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International chronology of the Radical Party: 1989 January - June |
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2-3 JANUARY - Italy: Trieste/Yugoslavia: Bohinj - Federal Council A delegation from the ZSMS (Socialist Youth Alliance of Slovenia), led by Zoran Thaler (Radical member and future Foreign Minister of an independent Slovenia), arrives at the opening of the proceedings on the morning of 3 January, in Trieste. Thaler announces that the ZSMS, by circumventing the veto of the Yugoslav Federal Presidency and with the tacit approval of the Slovenian authorities, has decided to invite the Radical Council to one of their centres in Bohinj on Lake Bled. In the light of this, Thaler asks the hunger strikers to break their fast. The Federal Council approves the proposals made by the young Socialists. That same day two coaches filled with members of the Federal Council and with activists, followed by numerous journalists and TV cameramen, cross the Yugoslav border and arrive at the Socialist Youth establishment in Bohinj without any trouble. 4-6 January - Yugoslavia: Bohinj - Federal Council Marco Pannella recalls the debate on the winding up of the Radical Party held some months previously, and analyses and confirms the end of that particular phase, governed by "the theory of praxis" - which culminated in an electoral and institutional Radical presence. Pannella remarks: in the altered condition of information in Italy, differences and individuality are nullified - through excess - and now "the way to impose on Italian society aberrations that one would never have thought of imposing in the past, lies in our victories, like the referendum on justice, which become occasions for passing something that is tremendously reactionary...". The Radical Party as a political instrument has changed with respect to its Statute and the principles on which it is founded (the use of public financing for Radio Radicale, etc.), and "that phase governed by the theory of praxis, that party is dead,... it has served its purpose and it was great." If we are to have a new transnational instrument that will enjoy credibility and successfully establish itself, we must have a transparty, a horizontal party rather than a vertical, national political body. The motion calls upon the Secretary and Treasurer to reconvene the Congress "doing everything possible to hold it in a Yugoslav venue, and to enrol members for 1989 not only in Italy, but above all in Eastern Europe and the Sahel. 6 JANUARY - Yugoslavia: Ljubljana - Marco Pannella At a press conference, the President of the Socialist Youth Alliance of Slovenia Joze Skolc (later President of the Slovenian Parliament), presented a Socialist Youth Alliance card to honorary member Marco Pannella. 10 JANUARY - Israele: Jerusalem - Israel in the United States of Europe At a meeting in the Israeli Knesset between Prime Minister Shamir and a delegation from the European Parliament, Pannella, in condemning the irresponsible repression of the Intifada, indicates that the Radical Party favours a solution to the conflicts in Israel, based on the affirmation of the rights and freedom of individual men and women in the regions concerned, rather than on the rights of ethnic minorities; he also considers it opportune for Israel to join the United States of Europe (and the Mediterranean) immediately. Shamir finds the proposal extremely interesting. 12 JANUARY - EP: Strasbourg - Seat of European Parliament Radical deputies adopt obstructionist tactics, and present endless amendments to the PRAG Report on the seat of the EEC institutions (Brussels), with the aim of re-launching the proposal for the creation of a "European district" in the Strasbourg-Luxemboug region, and against the present location that favours the capital of a Member State. 25 JANUARY - Italy: Chamber - Arms trafficking, South Africa At a press conference Francesco Rutelli, Italian deputy and Vice-Secretary of the RP, and Angelo De Feo, a naval Commander and member of the RP, denounce the increasing exportation of Italian weapons to South Africa that is taking place with the complicity of the Italian Secret Service, and present a parliamentary interpellation to the President of the Council of Ministers and to the Foreign and Defence Ministers. 2 FEBRUARY - Italy: Rome - Human Rights, Iran The RP takes part in a sit-in, organized by the League for Human Rights in Iran, outside the Iranian Embassy, and denounces the harsh repression and the exponential increase in the number of executions: over 12,000 in the last four months! 6 FEBRUARY - Italy: Genoa - Human Rights, Romania Thanks also to a hunger strike by a number of Radical activists, political exile is granted to Romanian refugees who embarked in Botany Bay. 14 FEBRUARY - Italy: Rome - Human Rights, U.S.A. Radicals take part in the demonstration outside the American Embassy for the repatriation of Silvia Baraldini, held in the United States on charges of criminal association. 16-17 FEBRUARY - Italy: Rome/Turin - Salman Rushdie, Iran Various demonstrations and parliamentary initiatives in favour of Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie, condemned to death by Islamic fundamentalists: tables for dialogue in Turin and a "walk-around" in Rome, also to denounce arms trafficking between Italy and Iran. 18 FEBRUARY - Italy: Rome - Salman Rushdie, Iran Protest outside the Iranian Embassy against Rushdie’s sentence and for freedom of speech. 16-19 FEBRUARY - France: Strasbourg - RP Federal Council Secretary Sergio Stanzani opens the proceedings by announcing that negotiations are underway to hold the Radical Party Congress in Budapest, and that the outlook is positive! After several months of reflection, a decision is taken in the final motion to "abandon all plans for winding up the Party and for its continuation in any other form". The motion also states that the RP must live or die, according to the number of people who decide to become members, as "...the RP, having renounced the public financing of its structures and activities for over ten years, dedicating the tens of billions of lira assigned to the Party to the general interest, will utilize the last cent of whatever it can collect to allow as many people as possible to choose and to determine its strength or its end... the RP decides to utilize every effort, holding nothing back - not even its assets - to propose the Party as a useful and necessary instrument in Europe, Africa, and throughout the world... "introducing at the upcoming XXXV Congress the Radical Party as the "new Party of a nonviolent, environmentalist, lay Resistance for the acquisition, defence and guarantee of the right to life and a life of rights, all over the world. On the basis of this a manifesto-appeal or a solemn declaration confirming the essential points shall be written and presented, if possible, at the XXXV Congress...". 24 FEBRUARY - Italy: Rome/U.S.A.: New York - Death Penalty, Paula Cooper Press conference held by Thou Shalt Not Kill (an organization against the death penalty, promoted by the RP and supported in Italy by approximately 100 parties, unions, associations and bodies). Paolo Pietrosanti, editor of Notizie Radicali, and Ivan Novelli, RP Federal Councillor, announce the departure of a delegation for Indianapolis to attend Paula Cooper’s second hearing. In the next few days, the delegation would deliver to the United Nations in New York one million signatures for the abolition of the death penalty: two tons of paper! A further press conference, held at the UN, is widely covered by the American press. The delegation is also allowed to meet with Paula Cooper in prison. 27 FEBRUARY - Italy: Rome - Death Penalty, Paula Cooper Four hundred and three people take part in the hunger strike organized jointly by the Thou Shalt Not Kill and its American equivalent the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The strike would last until 10 March, which was named "Abolition Day" in the United States. 1 MARCH - Italy: Rome - Death penalty, Paula Cooper Several associations organize a demonstration with parallel initiatives, including a torchlight procession through the streets of Rome, to celebrate Abolition Day - dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment. 2 MARCH - Belgium: Brussels - Ecology, Ozone Layer Protest in front of the building where a meeting of the Council of the Environment is in progress, in favour of a proposal to reduce the production of CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) by 100% by the end of 1997. 4 MARCH - Italy: Rome - Czechoslovakia, Havel The Comitato Havel (Havel Committee) is formed to support the writer Vaclav Havel, sentenced to nine months hard labour for having laid flowers on the spot where Jan Palach immolated himself as a protest against the Soviet invasion. The Committee would have thousands of postcards sent to encourage Havel, and to ask the Czech Prime Minister to release him. The Committee is promoted by the Radical Party, the Young Social Democrats, the Young Republicans and the Young Liberals. 10 MARCH - Italy: Rome - Human Rights, Tibet The 30th anniversary of the nonviolent revolt of Lhasa is marked by a demonstration, outside the Chinese Embassy, for freedom and the respect of human rights and the natural environment in Tibet. 13 MARCH - Belgium: Brussels - Yugoslavia, Kosovo Radical MEPs, together with other signatories, present an emergency resolution on Yugoslavia, following a worsening of tensions, above all in Kosovo. They ask for "the establishment of an extraordinary aid and cooperation programme, and a plan providing for a budget of one billion ECUs, over and above existing agreements, which would finally be large enough to permit the Republic and the people of Yugoslavia, linked to the EEC by profound ties of friendship, to emerge from the crisis that besets their society, and the one in the European institutions". 14 MARCH - ITALY: Rome - United States of Europe, Referendum Demonstration by the European Federalist Intergroup, the European Federalist Movement and the Radical Party outside the Chamber of Deputies, in view of the upcoming vote on the calling of a referendum for European political union and for constituent powers to be invested in the European Parliament. 16 MARCH - EP: Strasbourg - Human Rights, Tibet Despite the pressure exerted by the Chinese Embassy in Brussels, the European Parliament, on the initiative of Radical MEPs, approves by a large majority a resolution condemning Chinese repression in Tibet, and asking for the immediate abrogation of martial law and the start of direct negotiations with the Dalai Lama on the future of Tibet. 17 MARCH - Yugoslavia: Slovenia - Pre-congress Meeting A meeting to prepare the Congress in Budapest is held at the Hotel Slon in Ljubljana. Secretary of the FC, Sandro Ottoni, and Councillor Marino Busdachin are the principal speakers. There are 173 members of the Transnational Radical Party in Slovenia alone! 23 MARCH - Italy: Rome - Death Penalty, New York Mobilization by Thou Shalt Not Kill against the proposed reinstatement of the death penalty in New York State. The thousands of postcards and letters sent to New York’s elected representatives, which are taken up and echoed by the New York media, succeed in keeping the veto imposed on the death penalty by Governor Mario Cuomo in place. 25 MARCH - Italy: Rome - Tibet "Vivo il Tibet" (Long live Tibet) is the slogan of the campaign presented during a morning demonstration-press conference held outside the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. Radical parliamentarians Giovanni Negri and Francesco Rutelli announce that the campaign will be launched with initiatives to pressure China, that will include their applying for, along with thousands of Western citizens, "tourist visas" for Tibet; sending postcards to Chinese Embassies; handing out flyers in Chinese restaurants. 29 MARCH - Italy: Rome - Tibet MEP Giovanni Negri’s meets with Embassy counsellor Zu Cuin Shun, but is refused a visa for Tibet. Negri had also asked to go to Lhasa to meet Zhu Yang, a UN official being held arbitrarily in China, whose Italian wife, Patrizia Riccardi, intends to stage a unique protest by giving birth to their second child outside the Chinese Embassy in Rome. Negri decides to put the matter in the hands of the Italian Government. 1 APRIL - Italy: Rome - Antiprohibitionism Following the unanimous approval of a resolution the International Antiprohibitionist League is founded to inform and coordinate, and to denounce and oppose prohibitionist policies, starting with those implemented by the UN and its agencies. Canadian criminlogist Marie Andree Bertrand is elected President. 8 APRIL - Yugoslavia: Croatia - RP Congress A Croatian newspaper publishes a report by the Minister of the Interior which labels the Radical Party as a subversive nationalistic movement. The Party is also accused of using violent methods, with the aim of destabilizing Yugoslavia and of setting up affiliates in Croatia. The RP’s denial is not published. 8-9 APRIL - Europe: Various cities - Pre-congress Meetings Several meetings, attended by Radical members and sympathizers, are held in preparation for the Congress: in Paris, where the meeting is chaired by FC Secretary Mario De Stefano; in Madrid, with FC Secretaries Gianfranco Dell’Alba and Santiago Castillo, Federal Councillors José Arias and Nino Olmeda, and philospher Fernando Savater; and on 9 April, in Lisbon with FC Secretaries Dell’Alba and Luis Mendao, and in Turin with Angelo Pezzana, Regional Councillor elected on the Lista Verde Civica (Civic Greens List). 9 APRIL - France: Paris - Justice Constituent Assembly of the ASTREA (Radical European Association for the democratic reform of the penal code and the abolition of prison), is organized by FC Secretary De Stefano. 12 APRIL - Italy: Rome - Chamber of Deputies - Tibet The Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies unanimously approves a resolution presented by Radical Francesco Rutelli, which engages the Italian Government to intervene and defend the rights of the Tibetan people, and asks that the situation in Tibet be resolved peacefully. 14 APRIL - EP: Strasbourg - Kosovo The European Parliament approves an emergency resolution, signed by all groups, condemning the introduction of martial law in Kosovo; and decides to send a delegation of EP observers to the region. 14 APRIL - Italy: Rome - Human Rights, Bulgaria International conference on the theme: "Bulgaria: nonostante perestrojka"("Bulgaria: Despite perestroika (Restructuring)"), attended by human rights’ activists from Bulgaria and exiles from the West, like Eluard Ghenov (expelled in October 1988), Dimko Stateff, Konstantin Bradvarov, Vassiliev Vanzetti, Peter Semerijev, Vladimir Kostov, and Italian politicians and experts, including Francesco Rutelli, Paolo Ungari, Antonio Stango and Sergio Rapetti. 22 APRIL - Italy: Rome - XXXV RP Congress A press conference is held to present the Congress. It is take place in Budapest, at the Congress Hall of the Trade Union Building. An impressive backdrop, depicting the fall of the Iron Curtain, created by architects Gabor Bachman and Laszlo Rajk - the son of the Minister sentenced to death in 1952, who also designed the monument to the fallen in Paris in 1956. Over nine hundred people from all over Europe will take part, travelling in special trains, coaches and by air. The RP will contribute US$500,000. The attendance fee is US$250. 22-26 APRIL - Hungary: Budapest - XXXV RP Congress Attendance figures: Italy 733, Hungary 114, Yugoslavia 79, Poland 56, Spain 28, Belgium 30, Portugal 15, France 8, Burkina Faso 4. In his report the Secretary proposes changing the structure of the Party by setting up service centres in various areas, which are autonomous, also from a financial point of view, but federated with the Party. But the financial crisis that besets the Party, caused by the undemocratic conditions in Italy under which it has operated until now, will make it "necessary to begin to alienate the assets of the Party". The motion: "Welcomes the fact that the Congress is being held in Budapest, as a sign of remarkable progress and of the development of the transnational, transparty aspect of the Radical Party, and as a fine example of its contribution to the struggle for democracy, the rule of law, the United States of Europe (and of the Mediterranean and Africa), for the right to life and a life of rights, and for positive institutional and political solutions to the great social and environmental needs of the world; ...thanks the Hungarian Government which, under institutional conditions that are still dictatorial, has assumed the political responsibility of a tolerant and highly-civilized gesture,... ... For some time now, the RP...has documented the disastrous situation in which the Party finds itself, at the level of resources and means at its disposal, caused by ostracism, mystification, and the anti-democratic use of state and private influence. The reports of the Secretary and of the Treasurer have proved and continue to prove that - barring miracles - in the next few weeks the existence and assets of the Party will rapidly come to an end... Consequently, the Congress delegates all its statutory powers to the Secretary and the Treasurer, jointly with the President of the Party and of the FC, for all decisions that have to be taken regarding the life and assets of the RP, in the event that violence succeeds in prevailing over our powers of resistance. In this sense, this temporary and final norm, modifies the Statute of the Party." Elected organs: The Congress re-elects Sergio Stanzani and Paolo Vigevano to the offices of Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. Maurizio Turco is elected Vice-Treasurer, and Bruno Zevi Honorary President... The new Federal Council has 35 members, 18 of which are Italian and 17 of other nationalities. References:
3 MAY - Europe: Various capitals - Press Conference, XXXV RP Congress Press conferences to communicate the results of the XXXV Congress are held simultaneously in various European and non-European capitals, from Budapest to Rome, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Zagreb, Moscow, Ouagadougou, Warsaw, and Jerusalem. During the Rome conference, Secretary Stanzani announces that Debrianskaya has been released, after paying a fine. 4 MAY - Italy: Rome - European Elections, Leonard Pliusc During a press conference held by Domenico Modugno, Giovanni Negri, Lorenzo Strik Lievers and Antonio Stango, Radical member Leonid Pliusc, a Ukrainian dissident, mathematician and writer held in a mental asylum for a considerable period, is presented as a candidate, on the PSDI (Italian Social Democratic Party) list, for the European Parliament. "Pliusc will be the candidate and the Strasbourg representative of the free peoples in Eastern Europe," Giovanni Negri declares. 8 MAY - Italy: Rome - Human Rights, Tibet At a meeting, the Vivo il Tibet (Long Live Tibet) Committee and the Associazione Italia-Tibet, along with Lama Geshe Giampal Gyats and Gyaltsen Gyaltag, European representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, explain the growing number of initiatives for the survival of the "Roof of the World", including the mailing of postcards to Chinese Embassies and television broadcasts of a documentary on Chinese repression in Tibet. Two demonstrations outside the Chinese Embassies in Rome and Turin are further reminders that it is now two months since foreigners have not been allowed to enter Tibet because the country is under martial law. 16-18 MAY - Italy: Rimini - 1. RP Italian Congress Within different political and geographical realities, the Radical Party experiments with a new structure: area congresses. The Italian Congress reaffirms that being a member of the transnational, transparty RP is quite compatible with belonging to other political parties; and confirms that the Radical Party, as such, will not take part in national or any other elections. During the proceedings the FC elected in Budapest is formally constituted, with Marco Pannella as President. 22-23 MAY - Italy: Rome - Democracy, China Leaders of the Radical Party and of the Lista Verde Arcobaleno (Rainbow Greens List) demonstrate outside the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to support the Chinese students in their fight for democracy. A letter addressed to the Ambassador is delivered. A candlelight vigil is held the next day in the Piazza del Pantheon. 28 MAY - Italy: Nettuno - Antiprohibitionism, Death penalty On the occasion of U.S. President George Bush’s visit to the American Cemetery in Nettuno, Radical antiprohibitionists and abolitionists hold two protests: one to remember the victims of the American "war on drugs"; the other to urge the U.S. to abolish the death penalty. JUNE - Yugoslavia: Murska Sobota - ZSMS Congress Invited to attend the Congress of the Socialist Youth Alliance of Slovenia, Lensi, Busdachin and Ottoni take part in the proceedings and distribute leaflets on the RP and its activities. JUNE - Poland: Pionki - Antimilitarism Seminar held in Pionki by various Polish pacifist groups. Radicals Anna Nediewska, Marek Krukowski, Dupuis and Ottoni deliver speeches. 5 JUNE - Europe: Brussels, Warsaw, Lisbon, Rome, Milan - Democracy in China Demonstrations take place outside the Chinese Embassies in Lisbon, Warsaw and Brussels. The Radicals ask for an extraordinary meeting of the European Council of Foreign Ministers "to energetically condemn the use of force and violence by the Chinese authorities and, if necessary, to recall ambassadors". In Warsaw twenty-five activists from the Radical Party, the independent peace movement Wolnosc i Pokoj (Freedom and Peace) and the independent students’ union NZS, begin a hunger strike, in front of the Chinese embassy, to ask the Polish authorities to condemn the bloody repression of the Chinese people. 9 JUNE - German Democratic Republic: Berlin - Human Rights Leonid Pliusc, representative of the Helsinki-Ukraine Alliance and member of the RP, Antonio Stango and Pina Pasquale, are arrested at Checkpoint Charlie, at the Berlin Wall, during a protest to uphold human rights in Eastern and Central Europe, China and Vietnam. They are expelled from the DDR after being detained for a few hours. 15 JUNE - Italy: Rome - United States of Europe On the Spanish Steps, the European Federalist Movement and the Federalist Parliamentary Intergroup hold a final demonstration in support of the referendum for the European Union, which will be held at the same time as the European elections, on 18 June. Two thousand balloons inviting citizens to vote FOR the European Union are released. 16 JUNE - Hungary: Budapest - Democracy, Nagy’s Funeral The funeral of Imre Nagy, the Hungarian Minister hanged in 1956 following the Soviet invasion, is attended by an RP delegation composed of Secretary Stanzani, Vice-Secretary Bonino, FC Secretary Dupuis and Federal Councillor Anna Losonczy, the daughter of Geza Losonczy who, like Nagy, was killed during the repression. The delegation also includes Italian social democrats and other Radicals; namely, Giovanni Negri, Leonid Pliusc, Antonio Stango and Lorenzo Strik-Lievers. 18 JUNE - European Community - European Elections The Radical Party, in keeping with its new transnational structure, does not participate in the elections. A number of Radicals do however run on other lists, obtaining a good overall result. Marco Taradash is elected on the new Antiprohibition List, Adelaide Aglietta on the Lista Verde Arcobaleno (Greens Rainbow List), Pannella on the Liberals, Republicans, Federalists list, and Giovanni Negri on the Italian Social Democrat Party ticket. 18 JUNE - Italy - Referendum on Europe Thanks to a joint initiative undertaken by the RP and the European Federalist Movement, a referendum is held in Italy, at the same time as the European elections, for the investment of constituent powers in the European Parliament, and is approved by 90% of the voters. 26 JUNE - Bulgaria: Sofia - Italian Committee for Foreign Affairs, Pannella A delegation from the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies goes on an official visit to Bulgaria. Members include Pannella who 21 years previously, in September ’68, was actually arrested in Sofia for having demonstrated against the occupation of Czechoslovakia. 28-29 June - Yugoslavia: Ljubljana, Zagreb - Yugoslavia in the Common Market Sergio Stanzani, a guest of the Socialist Youth Alliance of Slovenia, explains the Radical proposal for Yugoslavia’s and Hungary’s entry into the Common Market, at the Congress centre in Ljubljana. The next day he holds a similar meeting at the Writers’ Union in Zagreb, underlining the fact that: "Yugoslavia’s democratic development can be better guaranteed, in the face of the present political and economic crisis, by a precise orientation towards the European Community". |