(www.radicalparty.org) DOCUMENTS ON: HUNGER / DOC.TYPE: APPEALS/AND RELATED TO

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24/06/1981 | The manifesto-appeal of the Nobel prizewinners

ABSTRACT: On June 24, a document formulated by the Radical Party against extermination by hunger and signed by dozens of Nobel Prizewinners, was distributed in the major western capitals. It was the answer of men of science to the indifference of governments, the mass media and individuals, to the grim figures announcing the certain death of millions of people from starvation in the southern hemisphere. The Manifesto indicated precisely what to do to put an end to the holocaust of our day. Achieving the objectives of the Manifesto and saving the greatest possible number of people from death through starvation, became the Radical Party's top priority. ("Single issue" booklet for the XXXV Congress of The Radical Party - Budapest 22-26 april 1989) We the undersigned, men and women of science, of letters, of peace, with different religions, histories, and cultures, prizewinners because we search for honour and celebrate truths in life and life in truth, so that our works may be a universal testimony to dialogue, brotherhood, and of the common civilisation of peace and progress; we the undersigned address an appeal to all men and women of good will, to the powerful and the humble, in their various responsibilities, so that dozens of millions of those who are suffering from starvation and underdevelopment, victims of the international political and economic disorder so widespread today, may be restored to life. An unprecedented holocaust, whose horror includes in a single year all the horror of the exterminations which our generations saw in the first half of the century, is still happening today and continuing to widen, every moment that passes, the perimeter of barbarities and death in the world, no less than in our consciences. All those who have taken stock of the holocaust, who are publicising it and fighting it, are unanimous in defining politics first and foremost as the cause of this tragedy. A new political will and a new specific organisation of this will, which would be directly and obviously directed with topmost priority to overcome the causes of this tragedy and to avert its causes. A method is necessary and an adequate procedure, among all those imaginable or which already exist, which should be immediately chosen or worked out and put into action. A system of projects is required, to converge with and to correspond to the many different forces, responsibilities, and consciences, to substantiate them. Maximum international authority is required, and it is essential for the States and the peoples too often kept in the dark as to the full possibilities of realising a policy of life and salvation as some of the greatest spiritual authorities on earth are already requesting, to work together, or to unite their operations with punctual, steady and adequate objectives to combat and to overcome death in all its in its different strongholds. For death is spreading, chasing and condemning a large part of humanity. We need to rebel against the false realism which induces people to resign themselves as though it were fatal, to what instead belongs to the responsibility of politics and the "established disorder". We need to fight realistically so that the possible is done and not consumed, perhaps for ever. We need to convert that "do good" aid which above all is a cheap way to buy a good conscience but which does not save those who rely on it, into something positive, both those cruel and infertile utopias which sacrifice men today in the name of a project for men, and today's society in the name of a project for society. The citizens and politicians responsible must choose and vote, at their respective levels, electoral or parliamentary, governmental or international, new laws, new budgets, new projects and new initiatives that can be immediately directed at saving thousands of millions of men from malnutrition and underdevelopment, and hundreds of millions, in each generation, from death by starvation. It is necessary for everybody and each individual to give legal value to the saving of human lives, to not killing, to not exterminating, not even through laziness, omission or indifference. If world powers are responsible, they are not the only ones. If the unarmed would not resign themselves to being inert, if they would be more numerous in declaring non-obedience to other laws than this basic law of the rights of men and people, that in the first place is Justice, and the right to life; if the unarmed would go and organise themselves using their few but long lasting weapons political democracy and the great non-violent "Gandhian" non-violent actions, fixing themselves and imposing the choice of objectives form time to time limited and adequate; if this would happen, it would be certain, just as today it is certainly possible, that our times would not be catastrophic. Our knowledge cannot consist in the inert and irresponsible contemplation of the horrible incumbent end. Our knowledge, which tells us that the whole of humanity is itself in more and more danger of death, cannot but be the science of hope and salvation, the substance of all we believe and hope for. If the means of information, if the powers that have wanted to honour us as a recognition for which we have been decorated, would like to listen and make others listen on this occasion also to our voice and our work and to all those who in these weeks are working in the world in the same direction, if the men and women, if people knew, would be informed, we do not doubt that the future could be different from what is looming and seems destined for everybody and the whole world. But only in this case. It is necessary to choose immediately, to act, to create, to live and make people live. The Manifesto Appeal was signed by the following Nobel Prizewinners: Vicente Aleixandre Literature, 1977 Hannes Alfven Physics, 1970 American Friends Service Committee Peace, 1947 Philip Anderson Physics, 1977 Christian Anfinsen Chemistry, 1972 Kenneth Arrow Economics, 1972 Julius Axelrod Medecine, 1970 David Baltimore Medecine, 1975 Samuel Beckett Literature, 1969 J. Georg Bednorz Physics, 1987 Saul Bellow Literature, 1976 Baruj Benacerraf Medecine, 1980 Gerd Binning Physics, 1986 Baruch S. Blumberg Medecine, 1976 Heinrich Boll Literature, 1972 Norman E. Borlaug Peace, 1970 Daniel Bovet Medecine 1957 Willy Brandt Peace, 1971 Joseph Brodsky Literature, 1987 Bureaux International de la Paix Peace 1970 Elias Canetti Literature, 1981 Owen Chamberlain Physics, 1959 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Physics, 1983 Stanley Cohen Medecine 1986 Mairead Corrigan Peace 1976 André Cournand Medecine, 1956 Jean Dausset Medecine, 1980 Gérard Debreu Economics, 1983 John Carew Eccles Medecine 1963 Odysseus Elytis Literature, 1979 Ernst Otto Fischer Chemistry, 1973 Paul John Flory Chemistry 1974 William A. Fowler Physics 1983 Alfonso G. Robles Peace 1982 Sheldon L. Glashow Physics 1979 William Golding Literature, 1983 Ragnar Granit Medecine, 1967 Roger Guillemin Medecine, 1977 Haldan Keffer Physics, 1964 Hartline Medecine, 1967 Odd Hassel Chemistry, 1969 Dudley Herschbach Chemistry 1986 Gerhard Herzberg Chemistry 1971 Dorothy Hodgkin Physics 1979 Robert Hogfsadter Chemistry;, 1964 David Hubel Medecine 1981 Franois Jacob Medecine , 1965 Brian Josephson Physics, 1973 Alfred Kastler Physics, 1966 Lawrence R. Klein Economics, 1980 Georges Kohler Medecine, 1984 Polykarp Kush Physics 1955 Yuan Tseh Lee Chemistry, 1986 Jean Marie Lehn Chemistry, L987 Rita Levi Montalcini Medecine 1986 Wassily Leontieff Economics, 1973 Salvador Luria Medecine 1969 André Lwoff Medecine 1965 Sean McBride Peace 1974 Cweslaw Milosz Literature, 1980 César Milstein Medecine 1984 Franco Modigliani Economics, 1985 Eugenio Montale Literature, 1975 Rudolf Massbauer Physics, 1961 Nevill Mott Physics, 1977 Gunnar Myrdal Economics, 1974 Daniel Nathans Medecine 1978 Louis Neel Physics, 1970 Marshall Nirenberg Medecine 1968 Philip NoelBaker Peace 1959 Severo Ochoa Medecine 1959 Linhus Pauling Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962 Arno Penzias Physics 1978 Adolfo P. Esquivel Peace 1980 John Polyani Chemistry 1986 Rodney R. Porter Medecine 1972 Ilya Prigogine Chemistry, 1977 Quaker Peace and Service Peace, 1947 Isidor Isaac Rabi Physics 1944 Tadeus Reichstein Medecine, 1950 Burton Richter Physics, 1976 Heini Rohrer Physics 1986 Carlo Rubbia Physics, 1984 Martin Ryle Physics 1974 Anwar L. Sadat Peace 1978 Andrei D. Sacharov Peace 1975 Abdus Salam Physics 1979 Frederik Sanger Chemistry 1958 and 1980 Arthur Schawlow Physics, 1981 Jaroslav Seifert Literature, 1984 Kai Siegbahn Physics, 1981 Claude Simon Literature, 1985 Robert M. Solow Economics, 1987 Albet Szent Gyorgy Medecine 1937 Henry Taube Cemistry 1983 Hugo Theorell Medecine 1955 Jan Tinbergen Economics 1969 Nikolaas Tinbergen Medecine 1973 Sir Alexander Todd Chemistry 1957 Susumu Tonegawa Medecine 1987 Charles Hard Townes Physics 1964 Desmond Tutu Peace 1984 Simon Van Der Meer Physics 1984 Ulf von Euler Medecine 1970 George Wald Medecine 1967 Lech Walesa Peace 1983 Ernest Walton Physics 1951 James Dewey Watson Medecine 1962 Patrick White Literature 1973 Elie Wiesel Peace 1986 Torsten Wiesel Medecine 1981 Maurice Wilkins Medecine 19962 Betty Williams Peace 1976

OTHER LANGUAGES

Il manifesto-appello dei premi Nobel

LE MANIFESTE-APPEL DES PRIX NOBEL

El manifiesto-llamamiento de los premios Nobel