ABSTRACT: Document, whereby the national secretariat of the Radical Party informed of the demonstrations staged in Sofia by radical militants Marco Pannella, Marcello Baraghini, Antonio Azzolini and Silvana Leonardi, and explained the political reasons and the conditions in which it was carried out.

(RADICAL NEWS No. 48, 26 September 1968)

"In the context of an international action promoted and coordinated by the War Resisters International (WRI), of which the Radical Party and the Nonviolent Movement for Peace are part of in Italy, a group of radical militants or supporters staged an initiative today in Sofia in favour of Czechoslovakia, which has been occupied by the forces of the Warsaw Pact. According to the available information, the initiative ended with a demonstration held in one of the central squares of the Bulgarian capital. Similar actions were carried out in parallel in Moscow, Warsaw and Budapest, on the initiative of the WRI and with the participation of militants from other organizations that belong to this International. The journalist Marco Pannella, former secretary of the Radical Party, the freelance journalist Marcello Baraghini, member of the Party's leadership and of the executive panel, the student Antonio Azzolini from the leadership of the Roman federation of the Radical Party and the teacher Silvana Leonardi, liberta

rian militant, took part in the demonstration.

In the four capitals of the occupied countries, the action was carried out through the mailing and distribution of thousands of pamphlets. The latter contained an account of the facts relative to the occupation, the resistance of the Czechoslovak people, and the reactions of the communist parties throughout the world. They stressed the fact that the invasion of Czechoslovakia reduced the chances of putting an end to the Vietnam war, and that it had boosted an enhancement of NATO. The pamphlets also said that the occupation could be seen only as an attempt to "prevent the Czechoslovak people from freely pursuing an independent form of socialist democracy". The pamphlets contained an appeal to the workers, urging them to act in all peaceful ways to obtain the withdrawal of the troops from their country. During the conclusive demonstration, banners were exposed reading "Enough with NATO, enough with the Vietnam war, enough with the occupation of Czechoslovakia".

The WRI has a long tradition of resistance against all military policies, and was recently the protagonist of an international action in support of deserters and draft dodgers in the U.S. who refuse to participate in the U.S. aggression in Vietnam. The WRI also organized the recent occupation of the Greek embassy in London.

The national Secretary of the Radical Party, Spadaccia, will hold a press conference tomorrow on the subject of the initiative of our radical militants in Bulgaria and of the other militants of the WRI in the other three countries of the Warsaw Pact."