Communist Party of Brazil
Encyclopedia
The Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil, PCdoB) is a political party
in Brazil
. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union
and students
movements. PCdoB dispute with the Brazilian Communist Party
(PCB) the title of "oldest political party in Brazil". The predecessor of both parties was the Brazilian Section of the Communist International, founded on March 25, 1922. The current PCdoB was launched on February 18, 1962. Outlawed after the 1964 coup d'état, PCdoB supported the armed struggle against the regime before its legalization on 1988. Its most famous action in the period was the Araguaia guerrilla
(1966–1974). Since 1989, PCdoB is allied to the Worker's Party (PT) in the federal level. As such, it is a member of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
administration and joined the For Brazil to keep on changing
coalition, which elected his successor, Dilma Rousseff
.
PCdoB publishes the newspaper Working Class (Classe Operária) and the magazine Principles (Princípios), and is a member of the Foro de São Paulo
. Its youth wing is the Union of the Socialist Youth (União da Juventude Socialista, UJS), launched on 1984, while its trade union wing is the Central of Male and Female Workers of Brazil (Central dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras do Brasil, CTB), founded on 2007 as a dissidence from the Unified Workers' Central
(Central Única dos Trabalhadores, CUT).
had delivered the so-called "Secret Speech
", which denounced the abuses committed by the Soviet state under Joseph Stalin
's rule. Khrushchev was considered a "revisionist
" by supporters of the late Stalin, which led to a rupture in the Communist movement in various countries.
In Brazil, the rupture reached the party leadership, which had rebuilt PC-SBIC after the setbacks it suffered under the Estado Novo regime, which tried to put workers against the party and violently repressed it. The new party leadership was formed on 1943 by João Amazonas
, Maurício Grabois
, Pedro Pomar, Diógenes Arruda Câmara, and Secretary General Luís Carlos Prestes
, among others.
and Friedrich Engels
, and in the actions of Vladimir Lenin
in the aftermath of the October Revolution
, advocating the democratic centralism
and Marxism–Leninism. It was launched on March 25, 1922 in Niterói
, Rio de Janeiro
, when members of the Brazilian working class took their first big step towards arranging themselves under a class organization; nine delegates, representing 50 workers, held a Congress and founded the PC-SBIC. On April 4 of that same year, it was recognized as a political party by the federal government, with its manifesto
being published in the Official Gazette. Following the international guidance, the party was given the name of Communist Party - Brazilian Section of the Communist International.
The nine delegates which attended the founding Congress of the PC-SBIC were Abílio de Nequete, a Lebanese Brazilian
barber; Astrojildo Pereira, a journalist from Rio de Janeiro
; Cristiano Cordeiro, an accountant from Recife
; Hermogênio da Silva Fernandes, an electrician from Cruzeiro
; João da Costa Pimenta, a linotype
operator; Joaquim Barbosa, a tailor from Rio de Janeiro; José Elias da Silva, a shoemaker from Rio de Janeiro; Luís Peres, a broom seller from Rio de Janeiro; and Manuel Cendón, a Spanish
-born tailor.
A series of influential parties in the Brazilian political scene emerged from the PC-SBIC, such as the Brazilian Communist Party
(PCB), the Revolutionary Communist Party
(PCR), in addition to all Trotskyist and Stalinist groups that have been organized ever since. The international rupture that arose in the Communist movement after 1956 caused the PC-SBIC to split on February 18, 1962, during its 5th National Congress. At the occasion, the Manifesto - Program, which advocated the disruption of the party with the Communist International
, was approved, and the party took the name of Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil, PCdoB).
Since the direction of the PCB remained rigidly faithful to Moscow, a division of Mao with the rest of the communist movement has attracted the sympathy of PCdoB, who sent emissaries to Beijing to formalize the ideological link with the new ideological guidelines of the Communist Party of China, Among these messengers, was the party's exiled former president, Joao Amazonas, who was received by Mao Tse Tung. Since then, the party has gradually approach postulates Maoists, considering only China and Albania People like communist countries, and that the other had kicked a guideline and not more revolutionary revisionist.
However, adherence to Maoism included a shift in the strategies followed by PCdoB. Following the principle of protracted people's war, PCdoB undertook to transfer your pictures to the field, initiating the formation of a peasant army. This conception of revolutionary struggle contrasted with both the traditional tactics of the PCB (which true to the "peaceful path opposed the armed struggle against the dictatorship) and with Foco new forces such as the MR-8 and the ALN, which prioritized the urban guerrilla and focus as a way of fighting the military government established in 1964.
The final membership of the PCdoB Maoism was in 1966 in its 6th Congress. The following year, the party drew up a declaration in support of the Cultural Revolution underway in China. In 1968, PCdoB suffered two internal divisions: the Red Wing PCdoB (favorable to foquista tactic) and the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR).
The most effective guerrilla PCdoB column (under the name "Araguaia Guerrilla Force") was composed of high school students or college students, organized around the Patriotic Union of Youth (UJP, youth wing of the party), professional and workers mainly from São Paulo and Minas Gerais. As there was little adhesion between locals, the party created the Freedom Union and the People's Rights (ULDP), whose manifesto contained the programmatic basis of the guerrillas.
In 1971, Army units discovered the location of guerrilla nucleus and were deployed to cordon off the area, preventing it from spreading its operations to the north of the Amazon. The repression of guerrilla operations began in 1972 with three military expeditions that mobilized 25,000 soldiers. Being repelled the first two, the third expedition defeated the last pockets of resistance. Most of the guerillas died in clash with Army forces, including Osvaldão Grabois and Maurice, who died in confrontation with the Army on December 25, 1973. In the 3rd campaign of annihilation, there was a dirty war, including torture of civilians, execution and beheading of prisoners and bodies of fighters hiding until the present day.
The defeat of the Araguaia committed to the party organization, but established the myth of the guerrillas known as the most effective experience of armed struggle the dictatorship. Most of the dead in the repression of the military regime between 1964 and 1979 was PCdoB militants. The Araguaia Guerrilla redefined the dictatorship's plans for the Amazon region and its repression is systematically hidden until now.
On December 16, 1976, the DOI-Codi-SP invades a house on the street Pius XI, São Paulo, killing at local orchard and Angelo Pedro Arroyo, kills John the Baptist Drumond torture prisoners and keeps up Amnesty Wladimir Pomar (son of Pedro), Aldo Arantes, Haroldo Lima, Elza Moneratt (both graduates of the AP), episode known as the Massacre and Slaughter of Lapa. In a climate where the opposition is beginning to gain strength, the news media, crime, strikes and moves within and outside Brazil. The direction of the party, hit hard, by Amnesty works with a core base in exile. Years later, it was discovered that the operation had the help of an informer arrested that year, the head of Manuel Jover PCdoB Teles (ex CC member of the PCB and former Pcbr), who was expelled from the party in 1983.
Shorn of its main frame, PCdoB began to regroup with staff from the PA leadership and staff of John Amazonas, who with Arruda Diogenes were the last remnants of the group that rebuilt the party in 1943 at the Conference Mantiqueira in full New State and in 1962. Arruda's death (in 1979) left as Amazon's top leadership PCdoB until his death.
The failure of rural guerrilla and the new policy adopted by China since Mao's death in 1976 led PCdoB to break completely with Maoism. In 1978, the party followed Enver Hoxha in his criticism of Chinese leaders and now considers Albania as the only socialist country, provided that the last bastion of Stalinism.
During this period, an internal division of PCdoB led to the Revolutionary Communist Party (PRC), led by Jose Genoino and Genro, and who later would join the Workers Party (PT), next to Red Wing.
In 1979, with the opening policy and the granting of Amnesty, PCdoB found a favorable environment for their penetration of the unions and student organizations. Amazon John has returned from exile in 1979, and Diogenes Arruda dies of heart attack in the car on the way to a political act. The rebuilding of UNE (1979), with Aldo Rebelo marked the beginning of the hegemony of the party in university entity (keeping ever since, except for the biennium 1987-1988). In 1984, PCdoB founded the Union of Socialist Youth (UJS), its youth wing.
In 1980, Prestes breaks with the PCB to defend "the reorganization of the communist movement of the Communist Party" in the famous Letter to the Communists. Abandoned to their fate in old age will depend on friends like Oscar Niemeyer to survive and die affiliated with PDT.
In unionism, PCdoB initially adopted a policy of alliance with trade unionists linked to the PCB, adhering to CONCLAT in 1983, which included moderate and non-Marxists. Thus, the party opposed to the CUT (trade union arm of the PT). In 1984, PCdoB integrated to the movement of the Direct Elections Now (formed by all opposition parties), and the following year with the defeat of the amendment Dante de Oliveira, search Tancredo Neves trying to convince him to engage in candidate Electoral College, which coincided with the PCB and MR8, application decisive for the democratization and legalization of leftist parties in 1985. The PT is already legalized in 1980. In elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1986, PCdoB elected six deputies, including Haroldo Lima, Aldo Arantes. Of these, three were originally elected by the legend of the PMDB, with which he remained an ally, part of the base of support from the government of Jose Sarney.
In 1989, along with the PSB, PCdoB supported the candidacy of Lula to the presidency. The alliance with the PT for the presidential elections was repeated in the elections of 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006, achieving success in the last two, with the vice president of the plate, the political and textile businessman José Alencar, indicated by PL.
Along with the PT, PCdoB also made strong opposition to the government of Fernando Collor. PCdoB defended in 1991 defends his removal, which occurs in September 1992 with large student demonstrations and participation by the UJS ahead along the UBEs and UNE. At that time, they noted the personal leadership of Lindberg Farias, then president of the UNE and militant PCdoB.
Alongside the adoption of a more radical stance internally, PCdoB began to lose its external references. In 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, also the Albanian regime collapsed and with it the Stalinism was in crisis. The main impact of these changes was the decision of PCdoB at its 8th Congress in 1992 with the slogan Vive Socialism, Stalin fails to mention one of the "classics" of Marxism.
That decision opened the party ideologically and allowed the incorporation of new militants. PCdoB resumed ties with Cuba. In 1995 at its 8th conference, the Socialist party adopted its Programme. Several Communist intellectuals previously attached to the PCB (as Nelson Werneck Sodré and Edgard Carone) approached the PCdoB.
During this period, with the fall of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe, PCdoB now regards the duration of a phase of "strategic defensive", i.e. a period of retraction of socialist ideas and the need for accumulation of forces to advance a stage of the offensive.
to launch Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
's candidacy for President
. Since then, it has been a member of all electoral coalitions led by the Workers' Party (PT) at the federal level. It has also been allied to the PT in most states and capitals.
PCdoB has registered a steadily increase in its number of seats in the National Congress
since the 1986 elections, the first parliamentary elections which the party contested. It elected 3 deputies in 1986, 5 in 1990, 10 in 1994, 7 in 1998, 12 in 2002, 13 in 2006, and 15 in 2010. In 2000, PCdoB elected its first mayor, Luciana Santos (Olinda
). On 2006, it elected its first Senator ever, Inácio Arruda (although the party considers Luís Carlos Prestes
, from PC-SBIC, its first Senator). He was followed by Vanessa Grazziotin
on 2010. Since 2001, the party is led by Renato Rabelo (a former member of the Popular Action guerrilla group), which succeeded João Amazonas
, which had been a leader of the party since the late 1940s and died in the following year.
With the victory of Lula in 2002, PCdoB became part of the federal government, occupying the Ministry of Sports; first with Agnelo Queiroz and later with Orlando Silva. This was the first time ever that a Communist occupied a Ministry of the Brazilian state. PCdoB's influence over the federal government was expanded in 2004, with the appointment of deputy Aldo Rebelo as political coordinator for the government. The following year, he assumed the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies with the resignation of Severino Cavalcanti
. On November 16, 2002, Aldo Rebelo took over the presidency for one day, making him the only Communist President of Brazil. PCdoB also managed to get some participation in the Senate for a brief period of time, when Senator Leomar Quintanilha (formerly a member of PMDB) switched parties.
Although critical of the economic policy of the Lula administration, PCdoB maintained its support to PT. On 2006, when Lula sought his re-election, the party formalized its participation in his alliance. That same year, PCdoB achieved its first municipal administration of a state capital when PT's Marcelo Déda
resigned in order to run as Governor of Sergipe and Edvaldo Nogueira took office as mayor of Aracaju
. At the end of 2007, its divergences with PT increases, and PCdoB abandoned the Central Única dos Trabalhadores
(CUT) trade union organization and, along with the Brazilian Socialist Party
and other independent sections of the union movement, it founded the Central of Male and Female Workers of Brazil (CTB).
On November 21–23, 2008, PCdoB hosted the 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, which gathered 65 communist and labour parties from around the world, an event which had never been hosted in Latin America. That same year, it had its largest expansion on local representation, electing 40 mayors; some of them in big cities such as Aracaju, Olinda, Maranguape
, and Juazeiro
.
In 2005 Congress held its XI and recasts its status [1], among other innovations admitting for the first time the distinction between "affiliated" and "militant" - this was just the subsidiaries to help finance the party and party fulfills its obligations. This move is seen as a step toward the massification of the Communist Party of Brazil.
In 2009, the Twelfth Congress, PCdoB adopted a new Socialist Program [2], entitled Strengthening the Nation is the way, socialism is the way!, Which covers only the initial phase of transition to socialism, determining the collective party some issues for immediate action to medium term.
UJS is affiliated to the World Federation of Democratic Youth
.
and of the Soviet Union better than most of the Western Communist parties. PCdoB had established itself as an organization historically linked to the Marxist-Leninist tradition of the Communist International
. Its political and ideological identity was consolidated as opposing the so-called 1960s "revisionism
", identified with the directions taken by the USSR after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. PCdoB then aligned itself with Maoism
. After the People's Republic of China
began making economic reforms in 1979, PCdoB decided to aligned itself with the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, an example of consistency and fidelity to Marxism-Leninism in the opinion of its leaders.
In the 1980s, the Soviet crisis was assessed by PCdoB as the result of the growing integration of the USSR to capitalism and the "social-imperialistic
" policies applied by it; the Soviet regime was characterized as a kind of state capitalism
. In 1991, as the crisis has expanded over to Albania, PCdoB decided to reassess its theoretical formulations about revisionism, and became nonaligned. In its 8th Congress in 1992, PCdoB innovated itself by criticizing the Bolshevik
experience. The party reaffirmed its adherence to Marxism-Leninism and socialism, taking a different path from several other Communist organizations throughout the world.
During this process, PCdoB ranged from an approach that pointed to the class struggle
as responsible for the fundamental changes that occurred in the Soviet regime, while on the other hand, it showed a economistic tendency, placing the problems of socialism around the development of productive forces. To some extent, it has shifted from debating these fundamental issues, and when it did, it treated them marginally. The party has been ever since marked by a growing institutionalization inside the political system.
This can be perceived in a letter sent to the Communist Party USA
on the occasion of its 29th National Convention in 2010. In it, PCdoB demonstrates its concern over the Greek economic collapse
and blames neoliberal policies
for it. The party lists its electoral goals for the 2010 general elections as being the "consolidation of Communist presence in the institutions", the "enlargement of influence on lower classes" and "maintaining the democratic and progressive forces at the head of the national government".
PCdoB has been criticized by smaller left-wing parties for its alliance with the Workers' Party
(PT). However, the party has continued on the left-wing field, even if it has embraced democratic socialism
and shifted to center-left in the political spectrum
to some extent. The Socialist People's Party
(PPS), a dissidence of the Brazilian Communist Party
(PCB), on the other hand, has embraced the right-wing opposition to the Lula administration, allying with them in the Brazil can do more
coalition.
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
and students
Student activism
Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...
movements. PCdoB dispute with the Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party is the oldest political party still active in Brazil, founded in 1922, and one of the only Brazilian parties with a Stalinist orientation...
(PCB) the title of "oldest political party in Brazil". The predecessor of both parties was the Brazilian Section of the Communist International, founded on March 25, 1922. The current PCdoB was launched on February 18, 1962. Outlawed after the 1964 coup d'état, PCdoB supported the armed struggle against the regime before its legalization on 1988. Its most famous action in the period was the Araguaia guerrilla
Araguaia guerrilla
The Araguaia guerrilla was an armed movement in Brazil against its military government, active between 1966-1974 in the Araguaia river banks. It was founded by militants of the PC do B, an armed dissidence of the Brazilian Communist Party, which aimed at a communist revolution in the rural areas...
(1966–1974). Since 1989, PCdoB is allied to the Worker's Party (PT) in the federal level. As such, it is a member of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
administration and joined the For Brazil to keep on changing
For Brazil to keep on changing
For Brazil to keep on changing is the name of an electoral coalition formed around the democratic socialist Workers' Party in Brazil for the 2010 presidential election. It comprised ten parties from the left and center spectrums: PT, PMDB, PCdoB, PDT, PRB, PR, PSB, PSC, PTC and PTN. On October...
coalition, which elected his successor, Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman to hold the office. Prior to that, in 2005, she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil, appointed by then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva....
.
PCdoB publishes the newspaper Working Class (Classe Operária) and the magazine Principles (Princípios), and is a member of the Foro de São Paulo
Foro de São Paulo
Foro de São Paulo is a conference of left-leaning political parties and other organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean. It was launched by the Workers' Party of Brazil in 1990 in the city of São Paulo....
. Its youth wing is the Union of the Socialist Youth (União da Juventude Socialista, UJS), launched on 1984, while its trade union wing is the Central of Male and Female Workers of Brazil (Central dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras do Brasil, CTB), founded on 2007 as a dissidence from the Unified Workers' Central
Central Única dos Trabalhadores
-See also:*Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores*Força Sindical-External links:...
(Central Única dos Trabalhadores, CUT).
History
The Communist Party – Brazilian Section of the Communist International (Partido Comunista – Seção Brasileira da Internacional Comunista, PC-SBIC) was founded on March 25, 1922, congregating Brazilian Communists under the same label until the international rupture in the movement that occurred after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, and the 5th Congress of the PC-SBIC in 1960, when Brazilian Communists found themselves divided into two tendencies. At the 20th Congress of the CPUSA, Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
had delivered the so-called "Secret Speech
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences was a report, critical of Joseph Stalin, made to the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is more commonly known as the Secret Speech or the Khrushchev Report...
", which denounced the abuses committed by the Soviet state under Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's rule. Khrushchev was considered a "revisionist
Revisionism (Marxism)
Within the Marxist movement, the word revisionism is used to refer to various ideas, principles and theories that are based on a significant revision of fundamental Marxist premises. The term is most often used by those Marxists who believe that such revisions are unwarranted and represent a...
" by supporters of the late Stalin, which led to a rupture in the Communist movement in various countries.
In Brazil, the rupture reached the party leadership, which had rebuilt PC-SBIC after the setbacks it suffered under the Estado Novo regime, which tried to put workers against the party and violently repressed it. The new party leadership was formed on 1943 by João Amazonas
João Amazonas
João Amazonas de Souza Pedroso was a Brazilian Marxist theoretician, revolutionary, guerrilla member and leader of the Communist Party of Brazil.He was born on January 1, 1912 in the Paraense capital, Belém, and died in São Paulo on May 27th, 2002....
, Maurício Grabois
Maurício Grabois
Maurício Grabois was a Brazilian politician of Jewish descent, founder of the modern Communist Party of Brazil and one of its leaders until his death in 1973.- Biography :...
, Pedro Pomar, Diógenes Arruda Câmara, and Secretary General Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes was a leader of the 1920s tenente rebellion and the Communist opposition to the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil....
, among others.
PC-SBIC (1922-1962)
The PC-SBIC was ideologically based on the writings of Karl MarxKarl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, and in the actions of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
in the aftermath of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, advocating the democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
and Marxism–Leninism. It was launched on March 25, 1922 in Niterói
Niterói
Niterói is a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeast region of Brazil. It has an estimated population of 487,327 inhabitants and an area of ², being the sixth most populous city in the state and the highest Human Development Index. Integrates the Metropolitan Region of Rio de...
, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro (state)
Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...
, when members of the Brazilian working class took their first big step towards arranging themselves under a class organization; nine delegates, representing 50 workers, held a Congress and founded the PC-SBIC. On April 4 of that same year, it was recognized as a political party by the federal government, with its manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
being published in the Official Gazette. Following the international guidance, the party was given the name of Communist Party - Brazilian Section of the Communist International.
The nine delegates which attended the founding Congress of the PC-SBIC were Abílio de Nequete, a Lebanese Brazilian
Lebanese Brazilian
A Lebanese Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Lebanese ancestry, or a Lebanese-born person immigrant in Brazil....
barber; Astrojildo Pereira, a journalist from Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
; Cristiano Cordeiro, an accountant from Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
; Hermogênio da Silva Fernandes, an electrician from Cruzeiro
Cruzeiro, São Paulo
Cruzeiro is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is located about from the state capital...
; João da Costa Pimenta, a linotype
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
operator; Joaquim Barbosa, a tailor from Rio de Janeiro; José Elias da Silva, a shoemaker from Rio de Janeiro; Luís Peres, a broom seller from Rio de Janeiro; and Manuel Cendón, a Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
-born tailor.
A series of influential parties in the Brazilian political scene emerged from the PC-SBIC, such as the Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party is the oldest political party still active in Brazil, founded in 1922, and one of the only Brazilian parties with a Stalinist orientation...
(PCB), the Revolutionary Communist Party
Revolutionary Communist Party (Brazil)
The Revolutionary Communist Party is a Hoxhaist communist political party in Brazil. It formed after a split with the October 8th Revolutionary Movement in 1995. It is a member of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations ....
(PCR), in addition to all Trotskyist and Stalinist groups that have been organized ever since. The international rupture that arose in the Communist movement after 1956 caused the PC-SBIC to split on February 18, 1962, during its 5th National Congress. At the occasion, the Manifesto - Program, which advocated the disruption of the party with the Communist International
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, was approved, and the party took the name of Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil, PCdoB).
Schisms of the Communist Party of Brazil
- The Trotskyist Dissence (1928): In mid-1928, PC-SBIC suffered its first schism, when a small group of Marxist intellectuals broke with the political theses of PC-SBIC influenced by Leon TrotskyLeon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
's Left OppositionLeft OppositionThe Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...
, and its criticism to StalinismStalinismStalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
prevailing as the official ideology of the Communist InternationalCominternThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
and the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionCommunist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
.
- Brazilian Communist Party (1961): In 1961, the "revisionistRevisionism (Marxism)Within the Marxist movement, the word revisionism is used to refer to various ideas, principles and theories that are based on a significant revision of fundamental Marxist premises. The term is most often used by those Marxists who believe that such revisions are unwarranted and represent a...
" group held an Extraordinary National Conference, adopting a new program, a new statute, replacing the main body of the party (The Working Class), and adopting the name of Brazilian Communist PartyBrazilian Communist PartyBrazilian Communist Party is the oldest political party still active in Brazil, founded in 1922, and one of the only Brazilian parties with a Stalinist orientation...
, keeping the acronym of PCB, until then popularly used to identify PC-SBIC. The maneuver was led by Luís Carlos PrestesLuís Carlos PrestesLuís Carlos Prestes was a leader of the 1920s tenente rebellion and the Communist opposition to the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil....
, which claimed that the move made it possible for PC-SBIC to regain its legal registration - which was ultimately not obtained. The Marxist-LeninistMarxism-LeninismMarxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
group claimed that Prestes' move broke PC-SBIC's statute and was, therefore, illegal according to the party rules. They launched a document called The Hundred Men Letter, claiming the implementation of an extraordinary congress to validate the changes. It also criticized the new party line, accusing it of being "right-wing opportunistic". After that, the self called "anti-revisionist" group adopted the name of Communist Party of Brazil and the acronym of PCdoB to differentiate themselves from PCB.
- Communist Revolutionary Party (1968): The Revolutionary Communist Party (Partido Comunista Revolucionário, PCR) emerged as an internal split of PCdoB in 1966, four years after the split of PC-SBIC into two parties. It was formed by activists of the student movement and the Peasant Leagues (a pro-agrarian reformAgrarian reformAgrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land reform measures. Agrarian reform can include credit measures,...
group, considered the predecessor of MSTLandless Workers' MovementLandless Workers' Movement is a social movement in Brazil; it is the second largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million landless members in 23 out of Brazil's 26 states. The MST states it carries out land reform in a country it sees as mired by unjust land distribution...
). Its party line was that of Mao ZedongMao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's people's war, aiming to siege the cities from the countryside, considering the Northeast RegionNortheast Region, BrazilThe Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....
the best are to trigger the revolution.
- PCdoB's Red Wing (1968)
- Revolutionary Communist Party (1979)
The 1st reorganization (August 11, 1943)
Held on August 11, 1943, National Party Conference (Conference of Mantiqueira), with delegates from Rio, São Paulo, Rio, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia, Sergipe and Paraíba. The Conference reviewed the political situation and the tasks of the Party, politics and construction tasks to it. Elected, yet, a new Central Committee, for the old leadership and the party organization was almost torn apart due to several blows of police. This conference was an enormous role in party life. Defeated trends liquidators and established the need to reorganize the party, as well as outlined the tasks of communists in the struggle against fascism and the declaration of war on the Axis and sending an expeditionary force to fight in Europe. Many Communists marched willingly into the theater of operations in Italy and the Party has organized a broad movement in solidarity with the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB). On 1 August 1950, was given to the public, the Manifesto of August, the Central Committee of Communist Party of Brazil. It was more an attempt by management to break with the remnants of the right opportunist line of the period of review. Although it contains some leftist errors (confused, to some extent, the two steps of the Brazilian revolution and underestimated the role of the national bourgeoisie in the revolution), the Manifesto presented in essence a revolutionary line, urged the people to overthrow the regime of landlords and big capitalists in the service of American imperialism and provide for this a popular army.The 2nd Reorganization (February 18, 1962)
The Marxist-Leninist break with the dissent provides, and make the V National Conference Meetings, the Communist Party of Brazil on February 18, 1962, in São Paulo; reorganization of the party and embracing the symbol PCdoB, and proclaimed himself the legitimate heir and successor of the Communist Party - Brazilian Section of the Communist International (PC-SBIC), which was popularly known by the acronym PCBs. dating its founding on March 25, 1922.Com the participation of delegates from Guanabara, São Paulo, Rio, Rio Grande do Sul and Espirito Santo. This conference, which was the importance of issues resolved by Congress, marked a complete break with the Marxist-Leninist group revisionist Prestes who had usurped the party leadership and the party turned into a social democratic organization. In opposition to the revisionist line of the V Congress, the Conference adopted the Manifesto-Program, which draws a line for the revolutionary party; reintroduced the Statute adopted at the Fourth Congress, adopted a resolution on the unity of the Communists, signed the principle that each country can only exist a single Marxist-Leninist party, decided to reissue The Working Class, a former central organ of the Party; is approved the break with the USSR and finally elected a new Central Committee. These resolutions historical mark not only the complete and decisive break with the revisionists, but also the purpose of reorganizing the true Marxist-Leninist vanguard in this conference Brasil.Participam Joao Amazonas, Mauricio Grabois, Camara Ferreira, Mário Alves, Jacob Gorender, Miguel Batista de Carvalho and Apollonius.The guideline Maoist (1962-1969)
While the PCB finally abandoned the figure of Stalin, PCdoB kept the former Soviet leader as one of its theoretical underpinnings (alongside Marx, Engels and Lenin). At the same time the crisis between the Soviet Union and China reached its peak when the Chinese leader Mao Zedong criticized the ongoing process of de-Stalinization in the USSR, and accused Khruschev of deviations "opportunistic" and "reformist".Since the direction of the PCB remained rigidly faithful to Moscow, a division of Mao with the rest of the communist movement has attracted the sympathy of PCdoB, who sent emissaries to Beijing to formalize the ideological link with the new ideological guidelines of the Communist Party of China, Among these messengers, was the party's exiled former president, Joao Amazonas, who was received by Mao Tse Tung. Since then, the party has gradually approach postulates Maoists, considering only China and Albania People like communist countries, and that the other had kicked a guideline and not more revolutionary revisionist.
However, adherence to Maoism included a shift in the strategies followed by PCdoB. Following the principle of protracted people's war, PCdoB undertook to transfer your pictures to the field, initiating the formation of a peasant army. This conception of revolutionary struggle contrasted with both the traditional tactics of the PCB (which true to the "peaceful path opposed the armed struggle against the dictatorship) and with Foco new forces such as the MR-8 and the ALN, which prioritized the urban guerrilla and focus as a way of fighting the military government established in 1964.
The final membership of the PCdoB Maoism was in 1966 in its 6th Congress. The following year, the party drew up a declaration in support of the Cultural Revolution underway in China. In 1968, PCdoB suffered two internal divisions: the Red Wing PCdoB (favorable to foquista tactic) and the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR).
The Araguaia Guerrilla (1969-1976)
Since 1966, PCdoB sought the formation of a nucleus at the guerrilla camp. The area chosen for the irradiation of the future peasant army (along the lines Maoist) was the region south of Para, near the border with Tocantins. It is estimated that the party met 70-80 guerrillas in the area under the military command of former military Osvaldo Orlando da Costa (Osvaldão) and under the command of Mauritius maximum Grabois (then commander in chief of the guerrillas).The most effective guerrilla PCdoB column (under the name "Araguaia Guerrilla Force") was composed of high school students or college students, organized around the Patriotic Union of Youth (UJP, youth wing of the party), professional and workers mainly from São Paulo and Minas Gerais. As there was little adhesion between locals, the party created the Freedom Union and the People's Rights (ULDP), whose manifesto contained the programmatic basis of the guerrillas.
In 1971, Army units discovered the location of guerrilla nucleus and were deployed to cordon off the area, preventing it from spreading its operations to the north of the Amazon. The repression of guerrilla operations began in 1972 with three military expeditions that mobilized 25,000 soldiers. Being repelled the first two, the third expedition defeated the last pockets of resistance. Most of the guerillas died in clash with Army forces, including Osvaldão Grabois and Maurice, who died in confrontation with the Army on December 25, 1973. In the 3rd campaign of annihilation, there was a dirty war, including torture of civilians, execution and beheading of prisoners and bodies of fighters hiding until the present day.
The defeat of the Araguaia committed to the party organization, but established the myth of the guerrillas known as the most effective experience of armed struggle the dictatorship. Most of the dead in the repression of the military regime between 1964 and 1979 was PCdoB militants. The Araguaia Guerrilla redefined the dictatorship's plans for the Amazon region and its repression is systematically hidden until now.
The abandonment of Maoism (1976-1979)
Since the late 1960s, the Marxist-Leninist Popular Action (APML), a group derived from the Catholic left, had adopted the Maoist ideology and approached the PCdoB. Merging the two groups was made in 1975, after the end of armed struggle. PCdoB also attracted graduates from Pcbr and MR-8.On December 16, 1976, the DOI-Codi-SP invades a house on the street Pius XI, São Paulo, killing at local orchard and Angelo Pedro Arroyo, kills John the Baptist Drumond torture prisoners and keeps up Amnesty Wladimir Pomar (son of Pedro), Aldo Arantes, Haroldo Lima, Elza Moneratt (both graduates of the AP), episode known as the Massacre and Slaughter of Lapa. In a climate where the opposition is beginning to gain strength, the news media, crime, strikes and moves within and outside Brazil. The direction of the party, hit hard, by Amnesty works with a core base in exile. Years later, it was discovered that the operation had the help of an informer arrested that year, the head of Manuel Jover PCdoB Teles (ex CC member of the PCB and former Pcbr), who was expelled from the party in 1983.
Shorn of its main frame, PCdoB began to regroup with staff from the PA leadership and staff of John Amazonas, who with Arruda Diogenes were the last remnants of the group that rebuilt the party in 1943 at the Conference Mantiqueira in full New State and in 1962. Arruda's death (in 1979) left as Amazon's top leadership PCdoB until his death.
The failure of rural guerrilla and the new policy adopted by China since Mao's death in 1976 led PCdoB to break completely with Maoism. In 1978, the party followed Enver Hoxha in his criticism of Chinese leaders and now considers Albania as the only socialist country, provided that the last bastion of Stalinism.
During this period, an internal division of PCdoB led to the Revolutionary Communist Party (PRC), led by Jose Genoino and Genro, and who later would join the Workers Party (PT), next to Red Wing.
The path to legalization party (1979-1987)
The adoption of the line did not mean the Albanian political radicalization of the PCdoB. In 1978, all had left institutional action through the MDB, the moderate opposition to the military government, PCdoB resumes its parliamentary area and elected its first MPs in the underground.In 1979, with the opening policy and the granting of Amnesty, PCdoB found a favorable environment for their penetration of the unions and student organizations. Amazon John has returned from exile in 1979, and Diogenes Arruda dies of heart attack in the car on the way to a political act. The rebuilding of UNE (1979), with Aldo Rebelo marked the beginning of the hegemony of the party in university entity (keeping ever since, except for the biennium 1987-1988). In 1984, PCdoB founded the Union of Socialist Youth (UJS), its youth wing.
In 1980, Prestes breaks with the PCB to defend "the reorganization of the communist movement of the Communist Party" in the famous Letter to the Communists. Abandoned to their fate in old age will depend on friends like Oscar Niemeyer to survive and die affiliated with PDT.
In unionism, PCdoB initially adopted a policy of alliance with trade unionists linked to the PCB, adhering to CONCLAT in 1983, which included moderate and non-Marxists. Thus, the party opposed to the CUT (trade union arm of the PT). In 1984, PCdoB integrated to the movement of the Direct Elections Now (formed by all opposition parties), and the following year with the defeat of the amendment Dante de Oliveira, search Tancredo Neves trying to convince him to engage in candidate Electoral College, which coincided with the PCB and MR8, application decisive for the democratization and legalization of leftist parties in 1985. The PT is already legalized in 1980. In elections to the Constituent Assembly of 1986, PCdoB elected six deputies, including Haroldo Lima, Aldo Arantes. Of these, three were originally elected by the legend of the PMDB, with which he remained an ally, part of the base of support from the government of Jose Sarney.
From 1987 to 1995 Socialist Program
The social and economic crisis that followed the Cruzado Plan (1987) led PCdoB to break the PMDB. In its place, he sought an ever larger with the PT and the PSB. In 1988, trade unionists PCdoB broke with the General Workers Central and formed the current Class Union, which then became part of the CUT, currently connected to the CTB (see Recent Events).In 1989, along with the PSB, PCdoB supported the candidacy of Lula to the presidency. The alliance with the PT for the presidential elections was repeated in the elections of 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006, achieving success in the last two, with the vice president of the plate, the political and textile businessman José Alencar, indicated by PL.
Along with the PT, PCdoB also made strong opposition to the government of Fernando Collor. PCdoB defended in 1991 defends his removal, which occurs in September 1992 with large student demonstrations and participation by the UJS ahead along the UBEs and UNE. At that time, they noted the personal leadership of Lindberg Farias, then president of the UNE and militant PCdoB.
Alongside the adoption of a more radical stance internally, PCdoB began to lose its external references. In 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, also the Albanian regime collapsed and with it the Stalinism was in crisis. The main impact of these changes was the decision of PCdoB at its 8th Congress in 1992 with the slogan Vive Socialism, Stalin fails to mention one of the "classics" of Marxism.
That decision opened the party ideologically and allowed the incorporation of new militants. PCdoB resumed ties with Cuba. In 1995 at its 8th conference, the Socialist party adopted its Programme. Several Communist intellectuals previously attached to the PCB (as Nelson Werneck Sodré and Edgard Carone) approached the PCdoB.
During this period, with the fall of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe, PCdoB now regards the duration of a phase of "strategic defensive", i.e. a period of retraction of socialist ideas and the need for accumulation of forces to advance a stage of the offensive.
Opposition to neoliberalism and Lula administration
In the late 1980s, PCdoB supported the formation of a popular frontPopular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
to launch Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
's candidacy for President
President of Brazil
The president of Brazil is both the head of state and head of government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Armed Forces...
. Since then, it has been a member of all electoral coalitions led by the Workers' Party (PT) at the federal level. It has also been allied to the PT in most states and capitals.
PCdoB has registered a steadily increase in its number of seats in the National Congress
National Congress of Brazil
The National Congress of Brazil is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government.Unlike regional legislative bodies – Legislative Assemblies and City Councils -, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies .The Senate represents the 26 states and...
since the 1986 elections, the first parliamentary elections which the party contested. It elected 3 deputies in 1986, 5 in 1990, 10 in 1994, 7 in 1998, 12 in 2002, 13 in 2006, and 15 in 2010. In 2000, PCdoB elected its first mayor, Luciana Santos (Olinda
Olinda
Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...
). On 2006, it elected its first Senator ever, Inácio Arruda (although the party considers Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes
Luís Carlos Prestes was a leader of the 1920s tenente rebellion and the Communist opposition to the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil....
, from PC-SBIC, its first Senator). He was followed by Vanessa Grazziotin
Vanessa Grazziotin
Vanessa Grazziotin Bezerra is a Brazilian politician from the Communist Party of Brazil . Although born in Videira, Santa Catarina, Grazziotin based her political career in the state of Amazonas. Twice elected to represent the state in the Chamber of Deputies, she was recently elected for the...
on 2010. Since 2001, the party is led by Renato Rabelo (a former member of the Popular Action guerrilla group), which succeeded João Amazonas
João Amazonas
João Amazonas de Souza Pedroso was a Brazilian Marxist theoretician, revolutionary, guerrilla member and leader of the Communist Party of Brazil.He was born on January 1, 1912 in the Paraense capital, Belém, and died in São Paulo on May 27th, 2002....
, which had been a leader of the party since the late 1940s and died in the following year.
With the victory of Lula in 2002, PCdoB became part of the federal government, occupying the Ministry of Sports; first with Agnelo Queiroz and later with Orlando Silva. This was the first time ever that a Communist occupied a Ministry of the Brazilian state. PCdoB's influence over the federal government was expanded in 2004, with the appointment of deputy Aldo Rebelo as political coordinator for the government. The following year, he assumed the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies with the resignation of Severino Cavalcanti
Severino Cavalcanti
Severino José Cavalcanti Ferreira is a Brazilian politician, born in João Alfredo, Pernambuco. He is currently a member of the Progressive Party, despite having changed parties eight times in his career...
. On November 16, 2002, Aldo Rebelo took over the presidency for one day, making him the only Communist President of Brazil. PCdoB also managed to get some participation in the Senate for a brief period of time, when Senator Leomar Quintanilha (formerly a member of PMDB) switched parties.
Although critical of the economic policy of the Lula administration, PCdoB maintained its support to PT. On 2006, when Lula sought his re-election, the party formalized its participation in his alliance. That same year, PCdoB achieved its first municipal administration of a state capital when PT's Marcelo Déda
Marcelo Déda
Marcelo Déda Chagas is a Brazilian politician. He was mayor of Aracaju from 2000 to 2006, and is the current Governor of Sergipe.His political militancy had beginning in the Movement Secundarista...
resigned in order to run as Governor of Sergipe and Edvaldo Nogueira took office as mayor of Aracaju
Aracaju
-Vegetation:Aracaju lies in tropical forest. Rainforests are characterized by high rainfall, with minimum normal annual rainfall between 2,000 mm and 1,700 mm...
. At the end of 2007, its divergences with PT increases, and PCdoB abandoned the Central Única dos Trabalhadores
Central Única dos Trabalhadores
-See also:*Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores*Força Sindical-External links:...
(CUT) trade union organization and, along with the Brazilian Socialist Party
Brazilian Socialist Party
The Brazilian Socialist Party , is a political party in Brazil. It was founded in 1947, before being abolished by the military regime in 1965 and re-organized in 1985 with the re-democratization of Brazil. It elected six Governors in 2010, becoming the second largest party in number of state...
and other independent sections of the union movement, it founded the Central of Male and Female Workers of Brazil (CTB).
On November 21–23, 2008, PCdoB hosted the 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, which gathered 65 communist and labour parties from around the world, an event which had never been hosted in Latin America. That same year, it had its largest expansion on local representation, electing 40 mayors; some of them in big cities such as Aracaju, Olinda, Maranguape
Maranguape
Maranguape is a municipality in Ceará with 102,982. The community was founded in 1851 and is currently part of the Fortaleza metropolitan area.- External links :*...
, and Juazeiro
Juazeiro
Juazeiro is a city and municipality in eastern Brazil in the state of Bahia . It had a population of 260,004, according to the 2010 census, and an area of 6,415.4 km². The population density was 31.34 hab/km² . The elevation is 373 meters. It became a city in 1833...
.
In 2005 Congress held its XI and recasts its status [1], among other innovations admitting for the first time the distinction between "affiliated" and "militant" - this was just the subsidiaries to help finance the party and party fulfills its obligations. This move is seen as a step toward the massification of the Communist Party of Brazil.
In 2009, the Twelfth Congress, PCdoB adopted a new Socialist Program [2], entitled Strengthening the Nation is the way, socialism is the way!, Which covers only the initial phase of transition to socialism, determining the collective party some issues for immediate action to medium term.
Structure
PCdoB was legally recognized as a political party by the Brazilian Electoral Supreme Court on June 23, 1988. Its current President is José Renato Rabelo. It has nearly 240,000 members.UJS is affiliated to the World Federation of Democratic Youth
World Federation of Democratic Youth
The World Federation of Democratic Youth is a progressive youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. WFDY describes itself as an "anti-imperialist, left-wing" organisation...
.
Ideology
PCdoB responded to the collapse of real communismRevolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
and of the Soviet Union better than most of the Western Communist parties. PCdoB had established itself as an organization historically linked to the Marxist-Leninist tradition of the Communist International
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. Its political and ideological identity was consolidated as opposing the so-called 1960s "revisionism
Revisionism (Marxism)
Within the Marxist movement, the word revisionism is used to refer to various ideas, principles and theories that are based on a significant revision of fundamental Marxist premises. The term is most often used by those Marxists who believe that such revisions are unwarranted and represent a...
", identified with the directions taken by the USSR after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. PCdoB then aligned itself with Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
. After the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
began making economic reforms in 1979, PCdoB decided to aligned itself with the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, an example of consistency and fidelity to Marxism-Leninism in the opinion of its leaders.
In the 1980s, the Soviet crisis was assessed by PCdoB as the result of the growing integration of the USSR to capitalism and the "social-imperialistic
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
" policies applied by it; the Soviet regime was characterized as a kind of state capitalism
State capitalism
The term State capitalism has various meanings, but is usually described as commercial economic activity undertaken by the state with management of the productive forces in a capitalist manner, even if the state is nominally socialist. State capitalism is usually characterized by the dominance or...
. In 1991, as the crisis has expanded over to Albania, PCdoB decided to reassess its theoretical formulations about revisionism, and became nonaligned. In its 8th Congress in 1992, PCdoB innovated itself by criticizing the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
experience. The party reaffirmed its adherence to Marxism-Leninism and socialism, taking a different path from several other Communist organizations throughout the world.
During this process, PCdoB ranged from an approach that pointed to the class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
as responsible for the fundamental changes that occurred in the Soviet regime, while on the other hand, it showed a economistic tendency, placing the problems of socialism around the development of productive forces. To some extent, it has shifted from debating these fundamental issues, and when it did, it treated them marginally. The party has been ever since marked by a growing institutionalization inside the political system.
This can be perceived in a letter sent to the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
on the occasion of its 29th National Convention in 2010. In it, PCdoB demonstrates its concern over the Greek economic collapse
2010 European sovereign debt crisis
From late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning some European states, intensifying in early 2010 and thereafter.....
and blames neoliberal policies
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
for it. The party lists its electoral goals for the 2010 general elections as being the "consolidation of Communist presence in the institutions", the "enlargement of influence on lower classes" and "maintaining the democratic and progressive forces at the head of the national government".
PCdoB has been criticized by smaller left-wing parties for its alliance with the Workers' Party
Workers' Party (Brazil)
The Workers' Party is a democratic socialist political party in Brazil. Launched in 1980, it is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing movements of Latin America. It governs at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties since January 1, 2003...
(PT). However, the party has continued on the left-wing field, even if it has embraced democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
and shifted to center-left in the political spectrum
Political spectrum
A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....
to some extent. The Socialist People's Party
Socialist People's Party (Brazil)
The Socialist People's Party is a political party in Brazil.It was founded in 1992, after the Brazilian Communist Party decided to rename itself the Socialist People's Party as part of a political realignment following the collapse of the Soviet Union.The PPS was a part of the coalition government...
(PPS), a dissidence of the Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party is the oldest political party still active in Brazil, founded in 1922, and one of the only Brazilian parties with a Stalinist orientation...
(PCB), on the other hand, has embraced the right-wing opposition to the Lula administration, allying with them in the Brazil can do more
Brazil can do more
Brazil can do more is the name of a centre-right electoral coalition in Brazil formed around the Third Way Brazilian Social Democratic Party for the 2010 presidential election. It is formed by six parties: PSDB, DEM, PTB, PPS, PMN and PTdoB...
coalition.
Congresses of the Communist Party of Brazil
| Name | Dates | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | March 25–27, 1922 | Niterói Niterói Niterói is a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeast region of Brazil. It has an estimated population of 487,327 inhabitants and an area of ², being the sixth most populous city in the state and the highest Human Development Index. Integrates the Metropolitan Region of Rio de... |
| 2nd | May 16–18, 1925 | |
| 3rd | December 1928-January 1929 | |
| 4th | November 1954 | |
| 5th | August–September 1960 | |
| 6th (clandestine) | 1983 | |
| 7th | May 1988 | São Paulo São Paulo São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among... |
| 8th | February 3–8, 1992 | Brasília Brasília Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the... |
| 9th | October 13–15, 1997 | São Paulo |
| 10th | December 9–12, 2001 | Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th... |
| 11th | October 20–23, 2005 | Brasília |
| 12th | November 5–8, 2009 | São Paulo |
Electoral results
| Chamber Chamber of Deputies of Brazil The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. As of 2006, the chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms... |
Senate | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Votes | % of votes | % change | Seats | % of seats | Seats change | Votes | % of votes | % change | Seats | % of seats | Total seats | |
| 1986 | 297,237 | 0.6 | – | 3 | 0.6 | – | 0 | 0 | – | ||||
| 1990 | 352,049 | 0.9 | +0.3 | 5 | 1.0 | +2 | 0 | 0 | – | ||||
| 1994 | 562,121 | 1.2 | +0.3 | 10 | 1.9 | +5 | 751,428 | 0.8 | 0 | 0 | – | ||
| 1998 | 869,293 | 1.3 | +0.1 | 7 | 1.3 | -3 | 559,218 | 0.9 | +0.1 | 0 | 0 | – | |
| 2002 | 1,967,833 | 2.2 | +0.9 | 12 | 2.3 | +5 | 6,199,237 | 4.0 | +3.1 | 0 | 0 | – | |
| 2006 | 1,982,323 | 2.1 | -0.1 | 13 | 2.5 | +1 | 6,364,019 | 7.5 | +3.5 | 1 | 1.2 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2,748,290 | 2.8 | +0.7 | 15 | 2.9 | +2 | 12,561,716 | 7.4 | -0.1 | 1 | 1.2 | 2 | |
| Sources: Election Resources, Dados Eleitorais do Brasil (1982-2006) | |||||||||||||
Famous members
- Aldo RebeloAldo RebeloJosé Aldo Rebelo Figueiredo is a Brazilian politician, member of the Communist Party of Brazil and a federal deputy elected by the state of São Paulo...
- Gabriel o PensadorGabriel o PensadorGabriel Contino, Gabriel o Pensador , is a Brazilian rapper.-Biography:Coming from a unique background among Brazilian rappers, Gabriel, the son of a well known journalist in Brazil, hit fame in 1992 with the song "Tô Feliz " the debut single from his first...
- João AmazonasJoão AmazonasJoão Amazonas de Souza Pedroso was a Brazilian Marxist theoretician, revolutionary, guerrilla member and leader of the Communist Party of Brazil.He was born on January 1, 1912 in the Paraense capital, Belém, and died in São Paulo on May 27th, 2002....
- Jorge MautnerJorge MautnerJorge Mautner is a Brazilian writer and singer. He is the creator of the Moviment of Kaos.-Albums:* Revirão - Gege/Warner Music* Eu não peço desculpa * Mitologia do Kaos...
- Leci BrandãoLeci BrandãoLeci Brandão da Silva |Rio de Janeiro]], September 12, 1944) is a Brazilian singer and composer of Brazilian Popular Music . She is the daughter of Pérola Negra, one of the artists who pioneered in making the Brazilian pagode music popular throughout the land...
- Martinho da VilaMartinho da VilaMartinho da Vila is a Brazilian samba musician...
- Maurício GraboisMaurício GraboisMaurício Grabois was a Brazilian politician of Jewish descent, founder of the modern Communist Party of Brazil and one of its leaders until his death in 1973.- Biography :...
- NasiNasi (singer)Nasi, is a Brazilian singer and songwriter, former vocalist of Ira!. He is also a soccer commentator for RedeTV! since 2008.-Ira!:*Mudança de Comportamento *Vivendo e Não Aprendendo...
- Vanessa GrazziotinVanessa GrazziotinVanessa Grazziotin Bezerra is a Brazilian politician from the Communist Party of Brazil . Although born in Videira, Santa Catarina, Grazziotin based her political career in the state of Amazonas. Twice elected to represent the state in the Chamber of Deputies, she was recently elected for the...
See also
- List of political parties in Brazil
- List of Communist Parties
- Politics of BrazilPolitics of BrazilThe politics of Brazil take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, where by the President is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system...