1930 — 2016 · THE FOUNDER
Marco Pannella.
Radical politician, member of the European Parliament, stubborn non-violent. He founded Nessuno tocchi Caino in 1993. Ten years since his death: his battle, our battle. It continues.
A NON-VIOLENT LIFE
The man behind the battle.
Marco Pannella was born in Teramo in 1930. He studied Law at Urbino and, already as a student, took part in the first civil battles of the post-war period: divorce, abortion, conscientious objection.
In 1963 he co-founded the Radical Party, a training ground for non-violence and civil disobedience. He became the face of hunger strikes — he would carry out 82 of them, some lasting for weeks on end, always for a concrete idea: a law to be passed, a referendum to be held, a prisoner to be saved.
In 1993, together with a group of fellow fighters, he founded Nessuno tocchi Caino. The goal: the universal abolition of the death penalty. Fourteen years later, in 2007, the UN approved the first moratorium. Pannella died on 19 May 2016. His battle continues because he taught it to us.
IMAGES
A life in the square.
OUR STORY
Eight dates.
1930
Born on 2 May in Teramo.
1955
Graduates in Law from the University of Urbino.
1963
Co-founds the Radical Party: non-violence, civil rights, civil disobedience.
1976
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time with the Radical Party.
1979
Elected to the European Parliament. He will sit there, with interruptions, for thirty years.
1993
Founds Nessuno tocchi Caino, the league for the abolition of the death penalty.
2007
The UN General Assembly approves the first universal moratorium on executions.
2016
Dies on 19 May in Rome, after 82 hunger strikes and an entire life of non-violent battles.
HIS WORDS
He thought them. He lived them.
«The death penalty is not justice. It is vengeance organised by the State. It is the proof that the State surrenders to hatred.»
«Non-violence is choosing to be victims rather than executioners.»
«Italian prisons are like the universities of evil. You go in an apple thief and you come out a camorra boss.»
«Freedom is not a state, it is a conquest. Daily, laborious, never guaranteed.»