ABSTRACT: A reclamation which is under way, a situation which is for the most part new and unprecedented, the goal of a transnational party capable of self-financing its activities regardless of Italian institutional funds. The aim of involving the greatest possible number of members of Parliament, political exponents of Europe and of the world in the Radical Party's project, in order to create transnational, autonomous and federate organizations together, for a democratic, liberalsocialist, non-violent and environmentalist revolution against established disorder.

1. THE "ITINERARY" FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF THE TRANSNATIONAL PARTY

2. THE "STATE OF THE PARTY"

3. THE RADICAL PARTY'S POLITICAL PROJECT FOR 1991.

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1. THE "ITINERARY" FOR THE CONSTITUTION OF THE TRANSNATIONAL PARTY

1.1 The decisions adopted by the Budapest Congress

The decisions adopted by the Radical Party's 35th Congress, held in Budapest on 22-26 April 1989, still confirm their extraordinary importance and validity.

Importance and validity which are now upheld and sustained by hope.

It was in that situation, in that moment, in that wonderful setting - on the occasion of an extraordinary event, which will unquestionably remain one of the most significant and memorable of our history - that for the first time we constituted ourselves into a transnational Party, in every effect. We gave body and consistence, as well as formal perfection, to the decision adopted by the Radical party's 34th Congress, which was held in Bologna on 2-7 January 1988. As a matter of fact, the motion passed on that occasion had been influenced by the orientations and operational conditions connected to the activities and initiatives previously taken in Italy, so much that the decision to transform the party into a transnational and transpartisan political force did not obtain the 2/3 qualified majority in Bologna, and therefore did not have a binding effect on the executive bodies.

The itinerary of the constitution of the transnational party has been accompanied by many serious difficulties, as in any attempt to translate theory into a concrete and operative body. Difficulties which - as we all know - are accentuated and multiplied when the decisions, the words, actively involve a change in the conditions and the structure of our activity. A change which - in our case - is made all the more indispensable by our refusal to alter the nature and the reason of our political party and force with the sole purpose of surviving.

We must also recall that the constitution of the transnational party in Budapest corresponded to and was accompanied by a situation of severe, "bankruptcy" crisis for the party, caused in the first place - as the motion recalls - by positions of ostracism, by mystifications and by an anti-democratic use of State and private powers". A situation which the party's statutory bodies had denounced and documented "in due time and with increasing precision, accuracy, rigour and firmness", and which was the subject, in Budapest, of an in-depth evaluation on the part of the numerous participants of the Congress, convened in the Magyar capital despite the hardship and the burden they have had to sustain (1).

In such context, with the motion passed by the 35th Congress, the Radical Party transforms itself into a transnational and transpartisan party, without any direct reference - in that circumstance - to the Italian situation, except to denounce its absolute insufficiency of members and resources, which proves to what extent the distance, and at times even the opposition to democracy on the part of the "real democracy" of the party systems of the Western regime, and especially on the part of the Italian partyist system, "jeopardizes not only its activity, but, in the near future, its very existence".

1.2. The motion: overrules the pre-existing Party.

The Budapest motion therefore overrules the pre-existing Party, while firmly reiterating its values, its history and its goals, in the firm belief that they have validly met and still meet the demands of our society and of our time; however, the party must now break ranks with its structures and its operational and directional conditions, which have become obsolete compared to the new perspectives and to the changed requirements and commitments.

On the other hand, faced to an ascertained shortage of resources, which, "unless extraordinary events take place" will be such as to progressively and rapidly obliterate the party's existence and heritage, the Congress denounces and rejects the alleged, proclaimed intention to voluntarily choose its dissolution, and states that the suppression of the party can only be the result of a "violence on the part of the authority". To avert this fate, the motion appeals first of all to the "forces of democracy and tolerance" of each country, and especially to the "leading classes and to their most free-thinking and responsible exponents", and establishes that all available energies and resources shall necessarily be devoted to and used for the achievement of "our exclusive goals", which are as yet not achieved and which are contained in the decisions previously adopted by the statutory bodies: "not one bit of personal and financial energy must be diverted from this struggle, for alleged hypothetical procedures to c

arry out the consensual and democratic dissolution of the party".

1.3 "Full congressional powers".

The motion passed by the 35th Congress of Budapest, in addition to highlighting - with great evidence and effectiveness - the exceptional, rousing, but also dramatic extraordinariness of the moment, and the difficult, peremptory conditions involved in the transformation of the party into a transnational party, also underlines its extreme gravity and importance, suggesting a different articulation and a special attribution of responsibility for the party's direction and management, at the same time ensuring its legitimacy, also from a statutory point of view: the Congress' delegation of all "congressional" powers to the First Secretary, the Treasurer, the Presidents of the party and of the Federal Council.

The "full powers to the four" - an inappropriate but by now familiar expression - for "all decisions concerning the party's life and heritage" mark not only the beginning of a new and different situation of "extraordinary legality", but also the "separation" of the transnational party from the pre-existing one, albeit confirming the intention and the hope for a continuity. The "full congressional powers", as they should be correctly defined, mark the conclusion of a "segment of the theory of praxis", accompanied by the need and the hope for this conclusion to represent the beginning of a new phase of the party's existence, to be constructed in a different and broader dimension and with the firm belief that the party will succumb only to violence, which is the fruit of the disrespect on the part of the authority of fundamental conditions of democracy and legality.

1.4. The time necessary to assume the "full congressional powers".

Eight months elapsed (from the end of April to the end of December 1989) before the "4" assumed and exerted the delegation of the statutory powers.

A consistent period of time, which was however necessary for the bodies of the party concerned and involved in this decision to acquire and achieve a fuller and more accurate awareness of the extent of the congressional deliberation, and, therefore, not so much of the inevitability, but rather of the necessity to assume it and exert it. Also, we should not forget that the Congress, apart from the First Secretary, the Treasurer and the President of the Party, also constituted and elected the Federal Council, and that the "Secretariat" established after the Bologna Congress - consisting of 5 assistant first secretaries, the vice-treasurer, the presidents of the two Parliamentary Groups of the Chamber and Senate of Italy, and of the European parliamentary Group, of 11 permanent members and six assistant members (2) - has remained in office even after the Budapest Congress, in view of further measures to be taken on the matter.

1.5. Two Italian events.

This period of time, in addition to two important occasions for a debate on the party (the seminar held in Rome from 31 July to 2 August 1989, with the participation of the party's bodies, the members of Parliament and the components of the so-called "leadership" coming also from abroad, and the meeting of the Federal Council which took place in Rome on 1-5 September 1989) was characterized by several Italian events on the itinerary of the enforcement of the Congress deliberations, which posed serious problems, choices and initiatives.

1.6. The "Radical Party's first Italian Congress".

The meeting between Achille Occhetto and Sergio Stanzani.

First of all, the "Radical Party's first Italian Congress", convened twenty days after the Budapest Congress in Rimini as of 16 May 1989, in view of the elections for the European Parliament, and preceded by two days by the meeting between the Secretary of the Communist Party, Achille Occhetto, and the First Secretary of the Radical Party, Sergio Stanzani.

1.7. The Party's attention toward the evolution of the Italian Communist Party.

These two events prove the Radical Party's attention toward the evolution of the Italian Communist Party, and its hope that the latter will contribute to the creation of new conditions for a consolidation and development of democracy in Italy, at a moment in which, in relation to the changes occurred in Eastern Europe, the Italian Communist Party was suffering the aggression of all the other political forces in view of the European elections, and when it proclaimed its intention to overcome its history.

1.8 The request addressed to the Communists to join the Radical Party.

At the same time, coherently with the appeal addressed by the Congress and with the joint statement diffused at the conclusion of the Occhetto-Stanzani meeting (3), the Party asked the communists to contribute their membership, so as to actively participate in the creation of a transnational force, of an instrument for political initiative and struggle for all democrats, non-violents, antiprohibitionists, ecologists, liberaldemocrats, liberalsocialists, federalists and internationalists.

1.9. The absence of the Radical party "as such" at the elections.

This occurred at a moment in which the "Radical Party's first Italian Congress" reiterated, with extreme clarity in theory, and confirmed with great determination in practice, the absence - for the first time since 1976 - of the party "as such" at the political elections in Italy.

This wiped away any possible element of "competition", both with the other national parties and with the existing party Internationals, and also removed any formal obstacle to join the (transnational and transpartisan) Radical Party. Unfortunately, such was not the sense of the interpretation and the evaluation which many exponents of the Communist Party gave of their party's statute, despite the joint statement of 14 May 1989.

1.10 The autonomous electoral initiatives of the Italian members.

The Party's function as a "service".

As a consequence of the Budapest Congress deliberations, and in relation to such events, the Italian members assumed autonomous initiatives, as private citizens, both in the ecological and antiprohibitionist fields, as in the lay and socialist areas; such initiatives lead, on the occasion of the elections for the European Parliament, to the formation of new lists or to their candidature in the lists of "other" parties and political formations.

For its part, the Party exerted, already on that occasion, the function of a "service" for its members and for the initiatives they had taken, and this to meet its responsibility - albeit in different conditions - to preserve and guarantee the heritage, the "patrimony" acquired in over 20 years of political struggle in Italy, with a constant presence in the institutions, and therefore, in significant electoral moments.

Part of this commitment is both the party's formal intervention, which enabled the presentation of the "antiprohibitionist" list, and the organizational and financial support given to the "Verdi Arcobaleno" list and to the candidates of the "liberal-republican-federalist" list and in the Social Democrat Party. Owing to the positive results thus achieved, the financial outlays were subsequently covered.

1.11. The Federal Council's meeting in Rome in September 1989.

The assembly of the Federal Council, held at the Ergife Hotel in Rome on 1-5 September 1989 - featuring a consistent and qualified transnational participation (Yugoslavia, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union, Poland, Africa, Portugal, U.S., Belgium, France and Spain) - has been the most significant occasion of the party's debate on the itinerary to follow to conform its action to the Congress deliberations.

The final motion, in a general context that refers to the conclusions of the Budapest Congress, reiterates the party's function as a "service", explicitly charging all Radicals with the task of "taking up action in absolute freedom and responsibility, especially individual", to ensure the "birth and the consolidation of a vast new transnational transparty". According to the party, this commitment should privilege the struggle in the countries of Eastern Europe "compatibly with the Italian ties, which are for the moment the sole source of resources".

1.12 Resources

The reports of the party's executive bodies, passed by the Federal Council, deal with the subject of the resources and analyse it with utmost attention and accuracy; they stress the insufficient number of members, especially in Italy, the inadequate organization and, above all, the economic and financial conditions, which are even more serious than the ones denounced in Budapest.

1.13 The assumption of the "full congressional powers" in December 1989.

It is this "state of affairs" that leads the Federal Council to certify that the "full congressional powers" had not yet been assumed, despite the fact that the conditions provided for by the Budapest Congress seemed to be adequately fulfilled.

The powers are assumed at the end of December 1989, when the evolution of the situation in Eastern Europe - with the obvious repercussions on the party's activity and on the presence of our companions in those countries - and the party's effort as a service in Spain (Madrid) and in Italy (Rome), and the initiatives taken by our members in those electoral occasions make it increasingly urgent and necessary to resort to the conditions of "extraordinary legality" formulated and defined by the decisions of the Budapest Congress. The aim of this is to deal, in different terms, with a political situation which on the one hand is increasingly confirmed by facts - and is therefore a reason for hope - on the other hand presents an essential limit in the party's structural, organizational and financial shortfalls, caused by the anti-democratic conditions of the partyist system.

1.14 The Federal Council of Rome in January 1990. Achille Occhetto's speech.

The Federal Council, convened in Rome on 2-7 January 1990, touches on this contradiction, seizing, among other things, the opportunity of an "exceptional" event such as Achille Occhetto's speech at the Federal Council (never before had a Secretary of the Communist Party underlined the relation between the two parties with a personal and highly significant step), remarking, nevertheless, that the "constitution of the first organized, transnational, transpartisan, non-violent, antiprohibitionist, ecologist, environmentalist, liberaldemocratic, liberalsocialist, federalist and internationalist political subject is in an advanced and solid stage of achievement", and reiterating "the possibility of achieving unity, contemporaneity and convergence of action and of goals through this political subject, on the basis of the different and distant national realities", at the same time openly underlining the external conditions and the internal limits which hinder its achievement and consolidation.

The achievement of several thousands of members appears to be the necessary and indispensable "technical condition" "to ensure the life of an extraordinary and anomalous reality, a life which will in all likelihood be saved, but which needs immediate support and assistance".

The assumption of the "full congressional powers" also represents the formal completion of that condition of "extraordinary legality" which the Budapest Congress had pointed out as the necessary, if not sufficient factor to try to overcome the situation of contradiction in which the party found itself.

1.15 The "indispensable technical" condition of 50,000 members.

The Federal Council convened in January 1990, enouncing that the target of 50,000 members represented the "indispensable technical" condition to overcome the contradiction, did not intend to give this condition the value of a goal or of a political limit, as it is well aware that the party's current situation is not such as to make the achievement of this target likely for the time being. By explicitly reiterating the ideal membership indispensable not so much for the transnational and transpartisan party's existence, but for its adequate and effective action, the Federal Council wanted to point out the need for a change in direction, conveying the topicality and the importance of the Radical project and the need to endorse it, as well as the exceptional gravity and urgency of the intervention, to the Radicals, to the members and to the other political forces and their exponents and leaders, first of which the Communist Party.

1.16 The Federal Council's motion suggests a twofold itinerary.

The Federal Council's conclusions suggested and urged the Party to undertake a twofold itinerary: a political initiative aimed at supporting and developing the radical proposal on the external front, and, on the interior front, a reconsideration of the party's structure and a reclamation of its economic and financial situation.

The "four", already on the basis of the September indications, were however fully aware of the impossibility of tackling both itineraries simultaneously, and of being in the conditions of necessarily privileging one of them, namely, the reclamation of the economic and financial situation and the reconsideration of the Party's internal structure and organization.

(1) 1,518 people attended the Budapest Congress, of which 1,074 from Italy, and 444 from other countries: Hungary (261), Poland (43), Belgium (29), Yugoslavia (27), Spain (27), Portugal (24), France (12), Burkina Faso (12), Germany (5), Great Britain (5), Israel (2), Ivory Coast (1), Czechoslovakia (1), Rumania (1).

(2) After the Bologna Congress, the Secretariat was composed by of:

- Adelaide Aglietta, Emma Bonino, Giuseppe Calderisi, Basile Guissou (proclaimed by the Federal Council of Jerusalem of October 1988), Giovanni Negri and Massimo Teodori as adjunct first secretaries;

- Francesco Rutelli, Gianfranco Spadaccia and Roberto Cicciomessere as Presidents of the Parliamentary Groups of the Chamber, the Senate and the European Parliamentary Group (members Calderisi and Rutelli acquired a different qualification following the resignation of the latter from President of the Group of the Chamber, which occurred in May 1988, and the election of Calderisi);

- Santiago Castillo, Sergio D'Elia, Gianfranco Dell'Alba, Mario De Stefano, Maria Teresa Di Lascia, Olivier Dupuis, Jean Maurice Duval, Luis Mendao, Sandro Ottoni, Antonio Stango, and Andrea Valcarenghi, federal secretaries;

- René Andreani, Valeria Ferro, Gabriele Paci, Paolo Pietrosanti, Anna Pietrolucci and Danilo Quinto adjunct members.

(3) Quoted below the unabridged Occhetto-Stanzani joint statement of 14 May 1989, the importance and value of which are self-evident: "The two secretaries made an overall survey of the political situation and of the relations between the Communist and the Radical Party. They agreed on the advisability and in some case even the urgency of accelerating and extending activities concerning information, consultation and, in some cases, important joint actions.

The transnational and transpartisan character assumed by the Radical Party - which has no precedents and comparisons - on the basis of its historical record as a movement for civil rights and non-violence on the one hand and the Communist Party's increasing authoritativeness and international commitment as a democratic European force on the other, call for the start of frequent and regular consultations between the two parties. The common European federalist position, which owes so much to the 'Ventotene Manifesto' of Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi and to the European antifascism of the Rosselli brothers, is rooted today in the project for a new Treaty of the European Parliament for the Constitution of the European Union.

This calls for acts aimed at ensuring new initiative and energy to the European Parliament for the achievement of Europe's institutional and political unity. The cooperation of the two parties and of their militants on specific goals in this field can encourage the assertion of human, civil and political rights of the legal State and of political democracy, both as method and contents.

The Secretary of the Communist Party expressed the wish that the Radical Party could soon overcome the difficulties which endanger its existence, with the responsible contribution of all those who acknowledge its struggle for democracy. For his part, the Secretary of the Radical Party expressed the hope and the belief that all democrats appreciate and encourage the renewal under way in the Communist Party, its new goals for a reform and an alternative, as an essential contribution to surmount the serious crisis and problems affecting Italian society".

2. THE "STATE OF THE PARTY"

2.1. The unique moment of the current situation.

The end of 1990 and the beginning of 1991, the junction between these two years, marks a unique, exceptionally important moment for the party's "state", for its patrimonial, economic and financial situation, and its internal organization, in other words, for its operational capacity.

At the end of this year, such situation is bound to be different; in any case, the terms will be different, not only because of the unknown factor of possible anticipated elections in Italy (1) - the party's "ties" with this country are still such as to strongly influence its existence and perspectives - but especially because the Budapest Congress' decisions of April 1989 and the evaluations of the Federal Councils of September 1989 and January 1990, which preceded, accompanied and followed the assumption of the "full congressional powers", do not enable the protraction of a situation which had driven us to the quasi-complete discontinuance of the party's structures and political activity. This was done in order to avoid its bankruptcy and also in the attempt to create a new operational capacity causing its re-foundation or at least making it possible.

2.2 The approximately L.3 billion deficit at the end of 1989.

To grasp the importance of this situation, it is once again useful to start with figures, first of all examining those relative to the Party's 1989 balance, which closed showing a deficit of approximately L.3 billion, caused by the difference between over L.6 billion liabilities and slightly over L.3 billion assets.

This negative result was further aggravated by the precariousness of the Party's credits with Radio Radicale, which was in no condition, in that period, to guarantee their reimbursement.

For its part, the 1989 balance of the Centro di Produzione - the company that owns Radio Radicale - closed with assets corresponding at the most to the amount that could be obtained by selling Radio Radicale, but which, in the event of protracting its activity in 1990 (without allotting any money to the investments necessary to prevent the deterioration under way from leading the station to close), would have been barely sufficient to cover the loss estimated for this structure, without - obviously - being in the conditions to meet its debts with the Party.

2.3. The situation could have caused the Party's dissolution.

Under such circumstances, the Party - which had already appealed to Italian banks to obtain the advance of the public funds for 1990, and which could not rely on the advance for the following financial year owing to the impending possibility of anticipated elections - was in a situation which, in the absence of drastic and extraordinary interventions and with the sole prosecution of its activity, even if on the basis of a tight budget (which nonetheless implied a further loss of L.1 billion), would have forced it to close, with the inevitable transfer of its patrimony (the party's headquarters) in order to avoid economic and financial bankruptcy, and therefore also a political failure.

2.4 The goal: to set a limit to the 1990 overall expenditure.

In relation to this grievous situation, with the assumption of the "full congressional powers" attributed to them by the Budapest Congress, the first goal pursued by the "4" was that of fixing a tight limit to the overall expenditure for 1990. Such limit was set in direct relation to the estimate of ordinary revenues, which amounted to no more than L.2.600 million at the beginning of the year, with an almost 50% reduction of the global expenditure compared to the previous year.

The pursuit of such goal (L.2600 million, incidentally corresponding to the overall expenditure for 1990), is a first element which underlines the extraordinary character of the period between the end of 1990 and the beginning of 1991.

2.5. Some consequent measures.

In order to obtain this result, the Party immediately adopted some strict measures, to be considered more or less explicit consequences of the Budapest Congress deliberations.

First of all, because the congressional motion had stated that the "possibility of closing the party and its activities depends only on an act of violence on the part of the authority", ruling out any possible decision on the matter by resorting to "procedures for a consensual and democratic dissolution", the "4", while acknowledging a situation which made it unlikely to recover conditions of "statutory normality", decided to exclude the cost relative to the summons and the execution of the annual Congress from the program and therefore also from the estimate of expenditure (with a reduction corresponding to L.700 million). In the meanwhile, the number of meetings scheduled for the Federal Council was also reduced; the latter, under a regime of "extraordinary legality", formally maintained only the consultive functions, giving up its deliberative functions and thus clearing the Party of the burden of summoning it - as a rule - every two months. Such reduction of expenditure was however partly thwarted by the

summons of the "Radical Party's second Italian Congress", which was held in Rome on January 27-29, 1990 (with a cost for the Party of L.130 million), in relation to the possible reform of the political system offered by the Communist Party's "conversion" and by the hope of a flow of thousands of subscriptions to the Radical party, especially on the part of members of the Communist Party.

The "4" also acknowledged the fact that the Party's "Secretariat" had been dissolved; after the Budapest Congress, the latter had remained in office for ordinary administration, thus cutting expenses for the reimbursements for such sector (L.197 million in 1989).

2.6. Structure expenses: L.1 billion reduction.

Such reductions have brought about a reduction of structure expenses amounting to over L.1 billion for 1990, compared to the expenses of the previous year: expenditure was reduced from L. 1585 million for 1989 to L. 580 million for 1990.

2.7. Paid collaborations: reduced from 35 to 6.

With the abrogation of the Federal Council's decisional powers and of the function of the "Secretariat", the Party's structure underwent fundamental changes; it was also decided to "discontinue" all paid operational collaborations to the Party, with the sole exception of those strictly necessary to cover administrative functions and carry out subscription formalities. Following such measure, adopted in January 1990, paid collaborations were reduced from 35 to 6.

2.8. Several companions waived their reimbursement for the first three months.

To give a better picture of the situation and the atmosphere of the Party in such circumstance, it must be said that several companions, who received no remuneration or reimbursement for the first three months of 1990 following this measure, continued to contribute their militant cooperation to the Party for the whole of that period all the same.

In addition to the "4", the Honorary President Bruno Zevi, the Vice-Treasurer Maurizio Turco, and other companions involved in the political activity of this period, among whom Roberto Cicciomessere, Sergio D'Elia, Olivier Dupuis, Paolo Pietrosanti and Antonio Stango (those of them who are members of Parliament waiving their entire allowance) also avoided weighing on the Party's budget.

On the other hand, despite the fact that the activity of the first secretary had been transferred to the former headquarters in 18, Via di Torre Argentina - leaving the offices of 65, Corso Rinascimento - the expenditure relative to the operation of the headquarters and its relative services underwent no significant changes compared to 1989; this was the result of increased expenses in the second semester, when all activities were transferred to the new headquarters in 76, via di Torre Argentina (2).

2.9. Information expenditure: 50% reduction compared to 1989.

In 1990 the information expenditure was also reduced by half compared to 1989 (from L.738 million to L.347 million): this is a symptom of the high "political price" paid by the Party for the patrimonial and economic reclamation and reorganization of its structure, which was carried out during this year.

2.10. Expenditure relative to the Party's operation and services.

On the whole, the expenditure for the Party's operation and services was reduced by slightly over L.350 million in 1990 (from L.1.409 million for 1989 to L. 1.088 million for 1990).

2.11. Expenditure for initiatives and activities.

Agorà. Centro d'Ascolto.

The reduction for the whole of the initiatives and activities carried out by the Party was much more consistent (about L.800 million), despite the investment made for the technical improvements and operation of Agorà, which implied an increase of expenditure of about L.200 million (from L.67 million in 1989 to L.276 million in 1990). This increase enabled the Agorà communication and information centre to assume a more adequate dimension, corresponding to its peculiar characteristics, and the usefulness of which is a source of hope for the Party in view of the specific requirements of the transnational perspective.

As far as the activity of the "Centro d'Ascolto" is concerned, which has also been carrying out a unique service in Italy as of 1981 by recording and storing the political information of public radio and television broadcasting networks, and now also of the major private networks, it must be said that with the proceeds of the agreements with public corporations and of the contracts stipulated with private enterprises, in 1990 it has succeeded in covering management expenses and in laying the foundations for its technical expansion and for a gradual recovery of the investments.

On the other hand, it was inevitable that the consequences of the decisions adopted with rigour and carried out with determination, in compliance with a clear orientation and a precise political choice, taken already with the assumption of the "full congressional powers", would have influenced this sector of the political activity.

2.12. Expenses for initiatives and activities carried out in Italy.

The greatest reduction of the Party's expenses in this field has been that relative to the initiatives and the activities carried out in Italy.

Only the activity connected to the situation in the prisons, caused mainly by the legislative provisions adopted or being discussed in Parliament, has been continued on an extraordinary basis, with important and significant results which have had positive effects also on the membership trend in Italy (about 6.0%) (3).

The other initiatives taken by the Party which have implied relevant expenses in this field are:

- the rally held by Marco Pannella in the month of March in Bologna on the occasion of the PCI Congress (L.22 million;

- the assembly of the elected candidates of the Radical lists and of the radical members of Parliament, which was held in Rome on July 27-29 (L.12 million);

- the assembly of the members of Northern and Central Italy, which was held in Modena on September 4-5 (L.21 million);

- the preparation, at the end of November, of the "exhibit" on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the passage of the Fortuna-Baslini bill on divorce, which was followed by demonstrations in the major Italian cities and, in Rome, by the inauguration of the Party's new headquarters at the presence of the President of the Senate. This initiative implied an expense amounting to approximately L.70 million, and was achieved thanks to the generous contribution of Piero D'Orazio, a master of contemporary European painting, who specially painted and offered the Radical party two of his graphic works printed in 100 copies;

- the contribution which the Radical Party gave for the "Democratic Forum" (L.50 million), a movement which is operating in Italy for the reform of the political system on the initiative of several exponents of different political groups and forces, including members of the Party.

Another initiative undertaken in Italy, the collection of signatures from April to August for the referendum on the reform of the electoral system (4), and which, thanks to the contribution of the European Federalist Parliamentary Group ( L.130 million), enabled us to collect 100.000 signatures, involved no expense for the Party.

2.13. Expenditure reduction for electoral occasions in Italy.

The reduction of such expenses in Italy was however for the main part achieved on electoral occasions. In June 1989 elections were held for the European Parliament, in May 1990 administrative elections. The 1989 campaign cost the Party L.600 million, whereas the 1990 campaign closed with assets amounting to approximately L.150 million. This considerable difference however did not correspond to a smaller commitment on the part of the Party in the "service" given to lists or members who, even if not as Radicals, took part in the regional, provincial and municipal elections in lay, civic Green and antiprohibitionist lists.

This result was achieved mainly thanks to a stricter and wiser administration of the Party's interventions, in relation to the estimated amount of the reimbursements following the electoral results, therefore characterizing them not as funds but as a "democratic service".

On the whole, these results not only covered the financial burden, but gave an active contribution to the party, which could even increase if the appeal presented by the lists involved prevails against the decisions of the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, which, illicitly changing the criteria for the allotment of the reimbursements already established and followed on previous occasions, adopted an illegitimate solution: a "robbery" on the part of the Presidency of the Chamber.

2.14 Expenses for initiatives and activities outside of Italy.

Discontinuance of the latter in the Western countries.

As far as the ensemble of initiatives and activities carried out by the Party in countries other than Italy is concerned, these have been almost completely discontinued, including those relative to information, in France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and all the other countries of Western Europe.

This discontinuance has taken into account also the effects on the situation of the Party in these countries, due to the appearance or accentuation of conditions of "real democracy" which hindered its activity, triggering processes of degeneration which it appeared reasonable to solve with marginal interventions such as those that the Party could have produced at the current state.

The commitment aimed at solving the Party's global situation of crisis seemed to represent the most significant contribution, also compared to the specific situations of these countries.

2.15. Initiatives and activities in Eastern Europe.

As for the initiatives and activities in Eastern Europe, the expenditure for 1990 underwent no significant changes compared to the previous year.

On the basis also of the indications provided by the Federal Council, we enhanced our presence in those countries and a constant logistic and informative support achieved during the previous year in Budapest and Prague, as well as specific and occasional interventions in USSR and in Yugoslavia.

Moreover, the Party continued its commitment in Rumania, with the presence, already from the beginning of the "revolution", of several companions who directly supported the information campaign successfully conducted by Radio Radicale in this tragic circumstance.

We should also recall the seminar which the Party held in Prague from 15 to 17 June, with the presence of Soviet, Yugoslavian, Czechoslovakian, Hungarian, Rumanian and Belgian members.

On the whole, the Party's initiatives and activities in East European countries have continued to benefit from the cooperation of four Italian companions and of a Belgian one - Marino Busdachin, Massimo Lensi, Paolo Pietrosanti, Antonio Stango and Olivier Dupuis - who maintained and promoted relations with the political forces and their exponents, and who assisted and supported the members of these countries in their militant work and initiatives. These companions have operated also through a computerized communication system and, thanks to the technical possibilities offered by Agorà, collaborated in drafting the "Radical Letter", ensuring its translation and distribution into nine languages: Russian, Serbian-Croat, Polish, Rumanian, Czechoslovakian, Hungarian, French, English and Spanish.

Their work undoubtedly influenced the fact that in 1990 almost a third of new members were non-Italians, mainly Soviets and Czechoslovakians, but also Rumanians, Yugoslavians and Hungarians.

Further information on the situation and on the activity in Rumania, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia will be given during the Federal Council's next meeting.

I wish to specially greet two among the Soviet members, members of Parliament Alexander Kalinin from Moscow and Dimitri Zapolski from Leningrad, and in Czechoslovakia, in addition to the Vice Foreign Minister Vojtech Wagner, some of the most authoritative exponents of ROI: its President, Emil Scuka, and Ondrej Gina, Zdenek Guzi, Dezider Balog, members of the National Parliament of the Czech Republic (5).

2.16. Expenditure reduction and revenue increase in 1990.

The Party's 1990 financial year closed showing a drastic containment of expenditure on the one hand and a significant increase in revenues on the other: the latter, amounting to L.4.500 million in 1989, became L.5.700 million in 1990, with an increase of L.1.200 million.

The most consistent increase is due to the proceeds of the supply of services and the sale of radio and television copyright (L.800 million), while there have been minor but relevant increases in revenues coming from public funds and parliamentary allowances.

2.17. Public funds.

The amount of the public funds is positively influenced in 1990 by a minor incidence of the interests paid to the banks (from L.314 million to L.209 million), which had been more consistent the previous year having received an advance of the public funds relative to the following year; in 1990 the Radical Party did not ask for such advance, respecting a decision taken in relation to a strict and rigorous political choice.

It must be said that this is the first time since 1982 that the Party has not resorted to bank advances.

2.18. Parliamentary allowances.

As far as the allowances of the Radical members of Parliament are concerned, the revenue increase compared to 1989 amounts to L.200 million (from L.912 million to L.1.012 million), despite the changes occurred in the Federalist Group at the Chamber of Deputies and some cases of despicable individual behaviour, and is due to the increase of the allowances paid to the elected members.

2.19. 1990 subscriptions.

In 1990, subscriptions contributed to the Party's self-financing for an amount (L.867 million) which corresponds almost to the total amount of the Party's self-financing revenue in 1989 (L.896 million): the number of members in 1990 exceeded by 1.064 those of 1989, and, of these, 686 in Italy.

The 4.263 members of the 1990 Party represent a modest result as such, but a surprising one if we consider the containment of the Party's political initiative and activity. It is particularly relevant that non-Italian members amount to 1.148 (27% of the total number and 403 more than the previous year), for the most part from countries of Eastern Europe, a result which confirms, among other things, the validity of the Party's choice to maintain a direct presence in such countries in 1990. Also, compared to the previous years, this result has undoubtedly been penalized by an increased rigour in relation to the sums established for the membership fees and to the respect of the conditions of payment.

The contribution of non-members to the Party's self-financing has instead dropped (L.70 million in 1990 compared to L.200 million in 1989), but we must consider that in 1989 the 35th Congress reaped an extraordinary amount of contributions in Budapest, often with generous individual contributions.

2.20 The balance deficit at the end of 1990.

The rigour, the determination, the perseverance which characterized the Party's action in pursuing a policy of reclamation obtained a significant and important effect in the global result of the 1990 financial year: assets corresponding to L.2.682 million.

Owing to this result, the Party's balance, which includes patrimonial entries, closed showing a L.180 million deficit at the end of 1990, that is, inferior by L.2.650 million to that of 1989 (L.2.830 million).

2.21. Two factors of the Party's itinerary in 1990.

Two major factors marked the Party's itinerary in 1990 and completed, as a consequence, its current configuration or "state": Radio Radicale on the one hand, and the Party's internal, structural, functional and operational organization on the other.

They are two different factors, with no apparent direct link, but which - considering the course of events - have had positive effects on each other and therefore also on the Party.

2.22. Radio Radicale

At the beginning of 1991, the situation for Radio Radicale was also very different compared to last year.

For almost fifteen years, Radio Radicale, unique service in Italy, has carried out a constant activity as a public service, informing on the activity of the Italian Parliament - with its unedited and live coverage of the proceeds of Chamber and Senate - on the life of all parties, on the administration of justice in Italy, with broadcasts - these too unedited and live - of the hearings of the Supreme Magistracy Council and of all major trials.

During all these years, Radio Radicale's activity has been supported by no State contribution acknowledging as such its function and service.

In 1990, the Party's commitment and actions to safeguard Radio Radicale lead to the passage, on August 8, of a "specially tailored" bill, endorsed by the absolute majority of members of Parliament and of Senate, which acknowledged Radio Radicale as a "service that carries out an information activity of general interest", and entitled it to receive a L.20 billion State contribution within 1992.

Fundamental for the achievement of this result was the commitment of the political forces represented in Parliament and of their exponents, first of whom the then President of the Christian Democrat members of Parliament and now Interior Minister, Vincenzo Scotti, and the Head of Government Giulio Andreotti. We also acknowledge the supporting attention shown by the President of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga, and by the President of the Senate, Giovanni Spadolini.

This first measure was followed by others - which the Party neither wanted or urged - in favour of all the information services of the parties represented in Parliament, and which, among other things, increased the State contribution for Radio Radicale from L.2 to 4 billion for 1991, to a maximum of L. 6 billion for the following years.

This ascertained, major success, which we hope will be capable of repairing the damage suffered in the last years by Radio Radicale, whose desperate situation we had repeatedly and in vain denounced and which proves to be of even greater dimensions, has enabled the Centro di Produzione - the company that owns Radio Radicale - not only to stop weighing on the Party's budget, but even to reimburse almost the entire debt (L. 1.700 million).

2.23. The reorganization of the Party's functional and operational structure.

The recovery of this credit during 1990 was the element that directly linked the situation of Radio Radicale with the reorganization of the Party's structure.

Two main aspects represent the basis of the reorganization of the Party's functional and operational structure: the first one refers to the spaces and the means, the "instruments" acquired, the second to the people, their availability and utilization.

2.24. Spaces and "instruments".

As far as spaces and "instruments" are concerned, an essential factor has been the availability of the new headquarters, which has had positive effects also on the use of the people.

In order to be operational, the new headquarters, bought in 1988, required major renovation works. Moreover, in view of an enhancement and extension of the Party's activity, it was important to acquire a minor but not irrelevant part of the premises occupied at the moment of the purchase of the new headquarters.

At the end of the first semester of 1990, the renovation works were completed, and with this the installation of the facilities, and the furniture of the premises. With the end of the year and the departure of the former tenants, we also gained possession of the remaining part of the premises we own.

The costs of the works at the headquarters amounted to slightly over L.1 billion. The reimbursement of our credit on the part of the Centro di Produzione enabled us to pay for the works without asking for a second mortgage on the premises, as had been planned at the beginning of the year.

It must also be said that the value of the premises - which were itemized in the balance only for the sums relative to the purchase and the works - amounts to a sum which no doubt exceeds its initial value, especially now that all the space has been made available.

Clearly, this is not the element that positively influenced the Party's reorganization.

The positive contribution of the new headquarters is due mainly to the increased space availability (6) and to the "environmental" solution achieved. The headquarters are rationally divided and arranged, with an efficient division of the facilities and of the services. The new headquarters, renovated on a low budget, are on the whole decent and orderly and capable of ensuring efficient and suitable working conditions. Special care was given to the communication means, which rely on advanced technical solutions and on a network of interconnected computers, enabling direct communications in real time with Brussels, Budapest, Prague and Moscow.

The new headquarters also feature a vast meeting-hall, seating a maximum of 90 people, equipped with 4 cabins for the simultaneous translation into four languages, a network for the connection of instruments for the diffusion of the translations, an amplifying system, a video projection and sound and video recording system.

2.25 The people.

The other aspect relative to the reorganization of the Party's structure is the one concerning the people.

With the dissolution of the "Secretariat" and the "discontinuance" of the collaborations, the Party's directive, managing and operational "body" was reduced to a group of 18 people, compared to the over 50 at the end of last year.

This "body" of 18 people consisted of the "4", the honorary president and the vice-treasurer, 6 companions operating in East European countries and 6 collaborators in charge of administrative and subscription formalities.

During the second part of 1990, the Party was forced to resume some collaborations, especially with companions who had continued their activity as simple militants in the previous three months.

Subsequently - on the basis of the opportunities offered by the change of headquarters, but always in relation to the containment of expenditure and activities - analyses and evaluations were carried out on the functions, the responsibilities and the tasks relative to the execution of the Party's sole logistic and service activities.

This phase, which was developed during the second semester of 1990, lead to rescind several contracts under way with people who either did not fulfil the requirements or could not continue their collaboration in a different context as far as working conditions and requirements were concerned.

A plan was then prepared, with the configuration of the whole of the activities to be carried out in this field, indicating the functions, defining the responsibilities and the tasks according to rational criteria, and specifying the size and the quality of the resources necessary (levels, number and requirements of the people).

To carry out the whole of these activities, the plan provides for 17 people, divided into five functions (Administration, Enrolment, Interior Services, Switchboard and Secretariat).

This procedure has made it possible to make a distinction, on precise and reliable bases, between positions that require open-ended contracts and positions that call for collaborations.

This new organizational plan was implemented at the beginning of the year.

2.26. The recovery of the operational capacity at the beginning of 1991.

The Party has paid a high "political cost" along the itinerary taken in 1990.

A price which we know to be necessary and inevitable, and which was dealt with by the Party with extreme firmness and determination in conditions of "extraordinary legality", with the assumption of the "full congressional powers", in conformity and in compliance with the final motion of the 35th Congress in Budapest.

This year's result has enabled to achieve a reclamation of the economic and financial situation, at least in its most urgent and dramatic aspects. Such crisis had been caused by the conditions imposed by "real democracy" which, with the partyist regime in Italy and in other "Western" countries (in different forms), is a hindrance to democracy, to the "right to life and the life of rights".

The tragic events that are now under way, even if caused by an intolerable act of violence on the part of a fierce dictatorship, are a further, tragic evidence of this.

The thoughtless and neglectful lack of tolerance, firmness and democratic force of many countries and, among these, of many countries of the "West", are the cause of an international situation which does not know and does not want to avoid resorting to violence, and not only the violence of weapons. With its initiative and with the action of its militants, the Party has always concretely opposed and continues to oppose this situation, which is the origin of the transnational choice, with the weapons and the force of democracy and non-violence, the only ones capable of preventing contrasts and subduing conflicts without having to resort to the tragedy of weapons.

Moreover, the events which unsaddled the regimes of "real socialism" in the East European countries have not yet produced - and we know the difficulties and dangers involved in that process - those changes and those conditions which could allow the Party to concentrate its hopes and its capacity of action and initiative especially on such countries.

The Western "tie" and the Italian one are still fundamental.

The result of 1990 is certainly not so consistent as to re-establish the "statutory normality" as such, but it enables the Party to face 1991 with at least a minimum of recovered operational capacity.

To what extent the "state", the situation of the Party is adequate to the requirements of the political initiative necessary to successfully assert its existence as a transpartisan and transnational force we cannot know, but at least today it is a reason for renewed hope.

2.27 What resources does the Party have for 1991?

What does the "Party's state" involve for year 1991 in terms of "available resources"?

As far as financial resources are concerned, supposing we entered the approximately L.200 million residue liabilities in next year's financial balance, in 1991 the Party could count on the entire amount of public funds for this year (L.2.800 million to be cashed within this month), on the revenues from the television sector (L.1.000 million), which would thus maintain the contribution given to the Party in the last financial years, on the allowances of the members of the Italian and European Parliament, which, considering the changes occurred in the composition of the groups and of the estimated increase of such sums, should amount to approximately L.1.200 million (granted there are no anticipated elections): a total of L.5 billion.

To this we must add the proceeds of the subscriptions and contributions of those who decide to join the party this year to turn it into a transnational force.

In economic terms, this "variable" is the one that is more directly linked to the "use" of the available financial resources, motivated, as we are, by the awareness of the need for the Party to recover a vaster "dimension", acquiring dozens of thousands of members (not just thousands). This, as the Federal Council's final motion states, is the indispensable "technical" condition to assert the transnational party as a force with a capacity of initiative and action adequate to its potential and political perspective.

2.28 The success of the "variable" linked to subscriptions.

The incidence of this "variable" on the quality and the effectiveness of the "use" of the resources is in fact influenced not so much by the current availability, but from the one it will be possible to acquire in the coming days and weeks. In other words, this year's "challenge" largely depends on the speed of the impact of our initiative, and on its "effect" in terms of subscriptions and contributions. The quick recovery of the revenues from subscriptions is an indispensable factor to sustain the program of activities, which must necessarily be of a size and an importance suitable to meet the requirements of our time, to be judged with parameters that are no longer the "usual" ones.

2.29. The possibility of returning to a condition of "statutory normality".

On the other hand, it is also true that the result obtained in 1990 opens the possibility - to be sustained and pursued with rigour - of a return, within 1991, to the "statutory normality" of the Party's life, with the summons of the 36th ordinary Congress.

2.30. The response of the Italian friends and companions.

At the current state, we cannot but address a warm and grateful Thank You to ......the Italian friends and companions who have joined us in giving life and hope to the party, together with all those who sent their pre-subscription fee or contribution. If this response on the part of the Italian companions to the Party's announced project for 1991 already enables us to invest greater resources in this campaign compared to last year, it is especially on the basis of the subscriptions from the countries of the East that the Party can and must judge its growth.

With the contribution of these subscriptions, the financial resources currently available amount to L.5.500 million; from this we must detract the costs for the operation and the management of a structural and organizational body which is contained but renewed and reorganized. Such costs do not exceed L.2.500 million, excluding any estimate concerning the program of activities.

2.31. Consistent patrimonial resources.

Along with such operational resources, the Party has consistent patrimonial resources concentrated in Italy in different forms and proportions: real estate (the headquarters), broadcasting centres (Radio Radicale), television (three stations, Teleroma 56 and Canale 66 in Rome, Canale 25 in Milan), to which we must add the premises recently purchased in Budapest to enable the continuation of the activity of the "logistic and informative clearing centre" based in that city.

An estimate of the value of such resources is not possible, because - as we already said for the new headquarters - it is irrelevant, in such cases, to resort to the sums itemized in the balance, which show values that are inferior to the real ones, which are for their part influenced by different market situations and sale conditions which cannot be accurately estimated.

2.32. A premise to the Party's program and project for 1991.

Before presenting the Party's program and project for 1991, it is necessary to make a political evaluation of the work and the activity carried out and of the results obtained in 1990. This leads to a conclusion: the Party has changed. As a means, as an instrument for political initiative and struggle, the Party is different today, as are the elements that constituted it and characterized it in the years of its previous history.

This is the meaning, the political value of the situation, of the Party's "state", as it can defined on the basis of all the above elements.

This is also the sense and the real weight of the figures, of the data, of the elements provided concerning the economic and organizational reclamation achieved in the course of last year.

They are figures, data and elements that, if considered with attention, express and underline a substantial reduction of the political activity, accompanied by a containment of expenditure, in a process in which the first of these two aspects is not a passive consequence of the second, on the basis of mere "technical" reasons, but which has been the expression of a precise intention and the fulfilment of a precise plan.

Without the support of this intention and without the stimulus of this project, the "standstill" of the Party's activity would soon have become irreversible, and would also have thwarted the attempt to contain the expenditure and to achieve the economic reclamation. Many activities have been discontinued or have not been started altogether because they have been considered no longer coherent or congruent with the Party's need to be a "new Party", a Party which has decided and wants to be "transnational" and which must establish different structural and organizational conditions in order to be such.

One of the first tasks was to "change the relations" that are to characterize the Party's new structure. A task which calls for a much more complex and difficult response, broader in extent and incidence than initially estimated.

The response to this need has favoured the concentration of the available resources and a reduced waste in their use.

On the other hand, it was clear that the Party could not deal with the extent and the importance of the perspective it is faced to without first having a structure capable of increasing the specificity and the intensity of its initiative, namely in terms of relations and communication.

It should also be clear that this was the beginning of a process which cannot avoid presenting a persistent contradiction in the course of its development: long periods of time to create environmental, structural and operational conditions adequate to consolidate and extend the potentiality of the political proposal in all its dimensions, periods which are countered by the irrepressible need for speed and timeliness in its intervention and political presence.

On the other hand, it is true that the greatest advantage of the transnational choice - and advantage perhaps unnoticed as yet and evaluated in its real terms - is directly proportional to the difficulty to enact it. This is a simple truth, but which it is not easy to accept and confess.

In considering the "state of the Party" such as it appears in the light of these considerations, the result is a choice and an orientation which have however produced a new starting point, a new basis on which to operate for the constitution of the 1991 Radical Party.

The problem, for the moment, is to achieve an ensemble of resources - money, means and people - to be gathered and organized in a "centre", a place furnished with the greatest possible operational capacity, which should be capable of providing "services" apt to enable an active response to the Party's proposal also abroad, and an autonomous but coordinated diffusion and extension of the initiative.

Clearly this "centre" is based in Italy, because that is where the main resource to be translated into a "democratic service" are concentrated, for those who decide to join the Party.

Clearly, this "centre" and "service" must be increasingly capable of being a "transnational subject", and therefore charge its members with the responsibility of being active Radicals both in Italy and elsewhere.

So far, this has been done. It may not be enough and still not adequate to the Party's needs, but it is a basis and a starting point to carry out a program and a project which can bring about that qualitative and quantitative "upgrade" (thousands of members, with the contribution of exponents and leaders of other political groups and forces in Europe and in the other continents) which is indispensable for the life and the hope of the Party.

(1) - The latest political elections in Italy were held in June 1987. The legislature's "natural" expiry is 1992.

(2) - For the first three months of 1990, the Party used the headquarters of 18, via di Torre Argentina and of 65, Corso Rinascimento. During the second semester, the Party's activity concentrated on the offices of 18, via di Torre Argentina, then transferring itself in the new headquarters in 76, via di Torre Argentina in August 1990.

(3) - The activity connected to the situation in the prisons concerned:

- the commitment for a pardon as a reparative act for the discriminations carried out against those convicted according to the previous code when the new code of criminal procedure was introduced in Italy in 1989;

- the commitment for the defence of the penitential law, the so-called "Gozzini bill", which regulates the system of benefits and the series of alternative measures to prison, such as leave permits, semicustody and external work, which the Government, supported by a dishonest press campaign, wanted to restrict.

(4) - The signature collection on the referendums concerned: the modification of the Senate's electoral law, in a uninominal, Anglo-Saxon sense; the extension of the majority system to the municipalities with over 500.000 inhabitants; the modification of the Chamber's electoral system, with a reduction of preference votes to one. The Constitutional Court declared that only this last referendum was acceptable, and it will thus be held in Spring 1991.

(5) - ROI stands for Romska Obcana Initciativa = Gypsy Civic Initiative, the largest Gypsy party in Czechoslovakia.

(6) - The premises in 76, via di Torre Argentina consist of a total of 316 square metres, 240 of which are used as offices and 76 as a meeting hall. 250 more square metres have become available in the apartment below.

3. THE RADICAL PARTY'S POLITICAL PROJECT FOR 1991.

3.1. A program of activities which is based on a political project.

The Radical Party's program of activities for 1991 consists of a series of initiatives and goals aimed at:

a) safeguarding, enhancing and completing, if possible and as soon as possible, the change of direction which lead the Party on the verge of disappearance and to the extraordinary management as indicated by the Budapest Congress, and which finds us today in an unhoped for albeit extremely difficult situation;

b) the simultaneous launch and enactment of an all-round proposal for a common action and a reinforcement of the transnational Party, in order to root it in the European (and world) institutions and civil societies; to start with, the proposal will be addressed to a few thousand members of Parliament in several democratic countries of the world, first of all in Europe, to political exponents, to the leading classes and to the mass media.

Because we want to concentrate on giving all possible details and information concerning point b), we will take the first point for granted, even if it is not.

This is not just a goal, but also a method. We want to promote the involvement of the greatest possible number of members of Parliament, political exponents, representatives of the leading classes of Europe and subsequently of the world in the Radical Party's activity and structure. The project consists of informing them and rousing their interest in the transnational (and transpartisan) Party's political proposal, to the point of actively and simultaneously involving them, if possible, both in the general political project and in specific common initiatives. To associate them to the Party, to create transnational, autonomous and federate organizations together, which will, for their part, promote militant adhesions and presences in each country, to carry out a liberal, socialist, democratic, non-violent, environmentalist revolution against established disorder.

Clearly, this project, this enterprise, is extremely complex and ambitious.

3.2. The topics and the initiatives.

The project consists in proposing initiatives to be assumed and carried out simultaneously in the greatest possible number of countries, for example against the enforcement of the death penalty, or against the use of torture or on the standard of living, the ecological safeguard of our planet, the immense problems connected to European waste discharges, the greenhouse effect, the protection of the atmospheric ozone layer, the deforestation, the use of chemicals in agriculture.

Another initiative might concern the relaunch, through the enforcement of positive law, of the fifteen-year old proposal to give cogent force to international law and to reform the role of the United Nations.

Yet another initiative could focus on anti-militarism: the conversion of military expenditure into projects for the life and development of the billion people who live with the problem of hunger and therefore, the resumption of the campaign that followed the 1980 "Nobel Prizes' Manifesto".

Other possible topics: the political union of the States of Europe, as a means to overcome nationalisms as well as linguistic and racial barriers; antiprohibitionism against the crime fueled by the clandestine drug market; antitotalitarianism and the defence of human rights; the abolition of firearm certificates; the overcoming or the abolition of penitentiaries; penal law; the need for a "vehicular language" to simulate a historical process of linguistic acquisition enabling the speakers of the hegemonic language to acquire a second language; the demographic issue: tackling demographic problems from an environmental point of view; abortion; sexual education.

3.3. The interlocutors.

In order to launch this project, this program of initiatives and activities, these targets of political action, it is necessary to identify the interlocutors, to urge and promote the creation of several groups, each focusing on a specific proposal or initiative. These groups would be associated to a single transnational and transpartisan political subject, which requires the adhesions of the leading classes above all, but also of ordinary people, through the initiatives, the actions and the goals which they will be capable of identifying, defining and achieving.

It is therefore necessary to launch an appeal to all those exponents of the cultural, scientific, artistic as well as political milieu, starting from the "Nobel Prizes", who have met and known the Party, shared its struggles in so many years, asking them to help it launch the project with their name, their prestige, their contribution, "sponsoring" it while it is in progress.

In other words, the attempt is to urge the exponents of the leading classes who are closest to us as in ideals and aspirations to immediately converge on this project, and thus form a first operational "nucleus", which represents the basis of an organizational "network" with the Party's militants, starting from those who live outside of Italy.

3.4. A means for non-violent political action.

The development of the project "by topics" should be extended also to the Party's supporting structure. This should enable and favour the development of specific proposals of political initiative in and for each topic, with the possibility for the interlocutors to adhere even only to one of these, according to criteria that are similar to the ones established for the "Radical associations"; this would lay the foundations of a new federal structure and organization of the (transnational and transpartisan) Radical Party.

With its commitment and its initiatives, the Party must successfully overcome the divorce between knowledge and intelligence on the one hand, and politics and power on the other hand, and this not just in theory but also with adequate means and operational instruments.

This project aims at the creation of a true "party of action", capable of carrying out a "non-violent action".

Once achieved, this project will enable Gandhian non-violents "for the right to life and the life of rights" such as we are, to resume or to launch on a mass basis, in dozens of capitals of the world - starting with the European ones - our demonstrations, fasts and non-violent initiatives to urge the enforcement of those provisions and the passage of those bills. We want to create a nonviolent-Gandhian, transnational and transpartisan, democratic, environmentalist and ecologist, European and democratic federalist, lay, liberaldemocratic, antiprohibitionist, anti-partycratic, antimilitarist and anticlerical political subject, consisting, at first, of at least a few thousand members in the world upon direct adhesion. This in order to create a Party in which each person may choose to invest shares of hope.

3.5. The project's ambition.

The project's range of action is exceptional, and extremely ambitious; it requires a commitment, a quality, and an efficiency in the communication and despatch of messages as well as an organizational capacity which we ignore if the Party is capable of providing as such today.

The project's ambition is a consequence of the ambition required and almost imposed by our wanting to be the first transnational and transpartisan political force. This choice implies the limits and the uncertainties of the Party's very existence, questioning its life and the possibility of operating and carrying out a political activity. The absence of this belief would imply the failure of the Party as it is and must be in conformity with the decisions adopted by the legitimate bodies. This would mean the failure of the Party for which we have been fighting for years, successfully avoiding its disappearance, which many considered inevitable.

3.6. The project's feasibility.

The stages involved in the project's feasibility are complex and difficult: the identification of the addressees, the topics of the message, the presentation, the drafting of the message, the translation, the publication, the dispatch and distribution, the reception and the response.

The project will be initially addressed to the European countries, both of Western and Eastern Europe, and ideally aims at establishing relations with members of Parliament, candidates elected in legislative assemblies or in assemblies having relevant political responsibilities and incidence, "national" assemblies, or assemblies that are the expression of State regulations of a "federal" nature, or of "regional" regulations having autonomous powers.

The aim is to communicate with approximately 35,000 elected candidates, living in 300 cities of 34 States, in addition to the members of the European Parliament.

As yet, we have acquired almost two thirds of these names and a third of them are already stored in memory.

Six centres are currently operating for the storage of the names: Rome, Brussels, Zagreb, Budapest, Prague and Moscow.

Moreover, we have decided to continue the search and the acquisition of names that are not included in the list of addressees we have been working on to this moment, and which could thus be extended - in consideration also of the possibility of including names of other countries or "areas" - and enhanced with the components of international organizations or associations, of "categories or groups" that are part of the "leading class" or whose influence on the latter is considered relevant, especially on an international basis.

There is no other organization that stores the names of all the members of Parliament of all democratic countries: this is already a valuable patrimony, and not only for us, but for everyone.

In addition to the problem of acquiring and inserting the names, there is also the problem of updating the list, receiving the answers and taking care of their "political management".

The message cannot be in the form of a simple "news bulletin", but neither can it have the aspect of a "magazine".

In order to acquire results that are significative to test the project's effectiveness, it is absolutely necessary to ensure at least 7-8 regular and prompt dispatches. Each dispatch - to be carried out at least once a month - must also be aimed at attracting attention and causing a response on a specific topic or initiative, with an operational proposal of a parliamentary initiative to be assumed according to coordinated conditions and stages.

The complexity of the editorial stage and of the aspects that characterize it is in itself enormous, considering the extension and the characteristics of the fields of action of the addressees, of the estimated number of the operational centres, of the difference and variety of languages and situations, of the importance of the topics and of the formulation of concrete proposals capable of rousing interest and attention, but especially adequate supports to the promotion and creation of the Party as a "transnational and transpartisan" means for political struggle upon direct adhesion.

In addition to Italian, the message would initially be written in 14 languages (with a total of 15 different versions of the message).

The presence of a vast and qualified pool of collaborators is essential to the task, both for the editorial stage and for the translations of the texts. We hope the project will also count on the cooperation of prestigious personalities as far as works achieved and commitments and responsibilities assumed are concerned.

There are serious problems and difficulties also for that which concerns the publication, the dispatch and the distribution of the messages; such problems have been tackled but as yet not solved.

Along with the work which has been done and is being done to prepare the technical-operational instrument in its different stages, there have been the first, significant and authoritative adhesions to the project. Such adhesions should come not only from the political milieu, but also from the cultural, scientific milieu, possibly involving entrepreneurial milieus, which could find a personal interest in the project.

It is a political project aimed at a political initiative, but also a real, innovative "enterprise", which calls for more extensive contributions and commitments compared to the ones the Party disposes of today.

The economic and financial dimensions of this project, of this "enterprise", greatly exceed the ones handled by the Party until now: the cost for the dispatch of each message will amount to at least L.500-600 million, with a global cost, for 6-8 issues, ranging from L.3 to 5 billion.

As we know, the Party can presently dispose of slightly over L.3 billion. The contributions of the "others", that is, of those who can ensure the success of the initiative by becoming shareholders is already indispensable.

The Party also disposes of a patrimony: by consuming it, the alternative is either an investment or a dissolution.

3.7. The project and the Party.

The relation between this project - which could seem an editorial project, but which is not and could not be - and the Party's political project is relevant: the regulatory, structural constitution of a major transnational, transpartisan and international political subject which contains the project and shapes it.

The innovation represented by this project is not that of offering a list of proposals from which to choose a single initiative, but that of organizing them as a whole. The project, the proposals, the initiatives live with those who adhere to them, and adherents and proposals give life together to the transnational political subject, which is where the evaluation and the general importance, the graduation of the contribution, the balance, the investments of each single proposal and initiative will be decided every one or two years, so that it may also become a concrete project.

The current project is a political project that aims at testing, in a new dimension, the response of the "others", which, as we know, is the necessary requirement and condition to ensure the life of the Party. In the event of a positive result, the project could also provide valuable indications on the Party's new structure, pattern and regulation, and on how the Party can assume a different statutory aspect, ensuring its existence and "orderly" development, passing from a "centre" to a "service".

The organization of the message "by topics" and the possibility of adhering even to only one proposal could foreshadow that federal statute "of and for the Left" (which has become "of and for democracy") which remains one of the Party's most valuable ambitions since its creation.

Only results and experience can provide all the elements and the connections, the articulations, the conditions to reach a new "form" capable of giving operational substance and capacity to the Party, establishing new, articulated relations between a "centre", which wants to be a "political service", and the resolve and the initiative of the "many" who are necessary to enact that continuity and renewal of politics - not only and no longer just in Italy - and actively contribute in establishing effective conditions of democracy, "for the right to life and the life of rights".