ABSTRACT: There are no major problems in the world that can be approached by national political solutions. A new political will, and a new political organisation to exploit it, are needed so that the right to be politically active can be regained. This is essential if we are to overcome the threats posed by the destruction of the environment, the danger to life and the forces opposing democracy. Only in this way can a new order of peace and development be built and new laws that will be recognised and respected by all, be created. The transnational party represents that political will. This is the challenge that the Radical Party has decided to offer; to construct a transnational political force which unites and organises citizens of different countries who want to transform their knowledge and ideals into international rights and laws, using nonviolent means. The party has no wish to compete with national parties and will not participate in elections. It is aimed at all liberals, socialists, ecologists, fed

eralists, communists and christians who through their reasoned, if unconventional, judgement have decided to oppose the madness of the leaders in the world who provoke wars and famine, in the illusion that they are integrating people in national entities. These people will find a party which is not ideological and can be joined each year on the basis of a an individual project: for 1991 the Radical Party has undertaken to involve the maximum number of parliamentary representatives from East and West Europe and then gradually from the rest of the world, in specific and common initiatives. This ambitious objective, seeks to create a transnational political pressure group which supports the right to life and human rights in general, to confront the international forces that trade in death and war. It involves building a political movement which will include as many countries and parliaments as is possible. Ecological campaigns and initiatives, anti-militaristic , anti-totalitarian and anti-prohibition movement

s will also be represented as will any other groups supporting federal and democratic ideals. It is an enterprise which will require extraordinary amounts of human and financial resources: thousands of men and women will give the idea its form and bring strength and history to it. They can become the pioneers of new politcal frontiers and the constructors of a new social contract.

(The Party New, n.1, June 1991)

The Radical Party decision to extend the party across international borders and become "transnational", was taken in the belief that the major problems of today are problems of aglobal scale which supercede international boundaries and which cannot be resolved by individual nations or governments, their laws, budgets or powers.

THE DIVORCE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND POLITICS

The issues confronting us are many and often interconnected. They range from the economy to the problems of war and peace. Environmental worries include the hole in the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, global deforestation, increasing desertification and atmospheric and marine pollution. The denial of human rights to large areas of the world's population and the lack of even subsistence level health and nutrition cause the deaths of tens of millions of people every year. Hundreds of millions of others suffer from hunger and the effects of poverty. City systems or megalopolises are springing up in Asia, Africa and Latin America where children as young as 10 years old have to learn to survive, as best they can, by forming themselves into gangs as a form of protection. They either kill or are killed. Mass migration into Europe and North America is taking place as people flee their countries of birth in search of food and employment. Local wars and confrontations are fuelled by exports of sophisticated weapon

ry from the industrialised countries, while in the wealthier and more developed areas the law, politicians and institutions seem impotent in the face of the growing problems of drugs and lawlessness. The whole world seems paralysed by the magnitude of the problems, which unresolved could portend catastrophe for mankind.

People are becoming increasingly aware of these issues, their existence, development and the danger they present. They are also aware that the knowledge and means exist to resolve them and that it is possible to organise the world in a way that is compatible with mankind's basic interests. However, in an age when we have seen, in less than a century, more scientific advances than had been previously made in the course of all history, a divorce has developed between knowledge and power, between the scientist and the policy maker or politician.

THE NEED TO REGAIN THE RIGHT TO POLITICAL ACTION

It is, therefore, a question of political will, but this alone will not be sufficient. Even where political will exists the length of international processes, the fragmented nature of the

different national powers and the multitude of people who have to be consulted all serve to hinder progress in finding solutions. A further complication lies in the fact that there are interested parties whose aim seems to be to conceal real situations to further their own ends or profits. Politics, in the sense of ability to face the major problems of our age in an efficient and creative fashion, has been denied us. We need to regain our right to be political in this way, now that the "polis" has become the whole world. Reasoning tells us that we have to accept that what would have been considered utopic a hundred years ago has become essential today. Put simply: if it is necessary, it is possible. A new rule of law is needed, one that extends across geographical and political boundaries, which does not deny individual national existence but rather crosses and surpasses it.

Starting from a technical level, we need to formulate and put into effect policies at a global level. Otherwise, some day we will face a catastrophe. We may be unsure of when this will happen, but not if.

THE CHALLENGE OF THE RADICAL PARTY: TRANSNATIONAL AND TRANSDIVISIONAL

This is the challenge presented by the Radical Party, an apparently impossible challenge given the size ot the party. It is a challenge that aims to build a political force, through a philosophy of nonviolence, which unites and organises people of different countries, who wish to work to achieve common objectives. Achieving these objectives, however, by transforming their own programs and using their own knowledge, within the bounds of transnational rights and laws.

This party has no desire to compete with individual national parties. It is an invitation to people of differing beliefs to unite within the bounds of a common aim. Communists, liberals, christians and socialists who share the feelings of urgency and necessity for these proposals and objectives will be willingly accepted. Environmentalists who are not content just to inform people of the problems we face, but also wish to take action and organise projects to resolve them. Federalists and "Europeans" who wish to see their aspirations realised within a realistic period of time, in other words during the lifetime of this generation. People who believe in nonviolent action, but who do not confuse this with being passive. Conscientious objectors who do not confuse the struggle for peace with that of neutrality and indifference to the problems of liberty and democracy. All people who want to add something of worth to their lives, help finance it and play an active part. People who believe in the concept of interna

tionalism, which was discussed in depth at the beginning of the century; unfortunately things went wrong when the workers movement and the socialists began to group together at a national level, just before the war.

All these people will find a lay party and not an ideological party which they can join on the basis of the policies, programs and objectives.

THE PROPOSAL FOR COMMON ACTION IN 1991

The Radical Party of 1991 is committed to its proposal for common action for change in Europen institutions and society (and those world-wide). This proposal is to be aimed at tens of thousands of elected parliamentary representatives in the democratic countries of the world, especially those of East and West Europe, as well as at other political exponents, prominent figures and the mass media in these countries. This is not only an objective but also a way to involve the largest possible number of parliamentarians, political exponents and leaders in Europe, and eventually the world, in the activity and organisation of the Radical Party. We wish to inform and interest people about our proposal for a transnational party (and transdivisional). As a consequence, we hope they will become actively involved in both general political projects as well as specific common initiatives. They will become associated with the party, so that transnational, autonomous and federal entities can be born, which in turn nurture g

roups of local members and workers in each country. This should lead to a form of revolution against the chaos that has become established, a revolution characterised by liberal, socialist, democratic, non-violent and environmental ideals. It is obviously an extremely complex and ambitious project.

It will involve initiating campaigns in the largest number of countries possible that would bring about the major changes needed to progress. A wide range of issues will be included. Campaigns against capital punishment and the use of torture. Movements to improve the quality of life and save the ecology of the planet. Attempts to deal with the huge problems of waste disposal in Europe and other environmental issues like the greenhouse effect, preservation of the ozone layer, the effects of deforestation and the use of chemicals in agriculture. Another attempt to give give legal force to international law and to reform the role of the United Nations can be made - something that was started fifteen years ago.

An anti-military campaign can be started to convert military spending and the arms industry into a project to give life and development to the billion people whose daily preoccupation is where the next crust of bread is going to come from. This would be to reintroduce a campaign initiated after the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1980.

Other possible themes can be the political union of the European states, an instrument for overcoming the problems posed by nationalism and the barriers that exist because of linguistic and race differences. An anti-prohobition campaign should be started to end a policy that allows organised crime to feed off the illicit trade in drugs and make huge profits. Campaigns against totalitarianism and support for human rights need to be extended everywhere. while the right for individuals to carry arms must be opposed. We need to deal with problems of the prison system and reform the penal system as a whole. A "vehicular language" is needed to simulate the historical process of language acquisition in such a way that those speaking the dominant language also know a second one. Demographic problems have to be confronted, as do the environmental difficulties that result. Support for a woman's right to abortion is still necessary as is the need for access to sex education.

THE FOUNDATION OF A PARTY OF ACTION AND NONVIOLENCE

For the process to be started and the initiatives and actions to be set in motion, people should be identified and the formation of groups, the more the better, should be encouraged and promoted. Each group will make their own proposals for action and have their own political objectives, but at the same time be united within the aims of the transnational and transdivisional party. These groups should include, ideally, prominent figures in society, as well as a general membership recruited for action and the realisation of objectives, objectives which they will have helped identify and formulate. The participation of members of the ruling classes, who share our ideals and aspirations, is therefore important. In this way an operative "nucleus" can be formed and used as a basis for a network organisation of party workers starting with those not resident in Italy.

The development of the "themes" of action for the project will be a fundamental characteristic of the support structure of the Party. This formula should aid realisation of specific objectives of political action within the framework of each theme. It is must therefore be made possible for a person's contribution to be limited to individual issues or themes, if he or she so wishes. In this way, the foundations of a new organisation with a federal structure can be laid and developed into the new transnational Radical Party, which will be unlimited by party political differences.

The basic goal of the project is to create a true "party of action" which will create "a place for non-violent action", and thus an environment where a Gandhian philosophy of peaceful direct action can be allowed to flourish . "The right to life and and a life of rights". This must be directed, or redirected, across as wide a cross-section of people as possible and include the major capitals of the world, with particular emphasis on the those in Europe. Demonstrations, fasting and other forms of non-violent protest will be staged to persuade the powers that be, to vote in legislation that tackles the issues involved and achieves the objectives that have been projected. Our wish is to, at the beginning anyway, mobilise tens of thousands of people into a positive force that acts within the Gandhian philosophy described above and which has the following basic characteristics: transnational and transdivisional, democratic, environmentally and ecologically aware, democratic federalist and European federalist, lay

, liberal democratic and liberal socialist, libertarian, anti-authoritarian, anti-prohibition, anti-party domination, anti-militarist, anti-clerical and has direct membership. With these ingredients a new party can be created, one in which people will be encouraged to invest their time and energy, and whose common actions will bring hope to many.

THE TARGET GROUPS AND THE AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES

The project is to be directed initially at European countries, both East and West, and aims to target above all the members of parliaments and elected assemblies or people with the relevant political responsibility, influence or autonomous powers, whether this be "national" or "regional" in nature.

Hopefully, about 35,000 elected members of assemblies in 300 different places in 34 states, including the European Parliament can be contacted. There is no organisation that can provide a list of all the names required, which shows the extraordiary nature of the undertaking.

The funding required for the enterprise, will reflect the immensity of the operation and will be beyond anything that the Party has had to face before. The cost of sending each message will not be less than $435,000-$522,000, with a total cost, for 6-8 editions, which will be somwhere between $2,609,000 and $4,348,000.

The Party can depend upon 2.5OO.000 dollars which will be provided by the State. It is clear therefore that further financial support is indispensable and that success of the operation will be heavily dependent on it being forthcoming.

The Party also has other property which might as well be invested, as sold off for the dissolution of the party.

TO CREATE REAL CONDITIONS FOR DEMOCRACY AND ORGANISE AN EXTENSIVE TRANSNATIONAL AND TRANSDIVISIONAL PARTY

It is significant the relationship between this project - which could appear to be a directed project, although we know it is not and can never be - and the political project of the Party. The constitution, in political terms, from the de jure regulatory, structural point of view of a great transnational and transdivisional political movement of international value will be intrinsically self-generating.

The innovation represented by this project is not a new list of proposals, from which an initiative will be selected, but rather the aim to organise them as a whole and together. The project, the proposals and the initiatives come alive with whoever creates them and together they give life to the political transnational movement, or party. The latter will be the vehicle through which every year, or two, general policies will be decided concerning such subjects as the scale of financial contribution, the budget, and the investments to be made for each proposal and initiative as they are created within the project.

This project has to be on a large scale and needs to represent the alternative answers of "others", a condition which is indispensable as a guarantee for the life of the Party. It is a project which can, if the outcome is successful, give valuable indications as to the new structure and the new order of the Party, how to move from being a "centre" and a "service" and attain a new statutory form which will promote an "orderly" existence and development of the movement.

Organising the "themes" of the message and the possibility to subscribe to only one of the proposals, could influence the federal statute "of and for the left" which has since become "of and for democracy", and remains one of the most precious ambitions of the Party since its first foundation.The results and experiences of the movement will provide all the elements, connections, articulations, times and methods that are needed to become a new "form" which gives substance and operative potential to the Party. This will establish a new and definite relationships between the "centre", which provides an essential and intrinsic "political service", and the will and the initiative "of the many" which are necessary to strengthen and ensure continuity of the political renewal. This will also take place outside Italy and contribute efficiently to establishing the conditions for democracy, "for the right to life, a life of rights".

THE PROPOSAL FOR A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT

For over thirty years the Radical Party has been at the forefront, often successfully, of the fight for civil rights. From a minority position we have been able to bring spirit to a democratic opposition on issues such as divorce, abortion, conscientious objection, citizens rights and guarantees of liberty in the face of special laws and illiberal judicial procedures.

We have been leading lights in the hard battle against the problems of famine in the world along with the Pontiff, the majority of Nobel Prize winners and the largest international organisations concerned with the problems and we have directed appeals to the more informed consciences in the world and to the heads of state in the Third World.

In Italy, we have been, for more than a decade, alone in our opposition to the destruction of the environment and the use of nuclear power (and it is due to our opposition that Italy is the only one of the largest countries in the EEC to have almost completely rejected a nuclear energy program). We were the first to introduce the issue of defence of the ecosystem into the political arena.

For a long time we have acted as a reference point and spokesman for the refusniks and dissidents from all over the world.

The peculiar thing about this experience and these successes comes from two things: firstly that the protagonist(s), was always singled out by the institutions and Italian public opinion before the Party took up the cause and secondly the theoreticl characteristic of the party of not being ideological allowed the party to occasionally concentrate on specific political issues with a precise idea of the reforms required.

The decision to become transnational has quite literally turned this methodology upside down. From a political battle within a limited geographical area and from time to time concentrated on very precise single issues, we have decided to move towards an unlimited area of issues which is also geographically expansive. This was the result of the decision taken at the Budapest Congress in the spring of 1989, a decision that in some way foretold the upheaval that was about to happen in the socialist countries of the East.

We did not want to become an international collection of parties and national movements, but rather a transnational party and so a single entity with members from different countries, united by their common ideals which they recognise in common political objectives. It is within this framework that we want to work together to construct a "new social contract", to be planned and realised together.