27/28 MAY - Italy: Rome (Palazzo Brancaccio) RP NATIONAL CONGRESS, Federalism

24 SEPTEMBER - ITALY: Perugia, Assisi - Antimiltarism

OCTOBER 1961 - Italy: Rome - Media, Radical Left

NOVEMBER - ITALY: Rome - International Tribunal

Historical references

13 August - Germany. Erection of the Berlin Wall

Soviet Union resumes nuclear testing and re-enters arms race.

27/28 MAY - Italy: Rome (Palazzo Brancaccio) RP NATIONAL CONGRESS, Federalism

The motion tabled by Marco PANNELLA, Giuliano RENDI, Gianfranco SPADACCIA, Giuseppe LOTETA and Luca BONESCHI, who constituted the Radical left current, with regard to what was traditionally known as "foreign policy,"

- "...calls upon the forces of the European democratic left to re-examine, coherently and organically, the issue of the federation of Western Europe;

- ...(stresses) the need for a united and democratic Europe which would maintain the balance and, indeed, provoke a crisis in the present structure of blocs; provide a modern and progressive framework for liberty and democracy that are now being suffocated and crushed within both the Western and Eastern blocs; utilize democratically the continent’s economic resources to the benefit of both Europeans and the peoples of underdeveloped countries.

- ...asks that disarmament and a ban on nuclear weapons be achieved through the empowerment of the United Nations."

Motion proposed by the Radical left, on: foreign policy

At the close of the II RP Congress, the majority motion, presented by Carandini, obtained 75 votes; the motion of the Radical "right" minority, signed by Ferrara, Rodota, Craveri, Jannuzzi, Gandolfi and Mombelli, 21 votes; the motion of the Radical left, presented by Pannella, Spadaccia, Rendi, Cattaneo, Roccella, Gardi and Sacerdoti, 35 votes. (SRn.2/61) (AP 3498)

24 SEPTEMBER - ITALY: Perugia, Assisi - Antimiltarism

Radicals participate in the first Peace March, which was to become an annual event for the widespread pacifist forces and movements.

Concerning this, Giuliano RENDI wrote: "For those who took part, the Assisi demonstration was a solemn and memorable protest. As solemn as only the first public protest can be, at a particularly important time in history. At the end of the demonstration a political document dealing with all the current major international issues was read and approved, because it is impossible to completely separate the ethical and political moment, but a moral affirmation was most important to the participants." The demonstration marked the beginning of pacifist action in Italy. In the following months various pacifist initiatives were launched together with the nonviolent movement founded by Aldo CAPITINI. Rendi was censorious: "One strives for peace today by committing to disarmament and détente on the one hand, and campaigning against colonialism and for the extension of the supranational powers of the UN and the admission of China to that body, on the other. For people in Western Europe these various actions are combined in a single struggle, because the resistance to disarmament and détente comes from the very conservative and militarist spheres that oppose the process of independence of Asiatic and African peoples.

Therefore our main objective must be a plan for conventional and nuclear disarmament at the European level, from the Soviet border to the English Channel. Although this plan lacks the absoluteness of total disarmament, it nevertheless possesses similar characteristics and, covering such a large territory, would certainly influence the behaviour of the two super-powers; whereas the neutralization and demilitarization of Italy alone would have almost no effect at the international level. Such a strategy would make it possible, on the one hand, to combat French, German and Spanish militarism, while at the same time unequivocally testing the Soviet Union’s sense of responsibility. Europe is the region of the world where the two super-powers have the most direct military contact; therefore, this is where a demilitarization process could most profitably be implemented - and where we must direct our actions." (AP 3678)

OCTOBER 1961 - Italy: Rome - Media, Radical Left

The first issue of RADICAL LEFT, a monthly political news bulletin, edited by Giuliano RENDI, came out in October 1961. The periodical was intended as a point of reference for the current of the same name, organized by Marco PANNELLA within the Party that was destined - the signs were already visible - to disband and disappear when the new centre-left orientation became clear. The monthly was completely self-financing, thanks to contributions made by subscribers, some of whom belonged neither to the Party nor the current. Marco PANNELLA, then living in Paris, determined the approach, also contributing editorials and features, including a long essay entitled "Stories of Moderates" (unsigned) published in the 3/4 issue and the project, signed by Jacques VERGES, for the institution of an international "Nuremberg Tribunal" to judge the crimes committed in Algeria by the French authorities. In Rome, the most weighty contribution came from Gianfranco SPADACCIA, while Angiolo BANDINELLI did most of the writing. The publication gave wide coverage to the principal European issues of the time, to the Algerian question, and the English and American campaigns for nuclear disarmament.

The political initiative had a positive effect in establishing the group and in testing its staying power; but it had outlived its function by October 1962 when the Radical Party crisis finally erupted. Eight issues were published, although the number seemed far greater." (AP 3669)

NOVEMBER - ITALY: Rome - International Tribunal

The NUREMBERG FOR FASCISM AND COLONIALISM Association is founded by leaders of the Radical Left.

"Crimes violating human rights, committed during colonialist and fascist repression, resuscitate brutal systems of oppression and seriously corrupt not only the democratic institutions but the entire political and civil life of Western Europe. It is necessary to determine and prove who is responsible for such crimes and to inform public opinion, so that they are not erased from the popular mind, and justice may be done, as it was in Nuremberg."

"Members of the Association engage themselves to take action so that within the framework of the UN’s empowerment and the broadening of its powers of supranational intervention, the crimes committed in violation of the Charter of San Francisco may be prosecuted at international criminal proceedings."

* Motion on foreign policy of 28 May 1961, proposed by the Radical Left,

In the present, extremely serious, international situation, characterized by:

a) the rise of Afro-Asian peoples and the working classes of South America and by their declared opposition to any form of political "alignment" that may compromise their socioeconomic development;

b) the fatal and progressive retrogression of the European states, whose nationalistic dynamic is present, in different but analogous measure, in the situations in Spain and Portugal, Erhard’s Germany and, above all, Gaullist France;

c) by the crisis in the American democratic leadership which risks proving itself inadequate, uncertain, weak and impotent in carrying out the serious task of anticipating and confronting the complex phenomena of liberty in today’s world;

the Radical Party believes that the immediate task of democratic Europeans, while rejecting the abstract concept of the national path to democracy and taking into consideration the international political situation, is that of reclaiming their traditional freedom of action, analysis, and idealogical criticism with regard to the conservative nationalism of the European ruling class; and therefore calls on the forces of the European democratic left to re-examine, coherently and organically, the issue of the federation of Western Europe.

Such a political approach would encourage the formation of a united and democratic Europe, which:

a) would maintain the balance and, indeed, provoke a crisis in the present structure of blocs;

b) provide a modern and progressive framework for liberty and democracy that are now being suffocated and crushed within the Western and Eastern blocs;

c) utilize democratically the continent’s economic resources to the benefit of both Europeans and the peoples of underdeveloped countries, by curbing and controlling the present development of monopolistic groups operating, in the name of free trade, within the Common Market.

Such a political approach clearly requires the democratic left to fight unrelentingly against the traditionalist and reactionary myths and the ideas of clericalism, nationalism, colonialism and militarism, and against the political forces that embody them, which presently wield the power in the national states of Western Europe.

The Radical Party is aware that pursuing this political approach can lead to the rejection, or at least the revision of some of the military positions in the Atlantic Pact (as has happened in Britain); nevertheless, the Party asks that disarmament and a ban on nuclear weapons be achieved through the empowerment of the United Nations."

At the close of the II RP Congress, the majority motion, presented by Carandini, obtained 75 votes (mandati); the motion of the Radical "right" minority, signed by Ferrara, Rodota, Craveri, Jannuzzi, Gandolfi and Mombelli, 21 votes; the motion of the Radical left, presented by Pannella, Spadaccia, Rendi, Cattaneo, Roccella, Gardi and Sacerdoti, 35 votes.

(SINISTRA RADICALE, monthly political news bulletin, YEAR 1, No.2, November 1961) (AP 3498)