ABSTRACT: To present, "at the same time on the same days", in as many parliaments as possible, laws to govern the terrible problems of the present-day world - with the nonviolent support of direct action by parliamentarians and citizens: this is our political objective.

The newspaper you have received, which has now reached its seventh issue, is the means we have chosen to pursue this objective.

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The aim of the project is to organize a new political force, a new, democratic, direct-membership party; to succeed in presenting and supporting the same legislative texts, at the same time, in the same form, and with the same content, in our parliaments, our cities, and our parties; to organize nonviolent mass demonstrations and information amongst ourselves in real time.

Will it be possible, in the months leading up to the second session of the XXXVI Congress of the Radical Party, to be held by January 1993, to make our transnational transparty financially independent? This newspaper, which has now reached its seventh issue, written in Italian, translated and printed in 14 other languages and sent to 45,000 parliamentarians and around 250,000 other people in 70 countries, is the means (in many ways the only means) through which we invite parliamentarians and citizens around the world to respond to and join the Radical Party.

(THE PARTY new - N. 7 - May 1992)

The idea of establishing direct contact with democratic parliamentarians all over the world - and this is where the uniqueness of the Radical Party project lies - became possible after the acquisition of names and addresses from embassies and from direct contact with parliaments, a task which took several months. No other organization, as far as we know, has a "data bank" of this kind.

It took the first six months of 1991 to set up and organize the newspaper, the instrument we have chosen to establish and consolidate contact with parliamentarians - a fully-fledged "publishing venture". We had to acquire a range of word-processing software, some of it not available in Italy; set up the team of translators; find a printer capable of printing in so many different languages; ensure that the graphics and the layout could be realized with sufficient speed; carry out a thorough survey in parliaments and other bodies in order to find the most suitable means of mailing and transport; acquire the names and addresses of the parliamentarians to whom the newspaper is sent (around 45,000), enter them in the computer data base, and acquire all other information for mailing and updating procedures; select the themes and the issues to be covered, and the proposals for actions to be undertaken in as many countries as possible; set up the editorial committee; choose the graphic format; arrange the procedures

for checking on the distribution system; set up a framework for the technical and political processing of feedback and replies.

The first issue was published at the end of June 1991 - written in Italian and translated into fourteen languages, it was sent to over 40,000 parliamentarians and around 250,000 other people in more than 40 different countries.

The first issue was followed by five others: the second in July, the third in late August/early September, the fourth in late October/early November, the fifth - a 24-page issue together with a personal letter to all the parliamentarians who receive the newspaper - at the end of January 1992. The sixth issue was sent to more than 70 countries at the end of March.

One third of the Party's workers (thirteen people) have dedicated all the time and energy to the editorial and organizational aspects of this undertaking, and more than a third have devoted at least half their time to the project. In all, therefore, more than half of the human resources at the disposal of the Party have been taken up.

The total cost to the Party of the six issues of the newspaper produced and distributed so far amounts to 2,250,000 US dollars in direct costs (party structure and outside services), which is equal to 50% of the year's income.

The translation, the layout and the printing of the newspaper have been carried out in Rome, with the exception of 100,000 copies printed in Moscow. The overall print-run is approximately 300,000 copies. 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 newspaper is 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.