The sudden arrest suffered by the Concordat issue in the course of the year, the meagre capacity of penetration and initiative demonstrated by the LIAC, whose heterogeneous components were quickly reabsorbed into the thinking of their respective parties, the worsening of the political situation in its totality - a situation "marked by the danger of a serious authoritarian closure within the political ranks of the Italian left" - all led to the Radical Party's convening its Rome Congress in 1971 on the hypothesis of possibly disbanding its organisation. The Radicals entrusted the Congressional proceedings with the investigation of this possibility of either closing down or taking up the fight again. It ought to have been the non-Radical participants at the Congress to supply the answer by taking on the responsibility of furnishing more active support to the party and its initiatives which at that point appeared hard put and insufficient to guarantee the continuation of the activities under way nor a sufficient growth for confronting the seriousness of the political situation. The motion stated that "below the threshold of one thousand registered members and an annual budget of twenty million (lire, ed.), the Radical Party cannot claim or hope to constitute a valid lay party sufficient to pursue the fight against the regime". The Congress also confronted the issue of the referendum for the abrogation of the divorce law. The Radicals pointed out that they had fought hard and alone to oppose the clerical action aimed at ripping such an important human and civil law from the country's hands; and yet they now had decided to work for "holding and confronting" the referendum in order to contest any attempt at compromise that could be proposed to avoid it and thus pervert the Fortuna law.

The Congress Elected Angiolo Bandelli as Secretary and Giuseppe Ramadori as Treasurer.

The Xth National Congress of the Radical Party, meeting in Rome on October 31, and November 1,2, 1971,

having examined the organisational situation of the party and the condition of the lay-libertarian struggle in which the party is involved; while aware of the gravity of the present political situation marked by the possibility of a serious authoritarian closure within the political ranks of the Italian left-wing itself with the possibility of jeopardising for a long time any hopes of enlarging this struggle;

also notes that the hypothesis of disbanding the party can only be contradicted and surmounted by this fact as well as:

a) by the exhaustive and rigorous debate in the Congress that revealed a large degree of unity in the analyses and evaluations of the party's tasks and responsibilities;

b) by the positive and relevant contribution of our comrade, the hon. Loris Fortuna, where he has proposed the fundamental issues of the Radical and lay program - such as the right and the practice of the plurality of registrations of lay activists in the range of the left-wing parties - to the PSI's party members and members of Parliament, and not only of the PSI;

c) by the convergent and symptomatic fact furnished by comrades of traditional groups and parliamentarians of the left who adhered and immediately committed themselves to the Radical Party; decides to commit themselves and all the energy of the politically organised lay and libertarian forces in the actuation of the statutory charter and the political and organisation strengthening of the party that by now appears - and not by its own choice - as the only constituent and representative hypothesis of that "lay party" in the country which, even if certainly composed of masses of independent citizens and consistent minorities of the traditional left-wing parties as well as extra-parliamentary movements, finds, however, no other adequate force and structure;

ascertains that it is the "lay party" that must hold a decisive confrontation with the regime and the leadership of the left who are subservient to it and who are its interpreters and tools in the democratic, Socialist and libertarian class movements; and, on their behalf, it must be the Radical Party first of all with its federated, connected or convergent movements on the issue of the imminent referendum for the abrogation of the divorce law and in the fight against the Concordat; it is also urgent because of the attempt to confirm the Lateran Pact which the DC, lay parties and Parliamentary parties have put into motion.

The Xth Radical Party Congress, conscious of the decisiveness of this confrontation, applauds the LID for the opposition it has heretofore made to the request for a referendum because of the manner with it which has been presented and supported by Church forces and because of the constitutional, democratic, ethical, moral and civil implications of such a referendum and to the those who have supported it and presented its positions in Parliament;

takes note that the attitudes of the lay parties in Parlialment, in first place of the PCI, has revelaed itself as substantially co-responsible for the clerical- Fascist referendum initiative, and that the PCI irself has not coountered the clerical action with anyhting but a prospective abrogation and perversion of the Fortuna law without either reasons or guarantees. Consequently the Radical Party believes by now that the referendum should be held except if the Constitutional Court should rule against it.

The Radical Party calls on all the militants committed to the lay and libertarian battles - specifically, our comrades of the LID, the LIAC, the ALRI, the anti-militarist groups, and those belonging to political groups of the Italian left, of the government and the opposition, inside and outside Parliament - to consider that their individual battles are by now elements of a single conflict between the regime and a clear policy of a democratic, Socialist and lay alternative which we must make our responsibility.

The Radical Party insists on the fact that the parties of the regime are today fully mobilised to overwhelm any lay and libertarian alternative, and that these forces cannot and must not be underestimated for the sake of the existence and the future of the Radicals' battles in our country; and it declares that the historical possibility of a political confrontation and a victory are linked to a further, decisive, strengthening of the Radical Party, without which its battles would be nothing more than a mere testimony or moral fact and would be politically and irremediably lost.

The time available for this strengthening is relative to the struggles that are under way. The Congress's consideration and analysis of the objective data lead to the conclusion that without a minimum of one thousand registered members - according to our statute - and an annual budget of twenty million (lire), the Radical Party cannot have any claim or any hope of representing a valid portion of the lay forces sufficient to wage battle against the regime.

Has also ascertained the ever greater urgency for a concrete and mass political initiative to acquire essential civil rights such as those relative to the liberation of women and of society and, in particular, the liberalisation of abortion. This battle will have to be founded upon a strict and active collaboration between the statutory organs and active Radical Party members and the federated movement for women's liberation.

In particular, the Xth Congress indicates the following objectives to be attained in 1971:

1) to continue the preparation of the conditions for the referendum in 1974 to abrogate the Concordat, above all carrying it into the working world, offices, factories, the countryside and the schools, and with the commitment of political responsibility from the lay and democratic unions and soliciting the action of those lay individuals and groups of religious believers who intend to fight against clerical abuse of religious conscience;

2) support the opposition to and the abrogation of the February 11 holiday and the action against religious instruction in the schools, both of which are elements and means of the united fight against the Concordat;

3) strengthen the party's anti-militarist commitment by:

a) sponsoring the 6th MiLan-Vicenza Anti-militarist March in collaboration also with international and foreign organisations;

b) supporting the approvation in Parliamentary commission or chambers of the project presented by the hon. Mr. Francanzani or some other that at least recognises all conscientious objectors for whatever motives, that does not provide for investigating commissions, that removes from military jurisdiction the objectors who perform alternative civil service, and that sanctions the detraction of expenses for alternative civil service from the defence budget.

c) Continuing in the action already begun by the Radical Party, promote the fight for true freedom of the press which is presently under serious threat from repressions under way on the juridical level, and support the bill already proposed by the PRI relating to the suppression of the ordine dei giornalisti (journalists guild, ed.).