ABSTRACT: After spotting an ad inviting readers to join the Radical Party published on Repubblica, one of the most widespread Polish daily newspapers, the journalist interviewed the MP Mikolaj Kozakiewicz, of the Farmers' Party, a member of the Radical Party, on the various activities of the radicals in Poland.

(Slowo Polskie, 6 May 1993)

A large-size ad on a widespread national daily: Gandhian, transnational, transparty, democratic, non-violent, environmentalist, European federalist, lay, liberal-democratic, liberal-socialist, libertarian, anti-totalitarian, antiprohibitionist, anti-clerical, antimilitarist, against party power, the party of non-violence. You join too, now. Fill in the ad and mail it to: Radical Party - Marina Sikora (...), Warszawa or (...) 1075 Budapest (...).

I am joining the radical party for 1993, and will pay the sum of ...plz.

I call the phone numbers mentioned on the ad. No answer on the first one. At the second a woman's voice answers, who obligingly gives me the first information. When I identify myself as a journalist, however, she suggests that I call Mrs Sikora's numbers, who is often in Warsaw. "I'm just an emergency number, in case there's no answer on the other one!", she says, and adds that in Poland members of the radical party include the former president of Parliament Mr. Mikolaj Kozakiewicz, currently an MP of the PSL, and adds that the MP Janusz Rewinski and other MPs of the left are also members...

I try getting in touch with Professor Kozakiewicz, calling the CSL parliamentary club. The secretary says she will forward my questions via fax.

Two hours later I get a 1,5 metre-long fax from Warsaw, signed A.R. (Radical Alternative). It contains, among other things, a long statement by Mr. Kozakiewicz, implying that the party considers itself the heir of the Gandhian principles.

They want to obtain the abolition of the death penalty, equal rights for women and for all ethnic, religious, cultural and sexual minorities. They advocate the creation of a professional army, and abolish the draft to create an alternative service. They want to obtain the depenalization for drugs users and that the state take control of the drug market. As to national and social problems, these must be addressed through a referendum.

I again dial the phone number of the PSL parliamentary group.

- I got the fax, but I'd like to ask a few more questions...

- We didn't send any fax, maybe the professor's wife, Mrs. Veronika Kozakiewicz, sent it.

Thta's when I realize the number on the ad is the same as the one printed on the fax.

- Which of the Polish MPs went with him at the Radical Party's congress in Rome in February?

- He quickly tells me the MPs that went with him are Bastek, Rewinski, Lenyk, but that only the first went with him.

- Which one of the MPs is a member of the party?

- Last year all the above joined the party. Five more said they wanted to join, but only in the event that our relation with the Transnational Party were explained.

Polish citizens are allowed to join the party, but according to the law the party cannot form a section in Poland. We want to establish a "Radical Initiative" which members both of the Transnational Party and all sympathizers can join.

The association wants to be independent both as far as the program is concerned and from the Transnational Party itself, and to choose and realize only the issues that are important for the country. This is something completely new and unprecedented, and we are discussing with Rome on the subject.

- But if the Transnational Party requires no disciplines, what does joining this party actually mean?

- If it required discipline the thing would be out of question. The party publishes a newspaper, Agorà", and the international documents in various languages, including Polish.

We want to play a role on the Polish issues.

We agree with the outline program of the party, which can open up ideas for Poland too, a rather narrow-minded and conservative country.

- How would you comment the statement that it is an organization where communists, christian democrats, Greens and others can all work side by side? Since the program includes the legalization of drugs, then this is not a party but a criminal association?

- Your question points to an incomplete knowledge of the problem.

The radical party is very unlike a criminal association. It is rather an International. We participate in the debates and we hear Amato, Spadolini, Bonino, Sacharowa, acclaimed directors, two hundred participants from Russia, ministers of Kazakhstan and Bosnia along with British lords, representatives of the Arab and African countries.

This specific atmosphere is a real pluralist assembly.

- What is the meaning of saying that the party operates with non-violent methods when all parties - with the exception of extremist groups - operate in the same identical way?

- If you believe this, that all parties operate with Gandhi's non-violence, it means you do not know the principles or the parties.

- How do you think the drug trade could be controlled in Poland?

-- First of all, the question is beating prohibition. The American mafia was given a hand precisely by the ban on the sale of alcohol. It is necessary to prevent the spread of the use of drugs as of alcohol and tobacco not through repression and bans. We will proclaim the need to include marijuana in the list of pharmaceutical drugs, in the light of new discoveries that prove that it can reduce the damage caused by cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy and several other human diseases.

The findings of these researches are kept hidden, patients are treated like drug addicts. a patient should have the right to buy marijuana with a prescription in a pharmacy just like morphine can be bought today.

- Do you agree on the fact that an organization that is not legalized in Poland asks for a contribution of 219.999 zloty?

- Private individuals have the right to join in Rome the Transnational Party, to pay a sum to any political or religious organization and become a embers of it, considering that this sum is a contribution to its organization, eg. for its publications in Polish language. This is all the party requires. The group of people in Poland want to carry out a more complex activity, but as an independent Polish organization connected to the Transnational Party only through support. This organization does not yet exist, but there is a group of people that want to establish it for the above mentioned reasons. Maybe it will be possible.