VIOLENCE-FREE EUROPE
During the main part of the existence of civilization, humanity has marched side by side with wars and violence. Two thousand years after Jesus Christ told us "not to kill", people are still killing each other. In disregard of the principles of humanity declared in State activities, legal crime continues to exist, especially the most base of crimes, capital punishment. The States (...) can kill people, send them in exile or use them as cannon fodder in bloody wars. The states impose frontiers, erect barriers on people's path toward freedom. (...) By joining the Radical Party, I am giving my personal contribution to a Europe void of wars and frontiers, armies or States, for a violence-free Europe.
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P.S. We invite all those who intend to join the party to enclose a brief statement (between five and ten lines if possible) to their membership fee, explaining the reasons for their adhesion to the Radical party, and send it to our Budapest office.
