The case of Poland is today the test case of the new relationship not only between the States, but between the European Peoples. It is therefore the test par excellence of the affirmation and defence of human, civil, union, and political rights. It is the most immediate bench test for the Europe of democracy and freedom, the united Europe of the EEC countries, of those countries of central Europe such as Poland, of those of the Mediterranean, Yugoslavia as well as Israel.

In Poland there are several dozens of members of the Radical Party, and the Radical Party there is the object of regular libellous and defamatory attacks both by Jerzy Urban, the spokesman for the government and the regime's television network. At this point therefore, the Radical Party has become a disturbing adversary in Poland; a spokesman who acts in unison with the opposition forces. Besides the non-violent actions of the last two years - of which we speak in the chronology, - 1987 saw the development of an absolutely unprecedented initiative. For the first time, independent organisations from the East and the West collaborated to promote a political initiative. The Radical Party and Wolnosc i Pokoi jointly led a campaign which incited Polish, Belgians, Spanish and Yugoslavs, Italians and French, Greeks, Turks, and Dutch to go on a hunger strike for the right to conscientious objection in the West as in the East.

Last July the claim for the right to conscientious objection in Poland - which had originally been the corner stone on which Wolnosc i Pokoi, a new and active organisation of the opposition, was founded - will be welcomed by the regime, and the Parliament of Warsaw will approve a law which although very limited, institutes an alternative to military service. A great victory for the campaign of Wolnosc i Pokoi, the young Poles, and the whole of the Polish opposition; and also for the Radical Party!