ABSTRACT: In the special issue of "Il Manifesto" (1) entirely devoted to pacifism, the radicals are totally abrogated; as ten years previously, when the PDUP (2) refused to include conscientious objectors detained in military prisons in its lists, even only in alphabetical order. Today you are discovering pacifism and nonviolence, wiping away the Radical history completely, and you are assuming the responsibility of leading these new generations of pacifists to the same defeats which the previous generation suffered.

(IL MANIFESTO, 19 October 1983)

Dear comrades,

I have been told that your special issue on pacifism and on pacifist struggles mentions everyone except us.

I can understand the increasing need, for you too, to remove our presence, to distort our features, to abrogate us in the reality of our nature, in other words, of our history.

I understand that today it is necessary to abrogate us for the same reasons for which you too, you more than others, abrogated us for a decade: because of our struggles and theories in favour of a unilateral disarmament as conscientious objectors, as determined militants and theorists of political nonviolence, because we converted a pacifism based on fear and rejection or on the "appeals of Helsinki", into an affirmative pacifism, which advocates political choices "today" for life, against world hunger, stressing the North-South relation rather than the East-West one and only that one.

I understand we haven't changed much, either of us, since the time you refused, as "Il Manifesto", to include the conscientious objectors detained in the prisons of Peschiera and Gaeta in your lists even only in alphabetical order, because you thought that with the candidacy of Valpreda (3), you could avoid the responsibility of throwing away hundreds of thousands of votes and hopes, and you rejected, in this way, our political and electoral support.

I understand that at the time we were "petit bourgeois" because of our "non massive" conscientious objection, our hunger strikes on divorce, on abortion, on drugs, on the right to refuse military service, and because of the exhibitionism with which fellow party members like Roberto Cicciomessere, Adele Faccio, Emma Bonino, Gianfranco Spadaccia, Angiolo Bandinelli and Fabre went to prison.

I am perfectly aware of the fact that for you pacifism today is represented by Berlinguer (4), just as in the fifties and sixties it was represented by Togliatti (5) or Longo (6) and - for a couple of years - by the coalition "Manifesto"-Potere Operaio (7)-Lotta Continua" (8), all fierce enemies, but all operating in the common "area" of the revolution of "1968", of the "movement" of "'69". Obviously, Berlinguer was later criticized, no doubt in order to better launch the operation of the new front of pacifists. I understand perfectly well that we continue to be abrogated, ignored for our insignificance, our marginality, our exhibitionism, our self-pity, our irreducible difference with respect to you.

That is the inflexible line you are following, it is neither an accident or an oversight: this summer you succeeded in "discovering" nonviolence, militant pacifism, in Comiso (9) or elsewhere, trace its history, its geography, gauge its surface, all this without writing a word of condemnation, of anathema, of indignation, of reserve, not even to declare us dead: no, not a word on us, on the antimilitarist marches since 1966, every year; on the Secretaries of our party, detained in prison in Rome or in Paris for "insoumission" of for objection or for nonviolent direct actions. Not a word on our theses, really alternative to yours, on the work of the Chambers, on the books of the Irdisp, on the hundreds of pages of stenographic account of parliamentary sessions which we and only we dealt with, from 1976 until the onset of the alternative (!) of the Communist Party: the latter supporting pacifist positions on "Il Manifesto" and in Comiso only to support Lagorio (10 ) and his policy in practice and at the electi

ons.

And so you talk and write about disarmament, about nuclear and conventional energy, about referendums, about October 22, with all the "force" and the display of elegance which are typical of the parvenus, of the nouveaux riches.

You will have the same responsibility, with respect to the hundreds of thousands of persons who will demonstrate in these days, which you had when you experienced the thrill of the huge marches which blocked the city and those who lived there almost daily, because you believed was "objectively" revolutionary. Then, soon, the reflux and...the rest.

Consider me (for once with anger and indignation) irreconcilably different and distant, but in the way we are different and distant: with Toni Negri (11) or with Valpreda, with you or any other comrade, any other person.

Nonviolently, in spite of everything.

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("Marco Pannella is poorly informed. In the dossier on Peace of "Il Manifesto", there are no radicals, as there are no voices of several other parties, because we are not interested in creating an anthology of the positions of the political forces; rather,

we want to raise the problems which the peace issue poses to the governments, the movements, the people. In this logic there are, on the contrary, many of the subjects which are dear to the radicals, from nonviolence (which Giuliano Pontara writes about) to training for direct actions (described by Enrico Euli). The dossier also talked about the North-South issue which is so dear to the radicals, even if this time it is someone other than the radicals to talk about it.

There is no abrogation, therefore, neither of the Radical Party (last week we interviewed Francesco Rutelli, a radical member of Parliament), and much less of the antimilitarist and nonviolent area of the conscientious objectors who, from Comiso to Rome, have found and will find access to the newspaper (and with whom we entertain relations, just as they are in good relations with the rest of the Italian movement for peace). Much less can we speak of

an "abrogation" of the radicals' ideas and of initiatives such as the publication of the Irdisp, or the useful "Everything the Russians already know and the Italians should know", which "Il Manifesto" covered with a whole page as soon as it war released last July. Perhaps we are less different and distant than Pannella likes to think, even if this dossier contains no interview with Pannella. And this precisely because, as Pannella says, this summer we have "succeeded in discovering nonviolence and militant pacifism".

Having done so represents an acknowledgment of the political topicality and importance of an issues which, quite correctly, the radicals claimed as part of their heritage. Having done so without the radicals has implied, not only for "Il Manifesto", but for the movement for peace itself, that the radicals have been not our allies, but - paradoxically - the fiercest opponents of initiatives such as the summer in Comiso, initiatives which may be objectionable but which undeniably represent a political fact of major relevance. A year ago, and especially after the assemblies of the committees for peace of last January, the Radical Party chose the direction of opposing us, a choice which we and many radical militants do not understand.

If Pannella wants to discuss a possible common commitment for peace (as occurred for other issues), this letter of his can open up a useful political confrontation. But it should be a true confrontation, not only to claim lost paternities, passed isolations and similar things: shouldn't the fact that others (possibly with a delay) endorse an idea which is dear us be a source of happiness instead of pique?"

Translators' notes

(1) Il Manifesto: political movement based on the homonymous magazine established in 1969 by exponents of the Communist Party (A. Natoli, R. Rossanda, L. Pinto, L. Magri), who were later expelled by the party. In 1971 the monthly magazine became a daily newspaper and for some years was the organ of the Party for the Union of Proletarians (PDUP). It later became an independent daily.

(2) PDUP: Party of Proletarian Union, established in 1973 following the fusion of the group of Il Manifesto with exponents of the former PSIUP. Contributed in forming the "PDUP for communism" in 1974.

(3) Valpreda: anarchist accused of the attempt at the Bank of Agriculture in Milan.

(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) Palmiro Togliatti: (1893-1964): Italian politician. Among the founders of "Ordine Nuovo", he cooperated with Gramsci in opposing the extremist theses of Bordiga. Secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 to his death, he lived abroad for long periods, in Moscow as member of the secretariat of the Comintern, in Spain during the civil war. Back in Italy in 1944, he launched the Communist Party's national policy by supporting the other antifascist forces, by recognizing the role of the Catholics and by participating in several government from 1944 to 1947. After the elections of 1948, he was head of the left-wing opposition. Mastermind of the "Italian way to socialism", Togliatti laid down the premises of the Italian Communist Party's independence from the U.S.S.R.

(6) Pietro Longo: (1935) Italian politician. Secretary of the Social Democratic Party since 1978.

(7) "Potere Operaio": Italian extreme left political movement established in 1966; it was dissolved in 1973.

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

(9) Comiso: military base in Southern Italy.

(10) Lelio Lagorio: Italian politician. Minister of Defence from 1980 to 1983, and Minister of Tourism from 1983 to 1986.

(11) Toni Negri: exponent of an extreme left political group, he was arrested and kept in prison for five years without a trial. Released, he was elected member of Parliament for the Radical Party.