THE TRANSNATIONAL'S GROWTH TOWARDS THE CREATION OF A TRANSPARTY

by Olivier Dupuis

Our 37th Congress has just ended. A Congress which, despite being organized without sufficient funds, was characterized by a significant level of presence and participation, and by speeches of a quality never achieved in the past. For the first time, most of these speeches focused on the question of the survival and development of the Radical Party.

The Congress was able, with lucid objectivity, to measure the steps taken, important though still insufficient, to achieve the goals set by the Sofia motion: anti-prohibitionism on drugs, the establishment of an international moratorium on executions by the year 2000, the establishment of a permanent international criminal jurisdiction, the promotion of an international language, and support for environmental reforms in the ex-Soviet empire. These five initiatives were confirmed by the Congress, which also added a project to organize a great world Satyagraha for the freedom and liberation of Tibet.

The tragic events which have taken place or are still in progress in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Chechnya, Tibet, China, Burundi, and other places around the world, confirm the decision of those who, with their membership, militant and financial support, have chosen to create the first, and so far the only, transnational and transdivisional party. A party that is still the only concrete alternative with its analyses and political proposals, to the various forms of demagogy and passive resignation, whether organized or not.

As this conviction became stronger during the Congress, so did the conviction that the Party as it stands is still weak, in terms of size and of organization, and above all in terms of its financial and economic situation.

To fill the gap between our ambitions and our strength, the Congress entrusted the President, the Secretary and the Treasurer with its statutory powers, with the task of reorganizing the Radical Party and preparing the grounds for its refoundation. A task which will involve drastic reductions in expenditure, the reorganization of our activities in the various countries, the gradual transfer of essential services for the functioning of the Radical Party from Rome to Brussels, a new type of relationship with the associations and federate bodies and, above all, the search for new human and financial resources.

It is a difficult task indeed, but we are sure that it can be accomplished if the parliamentarians (and here lies the "transparty"!) and the activists who are already members, or those who join in the future, take on new responsibilities, like our new President Jean-François Hory.

We must now roll up our sleeves and waste no time. We must do what we have always done and, with the help of our imagination, what we have never done in order to give renewed strength to our party: the only party built on the direct enrollment of militants and parliamentarians, the party of organized nonviolence.

Enjoy your work!

page 2: the Palm Sunday March

page 3: the Congress Motion

page 4: the new party executive

37TH CONGRESS

PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS SPEAKERS AND ATTENDEES

It is impossible, in such a short space, or even in a whole issue of Transnational, to give an exhaustive report of the proceedings of the Congress, the depth and the quality of the debate which, although condensed into just two packed days, was extremely rich. Nor is it possible to fully convey the importance and significance of the level of presence.

The proceedings opened with the reports by the President of the General Council, Olivier Dupuis (now the Secretary of the Radical Party), the Treasurer Ottavio Lavaggi, and Emma Bonino (a written report, read out by the interim Secretary Luca Frassineti).

Lawrence Hayes, the last person to be sentenced to death in New York, brought his greetings and an account of his dramatic experience. There followed speeches by the Azerbaijan deputy Arif Kafarogly Ragim Zade, the Esperantist Hans Erasmus, and the Portuguese deputies Joao de Menezes-Ferreira and Paulo Casaca.

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Lenora Fulani, one of the main leaders of the African Americans, and a candidate in the presidential elections in 1988 and 1992, spoke of the problems and the possibilities of the "third party" in the United States. There were then speeches by Valerij Ivasiuk, First Vice-President of the Ecology Commission of the Armenian parliament; Piero Verni, President of the Italia-Tibet Association; and Carla Rossi, Secretary of the Radical Anti-prohibitionist Committee. Giorgio Pagano, Secretary of the Esperanto Radikala Asocio, illustrated the RP campaign on the international language, while Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain, spoke about the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty by the year 2000. Danilo Quinto, Secretary of "There Is No Peace Without Justice", reported on the campaign for the International Criminal Court, Filippo di Robilant on the initiatives on Aids and pandemics, and Maurizio Turco on the campaign for the denouncement of the UN conventions on drugs.

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Other speakers included the outgoing President of the Radical Party, Marco Pannella; the European Commissioner Emma Bonino; Roberto Cicciomessere, former Secretary of the Radical Party, who spoke about Agorà Telematica and the political frontiers opened by new computer technology; Jean-Luc Robert, on behalf of the International Anti-prohibitionist League; Slavko Perovic, deputy of the Montenegrin parliament and President of the LSCG (Alliance of Montenegrin Liberals); Sandor Nagy, President of the VMDK (Democratic League of Hungarians in Voivodina); Vytautas Petkevicius, Lithuanian deputy; Ermelinda Meksi, Albanian, MP; Samir Labidi, Tunisian jurist; Irakly Melashvili and Eljgudzha Gvazava, Georgian, MPs; Ferenc Csabela and Lajos Balla, MPsfrom Voivodina; Julij Rybakov, Russian MPs; Valeriu Matei, Moldavian, MP; Janisset Rivero, Secretary, Cuban Directorio Revolucionario of Miami; Narine Balajan, Armenian MP; Zarema Mademilova, Kirghiz; Ibrahim Tatarli, Bulgarian MP and university professor; Valerij Borscev,

Russian MP; Stepan Grigorjan, Armenian MP; Victor Grebenscikov, Moldavian State Councillor for ethnic problems; Gaqo Apostoli, Albanian MP; Muhamed Kresevljakovic, former Mayor of Sarajevo, presently Bosnian Consul in Milan; Arthur Robinson, deputy and former Premier of Trinidad and Tobago.

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Gyaltsen Gyaltag, representative in Western Europe of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, followed by Samvel Shaginjan, President of the Ecology Commission of the Armenian parliament.

Next came the speech by Jean-François Hory, the leader of the French Radicals.

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Others who took part in the Congress included John Marks, an expert on drug addiction from Liverpool; Tereza Ganza Aras, Croatian deputy; Maria Giovanna Maglie, Italian journalist in New York; the European Parliament members Pierre Pradier, Dominique Saint-Pierre, Noël Mamere, Ernesto Caccavale, and Gianfranco Dell'Alba; the Algerian singer Lounes Matoub, a victim of the fatwa; Adriaan Bronkhorst, co-ordinator of the Drug Peace Institute of Amsterdam; Jean-Claude Bouda, a deputy in Burkina Faso and a member of the Radical Party for many years, who came with a large group of African parliamentarians including Ibrahim N'doure, from Mali; Elena Poptodorova, Bulgarian deputy; Marat Zahidov, former Uzbekh deputy; and Matis Jeno, Romanian deputy.

These are just some of those who took part, without mentioning the names of members who have held statutory office in the last few years.

PALM SUNDAY MARCH

"John Paul II:

The death penalty

is not always"

necessary

At the Quirinale Palace, the official residence of the President of the Republic, President Scalfaro welcomed a delegation of marchers: "You have my support. I have always been against the death penalty:" On this day, over three thousand people from all over the world, including many mayors, took part in the Palm Sunday March for the suspension of the death penalty and the establishment of an international criminal court on crimes against humanity. Before meeting President Scalfaro, they were received by the Mayor of Rome, on their way to the final destination, St. Peter's Square, to hear the Angelus pronounced by Pope John Paul II. The march was led by representatives of the international associations Hands Off Cain and There Is No Peace Without Justice, and of the Radical Party. At the front of the procession was Lawrence Hayes, the last man to be sentenced to death in New York, now a social worker after serving a prison sentence in place of the death penalty, and the Algerian Rai singer Lounes Matoub, a v

ictim of the Fundamentalist fatwa. In the Evangelium Vitae, the Pope condemned those countries which still practise the death penalty, saying that "the cases of absolute necessity, that is when the defense of society cannot be achieved by any other means, are now very rare, if not almost non-existent". The other important fact is that the Catholic Church will reconsider the passage in the New Catechism which sanctions the death penalty.

THE CONGRESS MOTION

GENERAL MOTION

Approved with 92.72% of the votes in favor

The 37th Congress of the Radical Party, gathered in Rome on 7 and 8 April 1995,

thanks the executive organs, the members, the supporters, and the militants of Hands Off Cain (Campaign of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty in the world by the year 2000) who, in difficult and uncomfortable situations, is spite of the lack of financial and human resources, but with the personal militant commitment and the strenght of their convictions and hopes, have allowed Gandhian nonviolence and tolerant, secular and humanistic dialogue to bring the Assembly of the United Nations to discuss, for the first time in its history, the moratorium on the death penalty, and to take the first crucial steps towards the establishment of an international criminal jurisdiction on crimes against humanity.

There have also been important, though still not decisive, results with regard to the other fronts on which the party and the associations that collaborate with it, or that are federated to it, have directed their campaigns in accordance with the mandate received from the Sofia General Council of July 1993. The Congress debate confirms the urgency and the validity of all these initiatives. They are expressions, all equally necessary, of the Radical method and of Radical politics.

This is true, in particular, of the campaign for harm reduction and for the denouncement of the UN conventions on drugs which are the foundation of national prohibitionist legislations and which are the main cause of the abnormal growth of the black market, the drugs' mafias and corruption, which are increasingly the uncontrolled masters of political and economic power; the campaigns on the international language and on Aids and pandemics, and the campaign for the creation of a Danube Authority and against the crazy nuclear energy policies in the countries of the former Soviet empire.

The Congress must, however, take note of the fact that the Party does not at present seem to be in a position to continue these battles and successes, let alone to meet the new objectives that have been set out or the imminent arrival of increasingly urgent problems.

All over the world, in fact, certainties once taken for granted are being undermined by crises and dramatic events: there is hardly a region which is free from the expansion of uncontrolled violence, manifest in new forms of unprecedented terrorism, the unruly proliferation of outbursts of irrationalism that overturn the principles of tolerance and civil co-habitation. All over the world, hopes and aspirations which may be positive, justified and necessary are assuming the form of intolerant fundamentalism, incapable of dialogue.

Europe, on its part, stands resigned and powerless in the face of the decline and the abandonment of Spinelli's federalist plan for the construction of a political body endowed with decision-making powers, open to the entrance of new countries, or able to provide them with the humanitarian aid and support necessary to help them on the path to democracy.

The United Nations, considered until recently as the indispensable guarantee of world balance and peace, is in the midst of a crisis of credibility which can only be solved by interventions that increase its internal democracy and efficiency.

Finally, there is a shameful silence from governments and public opinion towards the unheard voice of the Dalai Lama, when he appeals to the conscience of the world about the oppression suffered by Tibet in the context of the totalitarian denial of democracy and justice for the whole Chinese people. In order to ensure the survival of Tibet and of the warning provided by Tien An Men, to prevent the efficiency-seeking Communism of China from becoming another tragic model, we must work to give shape to the hope, both extravagant and reasonable, of a great worldwide initiative that reinvents the forms of organized nonviolence in a great Satyagraha.

The Congress confirms the analysis presented by the executive organs of the party, according to which the causes of the current difficulties lie in the lack of funds, which can no longer be guaranteed by the decisive contribution of members and supporters paying the Italian fees or their equivalent, and even more so in the fact that it is no longer possible for the party's militants and leaders - despite their exceptional work up to now and for which the Congress thanks them - to meet the urgent needs and requirements in an appropriate manner.

Continuing under the present conditions, the Radical Party would be reduced to the status of a powerless bystander, an alibi for violence and resignation.

These difficulties can only be overcome through a drastic revision of its instruments, structures, and working methods, and by the full assumption of executive and militant responsibilities by new human resources, both those already present in the party and those who choose to join it in acknowledgement of its importance as the only transnational instrument of our times.

In order to allow this revision to be planned, organized and implemented

the 37th Congress - like the 35th Congress of the transnational refoundation of the Party in 1989 - hands over its statutory powers for a maximum of one year to the Secretary, the Treasurer, and the President of the Party, who must exercise them jointly and unanimously for all the decisions regarding the life of the Radical Party. In particular, the Congress assigns them the task of drawing up a project for the refoundation of the party and of taking the measures they believe to be necessary for its restructuring.

The Congress also declares that the General Council in extra-ordinary arrangement will be composed of 31 members elected by the Congress.

These modifications to the statute constitute temporary rules of the Statute of the Radical Party.

The Congress also appeals to the members, the Radical associations and the federate associations to increase the amount of organized Radical political action in order to reinforce through concrete commitment the reasons, the ideals and the objectives of the Party.

Finally, the Congress extends its greeting to those who will take part tomorrow, at the conclusion of proceedings, in the 1995 Palm Sunday March, as a visible testimony and commitment to the encounter between forces of different humanistic and religious inspiration in the struggle to abolish the death penalty. These forces then, can once again take the debate and the campaign to the United Nations so that the demand for human life no longer be at the disposal of the State and finally become a universal law.

THE ELECTED ORGANS

Jean-François Hory

President

Jean-François Hory born in 1949 in Neufchatel, in the Vosges (France) graduated in Law at the University of Dijon and in Political Science at the University of Paris. From 1981 to 1986 he was the deputy for Mayotte in the National Assembly. In 1982 he joined the Movement of Left-Wing Radicals (MRG), serving as Executive Secretary from 1983 to 1983 and national delegate from 1988 to 1989. In 1989 he was elected for the first time to the European Parliament. President of MRG in 1992. In 1993 he joined the transnational and transdivisional Radical Party, and in Sofia he was elected Vice-President of the Assembly of Parliamentarians. At the Congress for the refoundation of the MRG in 1994, where the movement adopted the name Radical, he was re-elected President. In 1994 he was also re-elected to the European Parliament.

Olivier Dupuis

Secretary

Olivier Dupuis was born in 1958 in Ath (Belgium). He graduated in Political and Social Science at the University of Louvain, and joined the Radical Party in 1981. He took an active part in the campaign against famine, undertaking nonviolent actions which led to his arrest and detention in Brussels. For the application of the so-called "Survival Law", passed by majority vote by the Belgian parliament, in 1982 he went on a hunger strike lasting five weeks. In the same year, he was arrested in Prague for handing out pamphlets in support of democracy. After being kept in prison for three days, he was expelled from the country and banned from returning for five years.

He upheld the claim that neither military defense nor the civilian alternative are capable of facing the real threats to peace and security represented by the lack of democracy in Eastern Europe and the non-respect of the right to life in the South of the world. In October 1985 he was imprisoned for desertion and sentenced to two years in prison. After serving 11 months, the sentence was converted into two years' service with Food and Disarmament.

He organized the RP Congress in Budapest and subsequently took part in the establishment of the first Radical bases in Central Europe. In December 1991, as the European Community obstinately refused to recognize the republics of the former Yugoslavia, he went with Marco Pannella and other Radicals to the trenches of Osijek, the besieged Slavonian city, and wore the Croatian uniform.

In Sofia, in July 1993, he was elected President of the General Council of the Radical Party.

Danilo Quinto

Treasurer

Danilo Quinto was born in Bari in 1956. He joined the Radical Party in 1985 during the campaign for "Fair Justice". From 1991 to 1993 he coordinated the editedition of "The New Party", which was distributed in 15 languages in the parliaments of Europe, America and Africa. In 1993 he entered the Secretariat of Emma Bonino. In May 1994 he was among the founders of "There Is No Peace Without Justice". In autumn 1994, with regard to the objective of the International Criminal Court and the draft resolution for the moratorium on executions, he followed the proceedings of the 49th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. He was among the organizers of the 1994 Easter March and the 1995 Palm Sunday March.

GENERAL COUNCIL

Gaqo APOSTOLI (Albania) - Angiolo BANDINELLI (Italy) - Gianni BETTO (Italy) - Michele BOSELLI (Bulgaria) - Marino BUSDACHIN (USA) - Ernesto CACCAVALE (Italy) - Marco CAPPATO (Belgium) - Olga CECHUROVA (Czech Rep.) - Luigi CIMINO (Italy) - Sergio D'ELIA (Italy) - Gianfranco DELL'ALBA (Belgium) - Joao DE MENEZES-FERREIRA (Portugal) - Vasile DIACON (Romania) - Raffaella FIORI (Italy) - Luca FRASSINETI (Italy) - Lenora FULANI (USA) - Michel HANCISSE (Belgium) - Marija IVANJAN (Russia) - Darinka KIRCHEVA (Bulgaria) - Massimo LENSI (Bulgaria) - Maria Giovanna MAGLIE (USA) - Sandro OTTONI (Croatia) - Giorgio PAGANO (Italy) - Paolo PIETROSANTI (Italy) - Olivia RATTI (Belgium) - Mario SIGNORINO (Italy) - Antonio STANGO (Italy) - Sergio STANZANI (Italy) - Mamuka TSAGARELI (Georgia) - Maurizio TURCO (Italy) - Paolo VIGEVANO (Italy)

DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!

How many reasons are there to join the Radical Party? There is one or many for each of us, but one is all it takes, and our project, our party, would have one more chance of succeeding, of overcoming its economic and financial crisis. A chance to start anew and to relaunch its political initiatives with greater force.

To make this happen is in everyone's power. There is, of course, a cost. The cost of one coffee a day, of three or four cigarettes, half a coca-cola, less than a subway token. The equivalent of 1% of the per capita Gross National Product. Is this too much, or isn't it? Decide for yourself!