|
INTERNATIONAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY: 1968 |
|
26 AUGUST - Italy. Rome - Czechoslovakia, Hunger Strike 26 SEPTEMBER - Bulgaria: Sofia - Interference, Nonviolence NOVEMBER - Italy: Ravenna - V RP CONGRESS 21 AUGUST - Italy: Rome - Czechoslovakia Following the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Marco PANNELLA declared that it was above all an act of aggression against socialism and against every revolutionary anthing but instruments of civil war, oppression and authoritarianism, used against the people and against the struggles for freedd freedom movement in the world, and also the betrayal of the Vietnam people and their struggle against imperialism and colonialism. "The aggression confirms that the so-called popular armies of the so-called socialist republics are just like any other army, since they are noom undertaken by the socialist and libertarian masses of the world"... "just as in Greece the military and American ruling classes have utilized NATO as the fundamental instrument for setting up the dictatorship run by the "colonels," in Czechoslovakia the Warsaw Pact has proved to be an expression not of the will and needs for defence of the socialist peoples, but an instrument of anti-socialist oppression and aggression." Pannella calls upon the left to support "the Czechoslovakian people in their struggle to build a socialist society in the name of freedom, against imperialism in all its forms, and against authoritarianism, militarism and dogmatism, which, tragically, seem to be gaining a hold in the world." 26 AUGUST - Italy. Rome - Czechoslovakia, Hunger Strike A number of exponents of the Radical Party embark on a hunger strike in support of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. A communiqué announced: "...in Italy and France the right decisions made by the communist parties reinforce the popular and socialist condemnations of the behaviour of the countries belonging to the Warsaw Pact. The Radical Party invites the left not to limit itself to correct observations and analyses, but to immediately encourage organized demonstrations by the democratic masses." The Radical Party joins the War Resisters’ International (WRI), the international organization of conscientious objectors, based in London. 26 SEPTEMBER - Bulgaria: Sofia - Interference, Nonviolence Marco PANNELLA, Secretary of the RP , Marcello BARAGHINI, free-lance journalist, Antonio AZZOLINI, student, and Silvana LEONARDI, teacher, distributed clandestinely, for a period of 48 hours, thousands of flyers condemning the invasion of Czechoslovakia, with the headline: "Stop the Vietnam War, stop NATO, stop the occupation of Czechoslovakia." Conscientious objection and supportive action was called for. It was the first direct action organized by the Radical Party in Eastern Europe, in association with the War Resisters’ International in London. The initiative also aimed to denounce the inertia of the "Internationals, which have now become diplomatic conclaves upholding the national interests of the parties, which are incapable of any joint action" and of the European left which limits itself to "condemning the events in Czechoslovakia without taking any political initiative." The flyers were distributed, at the same time and with the same text, in the capitals of three of the countries occupying Czechoslovakia: Moscow, Warsaw and Budapest. The Bulgarian police intervened and they placed the Radicals under arrest for two days, exhibiting them as "Western troublemakers" at a press conference and then deporting them, taking them to a place near the frontier by night and letting them cover the last few kilometres on foot. In the course of the interrogations, the Radical Party was accredited with 700,000 members: no one would believe that there were only seven hundred, as indicated in the flyers and confirmed by Radicals during questioning, and the interpreter was held to be at fault. In Rome a delegation from the RP went to the Bulgarian Embassy to explain the significance of the demonstration carried out by the four detainees. In the following days there were many shows of solidarity, especially from Bertrand RUSSELL, Danilo DOLCI, Aldo CAPITINI, and other intellectuals. (3409 NR) NOVEMBER - Italy: Ravenna - V RP CONGRESS The campaign for divorce and against the Concordat between the Italian State and the Catholic Church, is reconfirmed. Motion: "...engages the Party to organize an antimilitarist movement... At the international level... a new internationalist initiative, which rejects any form of power politics as an instrument for combating imperialism, must be developed in Western countries and in the face of the governments of the Communist bloc." Conscientious objection, in particular, must be promoted. Elected organs Secretary: Mauro Mellini Treasurer: Angiolo Bandinelli |