ABSTRACT: February 14, 1987, Rome: A postal van is assaulted by the terrorist group "Brigate rosse". Two policemen are killed. A group of former members of some terrorist groups, who have been sentenced to life-imprisonment or tens of years in jail and are now militants of the Radical Party, make an appeal to the "Comrade murderers". "No project, future, humanity, hope is worth a life, is worth anybody's life."
("Single issue" booklet for the XXXV Congress of The Radical Party - Budapest 22-26 april 1989)
We cannot be silent. We cannot stifle our conscience in silence, by being different, by being distant. We cannot hide in an easy oblivion, and use our difference as a shield to stave off space and time. We are forced to speak, we have to say our bit in this case because we have thought and felt the same as these children of the same revolutionary ideas which inspired us, once upon a time. We must take part; we have to be there, because we are and we want to be responsible, because we have acted in our own time, bringing extreme thought and feeling to fulfilment with tragic conviction and obscure passion. We brought the act of political assassination back into the history of the Republic. We cracked the mirror, by consuming expected and unpredictable revolutionary illusions in an unexpected and predictable way. In the terms of the new post-war creation, we committed original sin. Terrorism of this kind is truly devoid of any motive or any raison d'ętre, it has no political, social or economic purpose and its
aims are futile and empty. It cannot even be justified as a service to something or somebody, let alone as the monstrous celebration of an act that no-one would ever have dared to perform. Such terrorism is fundamentally devoid of any legal principle or of any civil reality or viability. And yet, it still manages to bring out the worst in some of us through pure ideology. The "acte gratuit" which springs from an idea. What terrorism brings to the surface is the worst side of our human nature. We must therefore presume, hope and desire that some hidden facets of such humanity might contain better qualities of heart and soul and that it may be possible to give life to these too. Our message to those who now call themselves "Partito Comunista Combattente" or "Brigate Rosse" or anything else, is that the nobility and disinterest - ideas, future and mankind - on which our actions were based and which justified them, are no longer tenable or bearable. No plans or hopes for the future of humanity can be worth the l
oss of a life, any life, not just ours or yours, comrade murderer. It is untenable and unbearable to exchange flesh and blood for an abstraction, to suppress what exists in favour of what does not, to sacrifice the here-and-now in the name of another and distant reality. Killing is truly primitive and alienating, out of time and out of place. Violence does not save, it accelerates the dying process, it kills even when it claims to innovate. Whoever kills nowadays. whoever uses force to gain power, is bound to continue to use force and to kill in order to stay in power and nothing - fortunately - indicates that such a power structure exists today. Today's quality of life, the quality of interpersonal relations and of daily interaction determines and qualifies the future. It is wise to bear that in mind. If one needs to gamble, let us gamble on life, one life, even if it is only one, that may or may not be saved, that wilfully we either save or do not save. Whether our life is good, hopeful or active, it is st
ill life which is at stake. Do not kill. Killing is always a loss. No road leads to salvation, dear Comrade Murderer, if lives are lost on the way.
This document was signed by:
MAURICE BIGNAMI, former member of "Prima Linea", sentenced twice to life imprisonment, member of the Radical Party,
SERGIO D'ELIA, former member of "Prima Linea", sentenced to 30 years, member of the Radical Party;
LUCA FRASSINETI, former member of "COLP", sentenced to 30 years, member of the Radical Party;
ROCCO MARTINA, former member of "Azione Revoluzionaria", sentenced to 30 years, member of the Radical Party;
CIRO LONGO, former member of "Prima Linea", sentenced to 30 years, member of the Radical Party;
MARIO ROSSI, former member of right-wing extra-parliamentary organisations, sentenced to 25 years, not a member of the Radical Party;
NANDO CESARONI, former member of "Prima Linea", sentenced to 30 years, member of the Radical Party;
SALVATORE PALMIERI, former member of "Prima Linea", sentenced to 20 years, member of the Radical Party;
LIVIO LAI, former member of "NAR", member of the Radical Party;
VINCENZO DE STEFANO, former member of the "Brigate Rosse" (Red Brigades), member of the Radical Party.
