ABSTRACT: In March 1979 the early dissolution of the Italian Parliament and the holding of new elections is already a certainty. The Radical Party convenes its 21st (extraordinary) Congress to deliberate on its participation in the elections. This is a Congress that once again places the Radicals in contraposition to the Communists, first and foremost, who are holding their own Congress in these same days. And the polemics are not limited to Marco Pannella's famous discourse on Via Rasella but invests the very meaning of the Radical Assembly. With this motion, in fact, an appeal is made to all the forces of opposition, and in particular to those in danger of not being represented in the institutions: the party proposes, to those who will adhere, an "omnibus list" which will be able to offer entrance into the institutions without any conditions. This hypothesis is in distinction above all to the sorry practice of leftist independence so dear to the PCI.

("The Battles, the Victories and the Proposals of the Radicals as Seen in their Congressional Documents and Statute" - November 1985 - edited by Maurizio Griffo - Pamphlet published by the the Radical Party Treasury)

GENERAL MOTION

The XXI Congress of the Radical Party, having heard the report of the Secretary General Jean Fabre, the other reports and communi-cations and the discourse of Marco Pannella, approves the proposals of the Federative Council in view of the Italian national elections and the European ones which are by now certain

to take place.

The Congress, in view of the crisis of the legislature, must suspend and postpone the project for other referendums that the Radical Party intended to propose to the country. It is an obligatory postponement; they are not being renounced or abandoned. The Radical Party confirms its referendum project as a central factor of its alternative strategy, based on the Constitution, on non-violence, on democracy. The contents of the referendums thus remain the essential part of their political and electoral program for civil rights and freedom, for a society of peace rather than war, for an environment for men, for the protection of life, to be transformed at once into legislative bills as well and submitted for consensus to the people.

In the face of the crisis made more dramatic by the certain dissolving of Parliament, the Congress considers that the priority task and objective of the Radical Party must be, on this occasion, that of increasing, and leading to a great new affirmation, the democratic and popular potential of the Italy of May 12, 1974 and June 11, 1978 referendums, and of the entire civil rights movement; to strengthen and inspire the self-managing and democratic, federalist, pacifist, and internationalist autonomous groups, all the ethnic, cultural, religious, social and class realities that are opposed to authoritarian and bureaucratic centralisms either of national states or of multi-national or national, public and private economic structures; to offer a unitarian and victorious outlet to popular, class groups, authentically regionalist and autonomist, who, with this year's elections and referendums, have shown that they want to rebel against the thirty-year politics of power concentration at the top, inter-classicism

and corporatism, violence and corruption of the Christian Democrats, sustained and tolerated by its allies of today and yesterday.

The Radical Party will present itself in the elections with its own symbol and with the heritage of its battles conducted in Parliament and throughout the country. It feels called upon to assume the responsibility for guaranteeing that every last vote given to the left will be used to the utmost by the institutional representatives.

The Congress therefore appeals to the leftist opposition and to the Italian Socialist Party for the senatorial elections, with agreements drawn up region by region, to assure that the best

use be made of the results obtained by all and sundry. At the same time, the Radical Party proposes to the Proletarian Democrats and the Proletarian Unity Party - if, in spite of all, they should decide to run independently - technical agreements of reciprocal non-candidature in three constituencies of the Chamber that furnish a further guarantee of their being represented. The Radicals feel responsible for avoiding what happened in 1972 when a million votes were dispersed, and to contribute to assuring

that all components of the leftist opposition are represented.

In the same spirit, the Radical Party puts its symbol and its lists at the disposition of political and social realities that are in danger of not being represented or of being absorbed by the parties of the regime. This invitation is extended first and foremost to Lotta Continua and to the authentically regionalist and autonomist groups that reject any prospect of subservience.

Lastly , the Radical Party reiterates that there is no true electoral campaign when the right to information, debate and comparison is not guaranteed so that all citizens can have the knowledge necessary for their deliberations. Therefore the Radical Party will not accept an election campaign - for the two elections, national and European - in which there is not at least twice as much television time given to "The Election Tribune" as was acquired for the single national elections in 1976.

Once again, as with the referendums, the great battles for civil rights, an appeal is made to the citizens to take their destinies back into their own hands and strengthen, in the institutions as well, the "Yes" party, the party of the Constitution, of renewal and of an alternative.