Hooray for Cicciolina! (1) Freedom for Bhagwan!

WHERE IS THE CARAVAN OF THE RADICAL CHILDREN GOING?

MLADINA - 29 January 1988

ABSTRACT: The newspaper of the League of the Slovene Socialist Youth comments on the results of the 34th Radical congress, and on its decision to constitute a new transnational political subject.

(RADIKALNE NOVOSTI, edited by MARINO BUSDACHIN and SANDRO OTTONI - also contributed: MASSIMO LENSI, FULVIO ROGANTIN, PAOLA SAIN JAN VANEK, ANDREA TAMBURI - TRIESTE, 1 January 1989)

At the 34th Radical congress (2-6 January 1988), Sergio Stanzani (2) was elected secretary, Paolo Vigevano treasurer and Bruno Zevi president.

Marco Pannella (3), who was president until now, gave up every charge in the party, but remains its "militant" and, at the same time, a member of the party's federal council, where 19 of the 35 members are non-Italians; there is even a citizen from Zagreb, who joined the Radical Party at the end of last year. The historical decision of withdrawing from the Italian political scene was also taken at the Congress, with the purpose of giving birth to a new activity of the Radical party as a transnational European party. In order to constitute this new organization, the party needs Lit. 4,000 million and 3,000 members.

What does Andrej Mravlje think of this?

After the congress of the Italian radicals.

The idea of constituting a transnational party is no surprise for us, because it was born among the radicals, who are long considered to be the most interesting and propulsive force on the Italian political scene, and a force that defeats the logic of political equilibriums without prejudices.

The Italian radicals, in addition to the intense political activity they carry out in Italy (the referendums for the legalization of abortion, for divorce, against the State monopoly of information), are present on the international scene as well (European parliament, environmental and pacifist movements, struggle against world hunger).

The thing that does surprise us is the fact that the Radical party has been incapable of solving the problem of Ilona Staller-Cicciolina. The problem itself, the difficult problem for which the party's decision confronts it, and the fact that they have been incapable, during the last eight months, to find an agreement with her or get rid of her, are some of the radicals' real difficulties.

And which are they?

From the frenzy trips which the party's leader, Marco Pannella, carried out throughout Europe as of October, we gathered that the radicals were preparing a new political program for the January congress; a transnational program in which national lines could nonetheless be found since the first day of the congress in Bologna.

Pannella's solution of adopting the transnational dimension does not imply an attitude of closure toward the Italian political scene, but the refusal of the territorial and institutional limits in which it operates. To make it possible, it is not necessary to convert the radicals, but simply change the form (or structure) of the Party, and reorganize it in such a way that it will be capable of carrying out its struggle outside of Parliament.

This last innovative decision, which is not immune from political defects, is the direct consequence of the failure of the political program of the coalition that was supposed to be created by all lay parties together with the socialists. After the elections in July, where the radicals were rather unsuccessful, the socialists no longer wanted to share the power with them. They started instead to assimilate the smaller social democratic parties, close to the socialists, at the same time negotiating the possibility of sharing the power with the DC (4) and the PCI. In the meanwhile, many initiatives which traditionally belonged to the radicals (programs of reforms of the political institutions, environment) were adopted by some of the larger parties. The radicals, in fact, were left with the possibility of committing suicide or filling the void with a more universal idea: the idea of the United States of Europe.

The transnational character of the radicals' political program is certainly indisputable, since the struggle against world hunger, against nuclear energy, against racism, for the conservation of the environment and the project for a united Europe are bound to be successful in the world. The problem at this moment, therefore, is not Cicciolina, but the feasible translation of the project of a transnational party into a political reality, and its political contents (the state of the members, of the funds, of the various political systems of the countries in which it is present). It is true that the congress of Bologna passed the resolution with which the radicals give up any participation in the Italian and European political elections, but it is necessary to collect Lit. 4 billion and 3,000 signatures for the constitution of the transnational party. The resolution, concerning the objectives (it contains?) is a compromise, but the party's line has obviously been forced to accept it, if it wants to preserve its

unity. The tragedy which took place during the last two days of the congress was beneficial for everyone. Pannella did not sign the resolution, which he considered not radical enough, and accepted no charge. In spite of all this, he managed to suggest the idea of transnationality to his rebellious children.

The enactment of this idea is the first task of his children, who have just asserted their autonomy. Already on the first day of the congress, Pannella supposedly said he was reading a book on a Chinese emperor, who reigned in his absence!

What about Cicciolina? She said she plans to open a chain of motels for couples. And on the last day she announced that she would run for the European Parliament. Who knows...

Translator's notes

(1) STALLER ILONA (Elena Anna). (Budapest 1951). Best known as Cicciolina, porn actress, elected member of Parliament in 1987 on the radical party ticket.

(2) STANZANI GHEDINI SERGIO AUGUSTO. (Bologna 1923). Exponent of the Italian Students Association in the '50s, among the founders of the Radical Party. Senator and member of Parliament, currently secretary of the Radical Party. Former IRI executive. Engineer.

(3) PANNELLA MARCO. Pannella Giacinto, known as Marco. (Teramo 1930). Currently President of the Radical Party's Federal Council, which he is one of the founders of. At twenty national university representative of the Liberal Party, at twenty-two President of the UGI, the union of lay university students, at twenty-three President of the UNURI, national union of Italian university students. At twenty-four he advocates, in the context of the students' movement and of the Liberal party, the foundation of the new radical party, which arises in 1954 following the confluence of prestigious intellectuals and minor democratic political groups. He is active in the party, except for a period (1960-1963) in which he is correspondent for "Il Giorno" in Paris, where he established contacts with the Algerian resistance. Back in Italy, he commits himself to the reconstruction of the radical Party, dissolved by its leadership following the advent of the centre-left. Under his indisputable leadership, the party succeeds in

promoting (and winning) relevant civil rights battles, working for the introduction of divorce, conscientious objection, important reforms of family law, etc, in Italy. He struggles for the abrogation of the Concordat between Church and State. Arrested in Sofia in 1968 as he is demonstrating in defence of Czechoslovakia, which has been invaded by Stalin. He opens the party to the newly-born homosexual organizations (FUORI), promotes the formation of the first environmentalist groups. The new radical party organizes difficult campaigns, proposing several referendums (about twenty throughout the years) for the moralization of the country and of politics, against public funds to the parties, against nuclear plants, etc., but in particular for a deep renewal of the administration of justice. Because of these battles, all carried out with strictly nonviolent methods according to the Gandhian model - but Pannella's Gandhi is neither a mystic nor an ideologue; rather, an intransigent and yet flexible politician - h

e has been through trials which he has for the most part won. As of 1976, year in which he first runs for Parliament, he is always elected at the Chamber of Deputies, twice at the Senate, twice at the European Parliament. Several times candidates and local councillor in Rome, Naples, Trieste, Catania, where he carried out exemplary and demonstrative campaigns and initiatives. Whenever necessary, he has resorted to the weapon of the hunger strike, not only in Italy but also in Europe, in particular during the major campaign against world hunger, for which he mobilized one hundred Nobel laureates and preeminent personalities in the fields of science and culture in order to obtain a radical change in the management of the funds allotted to developing countries. On 30 September 1981 he obtains at the European parliament the passage of a resolution in this sense, and after it several other similar laws in the Italian and Belgian Parliament. In January 1987 he runs for President of the European Parliament, obtaini

ng 61 votes. Currently, as the radical party has pledged to no longer compete with its own lists in national elections, he is striving for the creation of a "transnational" cross-party, in view of a federal development of the United States of Europe and with the objective of promoting civil rights throughout the world.

(4) DEMOCRAZIA CRISTIANA (DC). Italian Christian/Catholic party. Founded with this name after World War II, heir of the Popular Party, created after World War I by a Sicilian priest, Don Luigi Sturzo. After the elections of 1948, in the climate of the cold war, it became the party of relative majority, occasionally coming very close to obtaining the absolute majority. Key component of every cabinet, it has been detaining power uninterruptedly for half a century, strongly influencing the development of Italian society in a conservative sense. At the elections of 1992 for the first time it dropped below 30% of votes.

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