ABSTRACT: The Radical Party stands for a policy of Gandhian nonviolence: the most advanced and integral form of the philosophy of lay tolerance on which civilisation and society should be built. People have used democratic, socialist, progressive, revolutionary and nationalistic movements to kill others in an attempt to impose their ideals. This continues even today. Gandhian nonviolence can never include such extreme political conflict, because to do so means that the people are never liberated and the tolerance and respect for life, which is being fought for, will have to be given up. The strength of dialogue, civil disobedience, conscientious objection, hunger strikes in prison are the weapons that the Radical Party has used, which have brought success in it campaigns for civil rights and shown its adherence to the superior values of a lay society. These same values must be adhered to again, today, in the formation of a transnational, transdivisional movement that is fighting for the nonviolent liberation
of people who suffer from totalitarianism and nationalism.
(The Party New, n.1, June 1991)
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A solemn political act
In 1980, the XXIV Radical Party Congress voted for a "preamble" to the Statute, which declared its absolute committment to nonviolence and rights. A non-ideological party was to be refounded every year according to objectives formulated by the Congress and to which members could re-subscribe, under no obligation to do so and with complete respect for differences and contradictions that might exist. This "preamble" to the Statute (and not in the Statute) constituted a solemn political act of the Congress and not the ideological adoption of non-violence by the party and its members.
Since that time, no Congress has ever disputed the "preamble" and the committment has been implicitly and clearly renewed in the successive years until the Gandhian and transnational aspects were conceived along with the motto "for the right to life, a life of rights; these have formally reinforced the original "preamble". With the world in the state it is and with all the clouds on the horizon, it is probably fair to say that it was in some way prophetic.
The preamble to the Statute of the Radical Party:
The Radical Party proclaims the rights and the law, including the political rights and law of the Radical Party;
proclaims that the absolute source for these is the legitimacy of the institutions;
affirms the duty of disobedience, non-collaboration and conscientious objection which are the supreme form of non-violent action for the defence of a life of rights and law.
It calls on itself and all people, who believe in life, peace, justice, and liberty, to support and respect absolutely two fundamental laws: the Declaration of Human Rights (in the hope that the title be changed to the "Rights of the Person") and the European Convention for Human Rights as well as the Constitutions of the States which respect the principles contained in the two documents; and furthermore, to refuse to obey, or recognise the legitimacy of anyone who violates these laws, or fails to apply them, or reduces them to the level of mere verbal declarations while not giving them legal status.
It calls for the application of the overriding principle of "not taking life", an absolute law which recognises no exceptions even for self-defence.
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Nonviolence and dialogue
The radicals are an exception in their refusal to accept that violence can be used in the name of ideals or Reason. Gandhian nonviolence has clearly shown that it is possible to fight extremely difficult political battles and successfully liberate a people from the most powerful colonial master of the time. This was achieved without yielding the principles of tolerance and respect for life, which were the motivation for the struggle at the beginning.
In a philosophy of nonviolence, the ends and the means are reconciled, the one becomes accepted by the other, the first presupposes the second. If the end is to build a more just society, based on human values, the means cannot be the prevarication of the person, or his physical destruction.
"Radical thinking" is completely demonstrated in this concept: political nonviolence can exist as the most advanced and integral form of personal tolerance, on which a society and democracy are founded. This can only be achieved if the principle of nonviolence is seen in laws and the behaviour of governments and oppositions alike. Nonviolence makes dialogue the heart of a person's life within society. It shows that there are no demons or enemies to be defeated, there are only people. The worst of these, when confronted with non-violent opposition - which is always aggressive - can reply with the better part of themselves, rather than the worst: "a victory can only be defined as such, if the winners exist in equal measure and no one wins" a famous Bhuddist stated.
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Nonviolence and right
The "discovery" that the radicals have made, which has become the theoretical and practical basis for the movement, is non-violence. This is a natural consequence of having absolute respect for others, above all in relationships between people holding opposing opinions. It constitutes the complete and unreserved affirmation of human rights without which democracy and freedom are an illusion. All violent means used to achieve a state of human rights, democracy and socialism contain elements that are self-destructive and lead to the failure of achievement of the objective.
The Radical Party wishes to demonstrate that violence can never be beneficial and that dialogue not only leads to successful conclusion but also convinces those holding the opposingopinions.
Gandhi described it as non-violence of the strong who resist passively, but without yielding to the adversary - "Satyagraha" (Sat meaning truth and Agraha meaning firmness). This manifests itself as a collective and individual responsibility to publicly break laws and to suffer the consequences. However, breaking the law does not deny respect for the idea of law, on the contrary, it is a refusal to obey hypocrisy, a non-law, to affirm a right.
The radicals disobey laws which have been reduced to the state of non-law, so that a real rule, a real law can be achieved, as this is the only way to respect the dignity of people.
In explaining more fully the concept of radical nonviolence, Pier Paolo Pasolini stated that all civil disobedience is in fact obedience of a higher value, with the promise of future obedience of a just law. In all conscientious objection to an unjust law there is an assertion of the conscience.
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Nonviolence and democracy
The "power of truth", to explain and demonstrate, must be recognised.
Non-violence is an effective alternative to violence, only if the people understand the motives behind the action. They can only consent, or dissent, if they are in a position to make a judgement. If diffusion of information does not exist, the temptation to resort to desperate measures of violence, terrorism and the symbolic killing of the "enemy", become tragically strong.
The most important aspect of Radical Party non-violence is expressed in the defence of the right of citizens to "be informed so they can judge". Political democracy is the only system which allows a contrary opinion or an opposition to take power without shedding blood, or without the use of physical intimidation. However, this is a fictional concept where the people are denied the ability to exercise their sovreignity and therefore to choose.
If the possibility to know and evaluate opposition reasoning is denied, so is the ability of the people to decide which way to vote on the alternative propositions to govern.
The intrusive and dominating nature of the means of communication allows small groups to exercise enormous power which includes the capacity to hide the truth, or at least to alter it according to their needs.
Democracy and the right to be informed are synonymous for the Radical Party; the first cannot exist without the effect of the second and the second can only function in a State where rights are observed.
The extreme weapon in the philosophy of nonviolence, the hunger strike, is used by the Radical Party to impose its truth, but within the terms of the law which the adversary professes to respect. This is the right expressed in the law that all democratic countries have, which allows freedom of information and the press and which is offered as the great difference between them and totalitarian regimes.
