Through frontiers, parties, and national states

This slogan was the key word of the 34th Radical Party Congress in January 1988 in Bologna. This Congress was responsible for the Radical Party's transformation into a transnational political entity. From that moment the Radical Party proposed itself as an instrument of political organisation open to the participation of citizens of any country even if they also belonged to various parties. The Congress decided that the Party as such would not stand in national elections. Objectives for 1988: United States of Europe; anti-totalitarianism and human rights; the fight against extermination through hunger; antiprohibition to do away with drug-associated crime; protection of the State of Rights; preservation of the environment.

The 34th Radical Party Congress takes note of the proposal made by First Secretary and Treasurer and approves it. The founding of a transnational political force can no longer be postponed. This is the only adequate means to affirm the ideals and values necessary to achieve the objectives which for the past thirty years have been the raison d'ˆtre of the Radical Party's existence and the political battles it has waged. None of the major issues of our epoch on which mankind's destiny depends, respect for the life of rights and every individual's right to live, can be faced today with any hope of a solution within the national dimension alone. Democratic institutions and powers are essential, positive justice and supra-national laws, starting with the objective of the United States of Europe for which the time is now ripe.

This is why the Radical Party has decided to complete its own transformation into a transnational political entity no longer bound by its own political limitations, but also as a real, concrete association. At this point the Radical Party proposes itself as an instrument for political organisation beyond and across national frontiers, also open to the participation of those who belong to different national parties. For this reason, the Radical Party as such will not stand in the competitive national elections.

In recent years, the Radical Party has played a decisive role in the open struggle in Italy between particocracy and democracy, justice and illegality, certainty of the rules and logic of wielding and sharing power. Italian Radicals and their associations are in charge of continuing these struggles in different ways, which still have to be worked out and organised. For the coming year, it will find the necessary reference point and a point for comparison within the Party organs. The moment when the Radical Party also first decides to give up all participation in the elections in Italy, it hands over to the Radicals the responsibility of continuing with as many initiatives as possible to promote new reformatory political entities, and political and electoral aggregations capable of symbolising an alternative lay force which could govern the democratic transformation of the institutions.

The 34th Radical Congress involves the organs elected and all Radicals in an extraordinary enrolment campaign, preliminary to the foundation and organisation of the transnational party, of which today only the first bare outlines exist.

The Congress approves the Treasurer's report and takes note of the serious economic and financial situation, a consequence of the enormous expenses the Radical Party has had to meet in order to cover the minimal margins for its political struggle and the defence of its own image and identity.

The Congress estimates that the minimal indispensable conditions for the Party's existence and its transnational activity would mean reaching the objectives of:

1) 4 billion lire by self-financing

2) at least three thousand members outside Italy and the constitution of the first substantially significant associations, at least in some of the European countries.

Finally, the Congress indicates to the executive organs and Radical associations the following themes for the immediate implementation of political intiatives, in accordance with the proposals contained in the First Secretary's report:

1) the United States of Europe, respecting the diversity of culture of the different European regions;

2) antitotalitarianism and human rights;

3) the fight against extermination by hunger, anti-militarism and security;

4) anti-prohibition to combat crime and the cultures and ideologies which have developed because of the illegal drug market;

5) defence and development of the principles of the State of right;

6) preservation of the environment, energy and the ecosystem.

The Congress rules that the next ordinary Congress will be summoned in a European city outside Italy.