1981

During the Session of the EEC - ACP (organization of sixty African, Caribbean and Pacific countries), Pannella denounces the failure of strategies for development. (NR no. 2/84 p.20)

APRIL - Belgium: Brussels - "Food and Disarmament International"

Together with a group of Nobel Laureates, Emma BONINO forms the "Food and Disarmament" organization to coordinate international information initiatives. The organization decides to send an appeal against death from hunger to all Nobel Prize winners. (NR no.2/84 p.20)

Jean FABRE is Secretary. Nobel physics laureates Hannes ALFVEN and Abdus SALAM, Belgian deputy Jean-Louis THIS and Senator Pierre VAN ROYE, and Radical deputies Marco PANNELLA and Emma BONINO, form the Board of Directors.

17 APRIL - Italy - Antimilitarism

Publication of the appeal "Diserta soldato della morte" (Desert, soldier of death) in daily newspapers, upon required payment. (QR 11/12 p. 18)

17 MAY - Italy - Referendums

Four referendums, on abortion, the Cossiga law, gun licences, and life imprisonment, are put to the vote. The noes gained a landslide victory.

MAY - Hunger

Radical delegations meet with the heads of international bodies created to deal with problems of hunger and development. Giovanni NEGRI speaks at the World Food Council. (NR no.2/84 p. 20)

JUNE - Italy: XXV RP CONGRESS (Extraordinary)

"Referendum Strategy" finalized, and initiative against hunger confirmed.

Motion approved

24/25 JUNE - Europe/U.S.A. - Hunger

The Manifesto/Appeal penned by Marco PANNELLA and initally signed by 53 Nobel laureates (and finally by 113), is presented, contemporaneously, in Rome, Geneva, Paris, Brussels and New York.

"Each and every one of us should be legally bound to save the living, and to neither kill nor exterminate, not even from inertia, omission, indifference...

Each and every one of us must immediately make a choice, take action, create, live, let live." (NR no. 226/87) (APR 429) (NR no.2/84 p.20)

JULY - EP: Strasbourg - European Union. Federalism

On the initiative of Altiero SPINELLI, the European Parliament decides to set up a Commission for Institutional Affairs charged with elaborating modifications to the existing treaties with the aim of arriving at the complete political integration of the European Community; in other words, the European Union.

Marco PANNELLA is deputy chair of the Commission.

JULY - Europe/U.S.A. - Hunger

The Manifesto/Appeal of the Nobel laureates is presented, in different forms, in eighteen parliaments. The Belgian Senate approves a resolution, based on the same text, engaging the Government to take action. (NR no. 2/84 p.20)

30 JULY - Italy: Chamber of Deputies - Hunger

Approval of a motion engaging the Government to allocate an additional 3,000 billion lira for emergency interventions, which would guarantee the survival of as many human beings as possible, who would otherwise die of hunger. (NR no.2/84 p. 6)

AUGUST - Holland - Antimilitarism

Sixth International Antimilitarist March.

2 SEPTEMBER - France: Paris - Hunger

Pannella attends the UN Conference on the 34 least developed countries and begins a hunger strike to "guarantee the survival of at least three million human beings threatened with death." (NR no.2/84 p. 20)

Dozens of support committees are set up. (CRB)

29 SEPTEMBER - EP: Strasbourg - Hunger

Approval of a resolution (n.375) presented by Pannella and inspired by the Manifesto-Appeal, which entrusts the Commission with drawing up a plan to save 5 million lives in an extraordinary and urgent operation, before the end of 1982; and allocating the necessary budgets (5 million dollars).

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, publishes the entire text and, in the following months, raises the issue repeatedly, in support of Radical initiatives. (NR no. 2/84 p. 20)

14 OCTOBER - Strasbourg - Hunger

International conference on hunger attended by the highest UN authorities, Nobel laureates, MEPs, and representatives of the Third World. Messages received from President Mitterand, the President of Mali, and many bishops throughout the world. (NR no. 2/84 p.20)

17 OCTOBER - Italy: Rome - Hunger

March "for life, peace, disarmament." Tens of thousands of people file through the streets of Rome while a delegation of Nobel Prize winners, lead by Lord Philip Noel BAKER, is received by the highest Italian authorities. Italian Prime Minister Giovanni SPADOLINI confirms Italy’s contribution of 3,000 billion lira to fight hunger. (NR no.2/84 p.21)

NOVEMBER - Italy: XXVI RP CONGRESS

The motion gives a detailed break-down of the commitment to fight hunger. Special motion on public financing (of political parties?)

Motion approved

4 NOVEMBER - Italy - Antiprohibitionism

Luigi DEL GATTO, doctor and member of the RP Federal Council, is arrested for having prescribed morphine for patients addicted to drugs, thereby violating, in the name of therapeutic liberty, the law on drugs.

19 NOVEMBER - EP: Strasbourg - Hunger

Willy BRANDT, along with 150 MEPs, launches an appeal to member states for the implementation of the projected intervention approved by the European Parliament.

Following this initiative, Pannella ends his 79-day hunger strike.

8 DECEMBER - Italy: Rome - Hunger

Prime Minister Giovanni SPADOLINI renegs and blocks the initiative proposed by 187 deputies for an extraordinary budget. The Chamber of Deputies approves a non-committal agenda. (NR no.2/84 p.21)

DECEMBER - Italy: Rome - Human Rights

Hundreds of people take part in a Radical demonstration outside the Polish Embassy, in support of the victims of Soviet repression in Poland.