THE TRANSNATIONAL TRANSPARTY

ABSTRACT: Insert published on payment on the "New York Times" of 28th Septembre. The text contains a solicitation to join the radical party. Lastly, it suggests the creation of an interactive link with the Radical Party via Internet.

(THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28 september 1993)

We are 618 democratically-elected representatives from 65 countries, belonging to 80 different Parties and Lists that are often political opponents. We have decided to send you a call, to cry out: "Mayday, Mayday America!"

We are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and people who do not belong to any particular faith, united in a task by political objectives without precedent in terms of method and content, validity and success. But we are also 40,000 men and women scattered throughout the world who are in great need of your help to rediscover America and to finally realize Martin Luther King's dream for the entire world. In an act of faith and hope, we have invested $162,500 in these pages, in order to receive your replies, your contributions, and your membership - even though this is virtually all the money we had left.

Every day we make a contribution of money and time, according to his own possibilities. This is the best individual and collective insurance policy we can take out for each and every one of us to reap the dividends of freedom, peace, democracy, nonviolence, and a safe environment. We do this in the form of membership to the Radical Party, the transnational "transparty" whose symbol evokes the image of Mahatma Gandhi and each one of our languages; to the Radical Party, whose campaigns, methods and goals embody the kind of effectiveness and concreteness necessary to create a right to life and a life of rights in a world that is becoming more and more dangerous for each and every one of us and is in danger itself; to the Radical Party, a new political force that is not ideological but completely libertarian since it does not impose any form of discipline or permanent consensus, a new instrument already being used to attain important legislative goals, an instrument capable of combining the methods of democratic

government with those of organized nonviolence, at an individual and popular level.

We are already mobilized to present and defend identical legislative proposals simultaneously in as many national Parliaments and supranational democratic bodies as possible, accompanied by extensive nonviolent action undertaken by tolerant, democratic activists.

Following America's example, the major regions of the world must federate in the name of freedom and the rule of law instead of tearing themselves apart in ideological, religious, nationalist, and ethnic wars that are barbarizing the world with acts of violence, genocide, massacres, and dictatorships.

The U.N. must become the place that affirms the fundamental rights of society and of the individual with the "forces" of law and effective international jurisdiction. It must use tolerance and rule-of-thumb wisdom to oppose the forces of intolerance and strictly authoritarian and conservative beliefs - that only appear revolutionary - which dominate so many parts of the world.

It is also necessary for the new technologies that are once more revolutionizing our world, to be organized, controlled and put to the service of human awareness and science to defend life and the planet Earth in a productive and democratic way.

At the end of this century, when the defeat of Nazism and Communism gave us so many reasons to hope, the separation between human awareness and science one the one hand, and "politics" on the other, is growing ever more serious and profound. With humility, determination and a great sense of urgency, we must therefore pursue and bring about important reforms that human awareness and science desire almost to the same degree but are unable to realize.

The majority of the world, and the majority of us, know this. To no purpose, or so it would appear. The Radical Party, or, if you prefer, we - people like yourselves - have transformed this "knowledge" into a powerful instrument for obtaining civil rights, with results that confirm the validity and effectiveness of our aims, our methods, and the instrument itself. However, it is precisely this success that has precipitated a dangerous crisis in our Party, that threatens to force us to disband owing to the dramatic lack of human and financial resources necessary to meet the growing global and even institutional "demand", a "demand" for the Radical Party: for the transnational "transparty"; for a Party for the federal reform of the U.N.; for a Party of organized nonviolence; for a Party of democratic parliaments; for a Party of tolerance.

We have demonstrated that we have learned form our experience of poverty and profited by it; that we are able to gain strength from hunger and thirst strikes; that we can get laws passed by going to prison and resorting to civil disobedience; but, above all, we have proved that we are capable of stimulating, developing, and controlling difficult reform processes that are often slow and unproductive; of creating new laws, new rights, and new institutions.

In 1993, we launched a similar appeal in Italy. Our honesty and our ability to get things done resulted in over 35,000 people, including 200 deputies and senators, from all parties and social conditions, joining the Radical Party within a few days, with contributions amounting to over nine million dollars.

Many people came to Italy to support our membership campaign, including the Mayor of Sarajevo. He is one of us, like the many others in the world, from Cuba (where they have freed our comrade Pedro Pablo Guzman Cabrera, but where so many others are still in prison, still oppressed) to the Republics of the Former Soviet Union, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, who are battling and suffering for the rule of law, for liberty, peace, tolerance, democracy, and the environment; to put an end to genocide, massacres, terrorism, torture, and every kind of violence.

This made it possible for us to conduct an international campaign for the institution by the U.N., of an International Tribunal for war crimes committed in the Ex-Yugoslavia (which categorically excludes the death penalty). With your help, we are counting on the U.N. to adopt the Statute of a Permanent International Penal Court, during the 49th Session of the General Assembly opened on September, 20; and on intervening to defend civil and human rights everywhere - Kosovo, Nagorno Karabak, Haiti and Latin America - wherever they are abused. We were in Rio de Janeiro and in Cairo to neutralize every type of fundamentalist campaign, to safeguard the rights of nature and of all individuals. Now we must implement those decisions that are so vital for humanity and our planet.

Others were there as well, of course, but we were the only ones to have created a permanent organization which is neither bureaucratic nor ideological, composed of men and women who work together for a period to achieve objectives and reforms that the political world - as you are well aware - seems incapable of implementing.

Without the immediate help and generous participation of thousands of new members and supporters, the Radical Party will soon have to face the fact that it cannot continue to survive. Unless, of course, it gives up its independence and ceases to be the first, important democratic and libertarian Party of nonviolence in the world, and the first political organization prepared to promote a life of rights and the right to life and freedom, everywhere.

This is why we need you, and we have faith in you.

Emma Bonino

Secretary of the Radical Party

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"(...) I believe the radical thought is one of the most fruitful ways to confront the future. I believe the transnational approach is one of the best ways, in our world, to achieve a universal dimension."

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the Assembly of Parliamentarians of the Radical Party (Sofia, Bulgaria, July 14-18, 1993)

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FOR INSTITUTING AN INTERNATIONAL PENAL COURT TO JUDGE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY NOW!

At this Session, the U.N.'s appointment with history.

Emma Bonino designated italian spokeperson at the meetings of the U.N. General Assembly

It cost us a fair sum ($47,152) the page we took in the New York Times of Tuesday, October 26, 1993, so that readers could get to know us.

Five hundred and ninety people from all over the United States immediately joined the Radical Party campaign to set up an ad hoc Tribunal for crimes committed in the territory of the Ex-Yugoslavia, which was later instituted by the U.N. Security Council with Resolution No. 808 of February 22, 1993.

It was also thanks to these people, to their response, that we were able to win a further success in the following weeks: the inauguration of the Tribunal in The Hague on November 17, 1993. The U.N. Secretary General himself made the announcement to the Radical Party delegation, led by the Secretary Emma Bonino, when it met with him in New York at the beginning of last November.

"I would like to thank you for the incisive and effective action that you have been undertaking for some time in favor of the ad hoc Tribunal for the Ex-Yugoslavia (...)."

Antonio Cassese, President of the Tribunal, to Emma Bonino (July 6, 1994).

Now, the Radical Party is asking the U.N. General Assembly to summon, before the end of December, a U.N. Conference in 1995 for the adoption of the Treaty on the institution and operation of the International Penal Court.

We must start preparing ourselves, organizing ourselves, in the next few days. We must hold demonstrations, and send letters, faxes, and petitions from all over the world, from all parliaments, to support the delegations and U.N. bodies who have committed themselves to seeing that this historical decision is taken; and we must beg the others not to oppose it, convince them to push it through. The Radical Party has already been working on this for some time, even though there are not nearly enough of us, we don't have nearly enough money. An American mobilization is vital. Give us the means to help you organize yourselves; to arm you with the knowledge of what is going on each day; to inform you in real time, so that you will know what to do. We are particularly asking those who administer justice, or who teach or study law, to enrol in the Radical Party, to support us and also persuade others, including organizations operating in this field, to take action. For a right to life and a life of rights. Now.

FOR A PLANET (AND THE U.N.) ARMED BY NONVIOLENCE, 100,000 CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS MAY BE ABLE...

Osijek (Slavonia) - December 1991

A few years ago, a Belgian exponent of the Radical Party, Olivier Dupuis, chose, after he had just graduated in Sociology, to serve 11 months in prison rather than do his military service or alternative service in Belgium. "A European army, maybe allied to the U.N., is O.K.," he said. "But I prefer a prison uniform to that of an army which is of no use to anyone, or an alternative service that is more like a wasteful, bureaucratic charity organization." That's Olivier Dupuis in the photo. He is wearing a Croat uniform, at Osijek, while the Serb Army threatens to raze that city to the ground, just like they did with Vukovar and Dubrovnik. The man with him is Marco Pannella, the Radical Party leader who in various parts of the world is hailed as the new Gandhi, which is, of course, an exaggeration. There were naturally wearing uniforms at the front, but they were unarmed. Or rather, they were armed with nonviolence.

This action helped to strengthen the forces of peace and democracy in Croatia. The Croat Deputy Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and dozens of members of the Croat Parliament joined the Radical Party, forcefully opposing thei desire to seek revenge and to retaliate. Today, there is a Radical presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, in Macedonia and Voivodina. Many of our friends died paying the price of freedom, justice, and the solitude in which too many people in the world had left them.

Dupuis is now President of the General Council of the Radical Party, and he will shortly succeed Pannella as member of the European Parliament.

A Radical story, like a thousand others. But without a serious organization behind them, hundreds of thousands of Olivier Dupuis will have to resign themselves to doing nothing, or at the most staging an individual protest. This is why we are asking Americans to give themselves, and everything they are, to the Radical Party. To make a offering, contribution, as we have.

FOR TIBET (AND CHINA): FIRST WORLD SATYGRAHA NOW BEING PLANNED FOR 1996

To prevent the Dalai Lama from standing down

The Dalai Lama has said ("International Herald Tribune", Thursday, September 15, 1994): "If it is true my approach is becoming a factor for demoralization, sadness and discouragement for the people inside Tibet, then I cannot stay with that position, I cannot take that responsibility." He added that he was being increasingly criticized by some Tibetans for being too soft in his approach to China (...). His search for an agreement with Beijing has brought no improvements inside Tibet, but he said he would not back violent protest against Beijing's control.

We know and love this extremely tender man. This great, great man, whose spiritual and intellectual strength has been honored (quite rightly; it happens sometimes) with the Nobel Peace Prize. With these words, he reminds us that even the Gospel, and Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, recognize and speak of moments of doubt and bewilderment.

The Radical Party has approached the Dalai Lama, with the idea of organizing the first, great "World Satyagraha" before the end of 1996, for peace and freedom in Tibet, and the democratization of China. A Gandhian Satyagraha organized with the help of the media and state-of-the-art technologies, supported by U.N. initiatives in every country.

A large-scale hunger strike in the name of hope and dialogue, to be carried out worldwide - indefinitely in some places - by parliaments, by the poor and the powerful, with a sufficiently important and strong objective chosen with great care. This objective should be compatible with China's constitutional principles, but also implement the principles laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Resolutions of the United Nations. It should follow the direction that the Dalai Lama has taken for some time, which may show China how to change its history, starting with that of Tibet, by pursuing a peaceful and democratic form of development.

A project of this dimension would take over two years to organize properly, even with the much hoped for mobilization of the great religious and spiritual forces, as well as the popular and political forces throughout the world. But simply to inform, to collaborate with all the nonviolent, Gandhian, peace-loving and Buddhist-inspired groups, there is a need for spiritual strength, human and financial resources, wisdom and dedicated action without precedent.

The great political philospher Karl Popper, a master of liberal thought, was among the leading scholars of nonviolence. If we are given the means to continue with our struggle, it will be necessary to finally take into consideration the Western culture, including those aspects ignored by the people in power.

The Dalai Lama is waiting for us to present, as soon as possible, the project on which we are working and which we have promised to send him. It is in fact unthinkable to try organizing a Satyagraha of this dimension, that has never been conceived of before, without a real hope and a guarantee of its being realized.

The only real Satyagrahas that were successful in history were those undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi. We must now make it possible for them to be held internationally: first, in the name of the Tibetan cause, and that of democracy and freedom in the world.

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"The projects undertaken and, above all, the commitment made by the Radical Party in the name of many just causes, have my complete admiration and make me truly happy."

The Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Laureate, at a press conference held at the Radical Party headquarters in Rome last June.

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FIND YOURSELF AMERICA. HERE'S WHY.

Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the "Federalist Papers." Jefferson and a libertarian and republican society. Lincoln and the supremacy of the law. But there was also the environmentalism of Emerson and his transcendentalists, the civil disobedience of Thoreau, and Paine's "Common Sense." And then there was the Frenchman Lafayette, who could have given France and the rest of Europe the chance to carry out an American-style liberal revolution, but failed to do so and the French Revolution became Jacobin, paving the way for Bonapartism and, later, the Russian Revolution. Along with Kennedy's new frontier, Martin Luther King's "dream", and the international solidarity offered by the Plan of General Marshall. All this is "America" for many of us: the America we love. The same land for which tens of millions of Europeans departed, weighed down by poverty but full of hope. They were our forefathers, our parents, and they were welcomed by America to become her children.

Today, those great names belong to another era. To the future, we hope. Otherwise, there will be no future for civilization, and the ten billion people who live on this planet. It also depends on us.

TO ALL FREE-THINKING AMERICAN EDITORS AND JOURNALISTS

This is an "advertisement." We paid for the space. But these pages speak of actions, projects and initiatives already underway. So we have paid to communicate "news", we have made news. This should interest you from a professional point of view.

If it does, write about it. In your newspapers, in the thousand newspapers, large and small, circulating in the cities and provinces of America, report on this initiative that has never been attempted before. As professional journalists and also as people of good will. But write about it, please. And don't forget that your readers have 15 days to respond to our appeal, to reach us. Thank you.

ITALIANS AND ITALIAN AMERICANS: GIVE US SOME TIME!

The Radical Party has historic roots in Italy. But there is in this century also the little provincial, agricultural Italy that gave the world Fascism and the Mafia. And then partyism. What's to stop people thinking that Italy today, its children, and its grandchildren, are not going to give the world a positive fourth thing? But something great, something positive this time. In this way bringing alive the vast, and almost unique contribution that Italy has always made to civilization throughout the world. Forza, italians! Go, Italian americans!

FOR THE RIGHT NOT TO BE KILLED BY THE RULE OF LAW

Death Penalty: Save the most guilty

A large sector of humanity has been against the death penalty for a long time now. These people will die before it is abolished. To avoid this, it is necessary to determine the actions that should be carried out by individual countries and by the U.N. system - the timing and procedures, midterm objectives, mobilizations, and geographical progression that should be adopted to achieve this humanistic political objective. In other words, it is necessary to develop a strategy, a project, and a program of specific actions and campaigns that will give public opinion more information and more strength, starting with the minority groups already involved.

The "Hands Off Cain - 'Citizens and Parliamentarians' Leauge for the Abolition of the Death Penalty Worldwide by 2000" has been applying to this issue, for the past two years, the method of the Radical Party with which it is affiliated. We are already achieving results: a motion was unanimously approved last June by the Italian Parliament in which the Italian Government engaged itself: a) to do everything in its power to get the U.N. Security Council to impose a moratorium on death sentences in the case of "coups d'état" and civil wars; b) to put on the agenda of the 49th Session of the U.N. General Assembly a resolution for a universal moratorium on executions. It is an undertaking that requires tremendous strength but also great patience and staying power. We must never give up. Because we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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Bernardo Bertolucci, filmmaker and Oscar winner, director of "Little Buddha", Radical Party member in 1993 and spokesperson for the campaign to abolish the death penalty worldwide by the year 2000.

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GET TO KNOW US ON INTERNET

Agorà, the telematic "square" developed by the Radical Party, was born to accompany the "reasonable folly" of a party which has chosen to establish itself beyond frontiers, languages and distances. From Moscow to Ouagadougou, from Rome to New York, thousands of people meet every day in Agorà to exchange information and organize initiatives, eachfrom his or her home city. The dramatic concreteness of Radical initiatives, nonviolence as a way of being involved, also physically involved, in politics, prevent Agorà from becoming a self contained virtual community: the antidote in interactivity, the chance not only to keep informed but also to spread information: and, above all, to act together.

For more information about Radical Party activities join the list TRANSNAT on listserv@agora.stm.it sending E-mail to

listserv@agora.stm.it. In the body of your E-mail note please type: SUBSCRIBE TRANSNAT Firstname Lastname. If you have any questions regarding the TRANSNATIONAL Listserv List, please send E-mail to the owner: radical.party@agora.stm.it.

You can also find the TransnationalSatyagraha - Radical Party Newsletter in Radical Party's gopher (gopher.stm.it).

FOR ANTIPROHIBITIONISM, NOW!

War on drugs won by drugs

Prohibitionism is not merely an ideology. It is also a system of vested interests, laws, violations, and war against human beings: against tens of millions of exploited crop-growers, recruited pushers, and sick drug users; against hundreds of millions of innocent victims, the police, the administration of justice, and law and order.

Antiprohibitionism means regulation, control, the strength of laws, norms, and cures. It means immediately reducing the value of the banned drugs to practically zero; destroying the main source of power of the various mafias; eliminating the principal cause of widespread violence against ordinary citizens. Antiprohibition must organize itself right now as a unified system for a way out of prohibitionism.

The Radical Party is committed to this task. In many countries, in many parliaments, and in many places of study and research, it has already created projects and simulations. These are, nevertheless, inadequate because there is a great need for activists, human and financial resources, and information offensives, in order to neutralize the tremendous power of organized crime and power gone crazy in unprecedented ways. However, we have made some headway with referendums and laws decriminalizing drug use in the European Parliament.

We must organize, coordinate, and empower the great strength that is ours at an idealistic, democratic, social, human - and humanist level. This wast strength is now fragmented in thousands of small groups, individuals, organizations, and victims. It is presently a loser, the victim of a form of ideological terrorism whose violence is equal to the impotence and fear of its perpetrators. The Radical Party has determined which international Conventions and national laws must be changed. It has devised an appropriate global method for resolving a situation that cannot be changed simply by applying antiprohibitionism in a single country or in a few States.

Given adequate means - very little when compared to the vast sums now spent to no effect - the Radical Party can organize nonviolent popular actions, on the one hand, and complementary legislative and political actions, simultaneously, on the other.

Prohibitionism is transnational. Antiprohibitionism must therefore be transnational. And it is already. However, there is an immediate need for people to act with courage and generosity, to support and join us now: at least tens of thousands of people in New York and in the U.S., from workplaces, universities, families, and organizations. This is why we are asking that the Radical Party, the transnational "transparty," might now be allowed to become, above all, "American", in the same way that it has become "Italian", "European", and already much more.

Meanwhile, prohibitionism continues along the same road. To us it seems that it is causing the scourge it claims to want to wipe out to spread and worsen in the most terrifying way. But it is one of the prohibitionists' rights, to insist and they are - or appear to be - in the majority. Therefore we must put an end to prohibitionism.

The antiprohibitionism that followed prohibitionism in the States, has already made history: first there was Al Capone, then came Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Two names linked to two different eras, two Americas, two worlds and two ways of experiencing them. At least, this is the way most people look at it.

We denounced, in our leading article, the rift between human awareness and science, on the one hand, and "politics", on the other. The following is a terrible example of this.

We all know that prohibition has caused the cultivation of drug crops to spread from a few isolated countries to dozens of States, to larger and larger areas of the world.

We all know that prohibition has forested organized crime that has no parallel regarding wealth, power, dimension, and the number of people in its service, from producers to pushers, and drug users all over the world.

We all know, too, that prohibition changes addicts dependent on the banned drugs - and only on these substances - from sick people who need to be cared for and cured into individuals who perpetrate violence and spread disease daily, who are protected by the clandestine situation in which they are obliged to exist, who constantly conscript other "soldiers" into the armed forces of crime, who die because their drugs have been "cut" and because of the life the law forces them to lead (and not because of their drug-taking).

We all know that this war has been lost. But it continues to be waged by the prohibitionists in the same way that Nazism continued its war, deluding itself that it was possible to arrive at a "final solution," to create an "absolute weapon," because the Nazi cause and Nazi violence were superior. This was an illusion cherished by a handful of madmen, or by power gone crazy, but no longer by the vast majority of German people.

The German population was right. Those in power were wrong. The Germans, oppressed by a dictatorship and torn apart by the war, were unable to rebel.

What about us? Come on, don't be afraid! Find the strength. Let's all find the strength. Now.

Marco Pannella

President of the Radical Party

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" (...) Prohibitionism is a worn-out cure that has been tried extensively; but it only makes things worse for drug-users and other people. (...) Addicts are forced to join up with criminal organizations in order to obtain drugs; they turn to crime to finance their habit; they run the constant risk of contracting diseases, and they dice with death. Other people are in danger from the moment drugs are banned. Drug users in the U.S. are largely responsible for all the "street crimes", as they are called. Legalize drugs and there would be a drop in "street crimes" immediately. (...) Why don't we simply put an end to drug-trafficking? (...)."

Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate and libertarian economist at the Convention held by the IAL (International Antiprohibitionist League), federated with the Radical Party (Athens, November 1990)

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"(...) You really have a tremendous opportunity ahead of you. Your ideas have been taken up in many parts of the world. You have become the party for human rights, the party for just laws - a real political party.

This is what Thomas Jefferson was asking for in the 18th century, with the Declaration of Independence which proclaims that all citizens have a right to liberty, to life, and to the pursuit of happiness. Yours is a truly unique attitude (...)."

Gore Vidal, author, Radical Party member, at the Radical Party Congress (Rome - April 30, 1992).

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"I send warm greetings to all those participating in the second session of the Radical Party Congress, and wholeheartedly support the idea of creating an International League for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. I hope you succeed in realising your very noble aspirations."

Message from Mikhail Gorbachev to the Radical Party Congress (Rome, February 4-8, 1993)

FOR... "NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM"

Israel paid tribute to nonviolent Radical campaigns in July 1991, when Keren Kaiemed Leisrael dedicated a wood near Jerusalem to Marco Pannella and the Radical Party.

"(...) If I had been a member of the Knesset I would have said and done very different things in defense of the civil and democratic rights of my society and my country, of its secularity, of the certainty of justice, of respect for those who are different and for minorities: Because in all my demonstrations of love, to the extent that I am suspected of a subconscious bias towards Israel, there is a conscious, difficult, dramatic, and convinced expression of love for and comited struggle for each and every Palestinian woman and man. It is not a matter of choice, as far as we are concerned, between Israel, the Palestinians, and all the others. It is a choice of democracy and freedom."

A large sector of the Muslim world, from Bosnia to the Caucasus, is watching the Radical Party with interest. Hundreds of Muslims have, in fact, already joined our Party, including Muhamed Kresevljakovic, former Mayor of Sarajevo.

Emma Bonino, Secretary of the Radical Party, and Marco Taradash, Antiprohibitionist Euro-MP, were arrested in New York on November 5, 1990 for giving sterile syringes to the police on guard outside City Hall. Their hearing took place on 15 April 1991: the judge granted the prosecution's request for the release of Bonino and Taradash, quickly bringing the hearing to a close and thus preventing a retrial with testimonies from experts from those American and European cities where, for years, the authorities have promoted and financed health information programs and distributed sterile syringes and condoms gratis to prevent the spread of AIDS.

SEX: FROM ITALY WITH LOVE...

While also campaigning for religious, political and social freedom, the Radical Party has been in the vanguard since the late Sixties with regard to promoting sexual freedom and responsibility and defending the so-called "minority groups." For a long time it was the world's only force amongst the "official" and "parliamentary" parties to do so, especially in Italy. This is why Italy was the first European country to approve a law to safeguard the rights of transexuals. FUORI (OUT!), the first democratic political organization for gay Italians, was federated with the Radical Party. After initially having to deal with continual slurs, lack of understanding, and the hostility of intolerant parties and deeply ingrained political traditions left and right, it was finally able to operate successfully, thanks to our support.

Furthermore, the Radical Party won a number of unexpected victories - for which it has become well-known - in Europe, with its campaigns for divorce, the right to conscientious objection, sex information, and a free and responsible choice of motherhood, in the latter case drawing up extremely prudent regulations in an attempt to wipe out the scourge of mass clandestine abortions. Ten years later the number of clandestine abortions is declining rapidly, giving us reason to hope that it will eventually become a marginal social problem.

... FOR LIFE: FROM NEW YORK WITH PASSION

For all these reasons we hope that the great American civil and human rights movement, which has obtained so many results and become so strong, will give us its friendly support so that we may secure objectives that will do even more for the world, on a much larger scale.

It is now necessary, after the Cairo conference, to actively support and bring pressure to bear on the United Nations, democratic governments, and tolerant parties within religious movements, so that campaigns such as these can be undertaken energetically and effectively at the highest official level. We must defend human rights, first and foremost those of women, which are virtually nonexistent in the Third World. We must help women become aware of the choices available for responsible procreation, for life and greater happiness among families, in order that they might be spared the tragedy of unsafe abortion. In the same way, we must defend the rights of sexual minorities, rights that the Nazis and Communists were not the only ones to repress with blind prejudice and inhuman cruelty.

We need to do all this with great determination and a great capacity for creating new legislation and laws. We must also apply organized nonviolence, at a popular and global level, in these areas that have been ignored for so long. In the global village, you don't win this kind of battle unless you're organized (we repeat: organized) at all levels, unless you take action simultaneously throughout the world.

Over 40,000 citizens throughout the world already share our ideas and have invested in the Radical Party - the transnational "transparty". They include 618 parliamentarians and members of government, exponents of 80 national parties, in 73 countries:

Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kirghizistan, Kosovo, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mali, Moldavia, Monaco, Montenegro-Serbia-Voivodina, Nagorno Karabach, Nepal, The Netherlands, Niger, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tadzikistan, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United States of America, Uzbekistan, Zaire.

The Radical Party is active in former Communist countries, with offices in:

Baku (Azerbaijan), Bucarest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Kiev (Ucraina), Moscow (Russia), Prague (Czech Republic), St. Petersurg (Russia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Tbilisi (Georgia), Tirana (Albania), Warsaw (Poland), Vilnius (Lithuania), Zagreb (Croatia).

FOR A PEACEFUL IRELAND

This is our friend Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Noel Peace Laureate and member of the Radical Party, who speaks for a great Ireland which we love, capable and full of peace, freedom and love.

FOR ESPERANTO

The Pope also adopted Esperanto when he pronounced the words "Felican Paskon en Kristo Resurektinta" while giving his Easter blessing to Rome and the world this year. Just as the Radical Party had hoped he would.

"Only a supranational, neutral language created for universal communication can actually serve such a purpose without destroying other languages and cultures," say the Esperantists.

One may be skeptical, but more and more scientists approve of this language. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. But what is intolerable is that very few people understand that language is a vital democratic issue.

"The situation regarding Esperanto has already been taken up by supranational institutions, including UNESCO, and this language has the support of leading cultural personalities such as Umberto Eco. However, it is an issue requiring a political solution. Esperanto must be included in every school's curriculum. The Radical Party was the first to take up this campaign, which should be supported by everyone trying to unite the world," comments Ada Fighiera Sikorska, the Polish Editor-in-Chief of "Heroldo de Esperanto", the first independent newspaper in Esperanto.

A "CURE" FOR AIDS

The recent World Conference in Yokohama once again underscored the fact that there is still no answer to AIDS: no cure, no effective treatment, no vaccine. And there is not likely to be in the near future.

The Radical Party is preparing a campaign, and asking the U.N., for a Convention to get governments throughout the world to confront and take concerted global action against AIDS.

NOTICE AND APPEAL TO ALL READERS

We have not calculated the thousands of hours of parliamentary filibustering, nor the thousands of institutional initiatives of every type; the tens of thousands of days spent on hunger strikes and also thirst strikes without any liquids; the amount of time served in prison - not just in our own countries but all over the world - nor the many hearings, the many Gandhian and Socratic initiatives we have to our credit. Nor how many millions of dollars we have diverted from our public and private lives to finance our transnational activities, to realize our social commitment, to make your and our hopes come true.

We have learned that we must give what is necessary, and not only that which is superfluous. And that giving can be a source of strength and of joy. And not sacrifice. We know that every day it is essential to know how much money to give to what is necessary that that same day. Our membership fee is in fact a daily contribution, even though we pay it annually. So, to join our Party, we have established a fee in accordance with the GNP of each country. For the United States the minimum membership fee (not contribution! This can be a couple of cents or a thousand dollars, according to individual means) is $255 for 1995, which is equal to $.69 per day. Try it for a year. What will it cost you, when you really think about it? Look on it as an experiment, a tryout, an investment risk. But also see it as taking out insurance for life and liberty, for peace and tolerance. For you and the world.

This advertisement cost us $106,000. The entire operation cost $162,500. In order to recoup the money invested it is necessary for at least 637 of you to join immediately. This will allow us to repeat the advertisement elsewhere. To inform people, so that they may then choose to help us, to welcome us into their lives, as we welcome them into ours. If we are to continue to work on and to successfully complete the important projects we have undertaken there is a need for thousands of Americans, at least, to make the transnational "transparty" theirs - now. Are we crazy to hope for this? It is you, personally, who will decide, according to how you react. In any case, thanks.

We only have enough space to speak to you about 20% of our activities. Let's hope there's a next time. It's up to you!