ABSTRACT: On 12 May 1977 in Rome, the police charge thousands of demonstrators who are participating in a nonviolent demonstration organized by the Radical Party for the collection of signatures on the "8 referendums against the regime" (abrogation of the Concordat, of military courts, of the crimes of opinion contained in the penal Code, of parts of the law on mental institutions, of the law that grants special powers to the police as regards arrests, searches, wiretapping, of the law that allots consistent public funds to the parties, of the "committee of inquiry" - a special "court" formed by parliamentarians for the preventive judgment on crimes committed by ministers). A young woman, Giorgiana Masi, is shot to death, and many other demonstrators are injured. The Minister of the Interior denies the police ever made use of firearms, but the Radical Party, thanks to a tape which shows a police agent repeatedly shooting on the crowd and hundreds of photographs showing armed agents "disguised" as extreme Lef

t extremists, proves that the Minister of the Interior Cossiga (1) was lying.

Through the publication of a "White Paper", which contains the testimonies of all those who witnessed the brutal aggression of the police, the Radical Party was able to prove that there had been a deliberate attempt to carry out a massacre, and presses charges.

On 15 January 1979, the Public Prosecutor Giorgio Santacroce dismisses the trial for the assassination of Giorgiana Masi on grounds that "the authors of the facts are unknown".

In the article, which opened the first "White Paper" on the events of 12 May, which was divulged on 2 June 1977, Marco Pannella denounces the attempt to criminalize the radical, nonviolent, alternative opposition, the one of the referendum project, to try to homologize it to the "alternative" of the Red Brigades. On 12 May, the only violence committed was the violence of the State. Disobeying the illegitimate prohibition with which Cossiga suspended the democratic life in Rome for 45 days was necessary, as well as a duty for any follower of nonviolence.

(THE RADICAL PARTY'S WHITE PAPER ON THE ASSASSINATION OF GIORGIANA MASI AND OF THE EVENTS OF 12 MAY 1977: "Chronicle of a massacre" - edited by the Piero Calamadrei centre of juridical initiative - April 1979)

They want to criminalize the democratic, parliamentary and extraparliamentary opposition; the lay, libertarian, socialist, nonviolent, alternative opposition; the one of the project of the constitutional referendums which is coming true today. They think they can clear the land between the "alternative" of the Red Brigades and the government of national unity directed by Moro (2), Andreotti (3) or Cossiga with the support of Berlinguer (4) and Craxi (5).

Also for this reason, the radical parliamentary group and "Prova Radicale" have decided to divulge this white paper on the events of 12 May 1977 in Piazza Navona. The reconstruction of the events is objective, entirely based as it is on the accounts of the newspapers of all orientations and on the testimony of parliamentarians, journalists and photographers. On 12 May 1977, in Piazza Navona, the State committed the most serious, and certainly the most patent episode of its policy based on massacres: the direct and indirect authors of this policy must pay all the political and penal consequences of this.

In court, we intend to prove that the assassination of Giorgiana Masi, the injuring of at least ten citizens with firearms and of several dozen others with different kinds of blunt instruments, the tear gas with which half of Rome's historical centre was intoxicated, the violent provocation carried out in cold blood against parliamentarians, journalists, photographers, with every sort of offences on the part of State officials, the patent violation of dozens of laws which regulate the intervention of the police on service of public order, corroborate the penal charges of massacre and political massacre as well.

In Parliament, we intend to impeach the government, because it has violated the laws, lied to Parliament, unleashed violence and death against peaceful and democratic citizens, imposed fascist regulations in the capital which have already been declared unconstitutional by the Court, forced agents of the Republic to operate patently as bands of thugs or trouble-makers.

We intend to denounce to the Committee of Inquiry the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Defence for attempt against the Constitution, in fulfilment of that single criminal plan which the establishment has been pursuing against the Republic and against democracy, through the "degenerations" of the SIFAR (6), the massacres of Piazza Fontana, Piazza dell Loggia, Peteano, to finish with the massacre of Piazza Navona.

In a more strictly political forum, we mean to press charges against all the comrades, firstly the leadership of the Communist Party, for its unconditional, extreme support given on this (as on other) occasion to the criminal delinquency of the State, addressing its political controversy against the democratic and constitutional opposition with McCarthyite and antipopular procedures worthy of witch-hunt, moral lynching of any form of dissent, omission and censorship of any defence of the rights of the citizens and of the Constitution.

Lastly, we intend to reintegrate the constitutional and civil law by obtaining an exhaustive and honest information, which the Christian Democratic and "socialist" ruffians of the RAI, the infamous parliamentary committee of inquiry (which we are part of ex ufficio) deprive Italian citizens of, to blind the public opinion more than with tear gas, depriving it of every possibility of taking cognizance of the events before judging them. The supporters of the regime (be they the ones of the "programmatic agreements", those of the "emergency government" or those of the "political agreements of new majority") are first of all united by the fear of people and of their judgement. This is another reason which makes the White Paper on 12 May important. Each person should read it and draw the consequences and the judgement he will consider appropriate. We have something to point out, to specify and to add to the exposition of the facts.

12 MAY: The only violence is the violence of the State

1 - The Radicals had announced and guarantied that the demonstration called for 12 May would have been strictly nonviolent. They had thus assumed a responsibility which many had judged rash or exceeding their political force. How could the defenceless and nonviolent defenders of civil rights, with no enforcement services, no armies of executives, bureaucrats, militants, guarantee that public order, that peaceful atmosphere of popular feast which they promised? In present-day Rome, with the participation not only of "Lotta Continua" (7), of the Students' Movement, but also of Autonomia Operaia (8) and of the Collective of Via dei Volsci? Facts have proven that the radicals not only were in the conditions of foreseeing correctly, but that that occasion in Rome represented the most impressive demonstration of civic sense, of nonviolent force and discipline which has ever been provided in these years.

In Rome, in the surroundings of Piazza Navona on the afternoon of 12 May, thousands of agents of the various police forces were given the order to attack "at sight" with bands of thugs, with firearms, with the criminal throwing of tear gas bombs at man's height, with provocations and aggressions of all kinds, every passer-by liable to be considered a potential "signatory" or "music listener" in Piazza Navona. This lasted over seven consecutive hours, investing a third of the historical centre. They did it without disobeying, as the rumour that the demonstrators had shot and injured several agents was circulated as early as 3:00 p.m.; because the government has succeeded in spreading terror, fear and hate in these youngsters and workers, exploited more than any other class. They did it because there are specialists in massacres, fascists, thugs, policemen raised in the myth of criminal laws and "ideals" amongst them - as anywhere.

For their part, how many were the "demonstrators" (in fact no one "demonstrated" anything: were they radical and extraparliamentary suspects?) Ten, twenty thousand? We will never know. What we do know is that perhaps in no other country, and in no other case, there would have been the nonviolent, exemplary reaction of 12 May in Rome. It is truly odd: no one, to this moment, seems to have noticed it. What is the result of the "riots"? On the part of the State, which acted as an outlaw, in a criminal way, one carabiniere was slightly injured in the wrist. Over 1500 men, subjected for seven hours to "violent clashes", who "imposed" violence, the violation of regulations and laws, can denounce nothing but a superficial injury.

For our part: one victim, many injured, contused, arrested, insults and offences, which range from those addressed by the fascist thugs in the street, to those, at the Chamber, of the maddened comrades of the Communist Party D'Alema and Trombadori, who have passed rather too abruptly from Stalinism to McCarthyism.

"All they are left with is Pannella" titles an editorial by Aniello Coppola on "Paese Sera" of 18 May. Obviously Coppola was hinting at the "killer extremists", at "those of the P38s".

Since 12 May we have been proclaiming that that day, in those streets, we met only exemplary citizens, democratic, courageous, responsible, loyal young people with respect to the nonviolent political commitments we had made. We did it in Parliament, in the streets, without cowardice, when it seemed folly or falsehood. We hope we will manage to do it soon and often, with all the comrades of the movement.

We are struggling also for this.

To people like D'Alema and Aniello Coppola we dedicate with pride this tragic and painful result as capable and rigorous democrats, once again struck by the murderous violence of the establishment.

We dedicate it to them, and to Ugo Spagnoli and Cossutta, to urge them to stop being the supporters and the allies, if they still can.

12 MAY: The real target was the referendum

2 - Our documentation, and every other available documentation shows that the entire range of "extremists" and "assassins" was in the piazza that 12 May; there were the young men with covered faces, armed with bars and stones, with automatic guns, with P38 guns (9), in the style both of the Naps and of the secret services. They were all policemen. And in Milan? And on the other days? What would have happened if someone of these transvestites had been killed, because he looked like an "extremist"? What would have happened if a trouble-maker had killed a fellow policeman, as it often happens, instead of Giorgiana?

For seven hours they looked for a victim, in every way, with anger, as if the police had been surprised, frustrated by our nonviolent reaction. How many people would have been killed, what sort of massacre did they think they would carry out? And why? We will try to answer. If there had been many victims, and among these a few policemen, perhaps even a commissioner, a vice commissioner (possibly democratic), for how many more days would the prohibition of political demonstrations in Rome and maybe throughout Italy have been prolonged? Also, which citizens would have signed the referendum project which is now reaching its objective? Which "restrictions" had already been "considered" in the face of the predictable popular indignation against the radicals, Lotta Continua and the Referendum committee? On 13 May, at the Chamber, Minister Cossiga launched a sort of warning to us, as he gave his vile and false account of the events: it is the only moment in which he dared not look at us. No one ever conceived - th

e Minister said - of interfering with the rights of the citizens to sign and of the radicals to collect signatures. There are so many already, that one has doubts as to their authenticity, he threatened.

In these days, even L'Espresso realized that if the radical project succeeds it will ridicule the danse macabre which Moro, Berlinguer, Craxi, Zanone (10), Romita and Biasini have been conducting for weeks around the programmatic package for a "new majority".

What is Cossiga doing then? Is he the one in charge of saving the "historical" compromise on the one hand, and the destabilizing policy on the other, versus the mortal blow which the referendum project, if operative, would deal them?

12 MAY: Disobeying was necessary

3 - We know many people are upset. They haven't understood, they don't understand. This time they don't agree with us. What? We followers of nonviolence...., why have we disobeyed? Even Scalfari wrote an editorial on La Repubblica to say that if we hadn't called and maintained the demonstration, there would not have been victims and injured. Senator Branca (who as President of the Constitutional Court, declared on the subject of the Constitution that either the citizens uphold and achieve it through their behaviour, or it will never come to birth) provided a similar democratic contribution: "The radicals were right under all aspects" - he wrote on "Il Messaggero" - "however they should have accepted".

We owe the people, not Scalfari or Branca, a clear, convinced and firm reply.

We do not accept compromises of any kind with any kind of violence, and especially with the violence of the institutions, the worst type of violence. This is what practising nonviolence means: not being passive, submissive, accomplices of violence by omission.

In Italy the strategy of massacring the legality and people has been lasting for at least 15 years, and aims at imposing an authoritarian and murderous system, also formally.

If violence pays, it will generate further and even worse violence. If citizens obey illegitimate orders, inhuman or unconstitutional laws, if they accept the fact that the State violates the same laws which it imposes, the establishment has no limits: it is fascism.

If we accept the fact that nonviolent, democratic citizens, and the vast majority of people, are deprived of their constitutional rights with the excuse of punishing the assassins, and the democratic life is suspended, the establishment will be more and more "eager" for more victims.

Take Cossiga, Andreotti, this Government. If we too, like the Communist Party, instead of requesting their resignation and fighting against them because they have plunged the country in a chaos even worse than last year's (and it really seemed impossible!), if we thought of covering them, supporting them precisely in virtue of the massacres that are spreading, we would ultimately strengthen the policy of violence and massacres.

A few victims were enough for Cossiga to suspend the democratic life in Rome for 45 days. It is enough to multiply them by one hundred (a well organized massacre, in other words) to suffocate for months and months the democratic life of the entire country.

No. We can come out of the violence, the massacres, the massacres of legality and people only by enhancing instead of suppressing the democratic life, mobilizing the masses, isolating the trouble-makers, the despairing, the deceived and - especially - the Christian Democratic Party with its regime, its men, its interests, its ministers, generals, cardinals and businessmen, its spies and meddlers blackmailed by the CIA and the rest of the world.

For twenty years they have been answering our hunger strikes, our celebrations, our peaceful struggles, by trying us, arresting us, isolating us, censuring us and now even murdering us and criminalizing us as accomplices of assassins. For twenty years we have disobeyed on divorce, on abortion, on conscientious objection, on the civil rights of all, obeying the fundamental laws of the conscience and of the Constitution. By answering with flowers, with pencils and forms for the signatures, with dialogue and the respect of the just laws and of the liberties and rights of each and all. We have no intention of changing. On 12 May we did out duty to the bitter end. Those who attacked us, injured us, murdered us have never even been scathed with a stone by our answer.

But precisely for this reason we want justice to be done; immediately, at all levels.

We ask all comrades to mobilize in this battle, to give us further evidence, further testimonies, to contact us urgently, so that we may press formal charges, so that we may prove the violence and damage suffered, so as to enter the trial, create a board of lawyers to immediately start this necessary battle, also from a judicial point of view. In Parliament we shall see whether we continue to be isolated: we will gauge the sense of the State of deputies and senators of every political part. As to the Government, it should prepare to be held responsible for the assassination of Giorgiana Masi and of the massacre of 12 May. Of this and of many other things.

Marco Pannella

Translator's notes

(1) Francesco Cossiga (1928): Italian politician. Minister of the Interior (1976-78) and Prime Minister (1979-80), currently President of the Republic.

(2) 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.

(3) Giulio Andreotti (1919): Italian politician. Christian Democrat, minister of the Interior (1954), of Finance (1955-58), of Treasury (1958-59), of Defence (1959-66; 1974), of Industry (1966-68), of Budget (1974-76). Prime Minister from 1972 to 1973 and from 1976 to 1979. Currently Prime Minister.

(4) Enrico Berlinguer (1922-1984): Italian politician. Secretary of the Communist Youth Federation (1949-56), member of Parliament since 1968, secretary general of the Communist Party from 1979 to 1984.

(5) Bettino Craxi (1934): Italian politician. Former Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party and former Prime Minister.

(6) SIFAR: Secret Services established in 1949, under the direct control of the Defence Staff. In 1966 it was abolished and replaced by the SID.

(7) Lotta Continua: political movement of the extreme Left, established in 1969 in Turin; in 1971 it created the homonymous newspaper.

(8) Autonomia Operaia: political movement of the extreme Left, active in Italy during the second half of the seventies. After reaching its peak in 1977, in 1979 it was accused of connivance with terrorism.

Some of its exponents were tried.

(9) P38: weapons used by members of Autonomia Operaia during demonstrations in the '70s.

(10) Valerio Zanone (1936): General Secretary of the Italian Liberal Party since 1976.