ABSTRACT: To join the Radical Party all you have to do is pay the annual subscription. No one is vetted. No one is expelled. You can be a Radical even if you belong to another Party. It is an instrument for realizing projects and upholding ideals, and cannot be likened to a church. It is also a party that could disband: if there aren't enough members and funds to keep it going.

(THE PARTY new - n. 6 - march 1992)

There is only one condition for joining the Radical Party: payment of the membership fee. There is no selection board to accept or refuse membership. No one is permitted to judge a member's behaviour, or expel that member from the Party.

Membership of another party is also allowed - indeed, it is welcomed: in fact, it would appear to us that a democrat should not just be a "Radical", but also a "Radical". Ours is a party that is not in competition with any other, especially national parties. Our aims are different: we are a Party which believes in ideals, creates projects and fights battles, not a party merely interested in gaining votes or power.

The Radical Party has chosen Gandhi as its symbol in order to affirm that lay tolerance and democracy are best expressed by political nonviolence. In short, the Radical Party is a type of WWF for human rights, in which people freely associate with the aim of pursuing democratic goals, going beyond frontiers, beyond traditional parties, and beyond the boundaries of conventional politics. It is precisely because of these goals that we have decided not to participate in any elections as the Radical Party. Nevertheless, Radical activists are free to stand for election on any list, or actually draw up their own list, if they so desire.

It is a Party with open membership, which is at the service of its members, and run by free individuals who will always remain such in the Radical Party. Joining the RP is a little like buying a bus ticket, and this ticket - the party card - gives its owner the right to "travel" with us to the end of the line; however, anyone can get off the "bus" at any time. The Party does not impose any rules: its decisions are binding for the "leaders" of the RP - who are re-elected every year - but not the members.

Membership is annual, and party life also continues on a yearly basis. All members have the right to participate in the Congress, and also the right to vote; decisions are adopted according to a two thirds majority vote. And it is on this basis that every member decides whether to renew his subscription or not.

The Party has no legal authority to "represent" its members, to "represent" them as human beings, or to be the voice for their ideas or their interests in general. For us, a democratic party is an instrument, a vehicle, and cannot be likened to a church, an ethnic group or an army. Our "leaders", as such, can only ever realize the objectives that members have decided upon at the Congress, but they can never "represent" us. It is, therefore, a "difficult" party: there are no orders to carry out, reassuring or levelling ideologies to wave around, or "safe positions" of power to occupy. It is an "expensive" Party, in that the minimum membership fee is probably higher than that of any other Party in the world. This not only guarantees the RP its autonomy, but is also the reason for its strength: only a Party for which members are prepared to spend this kind of money - which, in fact, amounts to what they would spend on their daily newspaper in one year - can presume to represent great ideals.

We are a poor Party with an essential, and minimal, organizational structure, because we have chosen to spend at least 80% of our financial resources on political action rather than on inflated salaries and palatial offices. The Radical Party can, therefore, transform itself at any given moment because there are no positions of power to protect, or "possessions" to safeguard. The Radical Party could also disband: if there are not enough members and funds deriving from new memberships and subscriptions, if there is not enough support to strengthen and sustain it.