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Zdravko TOMAC
Vice Prime Minister of Croatia
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Zdravko Tomac joined the Radical Party on the last day of the Federal Council (19-22 September). Following is the text of the address whereby he announced his decision to join the radical party.
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Friends and comrades,
today I witnessed with my own eyes, I heard, by listening to you, how you are fighting for the freedom, the independence and the rights of my people - you who belong to different peoples of the world - and I realized how important it is, in today's society, to combine two processes: on the one hand, the struggle for the independence, the self-determination and the freedom of each people, and on the other hand the need for the peoples to unite and form international societies.
The new millennium, which is just dawning, will be the millennium of the creation, of the birth of transnational organizations, but in a free way, in other words, with the freedom to decide on the associations themselves. The hegemony of the powerful on the weak will come to an end. I joined your organization not only to thank you for what you have done today, for what you have done to this moment, for what you are doing and planning to do for the freedom of my people, but also because, as a member of your organization, when the question will arise of the rights of another people, I will feel compelled to mobilize all the forces of my people and to do what you have done for us.
This applause will be even stronger when you will be our guests in Croatia. I promise we will meet soon in Croatia, because the things you have been willing to do today - in particular your president, such an outstanding personality from a human point of view - proves that love among the peoples and the struggle for freedom are stronger than any violence.
Yes, I am touched, but happy to say that I have been informed that this afternoon the cease-fire is being more or less respected.
A splendid future awaits our party, because people will realize its importance.
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Carlo RIPA DI MEANA
Commissioner of the European Community
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Following is the text of the letter (of 17 September 1991) whereby Carlo Ripa di Meana announces his decision to join the Radical Party:
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Dear Marco,
like other socialist militants, I am resuming my place in the Radical Party at a particularly difficult moment for Europe and for our country.
I will try to give a contribution to the initiatives taken, concentrating on some of the themes which call for the greatest commitment.
To me, the most important themes are those of European integration, of the effective management of the democratic societies and of the unrelenting safeguard of the environment and of living beings.
On the contrary, I am not all interested in ideological squabbles, in the endless controversies on Left and Right. (...)
Yours sincerely.
- please find enclosed a Comit cheque for L. 208.000 - 1991 membership fee
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Carlo TOGNOLI
Italian Minister of Tourism
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Following is the letter (of 17 October 1991) addressed to Marco Pannella and Sergio Stanzani whereby Carlo Tognoli joined the Radical Party.
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Dear friends,
With much pleasure I accepted the proposal advanced by Marco Pannella to join the Radical Party. As you no doubt know, this is my second membership card after the one of the Italian Socialist Party, which I have been a member of for 33 years.
I wish to underline the reasons that lead me to make this choice.
The first one is that 1991 is the hundredth anniversary of the Foundation of the magazine Critica Sociale (which I am the "undeserving" editor of) founded by Anna Kulisciov and Filippo Turati: because the magazine was created for the emancipation of the working classes but also for the defence of civil rights, it seemed appropriate to me to to share the campaigns which the Radicals have carried out and continue to carry out in this sense also by joining the Radical Party.
The other reasons lie in the fact that I share the ideal of true and sincere nonviolence supported by the Radical Party, without confusions with the instrumental pacifism which periodically re-emerges in Italy and in Europe: I approve the Radicals' federalist formulation in the construction of Europe and the appeal to the Liberal Socialism of Rosselli and Calogero.
However, I also wish to point out that I do not support the antiprohibitionist position assumed by the radicals on the front of the battle against drugs, nor their anticlerical positions, which runs the risk of neglecting the inspiration and the action of strong human and social support which animates part of the Catholics and Christians in Italy and in Europe. I know "clericalism" does not mean Christianity, but a proclaimed anticlericalism can lead to misunderstandings.
Despite this, being aware, as I am, of the strong democratic inclination of the radicals, I know they will accept these objections (...)
By this, I in no way mean to discriminate some of the radical leaders, but simply underline a personal relationship which I do not want to forget.
Yours sincerely,
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Maired MAGUIRE CORRIGAN
1976 Peace Nobel Prize
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With a letter of 28 September, Mairead Corrigan sent us her membership fee, joining the 1991 Radical Party.
Mairead Corrigan, a Catholic, obtained the Peace Nobel Prize together with Betty Williams, protestant, as an award for the activity carried our by both women in Ireland in favour of peace and nonviolence.
A signatory of the appeal of Nobel Prizes against world hunger (1979), member of the council of Food and Disarmament International, Mairead took part in several initiatives organized by the Radical Party against mass starvation.
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Dear Emma,
thank you for having sent me the first and second issue of your newspaper, and for the letters of 10 August and 5 September. I wish to congratulate you for these excellent publications and thank you personally for you testimony in New York.
I would like to give the Radical Party an encouragement and would like to become a member.
All the best to you and your colleagues, whose nonviolent positions and initiatives for social and political justice give hope to us all.
God bless you
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Giuseppina GRASSI
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Wife of Libero Grassi, manufacturer, member of the Radical Party, who was assassinated in Palermo last August after he refused to pay a "bribe" to the mafia. The following text, accompanied by a cheque to join the Radical Party and the Radical Anti-Prohibitionist Coordination, was sent on the occasion of the meeting of the General Council of the CoRA, held in Bologna on 13, 14 and 15 September.
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Dear antiprohibitionist comrades,
I felt your participation with your physical presence, with your words, with the mind and with the heart. Thank You.
We know what it is like, and what it should be like, to fight against the mafia, against the criminal power which is occupying our lives, sacrificing our freedom and, now more than ever, plunging me into a hopeless despair.
We Sicilians, and Libero in particular, have experienced, powerless, the difficulty of making others understand that it would have been important to start from here. Difficult, risky, uncertain in its outcome but not marginal: today you too know it.
I would like to be with you because I am no longer capable of rationalizing this wretched situation, and perhaps it would be good for me to listen to the addresses, and re-establish the logical connections that could lead to a strategy of struggle.
I feel it is urgent to obtain results before they suffocate us, put us out, kill us, destroy us, with all our awareness, our analyses, our honesty. I would really like to be with you.
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Julia GYIMESI
Gyor, Hungary
I never joined any party, only associations for the protection of the environment and for the protection of childhood. I am joining the party exclusively for reasons of conscience, because I believe not even the intellectuals are capable, today, of adapting their ideas to the problems of humanity, a humanity which is plunged deeply into very serious problems. This is the last moment, and I believe it is a matter of conscience to struggle, and not just with abstract means, for a more sustainable life and for a life that can still be rescued. This I am trying to do, compatibly with my possibilities.
Yours sincerely,
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Igor GALKANOV
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29, journalist, member of the Committee of the "Democratic Russia" movement of Orehovo-Zuevo.
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I think violence as a method to achieve an objective is anti-human at all times. I firmly believe there should be an alternative to the draft: civil service. The respect of human rights is a basic guaranty of democracy in every country. I also think prohibition is ineffective, and that we need a legalization and a control of drugs. These are my opinions, and I realize that they correspond to the positions of the Radical Party. This is why I am joining the Radical Party.
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Ivan FIRSOV
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16, student, from Orehovo-Zuevo, member of the "Democratic Russia" movement.
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I believe the ideas expressed by the Radical Party are truly constructive. They are necessary for the development of freedom and of human rights, and for the complete development of the human personality.
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Igor LISOVENKO
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Researcher, Kiev, Ukraine, Soviet Union
The reason why I decided to join the Radical Party? Frankly speaking, having read the Radical Letter of April 1991, I felt nostalgic of the '70s, when I was a "teenager", and the Radical Party's program seemed to represent a certain spirit of scandal and absence of bias. Today we should acknowledge that it had a strong influence on the spirits of that period.
For the moment, several parts of the program do not seem controversial and do not ... those who are in power....
At the same time, because it has remained faithful to its old principles, the 1991 Radical Party has gained a certain position, acquiring a base in its intentions to find its place in the global alliance of democratic forces, and to be the core of this alliance. I am joining the Radical Party because of its transnationality and its ambitious projects, which I support in general and for the democratic means used for their realization.
