ROME, 30 APRIL - 3 MAY 1992

Index:

1.1. A three-year gap between this Congress and the last.

1.2. The motion approved at the Budapest Congress.

1.3. An appeal to the forces of democracy and tolerance.

1.4. All our energies and financial resources forthe construction of the New Party.

1.5. "Full congressional powers".

1.6. The time taken to move from normality to the condition of extraordinary "legality".

1.7. The assumption of "full congressional powers".

1.8. The January 1990 meeting of the Federal Council. The fifty thousand members: a "reversal of tendency".

1.9. Suspension of activities.

1.10. The "ad hoc" law for "Radio Radicale".

1.11. The end of the financial crisis. The availability of new operative capacities and financial resources.

1.12. The scale of the achievement.

1.13. The "New Party".

The "Gulf War".

2.1. The political project for 1991

2.2. The "publishing venture", "The New party" and "Radical Newsletter".

2.3. Action in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

2.4. The campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the world by the year 2000.

2.5. Two sessions of the Federal Council: the first in Rome, the second in Zagreb as Croatia is subject to Serbian attacks.

2.6. Support for the recognition of Croatia. The nonviolent initiative on the war front.

2.7. Anti-prohibitionism with regard to drugs: a struggle for liberty and democracy.

2.8. The political unity of Europe after the Maastricht decisions.

2.9. The problem of international communication and the right to one's own language.

2.10. The illusion of the military road to security. The Radical Party campaign for "peace technology" for the South of the world.

3.1. The current situation of the Party.

3.2. Analysis of a number of parameters.

Membership figures.

3.3. The composition of the Federal Council.

3.4. Response to the "political project" and to the newspaper.

3.5. The Party's action in Central and Eastern Europe.

3.6. What judgement are we to give on the "political project"?

3.7. Direct action in Eastern Europe for the construction of the political Europe.

3.8. The changes that have taken place in the world and the situation of the "New Party".3.9. The response to the Radical proposal in the post-Communist democracies.

3.10. The responsibilities of Western Europeans, of individual States, of the European Community, of democratic forces, of those who claim to be European Federalists.

4.1. The relationship of the Party with the Italian situation.

4.2. The "Italian Congresses".

4.3. The initiative with regard to the Italian Communist Party, now the Left Democratic Party.

4.4. The referendun campaign in Italy.

4.5. The "transdivisional dimension".

5.1. The verification of the practicability of the project is not yet complete.

5.2. The resources invested in the political project.

5.3. We have not succeeded in utilizing the replies and the enrolments which have arrived and which continue to arrive.

5.4. The need for new rules.

5.5. Possible objectives for political action.

The importance of the work of the Commissions and the debate of Congress.

5.6. The financial resources currently available, one billion lire, which correspond to the time necessary to carry out the liquidation of the Party, ensuring the conservation of its patrimony.

The situation does not require the closure of the Party.

We could, otherwise, decide to liquidate the patrimony and continue political action until the resources at our disposal run out.

5.7. Congress is called upon to express its opinions.

5.8. The transnational choice, as well as being right and necessary, is now possible.

ABSTRACT: From Serbia to Croatia, from Bosnia Herzegovina to Macedonia, from Kosovo to all the Republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States and to Georgia, from the Baltic countries to Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Africa, Israel, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, from the European Parliament to Spain, from Rumania to Bulgaria, from Hungary to Czechoslovakia and Poland, from Italy: over 200 parliamentarians and Government members, exponents of about 80 national parties, have joined the Radical Party's nonviolent and federalist International.

It is a first result of the New Party (a transnational cross-party), which aims to the creation of a political organization capable - by overcoming frontiers, nationalism, the evils (including the wars) of this century, which seem to be reappearing - of upholding the right to life and the life of rights here, today, and in any place where they are offended or threatened.

These adhesions are the fruit on the one hand of the circulation of action proposals, achieved thanks to the launching of a new communications means - the newspaper "The New Party", at its sixth issue - written in Italian and translated into fourteen languages, sent, as of June '91, to 40.000 parliamentarians and 300.000 addressees at about 300 addresses in the four continents. On the other hand it is the result of the militant action - in some case started years ago - in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, countries which have just come out of "real socialism" and whose demand for democracy and freedom is still not fulfilled, unfortunately, by an adequate political response in the West, which is too concentrated on defending its own goods, it own markets, and which is hardly willing to assume its responsibilities.

This is the first fact, the first result recalled by the report which the First Secretary of the Radical Party - on behalf of the "4" in charge of the Party, endowed with "full congress powers" by the previous congress of Budapest - has written for the 36th ordinary Congress.

Two more facts, however, need to be mentioned along with this result, which is extraordinary in terms of number and quality of the adherents to this "project".

First of all, the number of enrolments on the part of persons living in countries other than Italy; 3.000 citizens, almost double the number of the Italian members. An important result, which is bound to improve in certain regions of the world - in particular, in the huge territory of the former U.S.S.R. - which is countered by the inadequacy to the political response in the West, for political and cultural reasons which are mentioned in the report and of which the report provides a possible explanation.

The reality of the enrolments - and of the "attention" given to the project of the "New Party" - is a datum which, among other things, still calls for time verifications: to date, there have been 2.500 answers to the six issues of the newspaper, and we are still awaiting the replies of the last two issues, which have been sent to 600.000 names in overall, at least as far as the addressees of the former U.S.S.R. are concerned.

The other fact is the already practised non participation of the political organization "Radical Party" in any type of elections on a national scale.

The decision of the Congress of Bologna - of January 1988 - confirmed by the Budapest Congress - of April 1989 - was followed by the non-presentation of Radical party tickets at the European elections of 1989, at the subsequent administrative elections of '89, and at the recent political elections. The First Secretary of the Party gave up on running on tickets promoted by or in which other authoritative radical exponents were participating, precisely to "underline" this non competition and with the hope of fostering, also in the other Italian political forces and in their leaderships, the awareness of the need - for the life of the Radical party and for its independence (also financial) from the Italian institutional presence - of the transparty dimension as the essential premise to the transnational one.

The report addresses a question to the Congress, which has always been, for the Radical party, the indication of a method: with which human and financial resources can the Radical Party exist and for which objectives?

In Budapest - three years ago - the party's economic and financial situation forced the Party's bodies to discuss the problem, which was not merely a formal one, of closing the party to avoid bankruptcy, possibly even fraudulent bankruptcy.

Hence the Congress' decision to delegate its powers to four people - the First Secretary, the Treasurer, the Presidents of the Party and of the Federal Council - all aiming at the survival and the preservation of the party's assets while maintaining their individual responsibility.

The "progress" of these three years has been marked by a first period - which lasted approximately six months - during which the Party's officials wondered "what to do", conscious on the one hand of the gravity of the party's situation, on the other hand of the need to understand the meaning and the political value of the "full powers" which, if assumed, would no doubt have brought an "extraordinary" situation, in terms also of Statute, for and of the Party.

At the end of December '89, when even the history of the world in those weeks - with the fall of the Berlin wall and the unrestrainable evolution of the "Springs" in the former communist countries - seemed to buttress, with its scenarios, the Radical party's action in the previous years offer hope for its political proposal, it was decided that there was no alternative to the "full powers".

The assumption of the "full powers" was formally ratified during the Federal Council of January '90, which featured the presence of Achille Occhetto, Secretary of the then PCI, who was operating in those weeks for a refoundation of his party which seemed to accept the opportunity offered by the Radical Party to its leaders of founding a new scenario for Europe and Italy together.

The second period "covers" the whole of 1990 and the first few months of 1991.

The Party's officials - discontinuing all activities except in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and reducing the Party's collaborators from 40 to 6 - undertook a work of economic and financial reorganization which, together with the success of the initiative promoted in Parliament to obtain a law acknowledging "Radio Radicale" as a "service of general interest", enabled the Party to experience an "unrepeatable" situation at the beginning of '91, and to have access to a sum of $5 billion to invest in the political initiative.

1991 - which opens at a moment in which the world is experiencing the most dire crisis in recent years, the "Gulf War" - is the year of the "political project", of the newspaper "The New Party", organized during the first five months of the year, the first issue of which is produced between May and June.

What now?

At the end of the Congress, the Party will have access to $1 million for its structure and initiatives.

It disposes of assets, of its headquarters, and can count on the assets of the independent subjects ("Radio Radicale", TV channels, "Agorà", the "Centro d'Ascolto per Informazione Radiotelevisiva").

What is the Congress' orientation?

Should we establish a deadline, for example, to try to organize one of the proposals of the New Party - the constitution of an "international parliamentary league for abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000" or to try to consolidate the antiprohibitionist proposal, also through the adhesion of individuals or national parties or associations, which, on the model of the International Antiprohibitionist League, could join the organization Radical Party on a federate basis to operate on an international scale together? Or to make parliamentarians of the East and of the West converge in a capital of the former "Empire of Evil" with the objective of tackling the problems of democracy and freedom, in a context which is on the verge of exploding in the many, at times tribal expressions of nationalism, of ethnic belonging, suffocated by hunger in many of its regions and by the menacing threat of war?

The report urges the Congress to answer these questions. It is up to the democrats, the Western Europeans, the Italians in particular - in a moment of dire political and institutional crisis of Italian "real democracy" - to give an answer on the question of what to do, how and when.

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Dear friends and comrades,

We are gathered here today for the 36th Ordinary Congress of the Radical Party, of our party.

I would like to extend a warm and heartfelt welcome to you all, and to wish you a peaceful, committed, and profitable few days.

1.1. A THREE-YEAR GAP BETWEEN THIS CONGRESS AND THE LAST

I would like to begin this report with an observation - an obervation which is self-evident but nonetheless not without importance: three years and three days have passed since the end of the proceedings of the last Ordinary Congress, the 35th, held in Budapest from 22 to 26 April 1989. Three years between one Ordinary Congress and the next is an enormously long gap, unprecedented in the history of the Radical Party. The history of the Radical Party, in fact, has always been characterized by the rigorous observation of the rules - very few, although essential - that we have laid down for ourselves and that are established in and by our statute. One of these rules, which has always been respected, is that the Ordinary Congress is to be held annually on fixed dates.

From 1967, our Ordinary Congress was held for years at the beginning of November, and later at the beginning of January. The 1989 Congress in Budapest was held just over three months late - the first time this had happened - because the authorities in the ex-Yugoslavia had prevented us from holding the Congress, as planned, in January in Zagreb (outside Italy, in accordance with the decision of the previous Congress in Bologna).

The three-year gap since the Budapest Congress is therefore not a commonplace event, not a merely customary and accepted delay, as it is, or may be, for many other parties, whose vague and "flexible" attitude to formal rules allows them to convene their congresses whenever their leaders so decide, thus preventing a fair and correct relationship between party members and those who have been entrusted with the leadership and the management of the party.

In these cases congresses are used unscrupulously, not as a democratic meeting between and with members but as an instrument of the decisions and manoeuvres of party leaders for the preservation of their own power or for the resolution, by means of pre-established procedures and operations, of conflicts within the party leadership.

In Italy the spread and the consolidation of such methods are partly responsible for the development of the process that has produced the "partycratic regime", a rigidified system, no longer capable of development or renewal, which actually prevents the practice of democracy: a system which is the concrete expression of the regression that has come about in Italy and in other Western European countries, and that we Radicals have been denouncing for many years. We refer to this state of affairs as "real democracy", a close relation of the "real socialism" which prospered for so long in the Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The three-year gap since the Budapest Congress is largely due to this regression, which has weighed and continues to weigh on Italy and Europe (and the first symptoms are already evident in some of the countries that have recently discovered democracy), and to the powerful influence that this system has on our activity, on our capacity for initiative, on the vitality of our political force. It is not due - as we know - to the desire for the preservation of power or to prevarication and tyrannical oppression.

Moreover, this unusually long gap between congresses has occurred during the "exceptionally extraordinary" situation that we outlined in the report presented in Budapest, discussed and voted on by the Congress, underlined in the conclusions drawn on that occasion.

1.2. THE MOTION APPROVED AT THE BUDAPEST CONGRESS

It was at the Budapest Congress - undoubtedly one of the most important and significant events in the history of the Party, which took place with and in an unforgettable scenario - that for the first time the Radical Party really expressed and affirmed, above and beyond any conflict or ambiguity, its desire to become a transnational force. The motion, in fact, unlike that approved the previous year in Bologna, obtained the two-thirds majority which alone, according to our statute, constitutes a binding mandate for the executive organs of the Party.

The Budapest decision - it is worth remembering here - was taken at a moment when the Party was going through a moment of dramatic economic crisis, serious enough to cancel both its existence and its patrimony, "failing extraordinary events".

1.3. AN APPEAL TO THE FORCES OF DEMOCRACY AND TOLERANCE IN EVERY COUNTRY

In this situation, however, the "New Party", the transnational and transdivisional Party, "broke" deliberately from the existing operative and directive structures, which had become insufficient and unproductive with respect to the new requirements and the new prospects.

In order to avoid the winding-up of the Party - which can be brought about only by "violence exercised by power" - an appeal was made to "the forces of democracy and tolerance in every country", and in particular to "the governing classes and their freest and most responsible exponents".

1.4. ALL OUR ENERGIES AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW PARTY

The following are the exact words of the motion, which goes on to oblige the Party organs to devote all the energies and resources available to the achievement of "our objectives", neither achieved nor contained in the decisions of the previous Congress and Federal Councils: "not the slightest human and financial resource should be used for purposes other than this struggle, for assumed procedures of agreed and democratic liquidation of the Party".

1.5. "FULL CONGRESSIONAL POWERS".

The extraordinary nature of the moment and the difficult, dramatic conditions which the construction of the "New Party" would involve were highlighted and underlined with great force by the Congress.

The motion, in fact, states and fully permits that the First Secretary, the Treasurer and the Presidents of the Party and the Federal Council can take appropriate action, going beyond the limits imposed by the statute for the exercise of their specific and direct responsibilites, with the joint assumption of full congressional powers "for all decisions relating to the life and the patrimony of the Radical Party".

Once declared, the assumption of full congressional powers points on one hand to various conditions of "extraordinary legality" for the management and the running of the Party, and on the other hand concludes and puts an end to a "segment of the theory of practice" which had run its course over more than twenty years of enthusiastic initiatives and struggles and of incredible successes, thus expressing the precise awareness of the need - which could no longer be put off - to "open and initiate a new and different experience in order to ensure the existence of the Party, the affirmation of its values, and the continuity of its history.

1.6. THE TIME TAKEN TO MOVE FROM "NORMALITY" TO CONDITIONS OF EXTRAORDINARY "LEGALITY".

The "Seminar" of the executive organs of the Party with the parliamentary groups and the meeting of the Federal Council, which were both held in Rome, the first in August and the second in September 1989, were two important occasions which allowed a wide-ranging and detailed discussion of the path to be followed to suit the action of the Party to the decisions of the Congress.

The basic question discussed during these two meetings was whether or not there was a need to turn to "extraordinary powers", the interpretation of the value and the weight of such powers, the consequences for the Party, and the procedures to be followed to proceed to their assumption.

A range of alternatives was proposed and discussed, influenced both by the worsening financial situation, by the approach of the next Congress - the date being fixed by the statute - and by the possibility of an early general election in Italy. I should remind you that in the meantime the election for the European Parliament had been held and that the "Berlin Wall" had not yet "collapsed".

Nonviolent action in the face of the Communist regimes and the "Moscow Congress" were objectives and working hypotheses capable of arousing expectation and interest.

These factors created moments of uncertainty and helped to delay the decsion on the assumption of "special powers" which, in a Party whose relation with the Italian situation still has great influence, gradually showed that this was a matter of a "decision at the limits of possibility". The motion approved by the Federal Council in September pointed out the "service" rendered by the Party in not having presented its own list for the European Parliament elections and the contribution given in this way to the success of the lists promoted by Radical members or lists in which the presence of Radicals was significant and important.

For all members the motion also confirmed that the objective entrusted to each of them was to "mobilise in absolute liberty and responsibility, especially individual" to ensure "the birth and the affirmation of a great, new, transnational transparty".

The commitment of the Party should, however, concentrate on the struggle in the countries of Eastern Europe "as far as it is possible and compatible with the Italian ties, currently almost the only source of income".

The motion concludes with the observation that "full congressional powers" have not yet been assumed, despite the fact that the conditions established in Budapest for their assumption have been created.

1.7. THE ASSUMPTION OF "FULL CONGRESSIONAL POWERS".

The First Secretary, the Treasurer, the President of the Party (Bruno Zevi had resigned in the meantime and become Honorary President. Emma Bonino, elected to the Federal Council in September, had taken his place) and the President of the Federal Council decided to assume "full congressional powers" in December 1989.

The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the hopes and the development of the situation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe required a last attempt to overcome the financial crisis and to overcome the structural and organizational shortcomings of the Party in order to see if the capacities acquired with the extraordinary decisions taken could meet the exceptional task to be undertaken.

1.8. THE JANUARY 1990 MEETING OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL. THE FIFTY THOUSAND MEMBERS: A "REVERSAL OF TENDENCY".

An immediate and direct consequence of this decision was the meeting of the Federal Council held in Rome in January 1990.

There was the hope that the collapse of the "Soviet empire" and the Communist regimes, and the explosion of events in these countries - with the disappearance in most of these countries of the reasons for the ideological and political divide on which the world balance depended - would also open up new spaces for political initiative in the West, beginning with Italy, to initiate, with different presuppositions and conditions, a process of "refoundation of democracy" which could find an immediate and direct point of reference in a new transnational and transdivisional force.

With this hope, the motion which concluded the proceedings of the Federal Council stated that: a dimension of tens of thousands of members appears to be the necessary and indispensable "technical condition to ensure the life of an extraordinary and anomalous force, a life which it seems can probably still be saved, but which needs immediate intervention and assistance".

The figure of fifty thousand members was not stated in the motion as an objective and a binding obligation for the Party, but was intended to express the need for a "reversal of tendency" that could point out, to other political forces and to their exponents and leaders rather than to Radicals themselves, the relevance of the Radical project and the need for their personal support and contribution.

1.9. SUSPENSION OF ACTIVITIES.

Once it became clear that there would be no immediate response from Italian political forces, the assumption of "full congressional powers" led the Party necessarily to give absolute priority to the attempt to sort out its financial crisis.

At the beginning of 1990 the deficit stood at 3 billion lire, with a much higher financial liabilities, without any chance of containing them, nor, obviously, of obtaining further credit.

The decision taken was drastic and immediate: a suspension of activities, which continues for the whole year.

The paid workforce was reduced from almost forty to only six, the bare minimum necessary to perform administrative and membership duties. Many comrades decided to continue in any case to work for the Party without any payment.

The suspension of activities had just one exception, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, a decision which also respected the desires of the Federal Council.

The presence and the activities of the Party in these countries continued in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and were reinforced, through more wide-ranging and carefully chosen initiatives, in the Soviet Union, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

However, during this period the Party did not neglect the essential relation with the Italian situation, maintaining its usual function as a "democratic service" on the occasion of the local elections.

Whilst respecting the decision not to take part in elections with its own lists, the Party guaranteed essential services to members who promoted or were present in civic, lay, green, and anti-prohibitionist lists. The cost of these services was then covered, with a degree of profit, by reimbursements obtained by the lists on the basis of results achieved.

1.10. THE "AD HOC" LAW FOR "RADIO RADICALE".

"Radio Radicale", with the various activities which lie under the aegis of the Party, either directly or indirectly, has carried out its unusual and extraordinary function independently, making use right from the start of the state financing which Italian law allows for the political parties and groups represented in Parliament: these funds were turned over entirely to Radio Radicale.

However, after the 1987 general election the state financing was used directly by the Party, and the cost of running Radio Radicale thus came to weigh mainly on this budget. There were two consequences: on one hand, the activities of Radio Radicale felt the effect of the financial crisis of the Party, which caused, above all, a reduction in investment that hindered its development; on the other hand, the expenses incurred by the Party to ensure the survival of Radio Radicale inevitably worsened the Party's financial crisis.

A vicious circle had been created, a situation that could only be resolved by extraordinary intervention.

Radio Radicale is unique in the broadcasting panorama of Italy and of Europe. It is a patrimony that the Radicals have always made available to everybody - institutions, citizens, or political forces. It has carried out this role without ever having counted on resources other than those given to it by the Party, except for contributions from private citizens and very limited income from advertising.

On the strength of these factors, during the course of 1990 the Party undertook action in Parliament, addressed at the senators and deputies of all the political groups, for the presentation of an "ad hoc" bill to award a one-off funding of 20 billion lire to Radio Radicale, as an "undertaking which carries out activities of general interest". The initiative met with complete success: first an absolute majority of deputies supported the bill, both in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, and then the law was approved at the beginning of August.

1.11. THE END OF THE FININCIAL CRISIS. THE AVAILABILITY OF NEW OPERATIVE CAPACITIES AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES.

The suspension (or rather the drastic reduction) of activities, the contribution of the law for Radio Radicale and income from agreements with third parties operating in the commercial field of local television were the factors which allowed the Party to overcome its dramatic financial crisis during 1990.

This was undoubtedly an important achievement, in many ways unexpected, at least in terms of the speed with which it was accomplished, although always supported by the hope and determination with which it was pursued. It was important for the political implications - both inside and outside the Party, obtained through the contribution not only of those who lent their commitment directly and assiduously, but also of all Radicals, members and supporters, whose contribution was given with and in the awareness of the political cost to be borne if the hope of overcoming the financial crisis was not to be disappointed.

A few figures will be sufficient to outline the scale of the achievement.

1.12. THE SCALE OF THE ACHIEVEMENT.

The total expenditure of the Party in 1990 was reduced by 35% (over 1.6 billion lire - 1,300,000 US dollars) with respect to the previous year. The income of the Party alone increased by more than 25% (over 1.3 billion lire - 1,050,000 US dollars). The accounts were therefore balanced on 31 December.

In addition to the debt built up in the previous year (almost three billion lire), the balance also takes account of the expenditure for the modernization of the new head offices in Via di Torre Argentina 76 (1.3 billion lire - 1,050,000 US dollars), purchased by the Party in 1988 (after negotiations which began in 1987), and of the expenditure for the development of the Agorà computer system.

This involved the purchase of premises, equipment and computer and communication facilities (Agorà allows "dialogue" in five different languages with vast areas of the world) which gave the Party new, more efficient and suitable operative capacities for the carrying out of its activities.

The Party thus began 1991 not only with greater operative capacity but also with a sound financial situation and an estimated five billion lire of income for the year, not including self-financing through membership fees and contributions. Furthermore, Radio Radicale was once again financially independent.

1.13. THE "NEW PARTY". "THE GULF WAR"

There was now an urgent need for a political project which would allow the Party to find out, on new bases, whether the capacity and the resources available would be able to to create the conditions for initiative and political struggle in line with the decision taken in Budapest: the necessity and the desire to become the first transnational political force. Two long and difficult years had passed since the Budapest Congress.

The report presented to the III Italian Congress, held in Rome in February 1991, and subsequently published in "Radical Newsletter" together with an illustration of the political project for 1991, outlined the state of the party at the beginning of the year, covering financial, political and organizational matters in great (and perhaps even excessive) detail.

It should be stressed at this point that the Italian Congress, the assembly of Italian Radicals, took place during one of the most dramatic events in the history of the last few years: the "Gulf War".

The Radical members of both the Italian and the European Parliaments had already taken up a clear position in August 1990, before events came to a head, asking the UN Security Council and the European Community to decide, in compliance with the powers given by resolution 678, to put into effect a strategy of nonviolent action by means of a powerful and determined campaign to inform the Arab and international public, in defence of justice and peace, of the reasons that had led the UN to approve resolutions for the protection of the independence of Kuwait, denouncing above all the crimes perpetrated by the Baghdad regime against the Iraqi people.

This request aimed to bring about reactions within the Iraqi regime that would weaken and destabilize it until it would no longer be capable of aggression. The Radicals also proposed a Conference on individual rights, as well as an international agreement on the control of the arms trade, with the creation of an international register of sales of the principal arms systems.

The Radical initiative, however, did not bring the expected results, which could have led to a peacful resolution of the situation.

When the Italian Parliament, at the beginning of 1991, discussed the participation of an Italian military contingent in the "Gulf War", the Radical deputies took up different positions, all of them recognized as legitimate in the speech given by the Secretary of the Party on that occasion: each deputy represented himself or herself and was naturally free to express his or her opinion and vote accordingly.

Some expressed their support for intervention, for the affirmation of justice against the ferocious act of aggression, perpetrated, moreover, by a dictator and a regime that oppress the people of their own country. Others, although with different arguments from the so-called "opposition of the left" and from certain Catholic sectors, opposed the intervention, certain of the possibility of bringing about justice through a peaceful end to the conflict.

In this situation, the Party felt it necessary to point out the self-interest and the opportunism of those who, armed with violence and in the name of "biased pacifism", had ridiculed nonviolence and anti-militarism for decades, and discovered these very values only on this occasion, forgetting the fact that nonviolence is strength rather than weakness, and that it can and must be used against aggression and violence before conflict, in order to remove the causes of conflict, and also forgetting that nonviolence could not, as was claimed, emerge defeated from the "Gulf War", because it had never been used.

2.1 THE POLITICAL PROJECT FOR 1991

In this context, during the III Italian Congress the Party announced and illustrated the political project for 1991.

The mandate received from the Congress in Budapest placed particular stress on the attempt to involve the leaders, the exponents and the parliamentarians of other countries, beginning with the European countries, in the proposal and the political action of the transnational and transdivisional party, in order to establish a relationship capable of affirming a "new" political body in the institutions and, subsequently, amongst the people: a political force that would be able to overcome the increasingly clear division between science and power, between knowledge and the capacity of politics to take action.

As always in the decisions and the choices of the Party, the question of method was essential; the method for the achievement of the objective and the establishment of a relationship not only on the political project but also on common initiatives.

Once the addressees had been identified, the relationship should not only link them to the Party, but also give rise to common transnational initiatives, with the aim of gathering support and active contributions in the various countries and thus of beginning a process of "democratic revolution", a revolution that would be liberal, socialist, federalist, environmentalist, and nonviolent.

The choice of method fell inevitably on written communication: a newspaper written in Italian and translated, impaginated and printed in many different languages, to be sent initially to parliamentarians in Eastern and Western Europe.

2.2 THE "PUBLISHING VENTURE", "THE NEW PARTY", AND "RADICAL NEWSLETTER".

The project thus began to take the form of a "publishing venture". In order to set up and organize the undertaking, to acquire the necessary means and instruments, it inevitably took some time, a period of a few months.

It was necessary above all to acquire the equipment for word-processing (in the Cyrillic alphabet, for example); to find a printer able to print in fifteen languages; to ensure that the deadlines for graphic layout and typesetting would be compatible with those for distribution and delivery; to carry out a thorough survey in Parliaments and other destinations in order to identify and check on the most suitable means of distribution and transport; to get hold of the names and addresses of the people to whom the newspaper would be sent, to program them on computer disk, and establish a method for the updating of address lists; then to choose the issues and themes, the proposals for action to be undertaken and inititiated, at the same time, in as many countries as possible; to select the editorial staff; to choose the graphic design; to organize checks on distribution; and to organize the framework and the technical and political management of replies and feedback.

The first issue of the newspaper "The New Party" came out in late May/early June. It was written in Italian, translated into fourteen languages, and sent to 40,000 parliamentarians and a further 250,000 addressees in more than forty different countries.

It was discovered that there was an urgent need to respect a strict production plan in order to render the time necessary for technical operations compatible with the speed of political and current events.

Five more issues of the newspaper have since been published: the second issue came out in July, the third at the end of August, the fourth at the end of October, and the fifth (a 24-page issue, together with a letter addressed personally to all the parliamentarians to whom the newspaper is sent) at the end of January 1992. The first announcement of this Congress was also made in the fifth issue. The sixth issue was sent to more than seventy countries at the end of March: if we take into account the time necessary for distribution, it is clear that this issue is currently being received and read (1).

In view of this Congress, we also produced three issues of "Radical Newsletter", which were sent to over 70,000 addressees. These were translated into eleven languages, and followed the ten ordinary issues already sent out in 1991 (translated into nine languages and sent to around 25,000 people).

The commitment to the newspaper, in line with the decisions taken, was undoubtedly the predominant commitment for the Party during 1991 and has been so for the first few months of 1992: one third of the Party's full-time staff (thirteen people) have been involved in the writing, editing and organization; more than a third have been occupied with the newspaper for more than half of their time. The total expenditure for the six issues produced and distributed so far amounts to 2.8 billion lire (2,250,000 US dollars) in direct costs (staff and outside services), which was 50% of the Party's total income for the year.

However, the work of the Party on the political project for 1991 is not limited to the production of the newspaper alone.

2.3 ACTION IN THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Another essential area of activity was the consolidation and strengthening of the direct action undertaken in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with the contribution of those comrades who through their presence furthered and intensified activity in these countries during 1991. Activity, in fact, was extended from Moscow to the other Republics of the ex-Soviet Union, and to Romania and Bulgaria, and was continued in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and, with a particularly significant intensification, in Croatia and in other Republics of the ex-Yugoslavia.

It is clear that there is a close link between these two areas of activity, just as it is clear that they influence each other and the results achieved.

The project for 1991 was also characterized by other initiatives relating to issues and themes which have long been the object of the Party's attention and action, or which originated and developed from events or circumstances that were independent of the project but that could be relaunched and supported in and by the project.

2.4. THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY THE YEAR 2000

The first opportunity came about on the occasion of the attempted coup in the Soviet Union.

The "Campaign for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the World by the Year 2000" began, in fact, in August of last year, after the failed coup in what was then the Soviet Union. Since then it has taken on two directions: a "parliamentary" direction and an "worldwide" direction.

Over 620 parliamentarians and government members from all over the world, together with hundreds of well-known cultural figures and Nobel Prize Winners, have signed the appeal addressed by the Radical Party to the Soviet authorities, asking them to offer an example of tolerance and civilized justice with regard to the fate of the coup-leaders - an example aimed also at the West, to those democratic countries which still maintain the death penalty (2).

The resignation of Gorbachev, the disintegration of the USSR, and the uncertain birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States inevitably altered the "itinerary" of the "campaign", which was to be as follows: February, in Moscow, delivery of the manifesto-appeal signatures; April, in Rome, the first world parliamentary Congress for the constitution of the "League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty".

Following these events, we made a request to Yeltsin for a meeting for the handing-over of the signatures of the manifesto-appeal.

However, the nature of what we have defined "World Parliamentary Campaign for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by the Year 2000" has not altered, and nor has the final objective: an emendment to the Charter of Human Rights, or rather an ad hoc Declaration by the United Nations affirming the right of every person not to killed for any reason by the laws or by the decisions of any public authority or authority recognized by the UN.

A number of indications have recently emerged from the work carried out: parliamentary actions (motions, discussions of foreign policy, etc.) to persuade governments to ratify the international pro-abolition treaties, with the aim of promoting an international law against the death penalty; the development of strategies for the gradual withdrawal of the jurisdiction of national courts over certain types of conduct and certain categories of individuals (for example: coups d'état, international trafficking in drugs or arms, serious environmental crimes, minors), and to assign the authority for these cases to international legal organs; the possibility that the UN Human Rights Commission should look into death penalties pronounced by national courts; the promotion of regional agreements in Africa, where there is no Convention against the death penalty, to be undertaken by those countries which have abolished the death penalty or which have not used it for many years.

One decisive direction is a campaign aimed at the United States and the countries of the ex-Soviet Union, due to their role and their weight in the international community.

Partly for this reason, in recent weeks we have conducted a Campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the Ukraine, beginning with the case of Oleg Makoveckij, a prisoner sentenced to death, whose mother wrote to us asking us to intervene.

The abolition of the death penalty, in a country which belonged to what was until recently considered to be the "Evil Empire", would be an example of tolerance and civilised justice which would necessarily have to be faced up to, especially by the United States: with regard to the United States, our action must be all the more determined to the extent that we acknowledge its founding priciples of liberty, justice, and political democracy.

If we are against and fight in every case against the death penalty, it is all the more true that we cannot tolerate the execution in the United States of minors, the mentally handicapped, and pregnant women, banned even in the majority of countries which maintain the death penalty.

A resolution for the abolition of the death penalty in those countries which still maintain it was approved by the European Parliament on 13 May 1991, on the basis of a report by Adelaide Aglietta, President of the Green Group and member of the Federal Council of the Radical Party.

The resolution is important for at least three reasons: it affirms the principle that no state can decide on the life of its own citizens or of other people who may be within its territory, by allowing the death penalty as a punishment for crimes, however serious; it declares the commitment of the European Community to work everywhere for the abolition of the death penalty to be a legitimate duty; it asks the bodies and the states of the European Community to work within the UN to obtain a deliberation for a general moratorium on executions and to develop its foreign policy and its economic agreements and co-operation policy considering the abolition of the death penalty to be a fundamental condition.

The proposed order of proceedings for this Congress includes a Commission with the task of identifying and discussing the objectives for the furthering of this campaign, and of defining the stages in the path towards the constitution and the organization of a "World Parliamentary League" devoted to this important battle.

2.5. TWO SESSIONS OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL: THE FIRST IN ROME, THE SECOND IN ZAGREB AS CROATIA IS SUBJECT TO SERBIAN ATTACKS

The need to carry out an initial check on the results obtained in and by the Party with the resumption of activities and the beginning of the political project led to the convocation of the Federal Council, which had not met since January 1990, immediately after the assumption of "statutory powers".

Although lacking real powers of decision as a result of this event, the Federal Council is the most suitable and effective means of carrying out such a check.

In the meantime the Yugoslavian crisis had worsened: the Slovenian question had been solved satisfactorarily, only to be followed by the attacks on Croatia. As a result two sessions of the Federal Council were held, the first in Rome in September, and the second in Croatia itself, in Zagreb at the end of October.

The first session showed the positive results of the newspaper project. In particular, the non-Italian members of the Federal Council offered relevant contributions on the content, the structure and the organization of the newspaper, and also for the first time showed through their intense participation in the proceedings, and through their suggestions, their awareness that they belong to the Party, that they are part of it. They contributed in a significant manner to the discussion of the path to be followed in the attempt to constitute a transnational and transdivisional force.

2.6 SUPPORT FOR THE RECOGNITION OF CROATIA. THE NONVIOLENT INITIATIVE ON THE WAR FRONT

It was on this occasion that Marco Pannella announced his nonviolent initiative for the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Croatia and of the other Republics and autonomous regions of the ex-Yugoslavia (including Kosovo), a request made through democratic channels and subsequently ratified by the positive outcome. The initiative also aimed to guarantee conditions of democracy and the respect for the rights of citizens and minorities thoughout Yugoslavia, and therefore also in Serbia.

With the presence of authoratative exponents from Croatia (including Zdravko Tomac, Vice-President of the Government), from Slovenia (including Zoran Thaler, Deputy Foreign Minister) and from Kosovo (including Shelzen Maliqi, President of the Socialdemocratic Party), all of whom were members or became members of the Party, the Federal Council thus marked the beginning of an action which enriched its activity and provided the political project with greater strength and coherence.

This action was also at the origin of the positions taken up by Radical parliamentarians in the European Parliament and in the national assemblies of a number of Central and Eastern European countries, on the basis of the motion approved by the Federal Council.

The initiative aimed, on one hand, to try to dispel the indifference and the cynicism of the Western governments - of the Italian government, for example - and to focus attention on the urgent need to recognize the independence of Croatia and to obtain commitment on the necessity to put an end to the aggression of the Yugoslav federal army of Milosevic. On the other hand, it anticipated forms of unarmed intervention aimed at bringing both parties together in a climate of democracy and tolerance.

The most important moments of this initiative were the second session of the Federal Council in Zagreb and later, at the end of the year, on the front in Osijek.

In Zagreb the proceedings of the Federal Council took place in the presence of and with the active participation of many members of government, some of whom joined the Party (these include Franjo Greguric, the President of the Council), and with the participation of the EEC Commissioner Carlo Ripa di Meana and the Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire Corrigan (who both joined the Party), as well as forty parliamentarians, from ten different countries, belonging to the Radical Party.

Support for the independence of Croatia and of the other Republics and autonomous regions of the ex-Yugoslavia was also given, as I mentioned above, through a number of nonviolent initiatives. Marco Pannella and other Radical deputies and activists conducted several hunger strikes for weeks at a time.

In December, after the demonstrations held at Maastricht on the occasion of the European Community summit, Pannella announced his intention to turn the nonviolent hunger-strike initiative into direct nonviolent action on the Croatian front in Osijek, the Croatian city that had been beseiged for months, with 3,500 people wounded and 650 killed (half of them civilians). At the end of the year, Pannella went to the front at Osijek together with Radical deputies (Cicciomessere, Strik Lievers, Tessari) and activists (Bertè, Dupuis, Fiorelli, Ottoni, and Pinezic), wearing the uniform of the Croatian army, the uniform of the victims of aggression, in order to perform unarmed service in defence of justice and democracy. In the spirit of Ghandi, and as believers in nonviolence, for unlike the pacifist, in the face of clear aggression the believer in nonviolence cannot remain neutral, but takes sides and supports those who work for a reduction of violence and the safeguard of justice, in the spirit of dialogue -

in this case with the Serbian soldiers forced to assassinate and to be assassinated.

Finally, it is worth remembering that the Federal Council also provided the opportunity to announce (in Rome) and illustrate (in Zagreb) the Party's decision to take part directly, in Italy, in the "Campaign for the nine referendums against the partycratic system" and for the reform of the electoral system.

The decision stemmed from the awareness of the necessity to consolidate and increase the Italian contribution to the political project and to the efforts to constitute the "New Party".

2.7. ANTI-PROHIBITIONISM WITH REGARD TO DRUGS: A STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY AND DEMOCRACY

In the meantime, in December, the European Parliament Committee of Inquiry into the spread of organized crime related to drugs trafficking in the member states of the European Community approved a resolution which lays the bases for a profound reform of the policies on drugs which have been pursued and supported up to the present day by the national parliaments of the Community.

This success was the result of the action undertaken by Marco Taradash who, with the contribution of representatives of the Green Group, the Socialist Group and the PDS, managed to place the reporteur, the Irish Christian Democrat Cooney, in the minority.

According to the resolution, it is necessary to carry out an examination of the costs and benefits of the policy pursued up to the present by the national parliaments of the Community, on the basis of data ranging from the spread of delinquency to the overcrowding of courts, from the spread of AIDS and the risks of overdose amongst addicts to the incidence of corruption in politics and in the economy.

The conclusion is that a new policy must be developed on the basis of the following criteria: "the possession of drugs for personal use should not be considered a crime" and "assistance to drug addicts should not be hindered by penal laws". Controlled administration of drugs, free distribution of syringes, and the use of substitute drugs such as methadon and temgesic are recommended. At the same time the Committee proposes, in order to eliminate the recycling of income from drugs trafficking, a study of the means to prevent the accumulation of such profits through the regulation of the trade in what are now prohibited substances.

The resolution is an important step forward towards a new policy in this field, in which the Radical Party has been active for many years, in Italy and in other countries, with all the available means: cultural and scientific means, information, and especially political action. In Italy, for example, the Party proposed a referendum on drugs policy and, on the occasion of the general elections, the Radicals present in the "Lista Pannella" gave firm support to anti-prohibitionism.

Once again, the Radicals and the Radical Party have understood before anyone else in the world that drugs policies have become one of the decisive battlegrounds in the struggle between opposing conceptions of the State. Either laicism or moralism, the rights of the individual or bureaucracy, civil liberties or the dramatic spread of crime, justice and legality or oppression and authoritarianism, equal relations between states or new forms of colonialism. For this reason, since it is democracy that is at stake, the Radical Party continues to ask for the support of men and women of national parties and international bodies and organizations, and of well-known figures from the world of science and culture, in order to develop a wide-reaching campaign of truth, liberation, and tolerance.

It is, therefore, with great joy and satisfaction that we welcome the request made by the International Anti-Prohibitionist League (whose President is the Canadian criminologist Marie Andrèe Bertrand, a member of the Radical Party) to become a federated association.

On this issue, too, the proposed order of the proceedings of the Congress includes the constitution of a Commission.

2.8. THE POLITICAL UNITY OF EUROPE AFTER THE MAASTRICHT DECISIONS

Since the Budapest Congress, the European Community has also changed, as was inevitable. The famous, almost mythical "1992 objective" for the realization of the internal market has revealed its true nature, that of a "king with no clothes" - a poor object in the face of the challenges that lay ahead of Europe.

What was actually necessary was the following: on one hand, to render the institutions, the structures and the working methods of the Community suitable for the requirements of federalism, democracy, politics, political action, and subsidiarity, aspects that could no longer be delayed, as had already been shown, for example, by the vast majority of Italians who voted in favour of constituent powers for the European Parliament in the June 1989 referendum promoted by the Radical Party and the federalists: and, on the other hand, to provide an adequate response to those who have applied for membership of the European Community, the basis for the return of democracy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The failure, up to the present, to respond to the second of these demands has had a strong influence on the response to be given to the first.

In this context, the "Maastricht" agreements were negotiated and concluded last December. We Radicals were there, more than two hundred of us, to demonstrate our opposition to the expected results, which went against the great project of Altiero Spinelli and of the Radicals, against what little the European Parliament was asking for: a single Community framework, and therefore common policies on foreign affairs and security, regulated by normal inter-institutional dynamics; the democratic legitimization, with powers of joint decision, of the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament; the democraticization of the working methods of the Community; an Executive responsible to the Parliament; a wider role for the regions and the full adoption of the principle of subsidiarity; an expansion of common policies, above all policies for the protection of the environment and for citizienship of the Community; a policy of solidarity with both the East and the South of Europe.

Maastricht did not give a single positive response, apart from the occasional "mistake", such as the elementary transnational principle of the right of all citizens to stand and to vote in local and European elections in all the countries of the Community: a Radical battle which became Italian law in 1989.

The logic of intergovernmental decision-making prevailed over the logic of federalism; national interests over the interests of real integration; the continuation and the extension of the current lack of democracy; the postponement to 1996, which is still not a final date, of the redistribution of powers within the organs of this new "object" which they have called "European Union".

Against the flood of optimism poured forth by almost all the governments and by the mass media, we denounce the political and juridical monster which was created at Maastricht. As applications for membership arrive from many countries, and as we have become the reference point for the future structure of Europe, we cannot fail to provide ourselves with a suitable institutional framework.

However, in the face of a situation which is continually changing, it is not easy to identify the most suitable political actions: we hope that the Congress and the Commission on this subject will be able to make useful suggestions both on the overall political context and on the concrete initiatives to be undertaken.

We believe, however, that a dual and contemporary action is necessary, to be carried out both within the European Community and outside, in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

As far as the Community is concerned, the debate which has already begun in many countries on the ratification of the Maastricht treaty - although the treaty is so disappointing - continues to demonstrate the complete lack of the political will necessary to further the process of European unity, thus accelerating the economic decline of Europe.

For this reason, despite the great difficulty of the task, we believe it is necessary to relaunch the idea of the political unity of Europe by means of a vast federalist campaign.

The campaign, based both on action in the European Parliament and in national Parliaments and on activities involving the people, must aim to persuade the member states to assign the next European Parliament, which will be elected in 1994, with the task of drawing up a draft European Constitution within one year of its election, and to subject the draft Constitution to ratification by the national parliaments (or by means of a referendum, according to the constitutional requirements of each country), without first holding a diplomatic Conference.

The task is undoubtedly not easy, but there is now one factor which can help us: the German government and Chancellor Kohl - although without the necessary force - suggested at Maastricht that economic union should go hand in hand with political union. We should try, also by referring to this view, to persuade the majority of the twelve countries to follow this political line.

As regards action outside the Community, in the countries of Central Europe, the ex-Soviet Union and the ex-Yugoslavia, we must immediately organize a new European political force, a federalist, transdivisional, transnational, democratic movement to direct the new states to forms of aggregation that, taking into account the situation in each country, can constitute the basis for the realization of a pan-European Union.

Will the Radical Party manage to become strong enough to help transform the Community into a democratic Federation and create the conditions for the realization, as soon as possible, of the "Great Europe"?

This is one of the challenges we must meet if we do not want Europe to be a vain hope for millions of people who are looking towards it after decades of "real Communism".

2.9. THE PROBLEM OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND THE RIGHT TO ONE'S OWN LANGUAGE

It is no coincidence that we have decided to examine in the same Commission the vital issue of the political unity of Europe and the question of international communication and, in particular, the "right to language" of those who, in pursuing the objective of political unity, do not want to give up their own independence, including cultural, linguistic and ethnic independence. With the prospect, above all, of European unity open to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which are threatened by the dangers related to nationalism and ethnic problems.

This premise gives rise to the Party's interest in Esperanto.

Members of the Radical Party who study and use Esperanto have been trying for years, at our Congresses, to raise attention and interest on this question, without obtaining any concrete results. The decision to create a transnational force has, however, changed the situation.

At the Budapest Congress, Pannella already began to mention the subject, but it is the political project and the newspaper that have highlighted the positive results of the activity carried out in the meantime by the Radical Esperanto Association and by the comrades who are committed to this cause.

The transnational and transdivisional Radical Party is receiving a wider and wider response from speakers of Esperanto, both from official associations and individuals.

In July 1991, the World Esperanto Congress was held by UEA (Universala Esperanto-Associo) in Norway. The two thousand delegates present were given the first issue of the newspaper, and an official meeting was held between Radicals and the leaders of the Association.

This marked the beginning of a profitable relationship with the UEA, which carries articles and interviews about the political project of the Radical Party in its publications. Two issues of the newspaper have since been translated into Esperanto and sent to around 8,000 people: the response was significant, also in terms of the number of people who have joined the Party.

We cannot hide the political importance of this new aspect of the Party's activity.

There has never been, for example, a multicultural and plurilingual Federation of countries which has not had an official language. It seems safe to say that if English were chosen, in the case of Europe, it would suffocate and gradually destroy all the other European languages, as has happened in the past with other politically hegemonic languages.

A planned and neutral language - and Esperantists claim that only Esperanto is ready for this purpose - could ensure that everyone is on the same level, also preventing the political domination of the United States over Europe, without placing the English-speaking world at a considerable advantage. It also seems fair to say that Esperanto is easy to learn, a quality that would avoid inequality between the rich and the poor. Finally, since it is nobody's mother tongue, nor the vehicle of a particular culture, it would not lead to the destruction of the languages spoken today and the related cultures.

The question is thus closely related to the aim of European unity, in that no language has ever become an international language due to its merits, but always for political reasons. For this reason the European Federation, which cannot fail to adopt as a guiding principle the defence of the linguistic and cultural differences of the people who are part of it, or who will be part of it, is an essential political condition if we are to argue the cause of Esperanto and verify its functional capacities.

The problem, therefore, has to be faced, and deserves attention and further consideration.

2.10. THE ILLUSION OF THE MILITARY ROAD TO SECURITY. THE RADICAL PARTY CAMPAIGN FOR "PEACE TECHNOLOGY" FOR THE SOUTH OF THE WORLD.

More than one year after the Gulf War, hopes of controlling and reducing the international arms trade seem to have faded. Two summits of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the USA, Russia, France, Great Britain and China), held in July and October of 1991 to consider this question, came to almost nothing.

In the course of the last year, China has continued to resist American diplomatic pressure for a reduction of its arms and military technology exports. There has been news not only of the sale of Chinese conventional weapons, but also of missile carriers and, what is worse, of nuclear technology, to countries like Iran and Algeria. The Chinese regime recently even went so far as to defend the North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung in his quest to become a nuclear power. Nor does it seem probable that China will adhere in the near future to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Arms, despite the fact that last summer it announced its intention to adhere.

For its part, Russia has considerably slowed down the process of reconversion of industry into civilian sectors: it is selling its excess military supplies at vastly reduced prices on the international market (Iran, once again, is amongst the purchasers) and seems to want to solve its dramatic economic problems by relaunching the sale of arms to foreign countries.

In the civil war in the ex-Yugoslavia, where the United Nations embargo was too late and ineffectual, there rapidly developed a sort of race to supply the various sides with weapons, a race which involved all those countries with an excess of arms supplies (from Libya to the former Warsaw Pact countries).

In short, the illusion of the military road to security is still prevalent, as is shown, for example, by the ambition of the Ukraine to create an army of more than 400,000 men.

These trends, if they continue, threaten to bring about the failure of the internationally co-ordinated efforts to control supplies: in fact it is only necessary for one country not to respect the rules of the new game to destroy all the collective efforts and cause a return to the old dictum "if I don't sell arms, then my neighbour will".

We tried, during the course of 1991, to take action at international level on this issue, with the aim of promoting an "international regime of non-proliferation of conventional weapons and military technology". Last May, with Emma Bonino, the President of the Party, as the first signee, the Italian Chamber approved by a large majority a motion committing the Italian government to work for the creation of an "international regime, or alternatively a cartel of arms-producing countries, to prevent the sale to developing countries of the major conventional arms systems and, in particular, of the means of mass destruction, as well as the technology and the components necessary for their production".

Considering the situation of the world, it is both necessary and politically indispensable to resume this battle with force and vigour in as many Parliaments as possible: we cannot hope that Governments will manage to adapt the speed and the breadth of their decisions to the gravity of the world situation if they are not urged to do so by the people and by elected representatives.

In other words, we have to find new forms of collaboration between the North and the South of the world: collaboration in which military exports are replaced systematically by the sale of civilian technology and financial aid to underdeveloped countries.

This issue, and even more so that of the environment, were not developed in the expected manner in the political project for 1991.

The main reason for this shortcoming was the lack of human resources available, and willing, to follow up the task we had set for ourselves. The reason was definitely not a lack of arguments or possibilities for political initiative and action. These issues, in fact, are amongst the most important in the life of the Party, and have constituted a distinctive part of its history of action.

3.1. THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE PARTY

Friends and comrades, the aim of the first two sections of this report was to bring you up to date with three years of the Party's activity (and non-activity).

It is a long and boring task, especially for those who have to listen to or who choose to read the report.

It is a task, however, which I (and we) have never wished to avoid in the past four years, despite the fact that many people have often pointed out the "administrative", often repetitive nature of the report, the subdued tone, with too many figures and details: in short, the fact that it is "bureaucratic" and hardly, or not at all political.

Personally, I believe that it is essential to report on what has been done and what has not been done, giving a thorough "reckoning" of the significant stages of the actions undertaken and the activity carried out. And, as far as possible, explaining the reasons, the methods, the weight and the significance of all our activity.

An organism such as a party, its existence, its values, its capacities for analysis and judgement, for initiative and political statement, cannot be separated from and cannot fail to be matched to the energies and resources gathered together, available and ready to use, and the methods used and the procedures adopted to organize and manage them.

In this "reckoning" there is an implicit formal respect for others, for those who have the right and the duty to know in order to evaluate, judge, and decide.

Dear friends, as we have of our own choice decided that our responsibilities have come to an end, it is now the responsibility of you who have been called to this Congress to evaluate, choose and decide, in a situation of full, reacquired "sovereignty".

How could you carry out this responsibility, how could you relate our situation, the "state of the Party", to "politics", and to the general and specific situations that you - and we - will have to face up to, if you do not have exhaustive information and data?

It is not, therefore, a matter of "bureaucratic formality", but - in my opinion - of essential aspects and terms to ensure and maintain a relationship in the Party that is not only correct but also effective, that is a guarantee of debate and democratic vitality: conditions that are necessary to our work and that we must not give up.

No-one forced any deadline on us for the convocation of this Congress.

The deadlines imposed by the Budapest motion are political and regard the constitution of the "New Party", the transnational and transdivisional party, and the verification of the existence and the practicability of the capacities for operation, initiative, and political action required for the achievement of this objective. It would not have been acceptable if we, having chosen freely to convene the Congress to respond to requirements and evaluations of a political and not a "statutory" nature, had not carried out the duty of providing you with the "reckoning" of these three years.

3.2. ANALYSIS OF A NUMBER OF PARAMETERS.

MEMBERSHIP FIGURES.

There are a number of parameters that can help in the analysis of the current situation of the Party.

Membership figures and the composition of the Federal Council, and more generally the response so far to the "political project" and, in particular, to the newspaper.

Four months after the start of the 1992 membership campaign (this year the campaign began in January, two months later than in the previous two years), we now have more members than at the end of both 1990 (4,267) and 1991 (4,293).

These results could be considered to be comforting if they were not the consequence of one positive factor - the number of members in other countries - and two negative factors - the number of members in Italy and the overall scale of the results, which are nowhere near the tens of thousands of members, the dimension which is the "technical condition" necessary to guarantee the existence of the transnational and transdivisional Party.

In Italy there are still fewer than 2,000 members, 1,000 fewer than at the end of 1990 and 1,300 fewer than at the end of 1990. Almost 600 fewer than at the end of the first three months in both the last two years, despite the contribution of the III Italian Congress and the convocation of the 36th ordinary Congress. Negative effects may have been caused this year by the postponement of the membership campaign to after the Christmas and New Year holidays, when an extra month's salary is paid, and the election campaign, which we have always seen in the past to bring about a reduction in new members. These are not enormous figures, and would not be worrying if our aim was, once again, to reach a figure of 3,000 members: however, we all know that this is not the result we need.

In Italy, too, the dimension and the objective to be reached are different, both very far from the current results.

On the other hand, the membership campaign in other countries, in Central and Eastern Europe, has seen significant and undoubtedly positive results: there are now almost 3,000 members, more than twice the total reached at the end of 1990, twice the total reached at the end of 1991. In Budapest, in 1989, there were 10 members from the USSR, whilst the objective set in Bologna, more than four years ago, was for a total of 3,000 members "from countries other than Italy".

In the Republic of Russia alone there are more than 1,200 members, 200 in Moscow alone, and including members from the other Republics of the ex-USSR the figure reaches over 2,000. There are members in all the other 14 Republics of the ex-USSR: almost 500 in the Ukraine, over 160 in Azerbaijan, 50 in Byelorussia, 35 in Latvia, more than 70 in Kazakistan, and 40 in Uzbekistan.

Members in the ex-Soviet Union come mainly from two sectors: on the one hand factory workers and agricultural workers (317) and students (265), and on the other hand teachers (172) and "representatives of the liberal professions" (409).

There are a total of 30 parliamentarians in the Republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in Georgia, and 8 in the Baltic countries.

This is in many ways a significant result, not entirely expected, although very much hoped for.

There are 105 members in Romania: amongst these, 41 parliamentarians are the result of a situation that to some extent seems to be paradoxical. In fact, the membership campaign amongst parliamentarians was initially boosted by the campaign of misinformation and denigration carried out by nationalistic newspapers and by democratic newspapers, including "Free Romania", with respect to Radical Party action, and by the attacks by the press on those parliamentarians who joined the Party.

In the last few months we have started activities in Bulgaria, where 29 parliamentarians have so far joined, and in Albania, where there are 9 members.

As you know, since 1989 Budapest - in relation to the political initiative which led to the 35th Congress - has been an important reference point, initailly for the co-ordination of activities in Central and Eastern Europe. In Hungary there are 35 members in 1992, including only one parliamentarian.

In Czechoslovakia the mobilization of Radical activists for the recognition of Croatia and the initiative for the abolition of the death penalty (supported by ministers and leading parliamentarians, as well as by President Havel) have demonstrated the credibility of the Radical Party in this country. The members in 1992 number 75, including a vice-minister and ten parliamentarians.

In the Republics and the Regions of the ex-Yugoslavia 247 people have joined the Party in 1992. As well as the Croatian Prime Minister, Franjo Greguric, his deputy Zdravko Tomac, and the last President of Yugoslavia, Stipe Mesic, 43 parliamentarians have joined the Party.

These results contrast strikingly with the figures for the countries of Western Europe: not including Italy, there are fewer than 50 members, including 2 Swiss parliamentarians, one member of the House of Lords, and a Spanish member of the European Parliament.

We will deal below with this aspect of the membership campaign, which unfortunately shows how the worlds of culture and politics in these countries are not able to oppose the restrictions imposed by the powers of the national state bureaucracies. In other continents, too, the figures are rather modest, with the exception of Burkina Faso, where a recognized Radical Association has been active, thanks to the work of Basile Guissou, for some time, and of the Ivory Coast, where two parliamentarians have joined the Party.

The distribution of the newspaper and the interest shown by speakers of Esperanto have produced modest, though significant results in a number of countries in Asia and South America.

3.3. THE COMPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL

As you perhaps already know, during these years, even after the assumption of statutory powers, the Federal Council has maintained its vital function in guaranteeing a link and a meeting place between the Party and its leading and most authoritative members. In order to make this function more profitable, we have followed the criterion that was established by the Budapest Congress: members of the Federal Council elected or designated by the Congress are also joined by all new members of the Party who sit in the parliamentary assemblies of their own countries.

At present there are 279 members of the Federal Council, 207 of whom are parliamentarians.

Of the 72 non-parliamentarians: 35 were elected by Congress (17 from Italy and 18 from other countries); 32 are members by right in that they have served on the executive organs of the Party - secretaries, treasurers, members of the secretariat or of executive bodies (26 from Italy and 6 from other countries); 5 have been designated by recognized Radical Associations (Co.R.A. - the Radical Anti-Prohibitionist Association; A.R.Co.D. - the Radical Association for the Democratic Constituent and the Reform of Politics; A.R.E.D.A. - the Radical Association for Justice in Africa, based in Burkina Faso; E.R.A.-CO.D.I.C.E. - Esperanto Radikala Asocio-Committee for the Democratic Cultural Integration of Europe; the Satyagraha Group).

Of the 207 parliamentarians, 32 are Italian and 175 are citizens of 29 other countries.

This figure represents a "parliamentary group" larger than that of the Communist Party in the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the last legislature, and larger than that of the Christian Democrat Party at present.

The Italian members of the Federal Council include two ministers and eight parliamentarians from the Socialist Party, two from the Left Democratic Party, five from the Green Party, two from the Valdotain Union, one Republican, five from the "Lista Pannella", and five members and one commissioner of the European Parliament.

The members of the Federal Council from other countries include exponents of almost 80 different national parties. In particular: one vice-minister and ten parliamentarians from Czechoslovakia; two parliamentarians from Bosnia Hercegovina; the President and the Vice-President of the Government and 30 parliamentarians from Croatia; the President of the dissolved Parliament of Kosovo; two parliamentarians from Serbia; a vice-minister and a deputy from Slovenia; seven deputies from Macedonia; 41 deputies from Romania; 29 deputies from Bulgaria; 4 members of the ex-Supreme Soviet of the ex-Soviet Union; one deputy from Armenia; one deputy from Azerbaijan; 6 parliamentarians from Estonia; the Vice-Minister of Information from Georgia; one deputy from Latvia; one deputy from Lithuania; one deputy from Kazakistan; two parliamentarians from Kirghizistan; two deputies from the Ukraine; 18 parliamentarians from Russia; one deputy from Hungary; one deputy from the Ivory Coast; one parliamentarian from Israel; one

Swiss deputy; one Argentinian deputy; one member of the British House of Lords; one Peruvian deputy; one Polish deputy; one Venezuelan deputy; one member of the European Parliament of Spanish nationality.

Amongst the other well-known figures who have joined the Party, I would like to mention Mairead Maguire Corrigan, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978, and George Wald, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1967.

3.4. RESPONSE TO THE "POLITICAL PROJECT" AND TO THE NEWSPAPER

More than 2,000 letters have been received in response to the "political project" and to the newspaper: in various ways, they express interest not only in the newspaper, but also in the political initiative and the proposed transnational force.

The replies and the expressions of support are many and varied; however, in view of the importance of the "message, they can be linked together by a common denominator - political interest, sympathy, curiosity, the desire to understand more about the project. This response takes different forms: some of those who reply join the Party, the most simple and immediate response; some say that they would like to join, but cannot do so, usually because of the size of the membership fee or because of the supposed obstacle of membership of other parties; some express the desire to collaborate and spread the ideas of the Radical Party, to become part in some way of this "political undertaking".

The responses to the newspaper, what we call "returns", which on the surface are very varied in nature, are bound to provide "food for thought" and analysis - this is particularly true in view of the many and vastly different parts of the world to which it is sent, and the fact that the addressees, members of parliament, are hearing for the first time about the Radical Party and, in particular, about the "political project".

In this sense it is clear that economic and social conditions, and the level of participation in the life and the communication of areas outside the home nation, or even the home region, have a significant influence on the type of reaction and response. It was to be expected, therefore - although from our point of view it may not be justifiable or satisfying - that the poorer countries would provide a much wider response. In particular, the countries of the ex-Soviet Union, or those of Latin America". Every application for membership, and every letter, from these areas fills us with joy, not only because of the response in itself or because of the feeling of closeness with an unexpected interlocutor, but especially because the desire for information and the attempt to establish a relationship which could lead to common political initiatives are of consiserable importance.

The apparent and possible risk of "Euro-centrism" in a transnational organization has been sufficiently disproved in the last few months, if not in terms of great numbers of new members from outside Europe, then at least in the replies from other countries, a first, concrete sign of interest which bodes well for the future.

As an example of this interest, I think it is worth quoting a few lines from a letter written to us last November, by Wilfredo Alvarez Valer, a Peruvian deputy and now a member of the Radical Party, after he recieved a copy of "The New Party" that had been sent to his own party.

"In a world in which democracy is the only individual and collective instrument for ensuring peace, liberty and justice, to join forces to form a great libertarian and Socialist movement for nonviolence and for the environment requires a common effort from the inhabitants of our planet. Constant aggression against nature, the destruction of the environment, the survival of our children in an inhospitable and hostile world, the lack of relations between peoples, which prevents scientific and technological progress from being used for the benefit of mankind: these are the greatest obstacles in the path of a harmonious solution of the world's problems. As we are interested in a Radical political project in our country, we feel close to your initiative and would like more information on how to give our formal support to this unprecedented transnational proposal."

The campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the ex-USSR, the political publicity campaign in the local press, and the information activities in the parliaments of the Commonwealth of Independent States (rendered particularly difficult by the uncertainty and instability of the institutions) have produced a reaction, in terms of enrolments and interest displayed, of "returns", which, if analysed with systematic rigour, could demonstrate the measure of the political potential of a country that has been dominated by an absence of free communication and of the chance for civil and political debate.

Unemployed people who send the 25-rouble membership fee, factory workers who were members of the Communist Party, people who had never joined any political party and who have now joined the Radical Party, engineers, technicians, representatives of the liberal professions, journalists who offer to include news of the activities of the transnational Party in their newspapers: these, in short, are the people who have "listened" to our message and who may be the new protagonists of Radical political action.

There has been no lack of interest and replies from the countries of Central Europe, from Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, where, as well as support for the appeal for the abolition of the death penalty, there has also been a response from groups concerned with the issue of human rights, small anarchic groups and Esperanto associations.

Many of the "returns" have been characterized by the information campaign and the debate in the newspaper on linguistic federalism and, in particular, on the subject of Esperanto. The specific nature of the theme, its clear non-national connotation, and the selection of addressees (both individual Esperantists and Esperanto associations) have, as expected, produced many expressions of support from various parts of the world: this, however, is only partially reflected in terms of new enrolments in the Radical Party. The reason lies in the current disproportion between the almost total similarity of intentions amongst the Esperantists who write to us or get in touch with us and the transnational, federalist proposal of the Radical Party. It is not easy, in fact, to affirm the requirement of the Party to be an instrument of initiative and political struggle to which one gives support in order to promote one's own ideas, and not for its own value. However, an area of potential political initiative has undou

btedly been created and, we hope, is still not limited in its capacity for proposals of legislative changes and political action. There have been many replies from Esperanto associations and from individual members of international Esperanto organizations: both left-wing organizations and those which are not related to any political areas or parties. From the presidents of the Esperanto Associations of Latvia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, and from many French Esperantists. We believe that we have given an opportunity to Esperantists for positive political action, an opportunity which we should perhaps continue to offer.

Although there has been some negative response, the number of replies which manifest a lack of interest has been relatively small. Perhaps what is more worrying is the response that has not come. That is, the insufficient response from the Western countries and from parliamentarians in the "rich democratic world". There was, however, undoubtedly a lot of response from the Western parliaments to the "World Campaign for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by the Year 2000".

A surfeit of information and a lack of interest in forms of political proposal which are unusual, at least in method, which do not pass, that is, through the "national party bureaucracies", may have distracted attention in the West from our political project.

In the recent period under consideration, an analysis of "returns" from the newspaper points to a significant result - - the growth in the number of replies: in November the increase was of 49.17%, whereas in February and in the first half of March this figure had risen to 96.52% (as can be seen in the table attached - 3). For reasons of time, this result inevitably does not include all the areas of the world covered by the fifth and the sixth issues. One important fact to be considered, also for the future, is the high percentage of replies from the ex-USSR, due to the publicity campaign in "Komsomolskaya Pravda".

3.5. THE PARTY'S ACTION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

An illustration of the activities carried out directly by the Party in Central and Eastern Europe, which have accompanied and sustained the efforts made with the newspaper to spread awareness of the "political project", contributing to the achievement of the results obtained, will be given by the comrades who have been working in these areas for years: Marino Buschadin, Antonio Stango and Andrea Tamburi in Moscow, Olivier Dupuis and Massimo Lensi in Budapest, Paolo Pietrosanti in Prague, and Sandro Ottoni in Zagreb.

3.6. WHAT JUDGEMENT CAN WE GIVE ON THE "POLITICAL PROJECT"?

In the light of these parameters, which can be added to what was said before, what judgement can we give on the "political project", on the commitment and the energies we have dedicated, in the second half of 1991 and the first few months of 1992, to its realization?

It is worth remembering first of all that this project is addressed essentially to political forces and their exponents in the legislative assemblies of the whole of Europe.

I mentioned above that there are 175 parliamentarians from countries other than Italy who are members of the Party. Many of them are here to take part in these proceedings: we would like to thank them all and extend a warm and friendly welcome to them.

This is the first measure of an initial success which, together with the many and significant replies to the newspaper and the other initiatives undertaken during this period, confirms the fact that there are countries in Europe in which there is a strong feeling of the relevance and the usefulness of the transnational and transdivisional Party as a means and an instrument of political action, capable of integrating, extending, and strengthening the individual's sense of belonging to his own national party, and to whatever this allows him to achieve with regard to the problems of his own country.

On the other hand, the number of citizens who have joined the Party is also a sign of a wide and significant response. We are, however, aware that this response is still very far from the objectives which could constitute the real beginning of a process of the affirmation of the Party as such, made strong by the awareness of its function, also in the area of the support of militants and of a significant part of public opinion. In this sense we have often expressed the conviction that only though the comprehension, contribution and action of political forces and their exponents can this process be formed and developed in Europe and in other countries of the world.

For this reason it is worth stressing once again the value of the enrolment in the Party of parliamentarians, of their presence at this Congress and the contribution they can give to our debate.

It is also evident that the interest aroused by the project and by our initiative is concentrated in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The reasons seem to me to be clear: they stem, once more, from the validity of our political analysis, the positions we have taken up for years, the decisions we have taken and the use of our energies and our resources.

Although unheard, for many years we constantly stated the necessity of carrying out action with regard to the "Soviet Empire", with greater attention, in the name of the values of democracy and nonviolence, which would help to bring about and accelerate its "fall": we believed that it was necessary to leave behind mere ideological opposition, a cover for real and opposing interests and also, ultimately, the expression of a convenient and desired balance.

Our denunciation was not supported only by words, but also, as far as possible, by initiatives and direct action.

3.7. DIRECT ACTION IN EASTERN EUROPE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE POLITICAL EUROPE

We were the only ones to be arrested twenty years ago in Sofia, some of us were expelled for life from Prague, arrested in Turkey, in Moscow, in Warsaw, in Bucharest, and in Budapest. In the "Evil Empire", we tried for twenty years to inform, to "export" justice and democracy, we tried to defend the rights of the "refuzniks", of the oppressed minorities of the East.

Through our action in the European Parliament with regard to Yugoslavia, we indicated a path that could be followed to avoid the explosion of nationalism and civil wars. In 1978, Pannella was already affirming that the conquest of autonomy and of democracy, like the co-existence of an extraordinary number of nationalities, races and cultures, that the Yugoslavian constitution guaranteed to its citizens would sooner or later prove to be insufficient. Whilst the Western governments - France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy, for example - favoured the myths of "non-alignment" and of the "independence of the Yugoslavian nation", we alone were asking - in Trieste, in the Italian Parliament, and in the European Parliament - for the question of Yugoslavia to be considered as a problem of the European Community. We knew - and this is why we acted - that the salvation of the then federal Yugoslavian state could not come about in the face of the lack of interest of the European Community. Our political decision

to hold the XXXV Congress in Zagreb (the Congress which was then held in Budapest) was also part of this context: in the attempt, which we carried out with great constancy, to draw the attention of the political leaders and the public in Europe to the Yugoslavian problem.

Events, the civil war which is still raging, proved us right. And I say this with great sadness. The fault lay with the shortsightedness, perhaps the cynicism, of the European governments, forced by bureaucracy not to provide any response, to maintain privileged positions, to be in some ways irresponsible in the face of the crisis taking place. The fault, however, also lay - if I may be allowed to say so - with the failure of the transnational and transdivisional Radical Party to grow in the West: if we had had the strength, from the West, with thousands and thousands of members, parliamentarians and citizens, in France or Belgium, in Great Britain or Italy, then we could, with much greater power and authority, have played an active role in a moment when Eastern Europe was the scene of battles and of hatred and desperation.

We knew - and we said this in Budapest, when the Party had still not really tested itself "in the field" with respect to the exigencies and the aspirations of peoples, of the people, when it did not know what response its action would bring in Romania, in the ex-USSR, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in the Republics and Regions of the ex-Yugoslavia - that the construction of a political and democratic Europe was as vital for the countries of Eastern Europe as it was for those of the West. We knew that for the East there must not be an economically rich and protectionistic Europe which would base its relations with the poorer countries of the East on the exploitation of their workforces and on the conquest of their markets. We knew that only a politically integrated Europe, where the social and economic demands of the weaker regions can be supported at a parliamentary and legislative level, could guarantee a future in which there would be debate and tolerance amongst opposing interests.

3.8. THE CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE WORLD AND THE SITUATION OF THE "NEW PARTY"

In the light of these considerations in particular, it is necessary at this point to draw a balance, to evaluate the sense of the changes that have taken place in the world, which have profoundly affected us, too. Only in this context, clearly, is there any sense in expressing a judgment on the response so far to the political project of the transnational party of democracy, justice and nonviolence, and in defining the choices which the Congress is called on to make.

The three years that have passed since the Budapest Congress seperate two radically different epochs in the history of the world - an observation which is so evident that we almost risk forgetting it as something taken for granted. The Congress was convened and met when Central and Eastern Europe were still a bloc of Communist dictatorships, although already characterized by signs of tension that had once been unimaginable. The fact that it was possible to propose and to succeed in holding a Congress of a Party such as ours in one of the capitals of real Socialism was in itself felt as a sign of revolutionary change, an announcement of a new era which, however, we almost dared not hope for.

By forming a transnational force there, in Communist Budapest, in a hall decorated by the son of Rajik, the nonviolent Party of rights and liberty was offering itself as a place of political organization for those who intended, above and through frontiers, particularly those that separated East from West, to undertake a political battle to overcome dictatorship and bring about democracy in the whole of Europe, in view of a democratic United States of Europe. The transnational Party, born and developed in one of the countries of the West, represented in the European Parliament, and which aroused interest amongst clandestine democratic groups in the East, aimed to be and perhaps was able to be the go-between through which the nonviolent struggle for democracy against the dictatorsips of the East would draw political strength, influence, and prestige, including from the West. It was with this prospect, in the presence of the first signs of support amongst democrats in the Communist countries, and with the

use of this battle in a specific and profitable way to contribute to the constitution of the new transnational Party, that the idea developed at the Budapest Congress of concentrating the Radical energies mainly in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: with the intention of collocating the battle for democracy in the world of real Socialism in a transnational and European federalist dimension. However, nobody could imagine that this was the eve of the sudden collapse of this world: not even the Radical Party, naturally, although we had once again symbolically anticipated the events that were about to take place.

In a brief and tumultuous space of time, the whole situation has changed radically. The terms and the very concepts with which we were all accustomed to reading the political situation in many cases became meaningless, or acquired new meanings which are often difficult to come to terms with. We need only think of the end of the East-West, democracy-Communism opposition which was the foundation, the implicit premise of any balance, of any line of thought, of the most deeply-rooted political instincts and reflexes. And not only, we should note, in the sphere of international and foreign policy.

The very significance of the European federalist battle suddenly changed, after being for years the proposed structure of the West to counter the Soviet bloc. On a different level, there has been an end to the cultural hegemony over most of the left-wing forces in the world of those elements - with whom our relations have always been so difficult - that rejected and ridiculed the primacy of the ideas of individual rights and political democracy.

I could obviously continue at length on this subject, but I will restrict myself to one observation: the arduous task which we set for ourselves, the constitution of the transnational Party, the great transformation, also implied profound and varied changes. On one hand, it may well be said, the developments the world has seen prove us right: about that which we had always said and done with regard to the Communist culture, experience, and politics; about the value, also in countries of the Third World, and with respect to the fight for liberation and to progressive revolutions, of the values of political democracy and nonviolence: about the proposal for federalism and supernational politics (I will come back to this in a moment); and so on.

To what extent, however, were we capable of making the fact that we were repeatedly right count by making it a cause of political growth? Due to the collapse of the Communist regimes, the hypotheses that could be put forward about the possible role of the transnational Radical Party between East and West, and in the framework of the democratic fight against dictatorship, were evidently soon invalidated by events. It was no longer a case of adding an element of transnational breadth and representation, especially in the European Parliament court, to clandestine or illegal struggles against totalitarianism; the parliamentary force of the Radical Party, in Brussels and in Rome, would presumabily have already been capable of doing this effectively enough to promote and give credibility to the attempt to create the new transnational political force. What was now necessary was to contribute to directing and governing the transition to democracy, in the necessay transnational and European dimension; since - an

d this was immediately clear to us - in order to avoid the terrible dangers caused by a chaotic process of liberation in countries devastated by so many years of Communist oppression and misrule, it was necessary for Western Europe to rediscover its sense of collective political responsibility, and to understand that a vital common interest obliged us to find the means to govern the democratic transformation of the ex-Communist world together, the democracies of the West and the East, in a federalist framework, as a general European question. However, in order to play a significant role in this process, we needed to have much greater strength and credibility than we actually had, since we were only at the beginning, in the new democracies; above all - and the two aspects were obviously closely related - we needed a much greater capacity to influence the seats of power in Western Europe, to allow us, that is, to persuade the leaders of the European Community to take on the historical responsibilities that the

changes taking place in Eastern Europe placed before them.

If we add to this the circumstance which I referred to above - the fact that in order to solve the financial crisis of the Party we had to go through a long period of substantial suspension of activities - it is easy to understand the limits within which our political action was able to develop. In these conditions, in fact, it was probably not possible to do more than what we chose to do: that is, to use the resources available to promote the appeal for support for the attempt to form the transnational Party and create the conditions necessary to make it an effective instrument of political struggle; whilst at the same time, wherever and whenever it was possible, we tried to carry out initiatives that could at least demonstrate the potential role of a transnational Radical Party.

Now, however, we must overcome these limits; on one hand by evaluating the nature, the meaning and the potential of the response we have obtained, and on the other hand by considering the political challenges in the face of which the project for a transnational Party will have to prove the measure of its validity.

From this point of view, the first consideration is, as I mentioned above, that the Radical Party has become a truly transnational force; a force, however, which outside Italy has only developed in a significant manner in the countries that have recently overthrown dictatorships, where we have in many cases been joined by authoritative and prestigious figures, and not in the more advanced West. This is understandable if we consider the much greater "hunger" for new ideas and proposals that runs through the ex-Communist countries in comparison with the relatively settled and calm countries of the West; and also if we take account of the fact that the political action of the "New Party", as outlined above, has been able to develop above all in the countries of Eastern Europe.

3.9. THE RESPONSE TO THE RADICAL PROPOSAL IN THE POST-COMMUNIST DEMOCRACIES.

Our first consideration, from this point of view, is - as I have just mentioned - that the Radical Party has become a truly transnational force; a force, however, which outside Italy has only developed in a significant manner in the countries that have recently overthrown dictatorships, where we have in many cases been joined by authoritative and prestigious figures, and not in the more advanced West.

The most immediate and obvious explanations of this difference evidently lie first of all in the much greater "hunger" for new ideas and proposals that runs through the ex-Communist countries in comparison with the relatively settled and calm countries of the West, and in the fact that the membership campaign has been carried out above all in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

However, we cannot limit ourselves to these first elementary considerations. To some extent, in fact, the difference in the response to the Radical appeal can be read as a mirror of the current period of Europe's history.

In Central and Eastern Europe, the Radical proposal to create policies and institutions, in a transnational and supernational framework, for the protection of individual rights rings out as a challenge and a motive for hope on the very subject of the terrible mass of problems left by the collapse of Communism. It means, in fact, facing up to the great new development, which in many ways seems to be a return to the past, constituted by the powerful role being played once again by national and ethnic factors; and this in itself is an indication of the nature of the Communist tragedy. There can be no doubt about it: the powerful tensions around the claim for the right to national identity is a response to liberation from a system of brutal imperialist-colonialist oppression, very often also of the oppression of nations; this is where it draws its moral and political necessity and legitimacy. On the other hand, the form of development of this apparent return to the past, to national States and national valu

es, shows that times have changed irrevocably. The terrible conflicts which involve or threaten so many peoples in the ex-Communist world, the impossibility of resolving them without turning to elements of a superior supernational "order", the need for a great international effort to somehow govern the economic crisis in the ex-Communist countries, or to prevent the multiplication of dangers for the world (the question of the distribution of nuclear arms is perhaps the most striking example): these considerations, in addition to others that we could make, demonstrate more than ever the dramatic inadequacy of the system of national states in the face of the problems of our times. However, one factor which weighs on this scenario is the curse of the legacy of Soviet and Communist "proletarian internationalism": however much it was actually a negation of internationalist and federalist values and ideals, the Communist system of power legitimized itself on the basis of these very principles - in the USSR, in the

Warsaw Pact countries, and in Yugoslavia. This, it goes without saying, makes it impossible to re-propose any version of internationalism or federalism which does not take account of the insuppressible need for national liberation, and which is not a clear break with the past.

It is against this background that the response to the Radical proposal from the new post-Communist democracies and in particular from such significant sectors of their governing classes assumes its entire value. It is a sign of the deeply-felt need to build the new order without running the risks of a return to the ancient limits of national States and oppositions - the risks of ethnic conflicts, a return to authoritarian, nationalistic, and maybe even racist government, the dark dangers of war that such a return might create, and which in reality already loom over the present and the future. The support for the Radical proposal in those countries seems to me to stem from the awareness of the necessity and the possibility of an answer to the problems of transformation which is transnational and supernational, but which does not in any way tread the paths of the past. And the only proposal in this sense is that of the creation of laws and institutions at a supernational and European level for the safegu

ard of individual rights beyond single national States; in the framework of European federalism understood as an instrument for the creation of a democratic order and of supernational law, within which the right to national identity can be fully expressed.

It is clear that a proposal of this sort cannot be understood as regarding only the countries of the ex-USSR or the ex-Communist world: it is also meaningful - and here too it presents a sure guarantee that there will be no return to the hegemonies of the past - as a proposal addressed to the countries of Western Europe. As such, it involves the responsibilities of Western Europeans: individual States, the European Community, democratic forces, and those who claim to be European federalists. In some ways it is a challenge addressed to them; a challenge to become aware of the responsibilities which they bear, and which they cannot escape by pretending that they do not exist. And this is the context within which it is now necessary to consider the question of the presence of the Radical Party in the West.

3.10. THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF WESTERN EUROPEANS, OF INDIVIDUAL STATES, OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY, OF DEMOCRATIC FORCES, OF THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE EUROPEAN FEDERALISTS.

In this sense, the attention of the Radical Party towards the ex-Communist world is truly a sign and a reflection of the great challenge which faces us: to avoid the bleak alternative between the old Soviet "prison of peoples" and an unopposed return to the absolute primacy of national States, or rather to the triumph of tribalism in the political sphere.

However, for the reasons I mentioned above, this challenge cannot be considered as regarding only the ex-Communist countries themselves. It involves, as such, the responsibilities of Western Europeans: of individual States, of the European Community, of democratic forces, and of those who claim to be European federalists. It requires their involvement, just as it requires the involvement of the economically advanced West in the efforts to prevent the economic crisis of Eastern Europe from destroying both the hope for democracy and that of ensuring the governability of the world.

In some way, by the same yardstick, the very presence in the Radical Party of citizens from the ex-Communist countries is a "challenge" to Western Europeans: a challenge to become aware of the responsibilities which they bear, and which they cannot escape by pretending that they do not exist. On the other hand, the lack of response to the Radical proposal from Western Europe, with the exception of Italy, is a sign of the attitudes of this area towards the crucial period of transformation that we are witnessing.

The most evident characteristic of the Western European attitude is, in fact, a running-away from responsibilities. This is nothing new, certainly: it is, if anything, a confirmation of one of the constant features of the life of Europe in the last fifty years. Whether it was obligatory or not, whether it was conscious or not, this was in fact the choice made by Europe at the end of the Second World War, that is after the two European civil wars in 1914-18 and 1939-45 had destroyed its traditional role as the dominant power in the world: to delegate all political responsibility for the government of the world to the superpowers, to the USA in the case of Western Europe, accepting the role of permanent political minority. Over the decades Europe has always stuck to this choice. The evolution of this option is most clearly summarized in the history of the construction of the European Community: from the collapse of the DEC, of the attempt to create a political Europe that would inevitably have played a le

ading role in world politics, to the choice for an economic, commercial Europe with no political value.

The general upheaval brought about by the collapse of Communism and the disappearance of the Soviet Union has not only created the conditions for a change in this state of affairs, but has made such a change absolutely necessary. Europe's renunciation of a political role had a sense in the balance between the two superpowers. The end of this balance has also brought about the end of the "rules", the certainties, and the guarantees of security which, in its own way, it ensured. The USA, the only superpower, cannot exercise the role of "world government" on its own (without considering, here, the nature of US policies). The dangers of war, the opportunities for war, and the temptations of war are increasing. It is easy to see how much there is a need for a political Europe able and willing to contribute responsibly to the construction of an order of security and justice for all people, maybe by taking part in a redefinition of the role and the nature of the UN or of an organization like the CSCE. The rec

ent events in the ex-Yugoslavia, proof of the fact that war in Europe has now become a possibility and a concrete threat, would in themselves be enough to show how pressing this need is.

And yet this new situation and this new necessity have not yet been concretely understood in Europe. The old attitudes continue to dominate - the habit of thinking in the framework of each individual national State, and the attitudes and reflexes that have become rooted in the fifty years of "political delegation" to America. The "problem of Europe" has become a central political issue in many countries - not, however, in the sense of debate on the new responsibilities, but on the consequences for each country in the Community of the new economic framework outlined at Maastricht. Moreover, in many cases anxiety and lack of certainty - in the face of immigration, for example - result in isolationism and in appeals to tribal self-interest (the spread of ideas like those of Le Pen, for example), which are the exact opposite of the calls to assume responsibility that are actually needed. The most obvious political effect of this situation has been on one hand the inability of Western Europe to take on a sig

nificant role in the events in Eastern Europe, to prevent the extraordinary and unrepeatable opportunity represented by the collapse of Communism from turning into a disaster for all; and on the other hand the way in which the process of European integration has developed, with the outcome of Maastricht and the subsequent political debate of which I have already spoken. It is against this worrying background and, I repeat, as a symptom of this situation, that we should interpret the lack of response shown so far in Western Europe to the transnational proposal of the Radical Party. However, for this very reason it is all the more evident that it is essential to ensure a presence, a growth, and a spread of the new transnational political force in Western Europe too. If what I have said so far has any foundation, in fact, then it is vitally necessary for public opinion and political leaders in Western Europe to be urged towards a reawakening of awareness and conscience. The Radical Party could play a leadin

g role in this direction, by becoming the instrument, the channel, the messenger of the "demand" for assumption of responsibilities that the most aware sectors of the ex-Communist societies are addressing to Western Europe.

We cannot hide, on the other hand, from the fact that for the hopes of transnational and supernational democracy of the Radicals, including those of Eastern Europe, the most important battle will be fought largely in Western Europe, which is blessed with economic strength.

The same considerations can also be applied to Africa - here, too, there is an extraordinary possibility for democratic transformation which needs support from outside Africa if it is not to be thwarted. In the Sahel counties, for example, it is necessary to fight for the very existence of the institutions. As has happened in most of the countries of the East, the multi-party system has produced a multiplication of political parties. We need to strengthen our presence, in relations with other political organizations and with the press, in order to defeat intolerance and sectarianism and to uphold new rights and new liberties in African society, too.

To return to the West, there is no doubt that there are people who are sympathetic to the transnational proposal, even if for now they are only minorities. We have to find more effective ways of addressing them than those we have tried so far.

At this point I would like to put forward an idea to Congress: in the next few months, the Radicals and democrats of the ex-Communist Europe, in the Radical Party, with the Radical Party, and through the Radical Party, should extend an invitation to meet and collaborate to those in Western Europe, particularly politicians, who feel that they must assume responsibilities for the fate of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. The first appointment could be a conference on this subject, perhaps to be held in Moscow, with the participation of parliamentarians from the East and from the West. This would be a way to give an immediate and concrete political aim to the organization within the Radical Party of those who have already made this choice in the ex-Communist countries; and it would, perhaps, be a way to make the significance and the value of the proposal for a transnational and transdivisional Party, as well as the meaning of our federalist proposal, more evident to those who we manage to reach in

the West.

4.1. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE PARTY WITH THE ITALIAN SITUATION

The picture outlined in this report would not be complete without a consideration - brief although thorough - of the impact of the "political project" on the relationship of the party with the Italian situation.

On other occasions we have already discussed this relationship, underlining the relations with and the influences on the attempt to initiate and develop the process of construction of the "New Party", the transnational and transdivisional Party.

Amongst other things, we have pointed out that the process of constitution would necessarily "objectively" call into question the whole party leadership that has run and conducted the Party through all its previous path, that being a transparty is a "preliminary condition" to be realized in Italy, and that this condition is to be seen in relation to the Italian political situation and the need to contribute actively to the reform of the party system, in other words of "partycracy".

These premises, in fact, are directly related to the initiatives and the experiences undertaken with 1989 European elections, with the 1990 local elections, and finally the general elections which were held on 5 and 6 April 1992.

In this respect it is enough to recall the initiatives undertaken by some of the most authoritative members of the Radical Party: the "Rainbow Greens", the "Anti-Prohibitionist List", the entry into the Socialdemocratic Party, the attempt to build the "Lay Federation", the "Nathan List", the "Green, Lay, Civic, Anti-Prohibitionist List", and most recently the "Referendum List" and the "Lista Pannella".

This represents a complex and articulate path which, according to the observations made also by the Federal Council, has involved many of the members of the "party leadership" rather than the Party "as such", which has limited itself to performing a "service" role.

There will be other opportunities for further consideration of these initiatives, which - it is worth remembering here - have played a considerable part in the development of the crisis of the political system in Italy and in the possible influences on the risk of an extension and strengthening of "real democracy" in and to other countries.

What I want to consider here are some aspects of the effects of this process on the Party and on its political project.

There are, in particular, three important questions: the "Italian Congresses", the initiative with regard to what was then the Communist Party (now the Left Democratic Party), and the "Campaign for the collection of signatures for the nine referendums".

4.2. THE "ITALIAN CONGRESSES

The "Italian Congresses" have been promoted and organized by the Party to allow members in Italy to meet together.

There have been four in the last three years: the first, immediately after the Budapest Congress, was held in Rimini, in view of the European elections; the other three were held in Rome.

The second, in January 1990, was also intended as a chance to discuss the initiative undertaken with regard to the comrades of what was then the Communist Party; the third, in February 1991, was the occasion of the presentation and the illustration of the party's "political project"; the fourth was held in January 1992, at the same time as the presentation to the Constitutional Court of the approximately 700,000 signatures collected on the two referendums promoted directly by the Party - the first on the abolition of state financing of political parties and the second on the repeal of some of the articles of the Jervolino-Vassalli law on drugs - as part of the "campaign on the nine referendums".

These meetings were not organized for the purpose of taking decisions, because they could not be the appropriate place, but to allow Italian Radicals to express and discuss their opinions in moments of particular political interest, and to allow the Party to maintain and nourish the relationship with the Italian situation, whose influence the Party has not been able, nor has wished, to avoid, aware as we are of its importance.

There is no point hiding from the fact that this relationship, essential also for the still necessary connection with the financial life of the Party, has represented and continues to represent the area in which the "segment of the theory of practice" that I mentioned at the beginning of this report has come to be exhausted, and in which the "break" with the past and the party's difficulties in "initiating and giving life to a new and different experience" has weighed most directly, not without painful and costly consequences.

In the reports presented to the Congresses and the Federal Councils, we have often stressed the awareness that the refoundation or the construction of the "new" could not take place without a real and profound upheaval of what preceded it, without breaking up the body of the Party and affecting the conscience and the feelings of each of us, as well as the personal and legitimate interests of many of those who had contributed with a spirit of sacrifice and devotion to such important moments of our history, at times wonderful and exciting for us all. I would like to extend profound and sincere thanks to everyone, from the party and also from myself.

4.3. THE INITIATIVE WITH REGARD TO THE PCI, NOW THE LEFT DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The initiative with regard to the ex-PCI began with the Budapest Congress, where a speech was made by Fabio Mussi, from the Party executive, and reached a peak with the presence and the speech of the Secretary of the PCI, Achille Occhetto, at the Federal Council held in Rome in January 1990.

In the concluding motion on that occasion, in fact, the proposal and the request of the Federal Council were directly addressed above all to the members and the leaders of the Italian Communist Party - at that very time the PCI was expressing and manifesting its desire for a new path that would include an opening-up to "others", a transformation into a place of aggregation and democratic force for the reform of the Italian political system.

It is with deep regret that we must now take note of the failure of the ex-Communist comrades to follow up their initial proposals in a concrete and effective manner, and of the fact that they were not able, or did not want, to accept the opportunity offered by us from the time of the meeting between the Secretaries of the Parties in May 1989, before the "collapse of the Wall and the Empire". An opportunity, to tell the truth, which we have repeated several times, with the request that the PCI stick to the commitment made by its leaders to check on the possibility and the nature of common work in a high-level meeting between party delegations - a meeting which was always confirmed, but which it has never been possible to hold.

The proposal we were making to the comrades of the ex-PCI was that in order to overcome and resolve the crisis in their party, they should promote a true "constituent force" in Italy, from which a "national" political force, a "democratic party", could be created. A new Party strong in its desire for political renewal, for full, nonviolent democracy, made up of them and of many other people who had fought or hoped in the "traditional left" or in other parties or groups of lay and Socialist democracy. A Party capable of becoming the "instrument" of political action and struggle which is necessary to bring down the "partycratic regime", to offer the country a concrete and effective alternative for the reform of the political system.

On our part we were offering to make available our own "instrument", the transnational and transdivisional, European federalist Radical Party, as a means for the relaunch of the PCI, too, in the international sphere.

We were offering to "occupy it" through the enrolment of thousands of people in a political force that would no longer be competition in any way, and not only in terms of elections, in Italy, in a force that would not only be different from the partycratic system in Italy but which would also offer itself as an "alternative" in the countries that had just escaped from the dominion of "real Socialism".

You have already wasted a lot of time, comrades and friends of the Left Democratic Party. We can only hope that it is not too late, that the opportunity offered to you by our times has not been lost forever.

As far as we are concerned, the possibilities are still open, and we continue to ask today for a meeting to examine and discuss the possibility of undertaking initiatives, with us and with others, for reform and renewal in Italy and also in other countries.

4.4. THE REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN IN ITALY

The Party's decision to take an active part in Italy in the "Campaign for the nine referendums against the partycratic system" and for the reform of the electoral system was announced at the September 1991 Federal Council in Rome, and was subsequently illustrated in Zagreb.

The decision arose from the awareness of the need to consolidate and increase the contribution in Italy to the political project and to the efforts to try to constitute the "New Party".

This is how we should "read" the Party's campaign in Italy for the collection of signatures on the nine referendums, as well as the choice to undertake this action with determination, and not merely as legitimization and support for the action of others, consisering also that this action was to a large extent strengthened, and in some cases promoted and animated, by some of us, by some authoritative and prestigious Radical comrades.

Two of the referendums were promoted directly by the Radical party: the first on the abolition of state financing for political parties represented in Parliament and the second on the abolition of some articles of the so-called "drugs law" (in particualr the provisions which deny doctors the right to intervene according to their own conscience and abilities), a law of distinctly prohibitionist inspiration.

I can only express my profound gratitude towards the Italian comrades who once again contributed with great commitment and dedication to this campaign, allowing the Radical Party to deposit over 650,000 authenticated signatures at the beginning of 1992, both on "state financing" and on "drugs", also contributing in a decisive manner to the collection of signatures for the other seven referendums, and the success of the campaign as a whole.

This result was obtained despite the ostracism displayed towards the two referendums promoted by the Radical Party by almost all the political forces and by the mass media (the Left Democratic Partty only gave its support to the collection of signatures for the referendum on "drugs"). This situation led some Radical comrades to go on hunger strike to obtain means of information and the democratic respect of the rules.

The success of the Party in this campaign was, what's more, obtained without interrupting or compromising the progress of the political project: this was possible as a result of the decision to create a second structure for the collection of signatures, separate from the existing structure of the Party, which allowed us to limit and contain the inevitable interference with activities already being carried out and therefore to avoid substantial mistakes or delays in the development of our plans.

4.5. THE "TRANSDIVISIONAL DIMENSION"

As a whole, the initiative of Radicals in Italy has always aimed at the reform of the political system, against partycratic power and the devastating effects of this system on the practicability of democracy. The referendum campaign, with the 1993 deadline, in which the Radicals, with the direct support of the Party, played a decisive role, together with the election results, marks an essential stage in the struggle for democracy: the success of this struggle would be an important contribution towards the political commitment and the affirmation of the "New Party", the transnational and transdivisional Party. The struggle for democracy, in Italy and everywhere else, remains the aim and the fundamental objective of our existence and our political life.

The "transdivisional" dimension necessarily involves the collocation of members of the Party and its Italian exponents in the wide context of Italian political forces: however, it is equally true that it requires the enrolment in the Radical Party of new members and exponents of other parties and political forces, in sufficient numbers and at a sufficiently high level to make a valid contribution to the constitution of the other dimension - i.e. the "transnational" dimension. The Party must, in fact, achieve a renewed capacity for evaluation, direction and political initiative, wider and more varied, formed of the presence of more constant and direct commitment of members, both "old and new".

This path has produced important effects - not all the parliamentarians who are members were elected in "Radical lists": there are quite a number of others, and they have considerable capacities and authority - but as things stand at the moment we have still not produced the synergetic effect on the conduct and the development of the project which is not only expected, but increasingly necessary.

The relationship of the Party, of the "New Party" and its project, with the Italian situation involves a phase of transition which, as things stand, is turning out to be longer and more difficult than was perhaps expected.

This relationship is characterized, therefore, especially at the moment, by the political aspect, even more than by the economic aspect, which is already of great importance.

Moreover, we cannot claim that the results and the positive signs that derive from the situation of the Party in other countries are sufficient to allow us to dismiss and overcome the impact of the Party with the "link" which binds it to the Italian situation. On the contrary, it is these very results and signs which increase the political importance of this impact.

Italy, in fact, is the Party's only "frontline base", in the European Community, of the "other Europe", which the Party meets more and more on its path, and of which we are beginning more and more to be a living and working expression. In my opinion, it is from this "other Europe" that - despite dramatic and tragic contradictions, and despite excessive dispersion and inadequate premises and political conditions - we are receiving the most urgent and deeply-felt demand for the political unity of the States and the peoples of the whole of Europe.

The reply is difficult.

It is up to the members of the Radical Party and exponents of the political forces in those countries to give strength and political coherence to this request, so that the Party and above all its Italian parliamentarians can promote it more effectively in the Government, the Italian Parliament and the European Parliament, amongst the public and, above all, more generally, amongst other political forces and those members of these forces who are most aware and willing to fight to avoid the disastrous dangers for humanity that would result from dismissing their, and our, request.

5.1 THE VERIFICATION OF THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE PROJECT IS NOT YET COMPLETE

Dear friends,

the motion approved In Budapest, at the end of the 35th ordinary Congress of the Party, with the decision to confer "statutory powers" on the First Secretary, the Treasurer, and the Presidents of the Party and of the Federal Council (the "Group of Four", as they came to be known), laid a single political objective as the basis of this "extraordinary" management of the Party: the constitution of the "New Party", of the transnational and transdivisional Party.

Through this decision, the Congress chose to exclude any other possible alternative or political solution, including the closure of the Party. The motion, in fact, considers closure only as an enforced possibility, not as something chosen or accepted - only as the inevitable and enforced end of a path aimed entirely at creating the conditions necessary to make the single objective

feasible.

The constitution of the transnational and transdivisional Party is the only choice that the Congress allows with the aim of guaranteeing the life and the existence of the Party. It is the only practicable path for the organs of the Party.

The "new Party", the transnational and transdivisional Party, has therefore been the only objective of the Radical Party in these three years, our only objective.

I have outlined the path followed to achieve this objective, or at least to attempt to verify whether it is practicable. That is, to identify the conditions of operation, initiative and political action necessary to achieve it, and evaluate its consistency and feasibility through the definition and the realization of a project.

We believe that one conclusion emerges from our exposition: the verification of practicability, at the present moment, is not yet complete, it has not yet been concluded.

The results obtained, the political and organizational conditions achieved, the energies, the capacities and the resources available do not allow us to state, today, that we have fulfilled the conditions that are indispensable for the achievement of the objective with the reasonable conviction that we can ensure not only the life, but also the vitality of the Party.

We have, it is true, had significant and important confirmations of the validity of the choice made, and also signs that it corresponds closely to the requirements of our times, as well as its real potential.

However, we must still recognize the inadequacy of the personal and collective energies and political capacities acquired so far, the difficulties of adapting the speed of the organizational and operative process to the speed and the urgency of political initiative, and finally, the insufficiency of our resources, as our financial condition is once again far from that which is necessary.

5.2. THE RESOURCES INVESTED IN THE "POLITICAL PROJECT"

Friends and comrades,

the financial accounts which will be presented by the Treasurer highlight one element whose political value - in my opinion - is greater than that of the others, which clearly demonstrates not only the size of the effort and the commitment that we have devoted to the achievement of the objective, but which clarifies even more effectively its quality.

In less than one year, the party has spent five million dollars on the implementation of its political project, the equivalent of 50% of its financial resources.

This is a considerable amount, although - perhaps - still inadequate, but it was all we had available after overcoming the financial crisis that weighed on the Party three years ago, with the prospect of bankruptcy.

This sum of money has been devoted entirely to the establishment of a political relationship with forces and their exponents in other countries, above all those of Central and Eastern Europe, which have just emerged from the dominion and the hegemony of "real Socialism".

It is a proportionally greater sum of money than that devtoed to these countries by any other "undertaking". And it is money - as we cannot forget - that comes almost entirely from the Italian "reservoir".

If others, and not only in different fields, had already turned their attention in this direction with the same determination and constancy, we could all view the development of the situation of these countries with much more hope, without the fear that one of the main dangers for the future of Europe, and not only of Europe, lies precisely in their unresolved problems.

5.3. WE HAVE NOT SUCCEEDED IN UTILIZING THE REPLIES AND THE ENROLMENTS WHICH HAVE ARRIVED, WHICH ARE STILL ARRIVING.

However, from the very commitment and action we have addressed to these countries, to the political forces and their exponents, and from the results achieved, there emerges a reason for worried dissatisfaction.

We have not succeeded in utilizing the response which has arrived, which is still arriving, as much as was necessary.

The enrolment of so many parliamentarians from different countries, belonging to a vast range of political forces, is in itself an important result which could already constitute the concrete basis of the fundamental condition represented by the transdivisional dimension - which we know to be the necessary condition for the establishment of the transnational Party.

Unfortunately we are still blocked at the stage of initial contact with these new members - a contact which is, what's more, "at a distance".

The Congress, this Congress, is for many of them the first opportunity for direct contact, both personal and collective.

We have not managed, we have not had the time or the energy, to organize other meetings to precede this one, other meetings and other initiatives to allow these friends to get to know the Party better, to get to know its history, the problems and difficulties of our work, to clarify, explain, and begin to build a mutual and more immediate and direct relationship. This, apart from anything else, would have allowed them to come to this Congress better-informed, more aware, more ready to provide the Party with the contribution and the requests which the Congress, and not only the Congress, urgently needs.

We have also not been able, and have not had the time, to provide a more thorough and complete political response to the many citizens who have written to us, from many different countries, expressing their hopes and their expectations.

The reasons are due to the energies and the capacities, as well as the means and the resources, that the Party currently has at its disposal.

5.4. THE NEED FOR NEW RULES

In this respect one example seems to me to be significant: the New Party must set new rules for itself to meet requirements which are different from those which gave rise to our present statute.

The problem of the statute is one which we have obviously considered, but to which we have not managed to find a answer.

Amongst the difficulties we have met, the lack of "interloculors", other than ourselves, capable of contributing to a theoretical debate, necessarily based on different experiences and different areas of knowledge, has perhaps been the most decisive.

If we had had time to begin discussion with our new friends and comrades, I am convinced that we would already have found in them experiences and areas of knowledge that would have allowed us to propose principles and hypotheses that would be sufficient, if nothing else, to initiate the debate between us.

5.5. POSSIBLE OBJECTIVES FOR POLITICAL ACTION.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK OF THE COMMISSIONS AND OF THE DEBATE OF CONGRESS.

During these three years, our belief that to build the "transnational Party" was the right and necessary decision has been increasingly strengthened, to the point that we now believe it to be possible.

The international panorama requires it. There is no lack of themes and arguments. There are proposals and initiatives have been begun - we have outlined them above - which could develop and consolidate the relations, the feedback, the response and the contribution at our disposal.

It is already possible to establish methods and places for meetings with the new members from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in order to identify and define the characteristics of a wider and better-organized action which could allow us to accomplish important transnational political initiatives by 1993, with definite and carefully selected aims.

One of these possible objectives - to give just one example - was set by us last year, and was intended to be realized by Easter of this year (I have already explained why it was not possible). I am referring to the "League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the World by the Year 2000", which was to have been constituted on the occasion of a great demonstration in St. Peter's Square, here in Rome. We might propose that this objective be realized by Easter of next year.

Another example of a possible objective to be realized by 1993 is that of holding an assembly in Moscow, or in another Eastern or Central European capital, in which parliamentarians and politicians from the Western countries would be invited to examine, together with their colleagues from the East, the common initiatives to be undertaken to work in the various parliaments towards a solution of the problems of "nationalism", which constitute obstacles to the overcoming of the national state and to the process of political integration in the framework of a wider supernational community.

This is an objective which could draw the attention of those in Western Europe, starting with Italy, who although they are involved in their national parties, whether in government or in opposition, are aware of the enormous risks that the current divisions and conflicts represent for the conquest of liberty and democracy.

This objective could also be related to the subject of the problems created by immigration into Western Europe, no longer only from Africa, but also from Eastern Europe.

The work of the Commissions and the debate of Congress - nourished and enriched by the great number and the great authority of those present - can and must suggest and formulate other proposals, make observations and suggestions about those which are planned or improve the direction and the development of the initiatives which have already begun.

The efforts and the commitment of everybody, especially of comrades from other countries, are necessary to outline and define a continuing debate between us which will allow us to establish the political and organizational characteristics of the political project of this Party, of our Party.

A difficult task to accomplish, though not impossible.

What we need is time.

5.6. THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE, ONE BILLION LIRE, WHICH CORRESOND TO THE TIME NECESSARY TO CARRY OUT THE LIQUIDATION OF THE PARTY, ENSURING THE CONSERVATION OF ITS PATRIMONY.

THE SITUATION DOES NOT REQUIRE THE CLOSURE OF THE PARTY.

WE COULD, OTHERWISE, DECIDE TO LIQUIDATE THE PATRIMONY AND CONTINUE POLITICAL ACTION UNTIL THE RESOURCES AT OUR DISPOSAL RUN OUT.

There is an old saying that derives from ancient wisdom: time is money.

Unfortunately, we are now short of money, and therefore also short of time.

When these proceedings come to an end - lacking the contribution of state financing due to our exit from the national institutions - we will have no more than one billion lire (800,000 US dollars) at our disposal. A sum which is barely sufficient to guarantee the operations of the current Party structure for another four, or at most five months, without, however, spending anything at all on political initiatives and activities.

Exactly the amount of time necessary to carry out the liquidation of the Party, ensuring the conservation of its patrimony.

This is the reason which led us to convene this Congress.

Now, in fact, this very difficult financial situation is, however, very different from that which we had to face in Budapest and which - let's not forget it - was at the root of the attribution of "full congressional powers": in Budapest the problem of the conservation of the patrimony of the Party was not at issue, for it did not formally exist. The patrimony of the Party at the time was not even sufficient to cover the deficit and - as we know - the only prospect was bankruptcy, and fraudulent bankruptcy at that.

At the moment the financial situation of the Party is not such as to allow us to continue our activities, but it does not affect the patrimony, because we do not have to use it to balance the accounts.

This is a very difficult situation, but it does not require the closure of the Party and maybe still offers possibilities.

We are, therefore, at a standstill which, if we wanted, we could stabilize by setting up a foundation, for example, which would only carry out support activities without carrying out any further direct political activities.

We could, on the other hand, choose to liquidate the patrimony and continue with our political initiatives and actions until this resource had run out.

5.7. THE CONGRESS IS CALLED UPON TO EXPRESS ITS OPINIONS

In the face of a context and a political prospect which are full of positive signs, with potentialities at least for further verification, and in the face of a financial situation which, however difficult, does not require the closure of the Party as an inevitable solution, we believe that it would not be politically correct to assume the entire responsibility for choices that are decisive for the existence and the life of the party.

Once again we find ourselves in a very difficult position. But it is not impossible, perhaps, for new developments to take place which would allow us to win the time which we still need for a final decision, one way or the other.

Once again the "Italian reservoir" is that which might intervene with the necessary speed and timeliness.

The loss of state financing due to the absence of the Party in the Italian institutions corresponds to the enrolment fees of ten thousand Italian members.

Is this an objective which can be pursued with the 1992 membership campaign, which is still in progress? To what extent?

Once again in Italy: do the results of the recent elections allow us to believe that the political forces, or some of them, finally understand the need, for them, that the transnational and transdivisional Radical Party should be constituted and should be allowed to operate actively, and to this end will intervene directly with a contribution?

Is it entirely unthinkable - and this not not only concern Italy - that some government or international body will intervene with a direct contribution?

How long will it take to come to a final judgement, what are the minimum activities necessary, what amount of money is indispensable?

These are the questions that require the opinions of Congress, as well as the indications necessary to make the "political project" credible, more precise and well-defined - the project which we know we can achieve with the contribution of our new friends and comrades from other countries, those here alreday, whom we welcome once again, and those who continue, day after day, to join us.

5.8 THE TRANSNATIONAL CHOICE, AS WELL AS BEING RIGHT AND NECESSARY, IS NOW POSSIBLE.

I was saying that during these three years, our conviction that to build the "transnational Party" is the right and necessary decision has been increasingly strengthened, to the extent that we now believe it possible.

Personally I am inclined to believe that, if we were not to succeed in this undertaking, then others, many others, would subsequently achieve it.

We would thus be witness, once again, to the development of a process which has often happened in the past, when our proposals, dismissed, opposed and even mocked, have subsequently become the proposals and the pride of those very forces that had most opposed them.

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(1) The translation, layout and printing of the newspaper have been carried in Rome, except for about 100,000 copies printed in Moscow. From the third issue onwards, the copies that had previously been printed in Budapest have also been printed in Rome, since this proved to be more economical. The distribution of the newspaper to all the parliamentarians and to the other addressees has been organized from Rome, with the contribution of our offices in Brussels, Budapest, Moscow, Prague and Zagreb.

The Brussels office, as well as organizing the distribution to the parliamentarians of Western Europe, has taken charge of distribution to other addressees of 3,000 copies in French and 3,500 copies in English.

The Budapest office, which looks after delivery to the parliamentarians in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Hungary, has organized distribution to other addressees of 5,700 copies in Hungarian, 1,928 in Polish, 700 in Russian, 200 in Albanian, 1,900 in Czechoslovakian, 5,128 in Polish, and 4,000 in Romanian.

The Moscow office, as well as distribution to the parliamentarians of all the Republics of the ex-Soviet Union, has organized the delivery of around 100,000 copies printed in loco to other addressees in most of the territory.

The Prague office, finally, has organized delivery to the members of the federal Parliament and the two national Parliaments.

The sixth issue of the newspaper was sent to parliamentarians and citizens of the following countries:

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Byelorussia, Bolivia, Bosnia Hercegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Chile, Colombia, Costarica, Croatia, Denmark, Domenican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Hungary, Kazakistan, Kirghistan, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Moldavia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Republic of San Marino, Romania, Salvador, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tagikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan, Venezuela.

These are joined by other countries from the Esperanto address list: Algeria, Benin, Cameroun, China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Vietnam, Zaire.

The total print-run of the sixth issue of the newspaper was 173,000 copies printed in Italy, divided as follows: Albanian, 5,000 copies; Czechoslovakian, 5,000; Croatian, 9,000; French, 11,000; English, 17,000; Italian, 60,000; Polish, 5,000; Portuguese, 5,000; Romanian, 6,000; Russian, 8,000; Slovenian, 5,000; Spanish, 9,000; German, 7,000; Hungarian, 6,000. In addition, there are the appromiximately 100,000 copies printed in Moscow. One important element for the realization of the "project" was the creation of a data base of parliamentarians to whom the nespaper is sent (around 45,000 names) and the acquisition of details and information useful for the distribution and the updating of the lists (due to elections, for example). At the moment we are getting hold of the names of the new members of the Albanian Popular Assembly, 22 French regional assemblies, 2 German regional assemblies, the British House of Commons, the Italian Parliament, and one Spanish region - a total of 3,893 names. In May and June the

re will be elections for the Federal and national Parliaments of Czechoslovakia, in Denmark, in Israel, in Lebanon, in Malta, in Ecuador, and in Romania: a total of 1,609 names to acquire and enter.

(2) The parliamentarians who have signed the Manifesto-Appeal are:

African, as well as Lamizana Sangoulè, former President of Burkina Faso; Austrian; Belgian, including the Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, Jean Mottard and the minmister Elie Deworme; Canadian; Czechoslovakian, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Jozef Miklosko, the President of the Czech Parliament, Dagmar Buresova, whilst President Havel has informed us that he is very sympathetic to this initiative, but that his position prevents him from expressing his opinion through a petition; Croatian, including Zdravko Tomac, Deputy Prime Minister and the minister Vladimir Veselica, both members of the Federal Council of the Radical Party, Ivica Percan, Vice-President of Parliament; Danish; Finnish; French, including Michel Dreyfus-Schmidt, Vice-Presidente of the Senate; Greek; English; Irish, including Garret Fitzgerald, former Prime Minister and the ministers Desmond O'Malley and Robert Molloy; Israeli; Italian, including Flaminio Piccoli, President of the Foreign Commission and former President of the

Christian Democrat International; Latvian, including the MInister for Foreign Affairs Janis Jurkans and the government representative in Moscow, Janis Petris; Maltese, including the minister Ugo Mifsud Bonnici; Norwegian; Dutch; members of the European Parliament; Polish; Romanian, including the Vice-Presidents of the Senate, Karoly Kiraly and Vasile Mois and the Minister for the Environment, Marcian Bleahu; Slovenian, including Zoran Thaler, Deputy Foriegn Minister, member of the Federal Council of the Radical Party; American, including Mario Cuomo, Governor of the State of New York; Swedish; Swiss; German, including Gregor Gysi, secretary of the Socialdemocratic Party (SPD); Hungarian, including Rezso Nyers, former Minister, the minister Ferenc Jozsef Nagy, whilst the President of the Republic, Arpad Goncz, has given his support to the initiative but cannot sign the petition due to his position; parliamentarians from the ex-USSR, including Yuri Afanasev, member of the dissolved Supreme Soviet.

Amongst the well-known figures who have signed the appeal (around 200 all over the world) are the following: Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Coretta Scott King; the Nobel Prize Winners Abdus Salam, Elie Wiesel and Mairead Corrigan Maguire; Elena Bonner-Sacharova; Antonino Zichichi and Marcello Mastroianni; François Fejtö and Henri Laborit; Clark Ramsey, former Chief of Justice in the Kennedy administration; Nick Harman, editorialist for the "Economist".