ABSTRACT: Abolitionist activists took a "human rights" train to Vienna, to present appeals with more than 60,000 signatures, collected in sixty-six countries, to Ibrahima Fall, Secretary General of the U.N. Conference

(WORLDWIDE PARLIAMENTARY CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY THE YEAR 200 - Radical party/International League for the abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000)

At 7.45 p.m. on 10 June '93, a small group of people set off from Rome by train on a journey through the night. Other groups joined the train at Florence, Bologna and Ferrara, but for those people coming from Milan, the nearest station was Mestre. More than 50 people - women, children and untiring activists - set out from Italy in this very modest way; they travelled in smelly second class couchettes - just as we had done four days previously - remembering to bring with them the few remaining items that we had forgotten. We were already installed in the impressive Austria Center, and only a few hours previously had hounded them with such requests as: don't forget the flags with the Radical Party symbol; and remember to bring the banner, for goodness sake! Not to mention the daring recovery of a number of works in the abolitionist Exhibit, which were hiding in a corner at Fiumicino airport...

These heroic few arrived at Vienna's SudBanhof station at 9.00 a.m. the next morning. Two comrades from Bologna - Daniela Mennichelli and Mauro Rossi - went to meet them, accompanied by Neapolitan photographer Vittorio Guida (we had sworn before leaving that we would take a professional along this time!) and Emilio Targia from Rome. Emilio is a Radical Radio reporter and an active member of the International League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

Remembering how we felt after spending the entire night on the train, we asked the group how they felt when they arrived. Too tired to speak, was the answer.

Our fifty intrepid friends soon picked up after a quick visit to a Viennese coffee house: they had no complaints about the pastries but the coffee left a lot to be desired!

"What do you want us to do?" they asked. But before we had time to reply, they were already distributing leaflets announcing the International League's press conference - or rather "information meeting" as the organizers had begged us to call it, on pain of not being allowed to hold the meeting on U.N. property - which was to be held at 12 noon.

The "information meeting" took place in a small room - in which there was barely room to swing a cat - packed with a dozen or so journalists and members of the delegation from the Radical Party and the International League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by 2000. The delegation was composed of: Nikolaj Arzhannikov, Vice-chairman of the Committee of the Supreme Soviet of Russia on human rights; Igor Bezrukov, Vice-chairman of the Committee of the Supreme Soviet of Russia on legislation; Emma Bonino, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and member of the Presidency of the Italian Chamber of Deputies; Adelaide Aglietta, rapporteur on the death penalty for the European Parliament and President of the Italian Green Group; Hans Janitschek, former President of the Socialist International; Zvonimir Separovic, Chairman of the Association against Torture of Croatia; Enrico Modigliani, Italian MP; Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Italian MP; Antonio Stango, member of the General Council of the Radical Party and

Secretary of the Italian Helsinki Committee, and Sergio D'Elia, Mariateresa Di Lascia, Olivia Ratti, Lucio Berté and Irina Podlesova, all of whom are members of the International League for the Abolition of the Death Penalty by 2000.

Emma Bonino, who speaks English and French as fluently as she does Italian, opened the meeting. She presented the delegates and explained why we were at the Vienna Conference: to present an appeal addressed to the United Nations, which had been signed by more than 60,000 people in sixty-six countries. The journalists took rapid notes and asked a lot of questions: who knows if they are like their Italian counterparts, who also take a lot of notes but very rarely write reports on international politics... The next day, however, Der Standard - the leading Austrian newspaper - published an article about the Radical Party on the third page: "The Transnational Radical Party has 50,000 members throughout the world. It is principally committed to the abolition of the death penalty and to the setting up of an International Court to try war crimes".

Meanwhile, the preparations for our demonstration against the death penalty in front of the Austria Center were in full swing. As chance would have it we were unable to hold our abolitionist Exhibit in the gallery we had booked for that morning, and so we had decided to bring all the works with us. Now, the life-size electric chair created by Emilio Leofreddi stood ominously outside the entrance, flanked by Massimo Liberti's column and other works by Enrico Manera and the indefatigable Franco Di Carlo.

Everything was ready in a few minutes. As the delegation arrived, hundreds of flags and the International League's banner were unfurled. At the same time, dozens of posters with the legend "Hands off Cain" appeared on all sides of the electric chair, causing a great stir. Photographers rushed forward to immortalize all the people who, overcoming their horror, allowed themselves to be strapped into the chair. In the days that followed, photographs of the demonstration appeared in many newspapers and magazines: L'Oberdesterreichische nachrichten (News from Austria); Terra viva, an independent newspaper published at the World Conference on Human Rights; Autremente Vivre, another Conference newspaper, and finally Newsweek - which was both unexpected and gratifying - on sale until June 28! "Do the Right Thing" was the title of the Newsweek feature, and "Abolish the Death Penalty by the Year 2000" appeared immediately below the journalist's name!