Radical, federalist comrades and friends, those that we see now are not signs of crisis, or renunciation or of despair. Hope and trust can accompany our commitment and our struggle today. The world is changing rapidly, there are new, unprecedented opportunities before us. We have entered one of those periods in which everyone can feel a protagonist, in which everyone truly is responsible toward other human beings, because his actions count, can produce positive political effects, and, above all, encourage the new reality that are arising.

In very recent times, who would have believed two messages for the end of the year such as the ones by Gorbachev and Mitterand? Said Gorbachev, "In 1988, many considered the idea of the common European home as a sort of utopia. Now they speak about it as a real possibility, while the division of Europe brought about by the post-war period belongs to the past". Therefore, how can we not agree with the Soviet president, when he says that the nineties "promise to become the most fertile period of the history of civilization"?

Said the French president, Mitterrand: "I count on the birth, in the nineties, of a real European confederation, that will associate all the States of our continent into a common and permanent organization of exchange, peace and security. Obviously, this will be possible only after the introduction of a multi-party system in the East European countries, of a representative system and of freedom of information. At the speed at which things are progressing, this is perhaps not a remote objective". We have to be in step with the events. The parties run the risk of being extremely slow if they prove incapable of interpreting the major change in epoch we are facing, and those "transnational" elements (as you long started to call them) which characterize it.

The authoritarian and despotic regimes of Eastern Europe are collapsing, and I take this opportunity to address a warm greeting to the persecuted comrades from those countries who are present today. It is not the collapse of the socialist ideals, but of a system - called "real socialism" - which has added lack of democracy to economic stagnation. The last, tragic episode has occurred in Ceasescu's Rumania, a country with which, to tell the truth (as we said with Pannella at the demonstration of Rumanian exiles in Piazza Venezia) the Western chanceries had cordial relations. Similarly, the relations with that China that wishes to relaunch "communism" after the massacre of Tien An Men, are once again cordial.

The democracy-lacking Eastern Europe is not up ot the trial of history. However, the process that is starting there deprives of every alibi those who refuse to see the limits of democracy in the West, those who want the wind of freedom to stop short of the borders of the country where there is hardly any, without touching those of countries where there is not as much as would be desirable.

Therefore, allow me a third quote, by the President of the Italian Republic, who found the right words to wish the Italian people a happy new year. Francesco Cossiga (2) said that "the West cannot close itself in a static national and international conception", that "it is necessary to uphold the rule of law in every part of the world, that rule of law which is the guarantee of freedom, versus the violence of the corrupt society, of crime and arrogance". And he concluded, "we Italians too need the wind of freedom, we should not forget it".

I agree with him. And I think I also agree with you, radical and federalist comrades, in the inflexible commitment we must assume to offer Italy, in this Europe that unites us, a new season of freedom and democracy, to uphold, and so to say found, that new democratic State which has perhaps never been achieved in its completeness.

Politics is very little thing, outside of these prospects: every day we witness miserable political facts. This is why we must concentrate all our energies to achieve a true reform of politics. A reform affecting the life of the parties and of the State, restoring the powers to the representative institutions and the sovereignty to the people; a reform which must radically change a political system, such as the Italian one, in which the relations of force which persist are always the same, in which the equilibriums are paralysed, the alternatives are blocked. Remember the "dead calm of the Antilles" by Italo Calvino? We could all remain blocked, with sails that shiver without wind, but this time in another dead calm, not in a sea, but in a pond. And therefore I think it is extremely important to question the establishment, the powers. Recovering that value of the individual which Pannella (3) was mentioning just now, in that transnational and federalist context which is one of the major innovations which the

collapse of the countries of Eastern Italy and the opening of a major worldwide political prospect repropose with all their force. And I believe today we are at a turning point, because like in all major turning points of history, the real problem is not that of providing new answers, but of being capable of asking ourselves new questions: that is what marks the passage from one epoch to another.

We must start somewhere. For example, we could start from the electoral reform. I don't think the whole of the government parties show interest today in deciding something new. They concentrate rather on defending their ancient positions, on perpetuating mechanisms which, among others, have enabled the Christian Democratic Party to rule without any change for almost half a century (almost a world record). Not can we accept the attitude of those who think that we must change something in order for everything to remain as it is....

Thus, I want to state interest and favour for a possible referendum initiative, which could unite a very wide range of forces, aimed to change important aspects of the current electoral system. An electoral reform, an institutional reform, a reform of politics: a major project for democracy and freedom, which can be plausibly pursued by the parties that question their shape, and at the same time refuse to conform, to accept the current system. The major political discriminating factors of value and principle should be kept alive and operating: especially the moral issue.

As you know, we Italian communists are strongly committed on the moral issue. But how can we forget prophets of more remote times - Gaetano Salvemini (4), Ernesto Rossi (5) - who did not point their finger simply against the dishonesty, the corruption, the "corrupt society": they denounced something which belongs, as a negative fact, to the longest Italian tradition; the permanence of the leading classes in power, against political transformism.

Permanence in power and transformism are at the same time the cause and the effect of that democratic impoverishment, of that limit to freedom caused by the absence of alternatives, by the "impossibility", explicitly theorized, of an alternative.

Therefore, creating the conditions of the alternative becomes a political duty, and a moral imperative. There should be no homologation, no integration in the old leading classes. I believe our common commitment should be that of replacing them, of creating new ones, up to the challenges that come to us from Europe and the world.

On this point, I sense a particular affinity with what you represent, and with what you want to be. And it is exactly this point - let me say it - that I believe provides a special meaning to the proposal I advanced and which will be discussed at the coming congress of the Communist Party: the most innovative proposal, and the one that most opposes the hypothesis of an adaptation, of a reassimilation into the current pattern of Italian politics. It is a proposal which aims to place the Communist Party as a major force in the history of the world, and to create the conditions for an alternative in Italy. Therefore, a typically anti-transformist proposal.

In this battle, no force can achieve anything without the cooperation of other forces. I am not suggesting amalgamations of any kind. I have come here (after the discussions and the meetings, which have become more intense lately) to talk about things, to measure and verify the common thoughts, the values that can unite us, the paths that can converge.

I can only conceive the "constituent assembly of a new political formation" on the agenda of the congress of my party in the context of a wider and more general "constituent" assembly of the Italian democracy. There are many forces today that are reconsidering themselves and that think of their renewal in constituent terms. This is the language you are speaking. A language that could be listened to also in the environmentalist world (not incidentally I also participated in an important meeting on the subject) and in many sectors of the Catholic world. On the other hand - you know it - only those who rediscuss themselves acquire the credibility of the authentic reformer.

If these processes continue, not only the stagnant waters will start moving, but many news will come to renew the Italian democracy, many new chapters of the history of freedom will be written. The socialists will also have to face a binding choice: either close themselves in the "two-party partnership" with the Christian Democratic Party, excluding other parties more and more, carrying on the alternation between the arrogance of wanting to teach and trying to annex the left, or decide to participate in this movement which comes from the deepest part of society and affects the cultural life, the public spirit, the politics, the very civilization of a country such as ours which is undoubtedly richer and could become more democratic and civilized than it is, more regulated by the principles of solidarity, justice and rule of law.

I'm thinking about the future of the left-to-be. Of a non-monolithic left, a pluralist left, free from the grip of a terrible dilemma: either dispersed or subordinated, or reduced to one, and sterile.

We need to look forward, in front of us, recovering a great tradition, which has seen divided cultures which can hope to find a fertile point of contact. Gramsci (5) and Gobetti (6) talked for a moment: something has remained, but much has been lost. I too believe that the memory must return, the memory of all that has been the major movement for freedom, for democracy, for socialism. We Italian communists owe a lot of our peculiarity to Antonio Gramsci. But there are other words from the past which need to be listened in the present.

The words of Carlo Rosselli (7), for example. There is a famous interview of 1929, in which Rosselli was asked to summarize the fundamental theses of his thought. And he answered, "Therefore, I believe (...) that socialism without democracy is the negation of the chief purposes of socialism. That socialism, as the spearhead of the largest, most oppressed and underprivileged class, is the heir of liberalism. That freedom is the premise of the moral life of the single individual and of the community, that it is the most effective means and the ultimate purpose of socialism. That socialization is a means, albeit a very important one. That socialism is not decided from the upper classes, but is acquired and achieved from the base, in the conscience of the people, in the labour unions, in the culture, through the countless, free and independent experiences of the workers' movement. That the new Italian socialist movement will probably not be the fruit of coalitions of old parties, but a new body, a federative syn

thesis of all the forces that struggle for the cause of freedom and labour".

Asked the interviewer, "Overcoming Marxism, therefore?"

And Rosselli, "Yes, but overcoming it consecrates the triumph, under certain aspects. I ought to make a distinction between Marx the sociologist and Marx as the specific theorist of the socialist movement. The former is immortal, and has imbibed the entire modern social science of his thought and of his powerful realism; so much that he can boast among his pupils his worst enemies. Even the anti-socialist reaction occurs in a certain sense in the spirit of Marx, i.e. with the complete awareness of the forces that this reaction wants to check. And the entire political controversy is today based by three quarters on intellectual positions that carry the powerful sign of Marx".

These are words that contain a major truth. The problem is not, I believe, replacing one theory with another. Nonetheless, I think the identity of a party, of a movement, of a left which accepts the challenges of the present, can be achieved by creating the space which so many different forces converge into. This major convergence of forces can be the harbinger of a "new beginning". The history of freedom and of human liberation has remote origins, and it not over. On the contrary, it is starting today. it is entrusted to the choices which we make, with a decision that concerns first of all and primarily our responsibility.

Facing this responsibility is our duty as men who confide in the future. This is why, dear friends, dear radical and federalist comrades, I wanted to be present today. Because I believe this confidence in the future must make these various forces which form the breeding ground of freedom and development of societies on a national and transnational scale, should have a new start, and that we are all called to cooperate for this start.

Translator's notes

(1) OCCHETTO ACHILLE. (Turin 1936). Italian politician. At first exponent of Ingrao's group, he then shifted to Berlinguer's centre. He became secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1988, succeeding Alessandro Natta. After launching the idea of a major "Constituent" of the left with all reformist forces, he then decided to change only the name of the party ("Democratic Party of the Left").

(2) COSSIGA FRANCESCO. (Sassari 1928). President of the Italian Republic from 1985 to 1992. Deputy since 1958, under secretary (1966) and Minister (1974). Minister of the Interior (1976-78) when Aldo Moro was kidnapped, he resigned when the dead body of the statesman was discovered. Prime Minister (1979-80). As President of the republic, during the second part of his term he actively promoted changes in the Italian Constitution, participating in fierce controversies with the majority of political exponents, and overcoming the limits laid down by the Constitution. For such reasons he was denounced by Marco Pannella in August 1991 for attempt on the Constitution.

(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) SALVEMINI GAETANO. (Molfetta 1873 - Sorrento 1957). Italian historian and politician. Socialist since 1893, he founded the weekly "L'Unità", which soon became an important seat of debates. In 1925 in Florence, together with the Rosselli brothers, he founded the clandestine antifascist publication "Non mollare". Subsequently he fled abroad (to the U.S.), where he promoted antifascist information campaigns.

(5) ROSSI ERNESTO. (Caserta 1897 - Rome 1967). Italian journalist and politician. Leader of "Giustizia e Libertà", in 1930 he was arrested by the fascist regime and remained in prison or exiled until the end of the war. Author, together with Spinelli, of the "Manifesto di Ventotene", and leader of the European Federalist Movement and of the battle for a united Europe. Among the founders of the Radical Party. Essayist and journalist, from "Il Mondo" he promoted vehement campaigns against clerical interference in the political life, against economic trusts, industrial and agrarian protectionism, private and public concentrations of power, etc. His articles were collected in famous books ("I padroni del vapore", etc). After the dissolution of the Radical Party in 1962, and the consequent split from the editor of "Il Mondo", M.Pannunzio, he founded "L'Astrolabio", whence he continued his polemics. In his last years he joined the "new" radical party, with which in 1967 he launched the "Anticlerical Year".

(6) GRAMSCI ANTONIO. (Ales, Cagliari 1891 - Rome 1937). Italian thinker and politician, socialist at first, editor of "Ordine Nuovo" and promoter of the experiments on "factory councils", in 1921 he was among the founders of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he was appointed secretary general of in 1924. Deputy, he was sentenced by the fascist regime to 20 years of prison, where he died. His "Quaderni dal carcere" represent an original contribution to the theoretic development of Marxism in a Western sense. He also founded "L'Unità", organ of the communist party.

(7) GOBETTI PIERO. (Turin 1901 - Paris 1926). Very young, he published a famous publication, "La Rivoluzione liberale" , starting a revision of liberalism with the aim of making it accessible to the labour world. In 1926, persecuted by the fascist regime, he migrated to France where he died. He is also the founder of the magazine "Il Baretti" and published the first collection of verse by Montale.

(8) ROSSELLI CARLO. (Rome 1899 - Bagnoles de l'Orne, France 1937). Italian politician. An antifascist, together with Nenni he founded and directed the magazine "Quarto Stato" (1926). Exiled in Lipari (1927), whence he managed to escaped. In France he was among the founders of the movement "Giustizia e Libertà". In Spain he fought with the republicans in 1936. He was assassinated together with his brother historian by members of the cagoule at the order of the Italian secret services. Author of an outstanding work, "Socialismo liberale" (1928).