ABSTRACT: An evaluation of the party after the success of the membership campaign that reaped 37,000 members. Today, the treasurer says, we are faced to "a dual task, that of securing the realization of the transnational project and that of rendering permanent the extraordinary result obtained thanks of the Italian campaign". There follows an assessment of the prospects, namely the financial ones, divided into paragraphs: the structure of the party; the General Council and the Assembly of Parliamentarians; the Secretariat, the treasurer; the secretariat, the committee and the collaborators; the treasurer, the treasury committee and the collaborators; the costs for operativity and services; financial burdens, the loan, the leasing contracts; the offices in the other countries, the information network, communication; the offices in the various countries, written communication; editorial communication; the "New Party" newspaper and other editorial initiatives; the political activity already carried out in 1993;

Agorà; the global expense, the program; the revenues of 1993; the remaining funds; the projects, the foundations, the international institutions.

In the conclusion, the treasurer places the "global requirements" for 1994 ar 9,2 billion; requirements which can only partly be covered by Italian memberships; if the praxis of drawing from the flow of economic resources from a "single centre" were to continue, this would mean, "in the short-run", the onset of the "dramatic conditions of survival" of the last years. It is therefore necessary to drastically contain the "party's burden" in the various countries: hence the need to "progressively" achieve a situation of self-financing of the activities and to "start an organized activity" to obtain funds from "international and national bodies", also "through the creation of an ad hoc agency". The invitation to adopt self-financing is addressed to non-Italian parliamentarians in particular.

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Friends and comrades,

on the occasion of the Congress, at the beginning of February, the financial position of the party did not allow alternatives: either we managed immediately to find funds to the equivalent of 30,000 membership fees (at the rates established for the Western countries), or we would have to wind up the activities of the party without even waiting for the organs elected by the Congress to take office.

The level of debt reached - a total of $3,312,000, made up of a gap of $1,656,000 between current debit and credit items and a further $1,656,000 long-term bank mortgage debt - did not allow the continuation of activities, and would have led very quickly to bankruptcy. The total debt would, in fact, have exceeded the value of the party offices (over $3,312,000), the limit within which it had previously been contained.

How many of us, though well aware that we had to try, were convinced at the end of the Congress that this theoretically possible target would actually be reached?

As you know, thanks to the campaign organized in Italy, the target was reached and surpassed only two days after the three-week deadline that had been fixed: 37,000 members in Italy, with a total of more than $8,611,000 raised from membership fees and contributions.

Compared to other parties, the membership numbers may not seem to be remarkable. However, if we consider the current crisis of political parties in Italy and the fact the average number of Italian members in recent years has been around 2,500-3,000, the scale of the "Italian miracle" that the party has managed to perform can easily be understood.

Moreover, it has been demonstrated once again that a minimum membership fee calculated on the basis of 1% of per capita GDP, which many people believe to be excessive, and which amounts to 270,000 lire ($179) in Italy, did not limit the number of enrolments. What's more, the fact that we suggested a fee higher than the minimum - 365,000 lire ($242), the equivalent of 1,000 lire (75 cents) per day, or more - led to an average contribution of over 334,152 lire ($221) per head. It was proof that private funding, made public by the publication of all contributions, can be an alternative to the previous system of state funding, which was only "public" in terms of provenance, and which was only a small part of the money, both "public" and "private", illegally raised and spent by the parties.

As far as the Radical Party is concerned, the figure of 37,000 members allowed us to reach and surpass the target - set both in terms of membership figues (30,000) and the corresponding financial resources ($6,624,000) - that we had indicated since 1991 as the minimum necessary for the survival of the party and for the implementation of the transnational project.

We are, therefore, now faced with two tasks: to ensure the implementation of the transnational project and to make the exceptional result achieved by the Italian campaign permanent, both in terms of membership figures and in terms of the corresponding financial resources.

If the success achieved in Italy has allowed us to reach and go beyond the threshold set for the survival of the party, it also obliges us to face up to the other tasks which, despite the efforts made in the last few years, we have still not managed to complete.

The increase in the number of members and the extraordinary financial resources available ($8.6 million, over 70% of the total spent so far for the constitution and the activity of the transnational party in the last four years) have not been matched by the degree of knowledge and awareness necessary to allow the addressees, that is those people who should be the "users" of the instrument constituted by the Radical Party, to assume full responsibility towards the party. I am referring to the governing classes all over the world, the parliamentarians who have joined the Radical Party but who so far have not had the opportunity or the time to get to know and understand the party, to make it their own, to be able to take part directly in its project and thus to be able to become part of its future executive.

The General Council is called upon, in the next few days, to discuss the party budget. An analysis of the party accounts as the prerequisite for political decisions has always been the practice of all our meetings, both of the Congress and of the Federal Council, a practice which has now been formally introduced by the new statute.

It is precisely from a reading and an analysis of the budget, and the debate which will follow, that the dimension and the nature of the problems that we must face will emerge.

The bugdet presented here considers the two-year period 1993-94, the period laid down by the new statute between one congress and the next. The expenditure relative to the XXXVII Congress falls within this budget, while the expenditure relating to the XXXVI Congress has been included in the 1992 accounts.

The Party Structure

The Congress

The Statute adopted at the last Congress instituted new decision-making party structures which to some extent attenuate the difficulties of the party structure laid down by the previous statute, in which the Congress was the only seat for the discussion and the deliberation of all the motions and recommendations presented by members.

To this end, the institution of the General Council and the Assembly of Parliamentarians, as well as the Area Congresses that will be held before the next federal Congress, will allow members to take part in the life of the party without necessarily having to attend the federal congress.

If, as a result, the number of participants at congress is lower, costs can be kept down to the levels registered in the past.

The second session of the XXXVI Congress involved a total expenditure of $861,000. A breakdown of costs shows that more than half of this figure (53%, or $451,000) was spent on travel and accommodation expenses for the 430 members from 38 different countries outside Italy, 19% ($166,000) on the costs of interpreting, translation (into 8 languages) and the relative equipment, a further 19% on congress services, and 9% ($79,000) on information activities involving the press, television, and the production and distribution of Congress documents.

Considering an increase of the number of participants from countries other than the host country to a maximum of 700 people, and considering the fact that the Congress will only be held in 1994,

the estimated expenditure will be

$994,000 in 1994

The General Council and the Assembly of Parliamentarians

As well as this joint meeting of the two organs in Sofia, which involves a cost of about $397,000 (80% of the total on travel and accommodation expenses for the 400 people who have come from countries other than Bulgaria), on the basis of the statute there will be at least one more meeting of the General Council in 1994, at a cost of $166,000.

As regards the full Assembly of the Council of Parliamentarians, the statute establishes only the meeting to be held "in conjunction with" the Congress for the election of the forty members of the General Council. If this meeting can be held immediately afterwards, on the same occasion, at the end of the Congress, the expenditure on the organization of the assembly would be much lower than the $331,000-397,000 required if it were held at a different time. Through this option the expenditure could be limited to $99,000 for a two-day meeting of 400 parliamentarians.

In order to ensure the development and the co-ordination of the legislative initiatives of the parliamentarians, the reason behind the constitution of the assembly, during 1993 and 1994 we will have to organize a series of meetings of working committees on specific subjects of parliamentary initiative. To this end it will be necessary to set up a General Secretariat, possibly based in Brussels as it would thus be able to make use of the facilities of the European Parliament. These facilities allow essential services to be used at a very low cost, and even without paid staff. The cost of the activity of the Secretariat should not exceed $17,000 for 1993 and $33,000 for 1994, whilst the meetings of the working committees will cost at least $66,000 in 1993, and at least twice as much in 1994.

Apart from those indicated, other general meetings are not foreseen, except in the case of any extraordinary meetings which may become necessary.

The estimated expenditure will be

$480,000 in 1993

and $431,000 in 1994

making a total of $911,000 over the two-year period.

The Secretary's Office and the Treasurer

Though the Secretary and the Treasurer continue to retain full political responsibility for all the sectors of party activity, a clarification and division of the respective areas of competency has gradually emerged in the organization and running of the party.

The Secretary, assisted by the committee, is responsible for relations with the media, the co-ordination of political initiatives in the various countries, the legislative initiative in support of the political project, and printed communication and publication initiatives.

The Treasurer, assisted by the committee, as well as financial administration and therefore the party accounts, is responsible for the membership data processing centre, and therefore the computer system, as well as the party's archives and logistic services.

The Secretary's Office, the Secretarial Committee and personnel in the relative operational sectors.

The Secretary's Office of the party and also of the Committee, which has no personnel other than those already employed by the party, and therefore involves no extra cost, currently benefits from the direct collaboration of an assistant (annual cost $29,000).

There are currently nine initiative co-ordinators in the various countries. They usually reside outside Italy and operate in the Balkan area (4), Hungary (1), the Czech Republic (1), the Baltic countries (1), the republics of the ex-Soviet Union (2), and Africa (1). The annual cost relative to the collaboration of the nine co-ordinators is $217,000.

Printed communication activities currently occupy 4 people - a co-ordinator, two editorial assistants, and an editorial secretary. This group, which will probably have to be joined by a fifth person with editorial duties, is responsible for editing "The New Party" and, in the future, the publication of a parliamentary news-sheet. The annual cost is currently $70,000.

A press office has also been set up recently, with responsibility for relations with the media in Italy and in other countries and for the translation and the filing of the party's publications, as well as replies to the resulting correspondance. This service, which is currently carried out by four people, including one co-ordinator, involves an annual cost of around $60,000.

In the last two years two people have been employed by the party on the political initiatives for the abolition of the death penalty and for the international language. Their collaboration, in forms which will have to be further examined, involves an annual cost of $57,000.

The extraordinary success of the membership campaign in Italy means that this sector of initiative, currently carried out by only one person, will have to be reinforced. In the light of the result achieved, the political and organizational problems concerning relations with the Italian members cannot be dealt with by one person alone. The estimated cost of this sector is therefore $56,000, almost double the current figure of $33,000.

In support of the legislative initiatives of parliamentarians connected to the party's political project, as well as the services available through the Italian Parliament, the party has acquired high-level scientific collaboration. The estimated cost will be $17,000 in 1993 and $34,000 in 1994.

The technical secretarial service common to all the areas covered by the Secretary's Office is currently provided by two people, with an annual cost to the party of $33,000.

The estimated expenditure will be

$492,000 in 1993

and $557,000 in 1994

making a total of $1,065,000 over the two-year period.

The Treasurer, the Treasury Committee and personnel employed in the relative operative sectors.

As for the Secretarial Committee, no-one is employed in the Treasury Committee except people already directly employed in party activity.

Relations with suppliers and with banks and the accounts relative to the activities of the head offices and the other offices of the party are dealt with by three people, including one co-ordinator. The increase in the workload brought about by the increase in Italian members and the development of the party offices outside Italy require the collaboration of two more people, an accounts assistant and a part-time secretary. The cost to the party is $101,000 for 1993 and $115,000 for 1994.

As regards the Treasury Committee, it will be necessary to appoint a head of logistic and personnel management services, at an estimated cost of $25,000 a year ($22,000 for 1993).

The membership data processing centre is responsible for filing the names and personal data of all the members and contributors of the party (46,000 for 1993 alone, over 90,000 in total), the management of all the other address-lists which the party has created (390,000 addresses), and the organization and management of the party's computer system. Ten people are employed in this sector (a co-ordinator, five full-time workers and four part-time workers), with an estimated total cost of $118,000 in 1993 and $124,000 in 1994.

From September of this year, when the Agorà offices will be transferred from the main party offices in Rome, it will be possible to resume the organization of the archives. One person will be appointed for this purpose, at a cost of $8,000 in 1993 and $20,000 in 1994.

The estimated expenditure will be

$249,000 in 1993

and $284,000 in 1994

making a total of $533,000 over the two-year period.

RUNNING COSTS AND SERVICES

In order to ensure the various activities and services which must be carried out at the head offices in Rome, in the light of the growth of the party both in Italy and in other countries, the party offices are already stretched to the limit. It is therefore necessary to transfer the Agorà offices to other rented premises.

The total financial cost of the services common to all the sectors of activity ($762,000 for 1993 and $727,000 for 1994) is divided as follows: 17% on switchboard staff (six people, including two part-time) and staff responsible for logistic services, stock-keeping, and dispatch services (three people), 11% on consultancy services relating to administration, legal matters and graphic design for all activities in which they are needed.

A further 35% on telephone and electricity bills, and maintainance work (a total of $248,000 a year, including $146,000 on telephone, fax and telex alone).

A further 8% (around $60,000 a year) on the rental of two warehouses, office-cleaning services, and condominium fees.

A large proportion of the total cost of expenditure on services is taken up by payments to collaborators, the consequence of tax increases in Italy. Although these increases are largely covered by the collaborators, they inevitably influence payment levels (with an additional cost estimated at $100,000).

The cost of setting aside dismissal funds for permanent employees (the party does not have any permanent employees: this point regards staff employed by Torre Argentina S.p.A., the compmay which supplies services) is about $20,000. The cost of insurance for staff, premises, and equipment amounts to $28,000. Finally, the taxes paid by Torre Argentina S.p.A. in 1993 were particularly high ($65,000), though there should be no taxes to pay in 1994.

The total estimated expenditure is therefore

$762,000 in 1993

and $727,000 in 1994

making a total of $1,489,000 over the two-year period.

Mortgage and leasing payments

As I have already mentioned, during the course of 1992 it became necessary to take out a mortgage of $1,656,000 on the premises of the head offices in order to guarantee the amount of money necessary for the possible (though at the time probable) winding-up of the party itself.

The annual repayment is $331,000 for a period of ten years (with an additional $100,000 amortization payment in the first year), an increase of $200,000 on the previous figure. It was necessary to take out a mortgage because it was not possible to obtain a bank loan for the sum necessary to organize the Congress, in that we were not able to offer any guarantee, apart from the head office premises, to obtain a less costly form of loan. The advance repayment of the mortgage is only possible eighteen months after the stipulation of the contract, when we will have paid one and a half instalments as well as the amortization payment of $100,000. Therefore, considering that in the first year the payment mainly covers interest costs, advance repayment would not be convenient.

The leasing contracts stipulated in the last few years for the purchase of equipment for the head offices will gradually reach termination in the course of 1993 and 1994 ($61,000 in 1993 and $28,000 in 1994).

Also considering about $17,000 in bank charges

the estimated expenditure will be

$507,000 in 1993

and $376,000 in 1994

making a total of $883,000 over the two-year period.

Offices in other countries, the computer network, communication.

In the last few years the organization of the transnational party has developed by trial and error, on the basis of experiments which were perfected and corrected as the implementation of the political project progressed. This happened with the political initiatives, the instruments for the organization of the political life of the party (the statute), and the means of communication and of logistic support for the political initiatives. The process has still not reached conclusion, and still leaves a number of serious questions. These questions must be answered, otherwise the initiative of the party would lose in efficiency and, above all, would require a level of resources that the party does not have at its disposal.

The definition of the Radical Party as "the first direct-membership international open to all the citizens of the world" was a very general projectual statement and, as such, impossible to achieve without further articulation, as has happened, through the identification of the priorities, the methods and the instruments to achieve it. The XXXIV Congress, held in Budapest in 1989, with the appeal addressed to the "governing classes (of all countries) or (to their) most free and responsible exponents" identified the interlocutors of the party's political programme. The membership campaign aimed prevalently at parliamentarians, with the aim of allowing common and simultaneous legislative initiatives in many parliaments, constituted and continues to constitute its method.

The instruments used in support of the political initiative for the achievement of these objectives have varied over the years, both with regard to means of communication - at first the Radical Newsletter, and then "The New Party" and the newsletters - and with regard to the organizational instruments at the disposal of the members sent to the different countries to set up the first nucleuses of the transnational party. In 1989 and 1990, for example, fully-fledged party offices were set up in Budapest, Prague, Moscow, and Zagreb with the task of co-ordinating a membership campaign that was still not addressed prevalently to parliamentarians, but to a wider and consequently less selective target.

The organization of the party offices that had been set up was the result of the affluence of a large number of people involved directly in the implementation of the political initiatives and on a more strictly organizational level.

The subsequent identification of parliamentarians as the principle interlocutors of the party's initiative, and the political action which resulted from this, brought about a change in the role and the tasks of the party offices, the duties of the staff who worked in them, and the criteria for the selection of staff.

The production of the "The New Party" and the consequent concentration in Rome of the editorial and organizational activities related to written communication, which had previously been partially decentralized in Budapest and Moscow, also modified and reduced the need for some of the functions previously carried out in those offices.

The offices which are now opened are generally only "bases", sometimes even in the offices or the homes of members, and serve above all for secretarial services, as a link between the parliamentarian-members and between the party and the parliamentarians. Only later do they become fully-equipped offices, and then with more precise duties than in the past.

However, the new exigencies related to the identification of the objectives and the subjects of the political initiative has not been matched by a similar change in the organization of the existing offices.

The party offices in the different countries, written communication.

There are currently twenty-one offices whose running costs are paid for by the party (with the exception of the Prague office, the office and the telephone in St. Petersburg, and the office, telephone and one staff member in Stepanakert, which are all provided free). The offices are different in size, organizational structure, and function. On the basis of their size and function, they can be classified as co-ordination centres, offices, and bases.

The co-ordination centres, usually manned by one of the co-ordinators sent by the Rome offices and by four to six full-time staff, also provide services to the other offices in the same area (translation, address-lists, membership accounts, correspondance and administrative functions). There are currently three centres with these characteristics: Budapest for the Danube and Balkan area, except for Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia which are looked after by the Zagreb centre, and Moscow for the republics of the ex-Soviet Union. The annual running costs of a co-ordination centre vary from $146,000 in Moscow to $126,000 in Budapest and $79,000 in Zagreb.

There are currently five offices as such (Bucharest, Sofia, Vilnius, Kiev, and Prague). These offices have two or three full-time staff, and are not always manned by a co-ordinator sent by the party. They can provide most of the services necessary for running their activities without having to depend on the nearest co-ordination centre. The annual running costs of these offices vary from $33,000 (Bucharest, Sofia and Vilnius) to $43,000 in Kiev and $50,000 in Prague.

The equipped bases are small offices, sometimes also functioning as guest-quarters, usually with one full-time collaborator and only essential equipment. There are currently 13 bases: Skopje, Tirana, Pristina, Warsaw, Tallin, Riga, St. Petersburg, Baku, Tblisi, Erevan, Minsk, Stepanakert, and Ougadougou. The cost of the bases varies very much depending on the countries and the amount of equipment. It ranges from $26,000-30,000 for Warsaw and Skopje to $17,000-20,000 for Tirana and Pristina, $10,000-13,000 for Riga, Tallin and Ougadougou, and $1,300-5,200 for the bases in the ex-Soviet Union.

It was recently announced that two new bases will be opened in Alma Ata and Tashkent.

A systematic presence has also been planned in areas where there are currently no offices and which are considered to be areas of political intervention, either because of the presence of particularly active members (Voyvodina), or because they are areas in which the Radical project has a good chance of obtaining success (Austria, Germany, Republic of Slovakia). The estimated cost of activities in these areas is around $66,000 in 1993.

The services necessary to ensure the direct and organized presence of the party outside Italy involve an estimated expenditure of

$715,000 for 1993.

This is a modest figure, both in relation to the overall expenditure of the party and in relation to the services which are consequently at its disposal: 25 premises equipped as offices, 32 telephone lines, 48 collaborators, and also translators in all the offices and co-ordination centres.

What causes concern, however, is the development of this expenditure. In a phase of growth and development of the party's activity such as the present, there is inevitably a proliferation of new offices in areas of new interest for the party's initiatives, as well as a growth in the duties and the functions of the existing offices. It is worth remembering that the bases in 1991 (Bucharest, Sofia, Kiev, and Vilnius) became offices the following year; in areas with new members, or areas of particular political interest for the party (Skopje, Tirana, Tallin, Riga and the other republics of the ex-Soviet Union), new bases have been set up; the Zagreb offices have assumed the dimension and the function of a co-ordinating centre.

In the future, the creation of new offices of the Radical Party and the further growth in the size and the functions of existing offices is the logical continuation of the process begun in recent years. To restrict the number of offices and their functions would halt a process that should, rather, be corrected and altered in order to ensure an essential function in the organization of the transnational party.

On the basis of these forecasts, if corrective measures are not introduced the expenditure for 1994 will be not less than $1,126,000-1,192,000, a figure which is not compatible with the total financial resources at the disposal of the party. We must, therefore, immediately set ourselves a target - to contain expenditure on the direct presence of the party in other countries to within tolerable limits ($265,000-331,000 a year).

This means establishing a deadline (February 1994) within which we must put an end to expenses which have so far been covered directly by the party. Within this deadline, the offices in the various countries must raise the funds necessary to ensure the continuation of their activities, or must find new forms of organization using the means, the people, and above all the experience of the parliamentarians in the party, who have already had to tackle similar organizational and logistic problems in the past for their own national parties. It is a deadline which concerns all members of the party, parliamentarians or otherwise, who intend to ensure the means necessary for the survival of the party and for the success of its project. Within this deadline we must carry out all the initiatives necessary to obtain, from institutions, parliaments, parties, parliamentary groups, and people who are able to contribute, the financial, technological and human resources to guarantee the technical instruments and the service

s necessary for the implementation of the Radical Party project.

The total estimated expenditure will therefore be

$331,000 for 1994

making a total of $1,046,000 over the two-year period.

Printed communication

The parliamentary news-sheet

The implementation of the plan for a parliamentary news-sheet, currently being examined, could help to bring about an organizational and political change in the presence of the Radical Party in the different countries.

The need for a regular (weekly) form of communication addressed to parliamentarians, by means of which the members of the various parliaments can communicate with the party and with each other, was one of the objectives of "The New Party"; however, due to the characteristics of the newspaper, it has only been possible to achieve this aim in a very partial and occasional manner. The experience gained with the newspaper has allowed us to identify the type of communication necessary to support the political and legislative initiatives in the various parliaments. A service providing useful information, such as the texts of all the Resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations or of the European Parliament regarding particular issues (Eastern Europe, the environment, human rights, etc.), could be a vehicle to inform a large number of parliamentarians about the Radical project, becoming in this way the instrument of communication and therefore of organization.

The parliamentary news-sheet would be written and translated into the various languages in Rome, impaginated and transmitted via computer network to the offices in other countries, where it would be printed and distributed (the printing process would be carried out with a normal computer and an advanced laser printer which is able to print and "bind" the news-sheet into leaflet form, "personalizing" each copy by adding the name of each addressee). It is clear that in order to make each operation (and in particular distribution) simpler and more efficient, the terminals in other countries must be situated in offices within each parliament, where one person would be enough to deal with printing and distribution to all the members of the parliament.

The success of this initiative will rely on the efficient organization of all the details of the process, and also on the support of Radical parliamentarians, who must obtain premises in each parliament where the equipment could be installed, and assure the collaboration of at least one person to take care of printing and distribution and to gather written contributions from individual parliamentarians to be sent to the editorial committee in Rome.

The party cannot, in fact, organize and pay for all the printing offices in other countries. It can only cover the initial investment, estimated at $79,000 for 1993, for the experimental installation of ten terminals in the parliaments which can adhere immediately to the initiative, above all in places where there are already party offices. In 1994, provided that the parliamentarians are willing and able to obtain premises within their own parliaments, the initiative could be extended to a further 20 parliaments with a further expenditure on equipment of $159,000.

The estimated expenses for the production of the news-sheet in 1993 are as follows: $63,000 on translations and $13,000 on production costs (mainly the cost of paper). In 1994, if the initiative is extended to a total of 30 parliaments, production costs will amount to $265.000.

The estimated expenditure will therefore be

$155,000 in 1993

and $423,000 in 1994

making a total of $578,000 over the two-year period.

"The New Party" and other publications.

The newspaper "The New Party", translated into fifteen languages and distributed to about 250,000 addressees, including about 40,000 parliamentarians in 59 countries, has in the last two years been the only instrument of communication in support of the party's political project addressed to parliamentarians and to non-Italian members. Moreover, the use of selected address-lists has allowed us to use the newspaper to contact groups of people in the different countries who would otherwise be difficult to contact.

However, the very fact that the newspaper has been the only instrument of communication has represented a limitation with respect to the party's various requirements regarding communication and information. The need to provide general information on the party was not compatible with the need to cover the current progress of the political initiative, just as the need to provide detailed and at times lengthy material on single issues was not compatible with the limited number of pages available (12) and the enormous number of addressees (250,000), not all of whom would necessarily be interested in specialized material.

It has therefore become necessary to plan different kinds of publication: in addition to the newspaper (3 issues in 1993 and 7 issues in 1994), there will also be publications on single issues (one this year and another three in 1994), and a general brochure describing the nature and the aims of the party. Each issue of the newspaper costs around $152,000, whilst the publications on single issues and the brochure will cost $66,000 each.

The total estimated expenditure will therefore be

$590,000 in 1993

and $1,265,000 in 1994

making a total of $1,855,000 over the two-year period.

It must be noted, however, that this figure is still only an estimate, a useful indication of the size of the financial commitment that written communication involves. As the programme is carried out and developed, substantial modifications may occur. If we manage to produce the weekly parliamentary news-sheet, the need to establish systematic contact with parliamentarians, so far achieved only by the newspaper, will be at least partially satisfied. A much greater degree of flexibility in the conception and the organization of the newspaper will thus be possible. It could, for example, be addressed for certain periods to specific political or geographical targets. We could produce issues prevalently aimed at the Arab world, for example, which has so far only been skirted by the Radical project, and which is totally uninformed about the project itself.

At organizational level, too, the programme will have to be further examined. At the moment 50% of the cost of each issue is determined by distribution costs. If the newspaper were printed in the various areas in which it is distributed, instead of in Rome, it would be possible to double or triple circulation figures without any increase in costs. There would obviously be enormous organizational difficulties, but in some cases this alternative could be both possible and opportune.

We should also consider that if we reduced the number of issues published each year by half, we could triple the number of pages per issue, allowing the production of a 72-page quarterly magazine.

In accordance with the programme planned, the next issue of the newspaper is currently being produced and will be distributed in early September. In the meantime, we must continue to evaluate the different hypotheses, also in the light of the programme of political initiatives that we decide on.

Political activity already carried out in the first six months of 1993

So far this year a total of $132,000 has been spent on the political activity carried out in the first six months: on meetings and assemblies of members that have been held in almost all the countries of Eastern Europe in which the Radical Party is present, on initiatives in support of the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty, both with participation in the Vienna Conference and with initiatives in the countries of the African Sahel, on an initial series of meetings in Turkey, a country which has never before been touched by the Radical initiative, and on the publication of information about the party through the purchase of advertising space in about forty newspapers in Eastern Europe and Russia, including Asiatic Russia.

the total expenditure so far is therefore

$132,000 in 1993

Agorà

The expenditure on the running of the Agorà telematic network in 1993 is estimated at about $311,000, an increase of about $73,000 on 1992. 60% of this increase is accounted for by the costs of renting, removal costs, and adaptation of the new premises to which Agorà has to move due to the lack of space in the party offices in Via di Torre Argentina in Rome. From the sale of its services Agorà forecasts an income of $73,000 in 1993 and at least the same amount in 1994.

The estimated expenditure for the party is therefore

$238,000 in 1993

and $219,000 in 1994

making a total of $457,000 for the two-year period.

The Observatory on Radio and Television News

The running costs of the Observatory on Radio and Television News currently amount to $242,000 a year. This figure is entirely covered by income from the sale of its services, therefore

there is no expenditure for the party.

Total expenditure, the programme of political initiatives.

On the basis of the estimated expenditure and the sums already spent in the course of 1993, the total outgoings are estimated at $5,000,000. Adding the deficit of $1,656,000 relative to current items (excluding the ten-year mortgage), the total expenditure amounts to $6,656,000.

The total sum already accounted for, which does not include expenditure on political initiatives still to be decided or planned, is therefore

$6,656,000 for 1993.

Income in 1993

The income assured from the membership campaign in Italy and the income forecast to the end of the year, having subtracted the payment due to the credit card companies ($212,000) and the sum spent on sending out membership cards ($127,000) amounts to $8,478,000. The quota which those elected in the anti-prohibitionist lists in the regional councils in Italy pay to the party from their salaries amounts to $46,000, whilst bank deposits and financial investments should yield a total income of about $265,000.

The total income is therefore

$8,789,000 for 1993

The remaining funds

The funds available to be spent on the political initiatives yet to be decided or planned, which the Secretary of the party outlines in the "Lines of political initiative" presented during this meeting, and in those which will subsequently be defined, therefore amount to

$2,132,000 for 1993

This is a small sum in relation to the campaigns and the initiatives that the party will have to carry out from this year onwards, and above all in the light of the budget for 1994, which on the basis of the items detailed above forecasts total outgoings of $6,094,000.

It is highly unlikely that "the Italian miracle", which has raised funds totalling $8,478,000 during the course of this year, will be repeated in 1994. With an optimistic, though not unrealistic forecast, we can estimate that the funds raised from 1994 membership fees in Italy will be one third of this year's figure.

If all the remaining funds from 1993 are spent during the course of this year, the budget deficit on the basis of the forecast expenditure, not including the cost of political initiatives in 1994, would amount to over $3,312,000. As we can see, we are once again faced with the problem of the survival of the party (though to a considerably different extent). This had already been pointed out in the past when, on the occasion of meetings of the party (report by Sergio Stanzani, Sabaudia seminar, September 1992), the minimum requirement of 30,000 members was identified as necessary, but not in itself sufficient to guarantee the survival of the party and the success of the transnational project if the financial contribution produced could not be repeated each year.

The extraordinary contribution of the Italian members must therefore be a starting point for an attempt to achieve a greater and more stable size.

The investment made by the Radical Party in the various countries with money gathered in Italy (by the end of 1993 $17,222,000 will have been spent in four years) must be matched by a significant degree of self-financed political initiative and by self-financing of the services necessary for the functioning of the party in the different countries.

In the course of this report I have already described the possible contribution of members, parliamentarians or otherwise, in organizing and ensuring the services necessary for running party offices, and the contribution of parliamentarians in obtaining premises within their own parliaments for the printing of the parliamentary news-sheet, and possibly in ensuring a share of the production costs.

The investments that the party has made in the various sectors of political initiative must likewise be matched by self-financing of initiatives and by initiatives for financing the party.

The campaign for the abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000 has largely financed its own initiatives (by raising $58,000 over nine months), requiring in the past, and in the future, a contribution in funds and services from the party that amounts to about 50% of its own budget, which is in any case still too limited with respect to the objectives of the campaign.

The anti-prohibtionist campaign.

The Italian anti-prohibitionists were decisive for the very survival of the party both in 1989 and in 1991, when on the occasion of elections they devolved the entire amount due to them for the reimbursement of electoral costs, which the Italian law foresees on the occasion of elections, to the party. The members of Italian regional councils elected on the anti-prohibitionist ticket currently contribute about $46,000 a year to the party, the equivalent of one-fifth of their salaries. The party's current expenditure on the anti-prohibitionist campaign consists of a fixed contribution of $87,000 on the basis of the pact of federation with the International Anti-prohibitionist League (the entire sum is registered in the 1992 accounts, and half of the sum has been paid in 1993). In the future, the success of the IAL will have to be measured partly on its ability to raise funds to finance its own initiatives.

The initiative for an international language has mainly gained support from Esperantist movements, which have become its promotors. Whilst it has led to a significant number of new members outside Italy and allowed the party to attract members in countries which it does not otherwise reach (China, Japan), in terms of expenditure it depends entirely on funds from the party.

Projects, foundations, international institutions.

The characteristics of the Radical campaigns, which are always aimed at obtaining political results of general interest, have led to the neglect of an aspect of the party's activity for which there is an increasing and widespread request. I refer to the possibility of developing projects on issues which may be more circumscribed, but which may be the subject of interest and therefore of possible financial contributions on the part of foundations and institutions (the European Parliament, the United Nations). In the course of the campaigns that the Radical Party has conducted, we have often dealt with issues which could have led to specific projects, both in Italy and in other countries. These projects, however, have not been developed or completed, firstly due to lack of funds, and secondly due to the fact that they have been undervalued compared to the main political objective to be achieved. This consideration is even more valid today in relation to issues on the agenda of the party's political initiative,

such as the environment and nuclear energy and an international agreement on the Danube waterway, and is equally valid for other issues such as the Transbalkanic Railway, and also for issues already dealt with for some time, such as the anti-prohibitionist campaign and the campaign for the right to an international language.

This problem, however, cannot be tackled and solved with the resources currently at the disposal of the party, and also in view of the fact that the Radical Party cannot obtain direct funding from international foundations or institutions, we must consider the feasibility of a project development agency which, independently, and constituted in the most appropriate juridical form, could provide the party, and also other bodies, with the professional skills necessary for the development of projects that could be financed both by institutions and by public and private subjects, national and/or international.

Conclusion

The Radical battle continues, or perhaps resumes. It is the battle to attempt to achieve what is possible, although improbable. The corrective measures and the proposals that I have outlined in this report are only the first steps in the attempt to deal with the problem of the survival of this party, a problem which has always existed.

The terms of the problem are clear:

a) the extraordinary success of the membership campaign in Italy, a success which it will not be possible to repeat in the short term, has temporarily ensured the technical conditions for the life of the party and created the possibility of making these conditions permanent;

b) the two-year budget forecasts total financial requirements for 1994 of $6,000,000, which can only partially be covered by the membership campaign in Italy;

c) By the end of 1993 the Radical Party will have spent a total of $18,547,000 on transnational activity, including $6,624,000 during the current year alone, funds made available entirely by Italian members;

d) This investment, which has allowed the constitution and the formation of the transnational party, has not yet been matched (and could not yet have been matched) in the various countries by contributions in the form of funds and above all in the form of services and militant activity that would represent a significant quota of the overall budget of the party;

e) if we continue with the budget formulation that has been adopted during the phase of establishment and experimentation of the party, on the basis of which financial resources flow from a single centre, unless there is a gradual development of one or more centres which carry out initiatives to finance their own activities or finance the party in general, or forms of organization that significantly reduce the financial burden currently sustained by the party, then the dramatic problems of survival that the party has had to face in the last few years will recur, thus rendering vain the opportunity for investment in political initiatives that has been made possible by the Italian members;

f) we must therefore take up the decisions and the consequent initiatives to contain, in a progressive though drastic manner, the financial burden on the party resulting from the services assured in the various countries.

By a fixed deadline (February 1994), we must eliminate or considerably reduce the current expenditure on the running of the offices in the various countries.

For the new services that will be introduced, such as the parliamentary news-sheet, the party must only be responsible for investments and production, whilst distribution and perhaps also reproduction must be guaranteed in each country on the basis of agreements to be made with each parliament;

g) in all the fields of political initiative which involve contributions, including financial contributions, from the party, and which have given rise to organized forms of activity, we must find ways in which they can gradually finance their own initiatives and raise funds for the party;

h) we must examine, in an organized and systematic manner, the possibility of obtaining funds for individual projects from national and international bodies, perhaps through the constitution of an agency designed for this purpose.

It is only through the gradual and increasing assumption of responsibilities on the part of members (especially of parliamentarians), above all in those countries towards which the political initiative and the investments, including the financial investments, of the party have mainly been addressed, that it will be possible to achieve the re-balancing of the contribution of human, financial and technical resources which is necessary to guarantee the survival of the party as it continues to expand. During the campaign for thirty thousand members in Italy, we invited each Italian member to be the secretary and treasurer of the Radical Party by working, acting, informing and promoting the new party. A feat which was achieved, and which must be repeated all over the world. If at least one person in each country, in each parliament, offers his or her own office for this purpose, setting up a computer and information network and bases for political initiatives, the process of transformation of the party's presence

and offices that needs to be begun will be accelerated, allowing the step forward in quality that we are called on to make, and above all helping to release precious funds.

We can and must, as we go along, further rationalize and optimize the expenditure on the running of organs and structures, but we must also immediately identify the choices to be made to release as many of our resources as possible for the achievement of our political objectives - apparently ambitious - which must be the response to all those who, by becoming members, have chosen to ensure the survival of the Radical Party.

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Note: the accounts and the budget of the Radical Party are drawn up in Italian lire. For the sake of convenience, and without any intention of setting a precedent, figures are given in US dollars.The exchange rate adopted is the average of the first six months of 1993 (1,000 lire = 0.662 US dollars)

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