SUMMARY: Letter announcing the 1995 Radical Party emembership drive. A brochure was sent with the letter illustrating the state of art of the political campaqigns in course at the moment. The brochure is available as an enclosed file in PDF format (it can be read and printed by any computer with the Acrobat Reader software, freely available in the FILE AGORA' sector).

Dear friend;

I feel it is my duty to explain to you what is the basic situation of the Radical Party, a transnational and transparty organization. It will be your responsibility to either respond or ignore it, avoiding the issues that I'll be raising.

Exactly in the days in which we could be celebrating a very prestigious victory, the party is once again going through a very difficult crisis of energy and resources. Is this surprising? If an organism tries to develop, rather than simply live, and it pursues ever more complex goals it must be prepared to face the challenging dilemma of either growing and making it or closing down, without giving illusions or disappointing anybody.

Let it be clear. As far as we are concerned, we want to move forward because we believe there is reason to. You be the judge of whether this is possible or not.

On November 23, in the course of a public ceremony in Rome, we handed the Petition for the constitution of an International Penal Court for crimes against humanity to Boutros Boutros Ghali, Secretary General of the U.N. So far, 7 Nobel prize winners, 15 Cabinet members, 117 members of the European Parliament, 82 Italian representatives as well as 625 representatives from 38 different countries belonging to 157 "national" political parties have signed the petition.

It was an important ceremony. It was not the first time that the representative for the Community of People engages in a dialogue with us. The Radical Party has constituted itself and operates not on projects and contexts that are national in nature , but rather at the level of today's global problems and has the U.N. as an interlocutor.. Boutros Boutros Ghali had sent a message to the Assembly of the Radical, transnational and transparty Party meeting in Sofia (15-18 July 1993). The Assembly emphasized in its concluding motion a passage where Boutros Ghali pointed out, (and not for the sake of form) that: " the imperative of peace must first of all be inscribed in the conscience of individuals; the imperative of development is by now felt as a human right; democracy is the new imperative we set ourselves".

On November 2, 1993, in New York, a delegation of legal experts, parliamentarians and scientists organized by the party and led by me met with the Secretary General of the U.N. and handed him the over 23,000 signatures that had been gathered all over the world for the constitution of an International ad hoc tribunal against war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. It was a just and timely initiative; today in The Hague the Tribunal is trying its first case (our own press has given little coverage to this).

In Italy too, unexepectedly the efforts of our party have axchieved an important goal. While I was in our new headquarters in New York and was expending all my energies keeping up with the work of the 49th General Assembly of the United Nations and its 6th committee where the institution of an international penal court for crimes against humanity and a moratorium on capital punishment are being discussed, I was honored with the government nomination to Commissioner of the European Community.

Through my efforts, this position will also offer us the opportunity to affirm our ideas and values It was the thought of this, rather than (as some have reproached us) a desire for dividing up positions, seats and whatever else that spurred me to accept this nomination.

These successes have been made possible thanks to the hundreds and thousands of citizens who have supported us by being politically active or by contributing money. A great unreapeted campaign, led more than thirty thousand Italian citizens to join the party in February 1993, and we were able to collect 13 billion lira in contributions. On this exceptional base of support and trust last year we also developed other initiatives the progress and result of which are shown in the enclosed brochures.

Nonetheless -I insist- while our meeting with Boutros Ghali in Rome marked our highest success and right at this moment, in New York, in Rome, in Moscow or Zagreb, the most delicate moments of our initiative for the institution of an International Penal Tribunal and for a univeral moratorium of the death penalty (trying to win the very harsh debate that is currently taking place in the U.N. on the two issues) our increased financial need threatens to undercut our efforts. We finished the money that was collected in 1993, even though it was wisely managed, as well as the money of later enrollments and contributions (the funds that were collected for the "New York, New York Operation" are obviously set apart for the specific expenses of that initiative). To be brief, by the end of the year, we could find ourselves in the position of having to declare the termination of our initiatives and the de facto closing of our organization.

We have - I have- decided to react to this situation immediately by initiating the 1995 membership drive. I am doing it with a clear conscience.

If we make it, next year will be a year full of projects. We will organize the 37th Congress, were we will make a political summation of the goals we had set for ourselves with the Sofia Motion, we will plan new initiatives, we will see if our statute is fitting and, if necessary, correct it to fit potential new organizational forms.

***

Dear friend:

our party which is the party of hopes and great battles for democracy is necessarily (and yes, we have repeated this to death!) the most expensive party, among the various parties in the world.. And this is because of its very reason of existence, meaning, only a party that "is worth" every day what its members are willing to spend for a newspaper can claim to represent great ideals. As far as the rest is concerned it is a poor party, with mimimal facilities and structures, less than what is essential. It is a Party that could easily stop operating if suddenly there were no more energies, new enrollments and contributions to keep it going. Like today, if you do not make a decision, you cannot act.

This is the reason why I initiated the 1995 membership drive. In December we'll be able to give an initial assessment of the situation. It is possible that we can make it, but only if you - and I really mean you- start giving us a hand by joining. For yourself, for us, for those who thanks to us have recovered a part of themselves that was getting worn out, for those who have found something new that stimulated their curiosity and stirred their passion and don't want to lose it. Together once again to imagine a future and achieve it.

If you have a credit card, call 06/689791. Or wire your contribution to "Partito Radicale, via di Torre Argentina 76, 00186 Roma, and specify your name, date of birth, and the what the money goes to (in this case, '95 membership drive).. You can also use the coupon enclosed in this letter, or a a check.

Be sure to join and ask your friends to join! Do it right away, O.K.? this is urgent!

Emma Bonino