[ Home page | Sommario | Archivio | Rispondi | Avanti | Indietro | Su ]
Da: English version
Data: 1/17/2003
Ora: 10:19:07 AM
Nome remoto: 213.254.3.151
Dear Comrades,
We intend to use the occasion of the Socialist International meeting to be held in Rome to deliver a message of friendship and fraternity.
Our political organisation, the Nuovo Partito Socialista Italiano (the New Italian Socialist Party), was formed in response to the difficulties that beset the Italian Socialist movement during the 1990s, and is one of the several parties whose founders form part of the diaspora from the common ground of Italian Socialism.
The Socialist movement began life in 1892 and its ranks have included such memorable figures as Sandro Pertini, Giuseppe Saragat, Pietro Nenni and Bettino Craxi, all of them convinced exponents of social democracy, as well as political leaders who rose to hold the highest offices of the Italian Republic.
The peculiarities of the “Italian case” have obliged us to take an independent line through the 1990s and the first few years of the new century in opposition to the “real Left” of Italy, most of which has coalesced around parties from the Communist tradition.
Our values, the course of our democratic struggle, our refusal to bow to neo-Liberal pressures, our resistance to new forms of ideological tyranny of a xenophobic or fundamentalist character, and our resistance to the advance of economic and bureaucratic powers that have sought to exploit segments of the state, whether military or judicial, to impose their will are the principles to which we are true, principles that are firmly rooted in the most crystalline traditions of international Socialism and the reformist approach that has characterised the movement in Italy, Europe and throughout the world.
We have stood side by side with many movements that have fought for democracy and freedom in their countries. We stand for freedom from fascist military dictatorships and freedom from totalitarian communist regimes.
We have striven to broaden the horizons of a prosperous and peaceful world, and have been at the forefront in the construction of the European Union from the days when we formed a sturdy pillar of democratic government.
Our last prestigious leader, Bettino Craxi, was, like other political figures affiliated with the Socialist International, a protagonist in the effort to tackle the difficult question of Third World debt, a task to which he was appointed by the Secretary of the United Nations Perez De Cuellar.
This is still an unresolved issue to which Socialist parties must remain highly alert and sensitive. My dear comrades, we feel impelled to renew our deep political interest in issues of vital importance for humankind, which is increasingly threatened by new and ever more extreme developments. Our programmes, projects and idealistic impulses must be refreshed and adjusted if we are to become capable of ruling and governing. In any event, the constant renewal of the culture of Democratic Socialism and the broadening of its programmes and ideals to make room for other political and cultural experiences has always been one of the fundamental goals fowards which the parties of the Socialist International have worked all these years.
We believe our political position is not far removed from those of other European parties, such as the British, as regards the response to give to hitherto unknown forms of fundamentalist violence, which must be countered with methods based above all on cooperation and unity among all the countries of the world that subscribe to democratic sentiments and values.
Similarly, our culture does not stand at odds with the idealistic and moral force that underpins the new forms of cultural and political activism that are contesting the skewed impact of an economy unfettered by rules, which spreads harm and perverse effects above all in the poorest regions of the planet.
For this and other reasons, both old and new, comrades, we see ourselves as fully belonging to the family of the Socialist International movement. The long and difficult transition of Italy means that in our national parliament we are not, for now, seated alongside parties the Democratici della Sinistra (DS – the Democrats of the Left) in particular which, thanks to our direct request, are now fully-fledged members of the Socialist International. Rather, we find ourselves in an independent position lending our minimal parliamentary support to a government led by a party belonging to the Christian Democrat tradition.
We feel the full weight of the difficult and very painful historical developments in Italy that culminated in the demise of the glorious Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the death of its leader while in exile from his native land.
We also feel the weight and bear the brunt of all the contradictions stemming from that affair, which brought about first the division and then the defeat of the entire Left in Italy, a defeat that is a consequence of the elimination of the Socialist tradition.
We should like to pay homage to our common political roots and honour the memory of our leaders, including Bettino Craxi, the third anniversary of whose death falls in this period, and we therefore call on our comrades in the Socialist International to allow us to participate as observers at the meetings in Rome. We consider this a constructive step forwards and harbinger of a process towards future unity. We hope for an act of democratic acknowledgement that recognises us as offspring of the same political tradition, a tradition that looks with confidence and hope towards the progress of the Socialist movement in the world.
Our sincere and fraternal best wishes to all.
Signed
Coordinator and Spokesperson for the Secretariat of the New PSI – Hon. Vittorio Craxi
Head of International Affairs –Hon. Nereo Laroni, MP.
______________________________________________________________________________ Via del Corso 117, 00186 Roma, Italy tel. (0039) 06/6797790–1 e fax (0039) 06/69923578
|
|