THE FIGHT FOR SEXUAL LIBERTY AND THE POLITICS OF CIVIL RIGHTS

Gianfranco Spadaccia

ABSTRACT: In presenting the conference on "Social Oppression and Sexual Repression", Radical Party Secretary Gianfranco Spadaccia affirms that in Italy a new public opinion has formed that no longer accepts the bonds of clerical and authoritarian legislation. Starting from this new political situation, the subject of sexual liberty can become a great and victorious battle against all the tools of sexual repression and social oppression.

(Agenzia Radicale, No. 145, January 13, 1968)

The conference that will be held on January 20-21 of the theme "Social Oppression and Sexual Repression" was originally intended to be one of the manifestations of the initiative entitled "1967 - The Anti-Clerical Year" launched by the Radical Party at the beginning of last year.

And like all the events of the anti-clerical year, it was to be open to a broad range of the democratic forces with no discrimination against parties or ideologies.

That first arrangement served to start off the discussion, to get the initiative going. If today the conference is being held under the auspices of a presiding committee composed of politicians of Radical or Socialist tendencies along with scholars of various disciplines - pedagogues, sociologists, psychoanalysts, historians - this is the final guarantee of the enriching of the conference's theme and the possibility of integrating two different experiences in a common initiative: that of politicians involved in action to reform legislation and customs, and that of scholars involved in research on the causes of sexual repression in our country and its connections with other repressive and oppressive phenomena present in our society.

Within this framework there is meaning in the presence on the Presiding Committee of representatives of important civil rights associations, of the pro-divorce leaders Fortuna and Mellini, of the President of the Association for Religious Freedom in Italy, Luigi Rodelli.

The first thing we expect of this conference - as Radicals and as the promoters of the anti-clerical year without problems of labels and patriotisms and jealousies - is precisely this confrontation, this mutual experience. And we hope that this will allow us to overcome all diffidence, above all the diffidence that separates scholars and scientists from politics.

One example of this diffidence appears in this issue of "Agenzia Radicale" in the article by Fausto Antonini who yet has made an important contribution to this undertaking by participating with De Marchi precisely within the framework of the anti-clerical year in a debate on the theme "Clericalism and Sexophobia". We cannot claim that this diffidence is entirely unjustified. Official Italian politics appears to be dominated by questions of power and established interests. Those not directly involved are prevented from trespassing. Anything that may disturb or change the balance of power is rejected and fought off by the government forces and those of the opposition without any substantial differences. But it would be a serious mistake to identify politics with the present political balance or the exercising of power. The job of lay politics in a country still dominated by religious politics, the job for us Radicals, of leftist politics, in a country where the right is mainly composed of clerical forces

organised into the Christian Democrats, is not to submit to the present politicaL balance but to change it.

There is a sector of public opinion in the country which no longer accepts the bonds of clerical and authoritarian legislation, of a conformist and provincial ideology and education. It is the opinion of citizens who feel themselves to be adults and Europeans, who are not content with just economic development and demand equal civil development as well. Battles for civil rights, for divorce, for religious freedom and for birth control which up until just a few years ago were the initiatives of small minorities (when to establish a matrimonial consultation agency or promote contraception were risky acts of individual courage) today have become popular demands imposed in part by the new social conditions of the country.

The discussion of sexual liberty starts from this new political and social situation and can become a great and victorious battle for the free development of the individual personality against the numerous taboos, against the old legislative and ideological fetters which continue to be the instruments of sexual repression and social oppression. The contributions of men of science and culture can be decisive for giving political strength to these demands which by now society is demanding.

The conference which will be held on January 20 - 21 at the Teatro Parioli is therefore marked with a strong political commitment and a rigorous scientific approach. But it will only be a real success and can only become an important premise for future action if it is given popular support by those who know how to fight to ensure conditions of greater individual freedom for all in this field too and if, besides the analyses and proposals of the politicians and scholars, the voices of youth can also make themselves heard.

We appeal to them, above all, who are at the centre of the contradictions between the old superstructures and the new demands of society, and who feel more than others all the injustice, corruption and hypocrisy, to participate in this event which can and must become a vast democratic undertaking.