ABSTRACT: It is the period of maximum political tension in Italy: on the one hand the terrorist phenomenon of the Red Brigades, on the other hand the first manoeuvres to achieve the "historical compromise" (1). Obscure forces of the State are trying to steer terrorism for subversive purposes. Every week, Marco Pannella writes a one-page article on the weekly L'Espresso (2), which has promoted the referendum for the abrogation of the regulations of the Rocco code which punish the crime of abortion, in association with the May 13 League and with the Radical Party. In addition to the referendum for abortion, the Radical Party is engaged in collecting signatures for other referendums: against the penal and military codes, against the Concordat and the Lateran Pacts. In this article, Pannella denounces the first attempts to respond to the terrorist violence with the abuse of weapons on the part of the police forces, with special laws, which include the notorious "Reale law". By means of provocations and infiltrat

ions, sectors of the Carabinieri and of the police are trying to pilot and use the subversive movements to create a climate of social tension such as to justify the adoption of authoritative measures. At the same time, Pannella deplores the degeneration of the extraparliamentary Left, which has hoisted the flag of political intolerance and of "militant antifascism" against the Movimento Sociale Italiano (3). He invites the radical militants not to let themselves be distracted by pseudorevolutions, and to concentrate on the referendums, which, "if held, would defang the corporative regime and the capitalist system in Italy".

(L'Espresso - April 1975 from "Marco Pannella - Works and speeches - 1959-1980", Gammalibri, January 1982).

The licence to kill to save the established disorder, included in the tightening up of the fascist regulations of the Penal Code, advocated by the Moro-La Malfa administration (4) (5), is therefore becoming a law even before the vote in Parliament.

Along with the "fighting friars" of the general of the Carabinieri Dalla Chiesa (6) - a nice, prophetic and symptomatic name - with the provokers that infest and often create the bands of assassins of the security services, loaded with heroin, in the absence of heroes here come the frenzy "demonstrators" once again, with their police badges and weapons in their pockets; it is an old trick, cherished by the dear and "quasi Socialist" head of the antiterrorist squad, Santillo.

With the assassins come the martyrs, the funerals, the revenges, the despair and the anger; the extoling of violent conflict, which is often viewed as a sort of modern embodiment of the Medieval "judgement of God". In order to defend itself, the extraparliamentary Left embarks on an all-out hunt for the paleofascist demon, the only one which the regime offers it, it chases it into the scarcely credible hell of its headquarters to set them on fire. Immense processions form themselves, exulting, where the slogans shouted verbally correct the wavering praxis: "MSI outlawed, DC to death".

Replenished with votes and power, the birds of ill omen of the regime, who live by exploiting the men and the women of this country from their birth to their death, who feast thanks to the monopoly of maternity, childhood, sickness and family welfare, thanks to peculation and the violence of falsehood, of corruption, of fascist and Christian Democratic plots, can now look to the deadline of 15 June with less fear and anguish.

Perhaps the Christian Democratic Party can relax again: the country is newly experiencing moments of violence, decay and death. It may be that Fanfani (7) will lose, to some extent, if he doesn't win completely. But so what? On this same newspaper last week, the communist leader Bufalini officially warned us that the faction of the "Dorotei" today are a welcome as well as a popular, democratic, progressivist and republican force.

We can relax therefore. The "reconstruction of the State" will resume, as with De Gasperi (8), Pella (9) and Fanfani (so popular yesterday): the national unity is intact. Tonino Bisaglia, as well as Eugenio Cefis (10) will think about that. With the exception of a few socialists, the radicals, the friends from "Il Manifesto" (the weekly) (11) and Avanguardia Operaia, the agreement on this plan is becoming unanimous. Even the flood of companions transported to Rome to sing the praises of the Portuguese revolution will be made to support this plan at the elections. In its contradictions, and in order to "make them explode", of course. The friends from L'Espresso" expect me to use this page to write an essay on the subject of abortion and civil rights.

I am on the point of saying: "what for"?, and give them back this page. I am a nonviolent, socialist, lay, libertarian and, for this reason, a radical. If I really cannot do anything else, faced to the murders ordered by the regime, faced to the murderers of the laws, of the Constitution, of the civilization and of the truth, I prefer risking my death or my life to prevent them from winning, to defeat them.

But until it will be possible - even in days like this - to rescue from death a few hundred women, for example, guaranteeing them a clinical and safe abortion together with the companions of the CISA (12), of the MLD (13) and of the Radical Party, I tend to say to myself that these forms of civil and nonviolent disobedience are perhaps better weapons than the ones that the others extol, and which the DC has managed to place at the core of the political conflict. Even if I realize that I might be arrested in an hour, or in a month. And I am happy that my companions, these days, rather than getting themselves killed by the violence of the State and trying to kill the fascists, are busy, day and night, in trying to make the referendum request "pass". Not just the referendum against State abortion, but also the one against the penal and military codes, against the Concordat and the Lateran Pact: referendums, which, if held, would defang the corporative regime and the capitalist system in Italy.

I am discouraged not by the demonstration of power and of violence which the majority is giving, but by the demonstration of weakness and incapacity which the opposition is providing. I know only too well that the violent defence of the rights of the zygote and of sperm, carried out by the powerful, is nothing but a better way to authorize the license to kill and to carry out State massacres.

One thing I never would have believed is that the three hundred and more friends who had written their support to us and their commitment to support the request for the referendums would have deserted out of laziness, lack of confidence and carelessness, and would have degraded their beliefs to a momentary and futile expression of consent, refusing, in these weeks, to go to a municipal office or court of their city to place their signature. We explained and repeated the reasons for which it was and it is advisable to do this immediately. Not a tenth of them, not a tenth of you, has moved.

As far as I'm concerned, and as far as the May 13 League is concerned, this is the last appeal I am addressing them. If the people I believe in and love, which I so proudly belong to, has corrupted itself and is incapable of grasping the ever so rare occasions to live better and to make others live in a happier and freer way, then I am not even interested in trying to win otherwise, practically alone, with the usual radicals and few others.

Translator's notes

(1) Historical compromise: political strategy outlined in 1973 by Enrico Berlinguer and based on the cooperation among communists, catholics and socialists.

(2) L'Espresso: Italian cultural, political and financial weekly magazine, established in Rome in 1955.

(3) Movimento Sociale Italiano: party founded in 1946 by former fascists of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (1943-45). In 1972 it assimilated the Party of Monarchic Unity (PDIUM), and changed its name into MSI-Destra nazionale. Secretaries: Giorgio Almirante ('46-50 and from '69 on), A. De Marsanich ('50-54), A. Michelini ('54-69).

(4) Aldo Moro (1916-1978): Italian politician. Secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (1959-65), minister on several occasions, Prime Minister ('63-68), he was the mastermind of the Centre-Left policy. Foreign Minister ('69-74), Prime Minister ('74-76), President of the DC since 1976, he favoured the participation of the Communist Party in the government. He was kidnapped by the Red Brigades on 16.3.78 and found dead on 9.5.1978.

(5) Ugo La Malfa (1903-1979): Italian politician. Among the founders of the Partito d'Azione (1942), he then joined the Republican Party (1948), of which he was secretary (1965-75) and president. Minister of Transport ('45), of Foreign Trade ('46; '51-53), of Budget ('62-63), of Treasury ('73-74), Vice Prime Minister ('74-76).

(6) Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (1920-1982): General of the Carabinieri. "Coordinator" of the investigations on the Red Brigades since 1978; prefect of Palermo (1982), he was assassinated by the mafia.

(7) Amintore Fanfani (1908): Politician. Professor of economic history, secretary of the Christian Democrat Party (1954-59; '73-75), Prime Minister ('58-59; '60-62; '62-63; '82-83), foreign minister ('64-65; '65-68), president of the Senate ('68-73; '76-82).

(8) Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954): Politician. Member of the Italian Parliament for the Popular Party (1921), of which he was Secretary from '23 to '25. An antifascist, he was arrested in 1927. Organizer of the clandestine Christian Democrat Party and Secretary of it from '44 to '46, Prime Minister as from '45, he signed the peace treaty with the allies. Guided the Christian Democrat Party toward the electoral success of 1948, in which it obtained the absolute majority.

(9) Giuseppe Pella (1902-1981): Italian politician. Prime Minister (1953-54), President of the CECA (1954-56).

(10) Eugenio Cefis (1921): President of the ENI (1967-71), and of the Montedison (1971-77).

(11) Il Manifesto: political movement created around the homonymous monthly, established in 1969 by exponents of the Communist Party (A. Natoli, R. Rossanda, L. Pintor, L. Magri), who were later expelled by the party. In 1977 the monthly magazine became a daily newspaper and for some years was the organ of the Party of Proletarian Union (PDUP). It later became independent.

(12) CISA: Italian Information Centre for Abortion and Sterilization.

(13) MLD: Women's Liberation Movement.