Freedom for Toni Negri & italian political prisonners (fwd)

Sat, 17 Jan 1998 16:09:33 -0700 (MST)
Richard N Hutchinson (rhutchin@U.Arizona.EDU)

WSN List-

Here is an update on the effort to free Italian marxist theorist Toni
Negri. I encourage you to participate.

The website for the petition is:

http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~forks/TNmain.htm

(Check at the end of the forwarded message for this in case I made an
error in transcription.)

For those who are curious about Negri's work, I suggest you look up his
"Marx Beyond Marx", which is an analysis of the Grundrisse.

Richard Hutchinson

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 18:16:25 +0100
From: laurent@ecn.org
To: yann.m.boutang@wanadoo.fr
Subject: Freedom for Toni Negri & italian political prisonners

Freedom for Toni NEGRI--
To Have Done with the Year of Lead in Italy!

Information letter to signers of the appeal

Ever since delivering himself over to Italian justice in July 1997, Toni
Negri has been incarcerated in Rome, his only short-term hope that of
working outside and returning every evening to prison (a very strict system
in no way comparable to partial release). That means that he needs our
active support to make people understand his cause and that of 400 militants
still imprisoned or in exile, especially since the effect of surprise has
passed and the debate opened in the Italian press on the political meaning
of Negri’s return is being progressively closed. Hence the importance of
the existence and activities of the "Committee for the Liberation of Toni
Negri and Amnesty for the Years of Lead," which was formed last October 17
on the initiative of signers of the Appeal (1000 signatures have already
been recorded from all over the world, several hundred of which come from
internationally famous persons, and several hundred remain to be recorded).

The Committee’s first initiatives:

1) A press conference was held on November 18 at the headquarters of the
League of the Rights of Man; you may have read echoes of it in the press.
Some newspapers have picked up the Appeal, in particular Le Monde and the
Guardian. A dossier on the case is in preparation at Libération. In Italy,
by contrast, apart from the unambiguous support of Il Manifesto, the major
organs of the press have kept an uncomfortable silence, with only a few
papers providing a brief news item.
2) An important initiative: on November 25 a committee delegation went to
the European Parliament at Strasbourg to present the petition to national
representatives there. The committee was received in succession by ten
deputies, from France (Socialist Party, Communist Party, and others from the
Left), and Germany (the Greens), and as for Italy, the delegation met the
PDS, the party in power, the united left and the Radical Party. The
delegation was received attentively by the French and German
parliamentarians. On the Italian side, obviously central, the PDS expressed
two principal reservations. Without explicitly admitting that the Italian
emergency laws are in contradiction with European laws, the two PDS
representatives insisted that they proved their worth in the fight against
organized crime, and that a compromise must be found between the
preservation of their efficacy and the demands of democracy. They
cautiously promised to sound out opinion on the problem of amnesty while
raising the danger that an expanded amnesty law could also be used to
absolve others of corruption (Tangentopoli). In short, the discussion
remains open on that side. As for the Radical Party, it has a favorable
attitude regarding the amnesty for events in relation to the Years of Lead.
The Radical Party proposes to take the contents of the petition and produce
a text to be signed by European parliamentarians and propose it for
discussion by the Commission on Civil Liberties.

AND NOW…
The committee is continuing its activity directed toward Strasbourg by
assisting in the promotion of an internal parliamentary initiative
(petition). The signature campaign continues and other initiatives are
being planned. THESE INITIATIVES ARE QUITE COSTLY: trips to Strasbourg and
Brussels, not to speak of legal and administrative fees. Those who wish to
make financial contributions should please read the attached instructions.
Thanks for your solidarity. A tax-deduction receipt will be sent to you by
return mail.

--The Committee

P.S.: In "Retour vers le futur" (90 minutes), a videocassette recorded by
Toni Negri before his departure from France, he tackles different political
and philosophical subjects. This video may be ordered by check for 250
francs (which will go to the committee) from the following address:

L'Yeux ouverts
2 Allée Komarov
92000 Nanterre FRANCE
Tel. 0147667176

FELICE - APPEAL FOR FUNDS 1997/1998

If you want to send a check:

SEND YOUR CHECK payable to the order of « La FELICE » together with this
form to the following address:

Bernard PRINCE
13 rue Biscornet
75012 PARIS FRANCE

Mr./Ms.
Address

City State Post Code
Tel

Fax
e-mail

________________________________________________________________________
If you want to make a funds transfer:

TRANSFER to:

FELICE - Account N° 04618348640

Caisse d’épargne de l’Ile de France
19, rue du Louvre BP940
75021 Paris Cedex 01 FRANCE

Warning : any transfer to a foreign country costs money: a service fee of
250FF or £25 or
$50 US or something comparable per transfer will be assessed. So you should
transfer a large amount of money if you choose this method.

Point of Origin date

Signature

Web sites :
-----------
Petition :
http://www.anet.fr/~aris/ecn/infoszone/solidarite/negri05.html
French :
http://www.anet.fr/~aris/ecn/infoszone/solidarite/negri01.html
Spanish :
http://www.larc.net/desertika/autonomia/negri.htm
http://www.larc.net/desertika/argument/argument.htm
http://nodo50.ix.apc.org/laboratorio/convocat/amnistia.htm
English
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~forks/TNmain.htm
Italian :
http://www.ecn.org/liberi/
http://www.ecn.org/rete.sprigionare
Turkish :
http://aries.gisam.metu.edu.tr/yeni/newseng.htm
And probably more...