ABSTRACT: "... we the undersigned, make an appeal to all men and women of goodwill, both the powerful and the humble in their differing levels of reponsibility, we appeal to them to help bring to an end the agony of the millions of people who suffer from famine and the effects of underdevelopment, who have been the victims of the disorganised state of international economics and politics... A new political will is necessary and new organisations are needed to exploit this will, organisations that are visibly and directly committed, as a priority, to overcome the causes of the tragedy and rid the world of the effects..." This was the appeal launched by one hundred and thirty Nobel Prize winners, men of science, literature and peace who undersigned the appeal to halt the mass starvation. It was broadcast by the Radical Party on 24 June 1981.
In the last ten years the appeal has fallen on deaf ears. The public response that they called for, has not materialised and no initiatives have been taken. Death, disease, underdevelopment, international and national disorder have won the day. Present structures cannot be used to obtain what the Nobel Prize winners appealed for. We must conceive, organise and institute a political force, a "new" transnational transdivisional. We can do it.
(The Party New, n.1, June 1991)
The Church and the demographic question
Today in the communist empire of China conceiving children is in fact a crime and abortion an obligation. As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the crime is abortion or non-procreation (unless one chooses celibacy).
However, until the middle of the 1970's, the two Churches were together "anti-Malthusian", against any form of birth control. They prevented the United Nations from launching the necessary worldwide information and cultural awareness campaigns to fight the "population explosion", a more devastating explosion than any nuclear bomb, and one which did explode. For democratic peoples the object was to allow people to make a cultural, moral, personal, and even political choice based on the information available. Special attention needed to be given to the problems of the Third and Fourth worlds, often but not exclusively located in southern parts. The purpose was to allow people to conceive new lives responsibly, and not be forced to procreate like animals in poverty. This was, and is, an ideal and a civilised and human democratic need, one which represents a radical liberation and emancipation of woman. The two Churches have won this sad battle. Hundreds of millions have died from starvation, poverty, oppression
and disasters. Billions are destined to follow them. This is the price that planet earth pays for the fanaticism and intolerance, apart from the disorder, to which it has given support.
The barbarous acts of Peking, its criminal policies designed to implement through terror and violence that which previously it had sought to combat by the same means: This should lead us to oppose this cynical, suicidal and acquiescent policy of the West which sacrifices, for its own immediate power interests, Asian populations, as populations were sacrificed in the empires of Europe or those of the African dependencies of Moscow. To the church in Poland, perhaps we should reply in the same way as we did to the fanaticism and out-dated ideas of the church in catholic Italy, when we won 80 percent of the votes in free popular referendums.
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The Nobel Prize winners' appeal
We the undersigned men, women, scientists and writers, of different origins, religion and culture who believe in peace have been given awards for our attempts to search for, respect and celebrate the truth in life and the life in truth, and for our testimony to dialogue, fraternity and common civility in peace and in progress. We the undersigned, make an appeal to all men and women of goodwill, both the powerful and the humble in their differing levels of reponsibility, we appeal to them to help bring to an end the agony of the millions of people who suffer from famine and the effects of underdevelopment, who have been the victims of the disorganised state of international economics and politics.
A disaster without precedent is taking place, a disaster which, in one year, can show us horror of a magnitude equal to all that was experienced in the first half of this century. This disaster extends its effects every moment that passes and is witness to the barbarism and death that exists in the world and no less in our consciences. All those who struggle, complain and protest against this state of affairs are unanimous in their view that politics are to blame for the tragedy.
A new political will is necessary and new organisations are needed to exploit this will, organisations that are visibly and directly committed, as a priority, to overcome the causes of the tragedy and rid the world of the effects.
New realistic strategies and policies must be formulated and made operational so that the various projects that are conceived can be compatible with the plurality of forces, responsibilities and consciences that are driving and sustaining them.
The international authorities the individual states and their peoples, who are so often kept in ignorance of the different solutions that can be used to save life and end suffering, are called on to unite together in a joint effort, which will include clearly defined, realistic and sure objectives, to strive to eradicate the terrible suffering and death, to which such a large part of humanity is condemned. Some of the most important spiritual authorities in the world have already made a similiar appeal. We have to rebel against the false realism that induces resignation and a belief that these events are our destiny and not the result of our policies and the "established chaos" that exists.
We need to fight in a realistic manner so that the possible can be made to happen and not be lost, perhaps forever.
We need to convert those good intentions, which are full of conscience and make a good impression, but which fail to save those who come to them for help. We need to change the hearts of those cruel and sterile dreamers that sacrifice people in the name of a cause to change society.
The people and their politicians must make the necessary decisions, through votes in their respective national and international assemblies and parliaments so that new laws, budgets, projects and initiatives can be put into action to save billions from malnutrition and underdevelopment and millions of each generation from starvation.
Everyone must give legal value to the salvation of life against killing, even through inertia, omission or indifference.
If those with the power are responsible, they are not the only ones.
The defenceless need not resign themselves to inertia, they can, in ever increasing numbers, refuse to obey laws which do not comply with the fundamental rights of man, which are our first Right and give us the right to life. The defenceless can organise themselves, using the few but lasting weapons they have - democratic non-violent action based on the philosophy of Gandhi - and they can make clear choices and objectives, which are limited to what is required. If these things happened the catastrophic situation we face would not exist. Our knowledge of the world cannot include being aware, unmoving and without any feelings of responsibility, of the horrible end which threatens us.
In being aware that all mankind is confronted by death, and that mankind, itself, could die, we cannot but look for ways to save ourselves and to give ourselves hope with something we all know and believe in.
If those who control the information channels and the powers that be, want to thank us for the recognition we have given them, they can allow us to heard so that we can show how many people in the world are working in the same direction. If the people can know and understand, we have no doubt that the future will be different from the one that hangs over all of us and over all parts of the world.
But only if these things happen can we look at the future with hope.
We have to choose immediately, tto act, to create, to live and make people live.
The appeal was undersigned by the following Nobel Prize winners:
Aleixandre Vincente (Literature 1977) - Alfven Hannes (Physics 1970) - American Friends Service Committee (Peace 1947) - Anderson Philip (Physics 1977) - Anfinsen Christian (Chemistry 1972) - Arrow Kenneth (Economics 1972) - Axelrod Julius (Medicine 1970) - Baltimore David (Medicine 1975) - Beckett Samuel (Literature 1969) - Bednorz J. Georg (Physics 1987) - Bellow Saul (Literature 1976) - Benacerraf Baruj (Medicine 1980) - Binning Gerd (Physics 1986) - Blumberg Baruch S. (Medicine 1976) - Boll Heinrich (Literature 1972) - Borlaug Norman E. (Peace 1970) - Bovet Daniel (Medicine 1957) - Brandt Willy (Peace 1971) - Brodsky Joseph (Literature 1987) - Bureau International De la Paix (Peace 1970) - Canetti Elias (Literature 1981) - Chamberlain Owen (Physics 1959) - Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan (Physics 1983) - Cohen Stanley (Medicine 1986) - Corrigan Mairead (Peace 1976) - Cournand André (Medicine 1956) - Duasset Jean (Medicine 1980) - Debreu Gérard (Economics 1983) - Eccles John Carew (Medicine 1963) - Elytis Odys
seus (Literature 1979) - Fischer Ernst Otto (Chemistry 1973) - Flory Paul John (Chemistry 1974) - Flowler William A. (Physics 1983) - Robles Alfonso G. (Peace 1982) - Glashow Sheldon L. (Physics 1979) - Golding William (Literature 1983) - Granit Ragnar (Medicine 1967) - Guillemin Roger (Medicine 1977) - Keefer Haldan (Physics 1964) - Hartline (Medicine 1967) - Hassel Odd (Chemistry 1969) - Hershbach Dudley (Chemistry 1986) - Herzberg Gerhard (Chemistry 1971) - Hodgkin Dorothy (Physics 1979) - Hogfsadter Robert (Chemistry 1964) - Hubel David (Medicine 1981) - Jacob Francois (Medicine 1965) - Josephson Brian (Physics 1973) - Kastler Alfred (Physics 1966) - Klein Lawrence R. (Economics 1980) - Kohler Georges (Medicine 1984) - Kusch Polykarp (Physics 1955) - Lee Yuan Tseh (Chemistry 1986) - Lehn Jean Marie (Chemistry 1987) - Montalcini Rita Levi (Medicine 1986) - Leontief Wassily (Economics 1973) - Luria Salvador (Medicine 1969) - Lwoff André (Medicine 1965) - McBride Sean (Peace 1974) - Milosz Cweslaw (Literat
ure 1980) - Milstein César (Medicine 1984) - Modigliani Franco (Economics 1985) - Montale Eugenio (Literature 1975) - Massbauer Rudolf (Physics 1961) - Mott Nevill (Physics 1977) - Myrdal Gunnar (Economics 1974) - Nathans Daniel (Medicine 1978) - Neel Louis (Physics 1970) - Nirenberg Marshall (Medicine 1968) - Noel-Baker Philip (Peace 1959) - Ochoa Severo (Medicine 1959) - Pauling Linus (Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962) - Penzias Arno (Physics 1978) - Esquivel Adolfo P. (Peace 1980) - Polanyi John (Chemistry 1986) - Porter Rodney R. (Medicine 1972) - Prigogine Ilya (Chemistry 1977) - Quaker Peace and Service (Peace 1947) - Rabi Isador Isaac (Physics 1944) - Reichstein Tadeus (Medicine 1950) - Richter Burton (Physics 1976) - Rohrer Heini (Physics 1986) - Rubbia Carlo (Physics 1984) - Ryle Martin (Physics 1974) - Sadat Anwar El (Peace 1978) - Sacharov Andrei D. (Peace 1975) - Salam Abdus (Physics 1979) - Sanger Frederik (Chemistry 1958 and 1980) - Schawlow Arthur (Physics 1981) - Seifert Jaroslav (Literature 198
4) - Siegbahn Kai (Physics 1981) - Simon Claude (Literature 1985) - Solow Robert M. (Economics 1987) - Szent Gyorgy Albert (Medicine 1937) - Taube Henry (Chemistry 1983) - Theorell Hugo (Medicine 1955) - Tinbergen Jan (Economy 1969) - Tinbergen Nikolaas (Medicine 1973) - Sir Todd Alexander (Chemistry 1957) - Tonegawa Susumu (Medicine 1987) - Townes Charles Hard (Physics 1964) - Tutu Desmond (Peace 1984) - Van Der Meer Simon (Physics 1984) - Von Euler Ulf (Medicine 1970) - Wald George (Medicine 1967) - Walesa Lech (Peace 1983) - Walton Ernest (Physics 1951) - Watson James Dewey (Medicine 1962) - White Patrick (Literature 1973) - Wiesel Elie (Peace 1986) - Wiesel Torsten (Medicine 1981) - Wilkins Maurice (Medicine 1962) - Williams Betty (Peace 1976)
