ABSTRACT: A nonviolent, self-financing, direct-membership party. This is the objective we aim to achieve. We know, however, that we lack the resources. We do not have sufficient members or financial support for our battles. The amount available at present is laughable - 650,000 dollars. Enough to send out this issue of the newspaper and conclude our activities. How can we allow this "venture" to continue?

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

In fourteen months, since February 1991, the Radical Party has invested a great deal in the implementation of the transnational project - all the economic resources made available by the balancing of the books in the previous two years, an operation carried out through drastic cutbacks in the party structure and also, at certain times, through the suspension of all party activities. Six issues of this newspaper, three special issues of "Radical Newsletter" and a personal letter sent to the addressees of the newspaper have involved a total expenditure of 2,250,000 dollars. Other expenditure has been as follows: political activity in Italy (200,000 dollars) and in other countries (650,000 dollars); the operation of the Agorà computer network and services for the Party's headquarters in Rome, indispensable for the realization of the project (2 million dollars); the first session of the XXXVI Congress, the two Italian Congresses and the two meetings of the Federal Council (1,050,000 dollars); the modernization a

nd equipment of the Rome headquarters (800,000 dollars); the campaign for the collection of 4 million authenticated signatures for the nine abrogative referendums in Italy (550,000 dollars). Total expenditure, therefore, has been 7,500,000 dollars. This has been covered by the financial resources available in 1991 (4,800,000 dollars) and in 1992 (2,700,000 dollars).

The decision taken by the Radical Party at the Bologna Congress in January 1988 (confirmed by the Budapest Congress in April 1989) not to compete with other parties in Italian elections of all kinds has meant that the Party has subsequently not presented lists, not even in the recent general elections. As a consequence, it can no longer count on the financial resources awarded, according to Italian law, to political forces represented in parliament.

Therefore, whilst the quota of state financing (2,300,000 dollars) will no longer be available from 1993, since April of this year the Party has not been able to count on the contributions from the salaries of Radical parliamentarians (which will amount, in 1992, to little more than 300,000 dollars). Taking into account the income from the sale of the services of the "Radio and Television News Surveillance Centre" (which allows the analysis and thus the control of the political broadcasts of Italian TV and radio services, both public and private), Agorà, the radio and TV sector, and the membership fees in the first four months of the year, the income for 1992 amounts to 3,750,000 dollars.

Considering the fact that 2,700,000 dollars had already spent by 30 April, and that the Party had a deficit of 400,000 dollars on 31 December 1991, on 30 April 1992 the Party accounts show an active balance of only 650,000 dollars.

This figure is barely sufficient to bring to conclusion the activities that have already been begun. We are aware, in fact, of the "running costs" necessary to ensure party activity: the Party "structure", in Rome and in other countries, costs 200,000 dollars a month; each issue of this newspaper costs around 240,000 dollars; one "Radical Newsletter" sent to the same addressees as the newspaper costs 70,000 dollars; a meeting of the Federal Council costs 240,000 dollars; the cost of a Congress, depending on the number of participants and the languages which require translation and interpreting, ranges between 560,000 and 1,200,000 dollars. A programme of activities until the end of the year, even a reduced programme, requires at least 3,200,000 dollars. The extra money to be found therefore amounts to 2,600,000 dollars.

The party organs have always provided a thorough, almost pedantic analysis of party accounts both in meetings of the Federal Council and to Congress. Such openness, in fact, is the foundation of a principle that has characterized the history of the Radical Party: a knowledge of the financial situation of the Party is necessary for the choice and the definition of any political project. It is partly for this reason that the Radical Party is unlike all other parties, which generally avoid detailed statement of the provenance of their income and the forms of their expenditure.

It is now a matter of deciding whether, and in what way, to join this political "undertaking". How can we achieve our aim of 50,000 members around the world, established as long ago as 1990 as the minimum necessary to guarantee an independent and self-financing Radical Party. Will we have the strength, including the financial strength, to cultivate these ideas, especially in the "opulent" parts of the world, which have so far showed little or no propensity to assume their responsibilities and take immediate action to overturn what seems to be the natural order of things?