Portuguese Communist Party
Encyclopedia
The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing
political party
in Portugal
. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism
. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist
.
The party was founded in 1921 as the Portuguese section of the Communist International (Comintern
). Made illegal after a coup in the late 1920s, the PCP played a major role in the opposition to the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar
. During the five-decades-long dictatorship, the party was constantly suppressed by the political police, the PIDE
, which forced its members to live in clandestine status under the threat of arrest, torture, and murder. After the bloodless Carnation Revolution
in 1974, which overthrew the 48-year regime, the 36 members of party's Central Committee had, in the aggregate, experienced more than 300 years in jail.
After the end of the dictatorship, the party became a major political force in the newly democratic state, mainly among the working class. Despite being less influential since the fall of the Socialist bloc
in eastern Europe
, the party still enjoys popularity in large sectors of Portuguese society, particularly in the rural areas of the Alentejo and Ribatejo
, and in the heavily industrialized areas around Lisbon
and Setúbal
, where it holds the leadership of several municipalities.
The Party publishes the weekly Avante!
, founded in 1931. Its youth organization is the Portuguese Communist Youth
, a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth
.
At the end of World War I
, in 1918, Portugal fell into a serious economic crisis, in part due to the Portuguese military intervention
in the war. The Portuguese working classes responded to the deterioration in their living standards with a wave of strikes. Supported by an emerging labor movement, the workers achieved some of their objectives, such as an eight-hour working day.
In September 1919, the working class movement founded the first Portuguese Labour Union Confederation, the General Confederation of Labour
; however, the feeling of political powerlessness, due to the lack of a coherent political strategy among the Portuguese working class, plus the growing popularity of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, led to the foundation of the Portuguese Maximalist Federation
(FMP) in 1919. The goal of FMP was to promote socialist and revolutionary ideas and to organize and develop the worker movement.
After some time, members of the FMP began to feel the need for a "revolutionary vanguard" among Portuguese workers. After several meetings at various labor union offices, and with the aid of the Comintern
, this desire culminated in the foundation of the Portuguese Communist Party as the Portuguese Section of the Comintern on 6 March 1921.
Unlike virtually all other European communist parties, the PCP was not formed after a split of a social democratic or socialist party, but from the ranks of anarcho-syndicalist
and revolutionary syndicalist groups, the most active factions in the Portuguese labor movement. The party opened its first headquarters in the Arco do Marquês do Alegrete Street in Lisbon
. Seven months after its creation, the first issue of O Comunista (The Communist), the first newspaper of the party, was published.
The first congress of the party took place in Lisbon in November 1923, with Carlos Rates as leader. The congress was attended by about a hundred members of the party and asserted its solidarity with socialism in the Soviet Union
and the need for a strong struggle for similar policies in Portugal; it also stated that a Fascist coup in Portugal was a serious threat to the party and to the country.
, the party was outlawed and had to operate in secrecy. By coincidence, the coup was carried out on the eve of the second congress, forcing the suspension of party business. In 1927, the party's main office was closed. The party was first reorganized in 1929 under Bento Gonçalves
. Adapting the its new illegal status, the party reorganized as a network of clandestine cells.
Meanwhile, in 1938, the PCP had been expelled from the Comintern. The reason for the expulsion was a sense of distrust in the Comintern caused by a sudden breakdown in the party's activity after a period of strong communist tumult in the country, accusations of alleged embezzlement of money carried out by some important members of the party and, mainly, the weak internal structure of the party, dominated by internal wars. The action against the PCP, signed by Georgi Dimitrov
, was in part taken due to some persecution against Comintern member parties or persons (like the Communist Party of Poland
or Béla Kun
) led by Joseph Stalin
. These series of events would, in part, lead to the end of the Comintern in 1943. The PCP would only reestablish its relations with the communist movement and the Soviet Union in 1947, after sporadic contacts made through the communist parties of Spain and France and later through Mikhail Suslov
.
After the 1933 rise of Salazar
's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, suppression of the party grew. Many members were arrested, tortured, and executed. Many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the Cape Verde Islands. This included Bento Gonçalves, who would die there. The vast wave of arrests led to a major reorganization in 1940 and 1941, named the "Reorganization of '40". The first congress held after these changes was held in 1943 and stated that the party should unite with all those who also wanted an end to the dictatorship. Another important conclusion was the need to increase the party's influence inside the Portuguese army. The party was able, for the first time, to assure a strong clandestine organization, with a network of clandestine cadres, which would significantly aid the resistance against Salazar's regime.
In 1945, with the defeat of the major fascist regimes in World War II
, Salazar was forced to fake some democratic changes to keep up a good image in the eyes of the West, so in October of that year, the democratic resistance was authorized to form a platform, which was named Movement of Democratic Unity
(Portuguese: Movimento de Unidade Democrática, or MUD). Initially, the MUD was controlled by the moderate opposition, but it soon became strongly influenced by the PCP, which controlled its youth wing
. In the leadership of the youth wing were several communists, among them Octávio Pato
, Salgado Zenha
, Mário Soares
, Júlio Pomar
and Mário Sacramento
. This influence led to the MUD being outlawed by the government in 1948, after several waves of suppression.
The fourth congress, held in July 1946, pointed to massive popular struggle as the only way to overthrow the regime, and stated the policies that would help the party lead that same popular movement. This, along with the consolidation of the clandestine work, was the main conclusion of the congress. A brief report of the conclusions of this congress were published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
. At this time, Álvaro Cunhal traveled to Yugoslavia
with the aid of Bento de Jesus Caraça
to improve relations with the Socialist Bloc. Later, in 1948, he traveled to the Soviet Union to speak with Mikhail Suslov, after which the bonds between the PCP and the International Communist Movement were reestablished. Soon after returning from the Soviet Union, Cunhal was arrested by the PIDE
.
The fifth congress, held in September 1957, was the only congress to be held outside Portugal. In Kiev
, the Party approved its first program and statutes. For the first time, the party took an official position on colonialism
, stating that every people had the right of self-determination, and made clear its support of the liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies, such as MPLA in Angola
, FRELIMO in Mozambique
, and PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau
.
In January 1960, a group of ten PCP members managed to escape from the high-security prison in Peniche. The escape returned to freedom many of the leading figures of the Party, among them, Álvaro Cunhal
, who would be elected in the following year the first secretary-general in nineteen years. Among the escapees was also Jaime Serra, who would help to organize a secret commando group, the Armed Revolutionary Action (Portuguese: Acção Revolucionária Armada or ARA). The ARA was the armed branch of the PCP that would be responsible in the 1970s for some military action against the dictatorial regime.
In 1961, the Colonial War
in Africa began, first in Angola
and in the next year in Mozambique
and Guinea-Bissau
. The war lasted thirteen years and devastated Portuguese society, forcing many thousands of Portuguese citizens to leave the country, both to seek a better future in countries like France, Germany or Switzerland
and to escape conscription. The PCP, which had been involved in the formation of the nationalist guerrilla movements, along with the Soviet Union, immediately stated its opposition to the war, and its support for the anticolonial movements. The war prompted unrest in Portuguese society and helped lead to the decline of the Salazar regime.
In 1962, the "Academic Crisis
" occurred. The Salazar regime, fearing the growing popularity of democratic ideas among students, made several student associations and organizations illegal, including the National Secretariat of Portuguese Students. Most members of this organization were intellectual communist militants who were persecuted and forbidden to continue their university studies. With assistance from the PCP, the students responded with demonstrations that culminated on 24 March with a large student demonstration in Lisbon
. The demonstration was brutally suppressed by the police, leading to hundreds of injuries among the protesters. Immediately thereafter, the students began a strike against the regime.
In the sixth congress, in 1965, Álvaro Cunhal, elected secretary-general in 1961, released the report The Path to Victory—The Tasks of the Party in the National and Democratic Revolution, which became a document of major influence in the democratic movement. Widely distributed among the clandestine members, it contained eight political goals, such as "the end of the monopolies in the economy," "the need for agrarian reform and redistribution of the land," and "the democratization of access to culture and education" — policies that the Party considered essential to make Portugal a fully democratic country. Nine years later, on 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution
occurred, putting an end to 48 years of resistance and marking the beginning of a new cycle in the party's life.
Immediately after the revolution, basic democratic rights were reestablished in Portugal. On 27 April, political prisoners were freed. On April 30, Álvaro Cunhal
returned to Lisbon, where he was received by thousands of people. May Day
was commemorated for the first time in 48 years, and an estimated half million people gathered in the FNAT Stadium (now May 1 Stadium) in Lisbon
to hear speeches by Cunhal and the socialist Mário Soares
. On May 17, the party's newspaper, Avante!
, produced the first legal issue in its history.
The following months were marked by radical changes in the country, always closely followed and supported by PCP. A stormy process to give independence to the colonies started with the full support of the party and, within a year, Guinea-Bissau
, Angola
, Mozambique
, Cape Verde
, and São Tomé and Príncipe
became independent countries.
Six months after the Carnation Revolution, on 20 October 1974, the party's seventh congress took place. More than a thousand delegates and hundreds of Portuguese and foreign guests attended. The congress set forth important statements that discussed the ongoing revolution in the country. The 36 members of the elected central committee had in the aggregate experienced more than 300 years in jail. On 12 January 1975 the PCP became the first legally recognized party.
The revolutionary process continued. On 11 March 1975, the left-wing military forces defeated a coup attempt by rightists in the military. This resulted in a turn in the revolutionary process to the political left, with the main sectors of the economy, such as the banks, transportation, steel mills, mines, and communications companies, being nationalized. This was done under the lead of Vasco Gonçalves
, a member of the military wing who supported the party and who had become prime minister after the first provisional government resigned. The party then asserted its complete support for these changes and for the Agrarian Reform
process that implemented collectivization of the agricultural sector and the land in a region named the "Zone of Intervention of the Agrarian Reform" or "ZIRA", which included the land south of the Tagus River. The PCP took the lead of that process and drove it according to the party's program, organizing thousands of peasants into cooperatives. Combined with the party's strong clandestine organization and support of the peasants' movement during the preceding years in that region, these efforts made the south of Portugal the major stronghold of the PCP. The party gained more than half of the votes in Beja
, Évora
, and Setúbal
in subsequent elections.
One year after the revolution, the first democratic elections took place to elect the parliament that would write a new constitution to replace the constitution of 1933. The party achieved 12.52% of the vote and elected 30 members of parliament. In the end, as the party wanted, the constitution included several references to "socialism" and a "classless society" and was approved with the opposition of only one party, the right-wing Democratic Social Center (Portuguese: Centro Democrático Social or CDS).
In 1976, after the approval of the constitution, the second democratic election was carried out and the PCP raised its share of the vote to 14.56% and 40 seats. In the same year, the first Avante! Festival
took place, and the eighth congress was held in Lisbon from 11–14 November. The congress mainly stated the need to continue the quest for socialism in Portugal and the need to defend the achievements of the revolution against what the party considered to be a political step backward, led by a coalition of the Socialist Party
and the right-wing Centro Democrático Social, who opposed the agrarian reform process.
In 1979, the party held its ninth congress, which analyzed the state of post-revolutionary Portugal, right-wing politics, and the party's struggles to nationalize the economy. In December 1979, new elections took place. The party formed the United People Alliance
(Portuguese: Aliança Povo Unido or APU) in coalition with the Portuguese Democratic Movement
(Portuguese: Movimento Democrático Português or MDP/CDE) and increased its vote to 18.96% and 47 seats. The election was won by a centrist/right-wing coalition led by Francisco Sá Carneiro
, which immediately initiated policies that the party considered to be contrary to working-class interests. Despite a setback in a subsequent election in 1980, in which the PCP dropped to 41 seats, the party achieved several victories in local elections, winning the leadership of dozens of municipalities in the FEPU coalition. After the sudden death of Sá Carneiro in an air crash in 1980, the party achieved 44 seats and 18.20% of the vote as part of the APU in the 1983 elections. Also in 1983, the party held its tenth congress, which again criticized what it saw as the dangers of right-wing politics.
In 1986, the surprising rise of Mário Soares
, who reached the second round in the presidential election
, defeating the party's candidate, Salgado Zenha
, made the party call an extra congress. The eleventh congress was called with only two weeks' notice, in order to decide whether or not to support Soares against Freitas do Amaral. Soares was supported, and he won by a slight margin. Had he not been supported by the PCP, he would have probably lost. In 1987, after the resignation of the government, another election took place. The PCP, now in the Unitarian Democratic Coalition
(Portuguese: Coligação Democrática Unitária or CDU) with the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV) and the Democratic Intervention
(Portuguese: Intervenção Democrática or ID), saw an electoral decline to 12.18% and 31 seats.
At the end of the 1980s, the Socialist Bloc of Eastern Europe started to disintegrate, and the party faced one of the biggest crises in its history. With many members leaving, the party called a thirteenth congress for May 1990, in which a huge ideological battle occurred. The majority of the more than 2000 delegates decided to continue the party's "revolutionary way to Socialism"—i.e., to retain its Leninist
ideology. By so doing, it clashed with what many other communist parties around the world were doing. The congress asserted that socialism in the Soviet Union had failed, but a unique historical experience, several social changes, and several achievements by the labor movement had been influenced by the Socialist Bloc. Álvaro Cunhal was reelected secretary-general, but Carlos Carvalhas
was elected assistant secretary-general.
In the legislative election of 1991
, the party won 8.84% of the national vote and 17 seats, continuing its electoral decline.
The fourteenth congress took place in 1992, and Carlos Carvalhas
was elected the new secretary-general, replacing Álvaro Cunhal. The congress analyzed the new international situation created by the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the defeat of socialism in Eastern Europe. The party also traced the guidelines intended to put Cavaco Silva
and the right-wing government on its way out, a fact that would happen shortly after. In 1995, the right-wing Social Democratic Party
was replaced in the government by the Socialist Party
after the October legislative election
, in which the PCP received 8.61% of the votes.
In December 1996, the fifteenth congress was held, this time in Porto
, with more than 1600 delegates participating. The congress criticized the right-wing policies of the socialist government of António Guterres
and debated the future of the PCP following the debacle of the Socialist Bloc. In the subsequent local elections, the party continued to decline, but in the legislative election of 1999
, the party increased its voting percentage for the first time in many years. The sixteenth congress was held in December 2000, and Carlos Carvalhas was reelected secretary-general. In the legislative election of 2002
, the PCP achieved its lowest voting result ever, with only 7.0% of the vote.
In November 2004, the seventeenth party congress elected Jerónimo de Sousa
, a former metal worker, as the new secretary-general.
In the legislative election of February 2005
, the Party increased its share of the vote and won 12 of the 230 seats in parliament, receiving about 430,000 votes (7.60%).
After the 2005 local election, in which the PCP regained the presidency of 7 municipalities, the party holds the leadership of 32 (of 308) municipalities, most of them in Alentejo and Setúbal
and holds the leadership of hundreds of civil parishes and local assemblies. The local administration by PCP is usually marked by concern about such issues as preventing privatization of the water supply, funding culture and education, providing access to sports, and promoting health, facilitating participatory democracy
, and preventing corruption. The presence of the Greens in the coalition also keeps an eye on environmental issues such as recycling
and water treatment.
The PCP's work now follows the program of "Advanced Democracy for the 21st Century." Issues like the decriminalization of abortion
, workers' rights, the increasing fees for the health service and education, the erosion of the social safety net, low salaries and pensions, imperialism and war, and solidarity with other countries such as Iraq
, Afghanistan
, Palestine, Cuba
and the Basque Country
are constant concerns in the party's agenda.
The party has two members (Ilda Figueiredo
and Pedro Guerreiro
) elected to the European Parliament
, after achieving 9.2% of the vote in the European Election of 2004. They sit in the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.
(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)
Note:
(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)
Notes:
and of all Portuguese workers, and also as the vanguard
of all working people. That vanguard role results from its class nature and its close liaison with the masses, mobilizing them and winning their support.
The PCP organizes in its ranks industrial and office workers, small and medium farmers, intellectuals and technical workers, small and medium shopkeepers, and industrialists, who fight for democracy and for socialism
. The party considers itself the legitimate pursuer of the Portuguese people's best traditions of struggle and of their progressive and revolutionary achievements throughout their history.
The PCP takes Marxism-Leninism
as its theoretical basis, which is a materialist
and dialectical conception of the world and a scientific tool of social analysis. These principles guide the party's action and enable it to systematically answer new challenges and realities. The party also orients its members and its activity in the spirit of proletarian internationalism
, of cooperation between the communist parties and revolutionary
and progressive
forces, and of solidarity with the workers of other countries.
, which implies that all party organs are elected from bottom to top and may be dismissed by those who elected them, if needed; the members who have tasks in any structure of the party are responsible to both lower and upper levels, being obliged to report the activities to both and to give consideration to their opinions and criticisms; lower-level structures must respect the decisions of the upper structures; every member is free to give his opinion during the discussion, and the structures must take in account the contribution of every member; every member must obey the decisions achieved by consensus or by a majority; every member must work along with his own structure; the party does not recognize the existence of organized factions inside it.
The structure and internal organization of the PCP are defined by its statutes. The most recent statutes were approved in the seventeenth congress, held in 2004. The upper organs of the PCP at the national level are the congress
, the central committee
, and the central commission of control.
The supreme organ of the party is its congress, which is summoned by the outgoing central committee and held every four years. The congress is composed of delegates elected by the respective lower organs proportional to each organ's membership size. The congress approves its theses after a wide discussion period inside the organizations and may also change the party's program and statutes. All the decisions of the congress are made by the delegates voting. With the exception of the voting for the central committee, which a recent Portuguese law requires to be secret, all voting, including the approval of the theses, are conducted by a show of hands. The theses, after approval, guide all the party's political actions and stances until the next congress.
The main organ between the congresses is the central committee, which is elected in the congresses under a proposal of the retiring central committee. This proposal may only be made after a long period of hearing the lower structures in order to include in it the names they propose. The CC may not change the orientation present in the congress' theses. The main task of the central committee is to define the guidelines of the party's political work and decide the immediate tasks of the party, assuring that the lower structures comply with those decisions. The CC elects, from its members, its Political Bureau, its Secretariat and also the Central Commission of Control. This last must assure the compliance between the Party's activities and the statutes, and control the Party's finances. The CC may, or may not, elect the Party's General Secretary from its members.
The intermediate organs of the Party are, by rule, the organs that coordinate an organization of district, municipality and parish levels, but organizations at a neighborhood or professional class level also exist.
The main organ of an intermediate part of the party's structure is the Assembly. The Assembly
works as a small Congress for the organization members. The Assembly elects the regional or municipal committees, which are responsible for applying the theses of the Assembly to the organization's work.
The base level organ of the Party is the cell. The cell is defined as being the link between the Party and the working class
and the masses. A cell is composed of a minimum of three Party members and exists at a work place or neighborhood level. The cell may elect its own secretariat, which has the responsibility of discussing and putting into practice the Party's guidelines. The cell must ensure the recruitment of new members, promote the reading of Avante!
and the other publications, ensure that the members pay their membership fees and keep the upper structures aware of the cell's political work.
(Forward!), widely distributed throughout the country, and also the magazine of theoretical discussion O Militante
(The Militant), published each two months. The Party's press also includes the bulletin Emigração (Emigration), targeted at the large Portuguese diaspora, and the magazine Portugal e a UE (Portugal and the EU
), directed by the Party's members elected in the European Parliament
, which presents information related to the European politics and to the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group. Both Avante! and O Militante are sold in the Party's offices to the members. Buying Avante! is considered one of the members' duties. Avante! is also sold among other newspapers in many news stands around the country.
Avante! was illegally printed and distributed from February 1931 until May 1974. Many times, the newspaper distribution suffered breakdowns due to the suppression by the political police of Party members who helped to distribute the newspaper, or due to the destruction of the clandestine printing offices. Successfully evading official censorship, Avante! was one of the very few Portuguese newspapers that freely reported on events like World War II
, the Colonial War
in Africa or massive workers' strikes and waves of student protest against the dictatorship. Avante! continues to be printed after more than three decades of democracy and has now a full online edition. The Avante! Festival
was named after the newspaper.
During the campaign for the Portuguese legislative election of 2005, the Party created a radio broadcast on its website and also a digital forum, being the first Portuguese party to use the internet actively in an electoral campaign. After the last Congress, the statutes were changed and the Party now considers its website as another official media and it is regularly updated. The campaign radio broadcast evolved into an online radio station named Comunic. It broadcasts thematic interviews with Party's members, music and propaganda.
Usually the Party's largest political campaigns and struggles are supported by the distribution of a massive number of leaflets and advertising posters in hot spots like train stations, factories, universities, main streets and avenues or markets. The free television spots that the Portuguese law grants to the parties, either in the campaign time or out of it, are used by PCP to promote initiatives and political campaigns.
The Party also owns a publishing company, Edições Avante! (Avante! Editions) that publishes and sells several books related to the Party's history or to Marxism. Classics of Marxism-Leninism, such as The Communist Manifesto
, Capital
, On the Jewish Question
, or What is to be Done?
, several books of Portuguese authors on the history of the Party and the resistance, official documents like the program or the statutes, books from foreign authors, like Ten Days that Shook the World
and several other works are present in the Avante! Edition's catalog.
(Portuguese: Juventude Comunista Portuguesa) and was founded in 10 November 1979, after the unification of the Communist Students League
and the Young Communist League
. The Portuguese Communist Youth is a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth
, a youth non-governmental organization that congregates several left-wing youth organizations from all the continents. The WFDY holds an international event, named World Festival of Youth and Students
, in which the Portuguese Communist Youth uses to participate.
The youth wing follows a structure similar to the Party's, also based on the Leninist
principle of Democratic centralism
, and both organizations maintain a cooperative relationship. JCP is, however, an independent organization.
Mainly composed by students and some working class young people, the Portuguese Communist Youth has, as its main political concerns, such issues as the promotion of a free and public education for all ages, employment, peace and housing. It also promotes international solidarity brigades for countries like Cuba
, Palestine
or Venezuela
, alone or with other European Communist youth organizations like KNE or SDAJ. It has its main organizational strength among high-school and university students, with a strong presence among the Students' unions.
Every year, in the first weekend of September, the party holds a festival called the Avante! Festival
(Portuguese: Festa do Avante!). After taking place in different locations around Lisbon
, like the Lisbon International Fair, Ajuda
or Loures
, it is now held in Amora, a town near Seixal, on land bought by the Party after a massive fundraising campaign in the early 1990s. The Party considered this campaign to be the only way to avoid the boycott organised by the owners of the previous festival grounds, a boycott that ultimately resulted in the Festival not being held in 1987
The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The events themselves consist of a three-day festival of music, with hundreds of Portuguese and international bands and artists across five different stages, ethnography, gastronomy, debates, a books and music fair, theatre (Avanteatro), cinema (Cineavante) and sporting events. Several foreign communist parties also participate.
Famous artists, Portuguese and non-Portuguese, have performed at the Festival, including Chico Buarque
, Baden Powell
, Ivan Lins
, Zeca Afonso
, Buffy Sainte-Marie
, Holly Near
, Johnny Clegg
, Charlie Haden
, Judy Collins
, Richie Havens
, Tom Paxton
, Ska-P
, The Soviet Circus Company, the Kuban Cossack Choir
, Dexys Midnight Runners
, The Band
, Hevia
, Brigada Victor Jara
, Adriano Correia de Oliveira
, Carlos Paredes
, Jorge Palma
, Manoel de Oliveira
, Babylon Circus
, and many others.
The preparation of the party begins right after the end of the previous festival. Hundreds of the Party's members and friends, mostly young people, volunteer for the hard work of building a small town in a few months.
In English:
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
political party
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 Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon 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...
. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
.
The party was founded in 1921 as the Portuguese section of the Communist International (Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
). Made illegal after a coup in the late 1920s, the PCP played a major role in the opposition to the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...
. During the five-decades-long dictatorship, the party was constantly suppressed by the political police, the PIDE
PIDE
In 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS . The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at democratization, in order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights...
, which forced its members to live in clandestine status under the threat of arrest, torture, and murder. After the bloodless Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
in 1974, which overthrew the 48-year regime, the 36 members of party's Central Committee had, in the aggregate, experienced more than 300 years in jail.
After the end of the dictatorship, the party became a major political force in the newly democratic state, mainly among the working class. Despite being less influential since the fall of the Socialist bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
in eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, the party still enjoys popularity in large sectors of Portuguese society, particularly in the rural areas of the Alentejo and Ribatejo
Ribatejo
The Ribatejo is the most central of the traditional provinces of Portugal, with no coastline or border with Spain. The region is crossed by the Tagus River...
, and in the heavily industrialized areas around Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
and Setúbal
Setúbal
Setúbal is the main city in Setúbal Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 172.0 km² and a total population of 118,696 inhabitants in the municipality. The city proper has 89,303 inhabitants....
, where it holds the leadership of several municipalities.
The Party publishes the weekly Avante!
Avante!
Avante! is the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party . Founded in 1931, it continues to be published to this day...
, founded in 1931. Its youth organization is the Portuguese Communist Youth
Portuguese Communist Youth
The Portuguese Communist Youth is the youth organization of the Portuguese Communist Party and was founded on November 10 of 1979, after the unification of the Young Communist League and the Communist Students League....
, a member of 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...
.
Origins
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, in 1918, Portugal fell into a serious economic crisis, in part due to the Portuguese military intervention
Portugal in the Great War
Despite its old alliance with Britain started with the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 , Portugal did not initially form part of the system of alliances involved in World War I and thus initially kept its neutrality...
in the war. The Portuguese working classes responded to the deterioration in their living standards with a wave of strikes. Supported by an emerging labor movement, the workers achieved some of their objectives, such as an eight-hour working day.
In September 1919, the working class movement founded the first Portuguese Labour Union Confederation, the General Confederation of Labour
General Confederation of Labour (Portugal)
The General Confederation of Labour is a former Portuguese labour union confederation.-Post-war period:The General Confederation of Labour had its roots in the National Workers' Union and was founded on September 13, 1919. It was the only Portuguese trade union at the time.It was greatly...
; however, the feeling of political powerlessness, due to the lack of a coherent political strategy among the Portuguese working class, plus the growing popularity of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, led to the foundation of the Portuguese Maximalist Federation
Portuguese Maximalist Federation
The Portuguese Maximalist Federation was a revolutionary movement founded in 1918 in Portugal. It was inspired by the most radical factions involved in the Russian revolution of 1917....
(FMP) in 1919. The goal of FMP was to promote socialist and revolutionary ideas and to organize and develop the worker movement.
After some time, members of the FMP began to feel the need for a "revolutionary vanguard" among Portuguese workers. After several meetings at various labor union offices, and with the aid of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, this desire culminated in the foundation of the Portuguese Communist Party as the Portuguese Section of the Comintern on 6 March 1921.
Unlike virtually all other European communist parties, the PCP was not formed after a split of a social democratic or socialist party, but from the ranks of anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
and revolutionary syndicalist groups, the most active factions in the Portuguese labor movement. The party opened its first headquarters in the Arco do Marquês do Alegrete Street in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Seven months after its creation, the first issue of O Comunista (The Communist), the first newspaper of the party, was published.
The first congress of the party took place in Lisbon in November 1923, with Carlos Rates as leader. The congress was attended by about a hundred members of the party and asserted its solidarity with socialism in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the need for a strong struggle for similar policies in Portugal; it also stated that a Fascist coup in Portugal was a serious threat to the party and to the country.
Outlawed
After the military coup of May 28, 192628th May 1926 coup d'état
The 28 May 1926 coup d'état, sometimes called 28 May Revolution or, during the period of Estado Novo , National Revolution , was a military action that put an end to the unstable Portuguese First Republic and initiated the Ditadura Nacional , later, renamed the Estado Novo, an authoritarian...
, the party was outlawed and had to operate in secrecy. By coincidence, the coup was carried out on the eve of the second congress, forcing the suspension of party business. In 1927, the party's main office was closed. The party was first reorganized in 1929 under Bento Gonçalves
Bento António Gonçalves
Bento António Gonçalves, GOL was the second Secretary General of the Portuguese Communist Party. He was born in Montalegre, Vila Real District, in the North of Portugal. Not much is known about his childhood. In 1915 he became an apprentice mechanical turner in Lisbon...
. Adapting the its new illegal status, the party reorganized as a network of clandestine cells.
Meanwhile, in 1938, the PCP had been expelled from the Comintern. The reason for the expulsion was a sense of distrust in the Comintern caused by a sudden breakdown in the party's activity after a period of strong communist tumult in the country, accusations of alleged embezzlement of money carried out by some important members of the party and, mainly, the weak internal structure of the party, dominated by internal wars. The action against the PCP, signed by Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
, was in part taken due to some persecution against Comintern member parties or persons (like the Communist Party of Poland
Communist Party of Poland
The Communist Party of Poland is a historical communist party in Poland. It was a result of the fusion of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Polish Socialist Party-Left in the Communist Workers Party of Poland .-1918-1921:The KPRP was founded on 16 December 1918 as...
or Béla Kun
Béla Kun
Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...
) led by 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...
. These series of events would, in part, lead to the end of the Comintern in 1943. The PCP would only reestablish its relations with the communist movement and the Soviet Union in 1947, after sporadic contacts made through the communist parties of Spain and France and later through Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...
.
After the 1933 rise of Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...
's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, suppression of the party grew. Many members were arrested, tortured, and executed. Many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the Cape Verde Islands. This included Bento Gonçalves, who would die there. The vast wave of arrests led to a major reorganization in 1940 and 1941, named the "Reorganization of '40". The first congress held after these changes was held in 1943 and stated that the party should unite with all those who also wanted an end to the dictatorship. Another important conclusion was the need to increase the party's influence inside the Portuguese army. The party was able, for the first time, to assure a strong clandestine organization, with a network of clandestine cadres, which would significantly aid the resistance against Salazar's regime.
In 1945, with the defeat of the major fascist regimes in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Salazar was forced to fake some democratic changes to keep up a good image in the eyes of the West, so in October of that year, the democratic resistance was authorized to form a platform, which was named Movement of Democratic Unity
Movement of Democratic Unity
The Movement of Democratic Unity was a quasi-legal platform of Portuguese democratic organizations that opposed the dictatorial regime of António Oliveira Salazar and was founded in October 1945....
(Portuguese: Movimento de Unidade Democrática, or MUD). Initially, the MUD was controlled by the moderate opposition, but it soon became strongly influenced by the PCP, which controlled its youth wing
Juvenile MUD
The Juvenile Movement of Democratic Unity was the youth wing of a Portuguese democratic platform that opposed the dictatorship of António Oliveira Salazar, the Movement of Democratic Unity....
. In the leadership of the youth wing were several communists, among them Octávio Pato
Octávio Pato
Octávio Floriano Rodrigues Pato started working at 14 in a shoe factory. At the same time he also played soccer on S.L. Benfica's youth teams...
, Salgado Zenha
Salgado Zenha
Francisco Salgado Zenha, GCL was a Portuguese left-wing politician and lawyer.As a student at the University of Coimbra, he was elected president of the Academic Association of Coimbra, being dismissed some months after because he refused to participate in a demonstration of support to the Estado...
, Mário Soares
Mário Soares
Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL, KE , Portuguese politician, served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996.-Family:...
, Júlio Pomar
Júlio Pomar
Julio Pomar, GOL, GCM is a Portuguese painter. He studied painting in both Lisbon and Porto Academy of Fine Arts, in this last he one he joined the group of other fellow artists called Independents....
and Mário Sacramento
Mário Sacramento
Mário Emílio de Morais Sacramento was a Portuguese physician and essayist that became famous for his antifascist activities against the dictatorial regime led by Oliveira Salazar in Portugal....
. This influence led to the MUD being outlawed by the government in 1948, after several waves of suppression.
The fourth congress, held in July 1946, pointed to massive popular struggle as the only way to overthrow the regime, and stated the policies that would help the party lead that same popular movement. This, along with the consolidation of the clandestine work, was the main conclusion of the congress. A brief report of the conclusions of this congress were published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The 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...
. At this time, Álvaro Cunhal traveled to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
with the aid of Bento de Jesus Caraça
Bento de Jesus Caraça
Bento de Jesus Caraça, GCSE, GOL was an influential Portuguese mathematician, economist and statistician. Caraça was also a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and so, he became one of the most famous personalities in the resistance against the Fascist regime led by António Oliveira...
to improve relations with the Socialist Bloc. Later, in 1948, he traveled to the Soviet Union to speak with Mikhail Suslov, after which the bonds between the PCP and the International Communist Movement were reestablished. Soon after returning from the Soviet Union, Cunhal was arrested by the PIDE
PIDE
In 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS . The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at democratization, in order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights...
.
The fifth congress, held in September 1957, was the only congress to be held outside Portugal. In Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, the Party approved its first program and statutes. For the first time, the party took an official position on colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
, stating that every people had the right of self-determination, and made clear its support of the liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies, such as MPLA in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, FRELIMO in Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, and PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
.
In January 1960, a group of ten PCP members managed to escape from the high-security prison in Peniche. The escape returned to freedom many of the leading figures of the Party, among them, Álvaro Cunhal
Álvaro Cunhal
Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal, who used the name Álvaro Cunhal , was a Portuguese politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of Estado Novo. He served as secretary-general of the Portuguese Communist Party from 1961 to 1992...
, who would be elected in the following year the first secretary-general in nineteen years. Among the escapees was also Jaime Serra, who would help to organize a secret commando group, the Armed Revolutionary Action (Portuguese: Acção Revolucionária Armada or ARA). The ARA was the armed branch of the PCP that would be responsible in the 1970s for some military action against the dictatorial regime.
In 1961, the Colonial War
Portuguese Colonial War
The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
in Africa began, first in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
and in the next year in Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
and Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
. The war lasted thirteen years and devastated Portuguese society, forcing many thousands of Portuguese citizens to leave the country, both to seek a better future in countries like France, Germany or Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and to escape conscription. The PCP, which had been involved in the formation of the nationalist guerrilla movements, along with the Soviet Union, immediately stated its opposition to the war, and its support for the anticolonial movements. The war prompted unrest in Portuguese society and helped lead to the decline of the Salazar regime.
In 1962, the "Academic Crisis
Academic Crisis
The Academic Crisis is the name given to a Portuguese governmental policy instigated in 1962 by the Portuguese dictatorial regime entailing the boycott and closure of several student associations and organizations, including the National Secretariat of Portuguese Students. Most members of this...
" occurred. The Salazar regime, fearing the growing popularity of democratic ideas among students, made several student associations and organizations illegal, including the National Secretariat of Portuguese Students. Most members of this organization were intellectual communist militants who were persecuted and forbidden to continue their university studies. With assistance from the PCP, the students responded with demonstrations that culminated on 24 March with a large student demonstration in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. The demonstration was brutally suppressed by the police, leading to hundreds of injuries among the protesters. Immediately thereafter, the students began a strike against the regime.
In the sixth congress, in 1965, Álvaro Cunhal, elected secretary-general in 1961, released the report The Path to Victory—The Tasks of the Party in the National and Democratic Revolution, which became a document of major influence in the democratic movement. Widely distributed among the clandestine members, it contained eight political goals, such as "the end of the monopolies in the economy," "the need for agrarian reform and redistribution of the land," and "the democratization of access to culture and education" — policies that the Party considered essential to make Portugal a fully democratic country. Nine years later, on 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
occurred, putting an end to 48 years of resistance and marking the beginning of a new cycle in the party's life.
Carnation Revolution
Álvaro Cunhal
Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal, who used the name Álvaro Cunhal , was a Portuguese politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of Estado Novo. He served as secretary-general of the Portuguese Communist Party from 1961 to 1992...
returned to Lisbon, where he was received by thousands of people. May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
was commemorated for the first time in 48 years, and an estimated half million people gathered in the FNAT Stadium (now May 1 Stadium) in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
to hear speeches by Cunhal and the socialist Mário Soares
Mário Soares
Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL, KE , Portuguese politician, served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996.-Family:...
. On May 17, the party's newspaper, Avante!
Avante!
Avante! is the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party . Founded in 1931, it continues to be published to this day...
, produced the first legal issue in its history.
The following months were marked by radical changes in the country, always closely followed and supported by PCP. A stormy process to give independence to the colonies started with the full support of the party and, within a year, Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, and São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about apart and about , respectively, off...
became independent countries.
Six months after the Carnation Revolution, on 20 October 1974, the party's seventh congress took place. More than a thousand delegates and hundreds of Portuguese and foreign guests attended. The congress set forth important statements that discussed the ongoing revolution in the country. The 36 members of the elected central committee had in the aggregate experienced more than 300 years in jail. On 12 January 1975 the PCP became the first legally recognized party.
The revolutionary process continued. On 11 March 1975, the left-wing military forces defeated a coup attempt by rightists in the military. This resulted in a turn in the revolutionary process to the political left, with the main sectors of the economy, such as the banks, transportation, steel mills, mines, and communications companies, being nationalized. This was done under the lead of Vasco Gonçalves
Vasco Gonçalves
General Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves was a Portuguese army officer in the Engineering Corps who took part in the Carnation Revolution and later served as the 104th Prime Minister from 18 July 1974 to 19 September 1975....
, a member of the military wing who supported the party and who had become prime minister after the first provisional government resigned. The party then asserted its complete support for these changes and for the Agrarian Reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
process that implemented collectivization of the agricultural sector and the land in a region named the "Zone of Intervention of the Agrarian Reform" or "ZIRA", which included the land south of the Tagus River. The PCP took the lead of that process and drove it according to the party's program, organizing thousands of peasants into cooperatives. Combined with the party's strong clandestine organization and support of the peasants' movement during the preceding years in that region, these efforts made the south of Portugal the major stronghold of the PCP. The party gained more than half of the votes in Beja
Beja (district)
The Beja District is located in southern Portugal. The district capital is the city of Beja.-Municipalities:The district is composed of 14 municipalities:* Aljustrel* Almodôvar* Alvito* Barrancos* Beja* Castro Verde* Cuba* Ferreira do Alentejo...
, Évora
Évora (district)
Évora District is located in Alentejo, in southern Portugal. The district capital is the city of Évora.-Municipalities:The district is composed by 14 municipalities:* Alandroal* Arraiolos* Borba* Estremoz* Évora* Montemor-o-Novo* Mora* Mourão...
, and Setúbal
Setúbal (district)
The District of Setúbal is located in the south-west of Portugal, the District Capital is the city of Setúbal.It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Évora District on the east, Beja District on the south and the Atlantic Ocean on the west...
in subsequent elections.
One year after the revolution, the first democratic elections took place to elect the parliament that would write a new constitution to replace the constitution of 1933. The party achieved 12.52% of the vote and elected 30 members of parliament. In the end, as the party wanted, the constitution included several references to "socialism" and a "classless society" and was approved with the opposition of only one party, the right-wing Democratic Social Center (Portuguese: Centro Democrático Social or CDS).
In 1976, after the approval of the constitution, the second democratic election was carried out and the PCP raised its share of the vote to 14.56% and 40 seats. In the same year, the first Avante! Festival
Avante! Festival
Every year, in the first weekend of September the Avante! Festival is held named after the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party...
took place, and the eighth congress was held in Lisbon from 11–14 November. The congress mainly stated the need to continue the quest for socialism in Portugal and the need to defend the achievements of the revolution against what the party considered to be a political step backward, led by a coalition of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
and the right-wing Centro Democrático Social, who opposed the agrarian reform process.
In 1979, the party held its ninth congress, which analyzed the state of post-revolutionary Portugal, right-wing politics, and the party's struggles to nationalize the economy. In December 1979, new elections took place. The party formed the United People Alliance
United People Alliance
The United People Alliance , was an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Portuguese Democratic Movement...
(Portuguese: Aliança Povo Unido or APU) in coalition with the Portuguese Democratic Movement
Portuguese Democratic Movement
The Portuguese Democratic Movement / Democratic Electoral Commissions was one of the most important organizations of the democratic opposition to the Portuguese fascist regime...
(Portuguese: Movimento Democrático Português or MDP/CDE) and increased its vote to 18.96% and 47 seats. The election was won by a centrist/right-wing coalition led by Francisco Sá Carneiro
Francisco Sá Carneiro
Francisco Manuel Lumbrales de Sá Carneiro, GCTE, GCC, GCL founded the Portuguese Social Democratic Party in 1974 and was elected Prime Minister of Portugal in January 1980, but only held office for eleven months, dying in a plane crash with his partner, Snu Abecassis, on December 4, 1980...
, which immediately initiated policies that the party considered to be contrary to working-class interests. Despite a setback in a subsequent election in 1980, in which the PCP dropped to 41 seats, the party achieved several victories in local elections, winning the leadership of dozens of municipalities in the FEPU coalition. After the sudden death of Sá Carneiro in an air crash in 1980, the party achieved 44 seats and 18.20% of the vote as part of the APU in the 1983 elections. Also in 1983, the party held its tenth congress, which again criticized what it saw as the dangers of right-wing politics.
In 1986, the surprising rise of Mário Soares
Mário Soares
Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL, KE , Portuguese politician, served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996.-Family:...
, who reached the second round in the presidential election
Portuguese presidential election, 1986
The Portuguese presidential election of 1986 was held on January 26, the second round took place on February 16.This was closest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5% at opinion polls.In first round was easily won by...
, defeating the party's candidate, Salgado Zenha
Salgado Zenha
Francisco Salgado Zenha, GCL was a Portuguese left-wing politician and lawyer.As a student at the University of Coimbra, he was elected president of the Academic Association of Coimbra, being dismissed some months after because he refused to participate in a demonstration of support to the Estado...
, made the party call an extra congress. The eleventh congress was called with only two weeks' notice, in order to decide whether or not to support Soares against Freitas do Amaral. Soares was supported, and he won by a slight margin. Had he not been supported by the PCP, he would have probably lost. In 1987, after the resignation of the government, another election took place. The PCP, now in the Unitarian Democratic Coalition
Unitarian Democratic Coalition
The Democratic Unity Coalition is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens"...
(Portuguese: Coligação Democrática Unitária or CDU) with the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV) and the Democratic Intervention
Democratic Intervention (Portugal)
The Democratic Intervention is a Portuguese left-wing political association founded in order to promote and defend socialist ideas in Portugal. Members of it take part as independents in the electoral alliance Unitarian Democratic Coalition, along with the Portuguese Communist Party and the...
(Portuguese: Intervenção Democrática or ID), saw an electoral decline to 12.18% and 31 seats.
Fall of the Socialist Bloc
In 1988, the PCP held another congress, the twelfth, in which more than 2000 delegates participated and which put forth a new program entitled "Portugal, an Advanced Democracy for the 21st Century."At the end of the 1980s, the Socialist Bloc of Eastern Europe started to disintegrate, and the party faced one of the biggest crises in its history. With many members leaving, the party called a thirteenth congress for May 1990, in which a huge ideological battle occurred. The majority of the more than 2000 delegates decided to continue the party's "revolutionary way to Socialism"—i.e., to retain its Leninist
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
ideology. By so doing, it clashed with what many other communist parties around the world were doing. The congress asserted that socialism in the Soviet Union had failed, but a unique historical experience, several social changes, and several achievements by the labor movement had been influenced by the Socialist Bloc. Álvaro Cunhal was reelected secretary-general, but Carlos Carvalhas
Carlos Carvalhas
Carlos Alberto do Vale Gomes Carvalhas, GCC is a Portuguese politician and former Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party , succeeding the historical leader Álvaro Cunhal....
was elected assistant secretary-general.
In the legislative election of 1991
Portuguese legislative election, 1991
The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on October 6. The Social Democratic Party, under the lead of Cavaco Silva, won a historic third term and won with an absolute majority for the second consecutive turn, achieving a higher share than in the previous election, losing, however, 13...
, the party won 8.84% of the national vote and 17 seats, continuing its electoral decline.
The fourteenth congress took place in 1992, and Carlos Carvalhas
Carlos Carvalhas
Carlos Alberto do Vale Gomes Carvalhas, GCC is a Portuguese politician and former Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party , succeeding the historical leader Álvaro Cunhal....
was elected the new secretary-general, replacing Álvaro Cunhal. The congress analyzed the new international situation created by the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the defeat of socialism in Eastern Europe. The party also traced the guidelines intended to put Cavaco Silva
Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC , is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006....
and the right-wing government on its way out, a fact that would happen shortly after. In 1995, the right-wing Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
was replaced in the government by the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
after the October legislative election
Portuguese legislative election, 1995
The Portuguese legislative election of 1995 took place on October 1. The Socialist Party defeated the Social Democratic Party under the lead of António Guterres, elected some months before, but missed the absolute majority by 4 MPs. The Social Democratic party under the lead of Fernando Nogueira...
, in which the PCP received 8.61% of the votes.
In December 1996, the fifteenth congress was held, this time in Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
, with more than 1600 delegates participating. The congress criticized the right-wing policies of the socialist government of António Guterres
António Guterres
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, GCC is a Portuguese politician, a former prime minister and President of the Socialist International. Currently he is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.-Early life:...
and debated the future of the PCP following the debacle of the Socialist Bloc. In the subsequent local elections, the party continued to decline, but in the legislative election of 1999
Portuguese legislative election, 1999
The Portuguese legislative election of 1999 took place on October 10. The Socialist Party was aiming a second term under the lead of António Guterres, in the end the Socialist Party won the election, but missed what would be an historical absolute majority for the party by only one MP.The Social...
, the party increased its voting percentage for the first time in many years. The sixteenth congress was held in December 2000, and Carlos Carvalhas was reelected secretary-general. In the legislative election of 2002
Portuguese legislative election, 2002
The Portuguese legislative election of 2002 took place on March 17. These elections were called after the resignation of the former Prime-Minister, António Guterres after a defeat of the Socialist Party in the local election of 2001...
, the PCP achieved its lowest voting result ever, with only 7.0% of the vote.
In November 2004, the seventeenth party congress elected Jerónimo de Sousa
Jerónimo de Sousa
Jerónimo Carvalho de Sousa is the General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party since the 17th Congress of the Party in November 2004....
, a former metal worker, as the new secretary-general.
In the legislative election of February 2005
Portuguese legislative election, 2005
The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on February 20. These elections were called after the decision of President Jorge Sampaio on November 30, 2004 to dissolve the Parliament as an answer to the political instability caused by the government led by Pedro Santana Lopes in...
, the Party increased its share of the vote and won 12 of the 230 seats in parliament, receiving about 430,000 votes (7.60%).
After the 2005 local election, in which the PCP regained the presidency of 7 municipalities, the party holds the leadership of 32 (of 308) municipalities, most of them in Alentejo and Setúbal
Setúbal (district)
The District of Setúbal is located in the south-west of Portugal, the District Capital is the city of Setúbal.It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Évora District on the east, Beja District on the south and the Atlantic Ocean on the west...
and holds the leadership of hundreds of civil parishes and local assemblies. The local administration by PCP is usually marked by concern about such issues as preventing privatization of the water supply, funding culture and education, providing access to sports, and promoting health, facilitating participatory democracy
Participatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...
, and preventing corruption. The presence of the Greens in the coalition also keeps an eye on environmental issues such as recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
and water treatment.
The PCP's work now follows the program of "Advanced Democracy for the 21st Century." Issues like the decriminalization of abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, workers' rights, the increasing fees for the health service and education, the erosion of the social safety net, low salaries and pensions, imperialism and war, and solidarity with other countries such as Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Palestine, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
are constant concerns in the party's agenda.
The party has two members (Ilda Figueiredo
Ilda Figueiredo
Maria Ilda da Costa Figueiredo is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Portuguese Communist Party; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group....
and Pedro Guerreiro
Pedro Guerreiro
Pedro Miguel Neves Guerreiro is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Portuguese Communist Party; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group. He took his seat in the European Parliament on 13 January 2005, replacing Sérgio Ribeiro of the same...
) elected to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, after achieving 9.2% of the vote in the European Election of 2004. They sit in the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.
Electoral results
Since 1994
| Results since 1994 (year links to election page) |
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| Year | Coalition | Type of Election | Votes | % | Mandates | |||
| 1994 European Parliament election, 1994 (Portugal) The European Parliament election of 1994 in Portugal was the election of MEP representing Portugal constituency for the 1994-1999 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 1994 European election... |
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| 1995 Portuguese legislative election, 1995 The Portuguese legislative election of 1995 took place on October 1. The Socialist Party defeated the Social Democratic Party under the lead of António Guterres, elected some months before, but missed the absolute majority by 4 MPs. The Social Democratic party under the lead of Fernando Nogueira... |
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| 1999 European Parliament election, 1999 (Portugal) The European Parliament election of 1999 in Portugal was the election of MEP representing Portugal constituency for the 1999-2004 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 1999 European election... |
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| 1999 Portuguese legislative election, 1999 The Portuguese legislative election of 1999 took place on October 10. The Socialist Party was aiming a second term under the lead of António Guterres, in the end the Socialist Party won the election, but missed what would be an historical absolute majority for the party by only one MP.The Social... |
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| 2002 Portuguese legislative election, 2002 The Portuguese legislative election of 2002 took place on March 17. These elections were called after the resignation of the former Prime-Minister, António Guterres after a defeat of the Socialist Party in the local election of 2001... |
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| 2004 European Parliament election, 2004 (Portugal) The European Parliament election of 2004 in Portugal was the election of MEP representing Portugal constituency for the 2004-2009 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 2004 European election... |
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| 2005 Portuguese legislative election, 2005 The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on February 20. These elections were called after the decision of President Jorge Sampaio on November 30, 2004 to dissolve the Parliament as an answer to the political instability caused by the government led by Pedro Santana Lopes in... |
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| 2005 Portuguese local election, 2005 The Portuguese local election of 2005 took place on October 9. The election consisted of three separate elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is elected mayor, another election for the Municipal Assembly and a last one for the... |
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| 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (Portugal) The European Parliament election of 2009 in Portugal was the election of the delegation from Portugal to the European Parliament in 2009.The lists are headed by*Socialist Party : Vital Moreira... |
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| 2009 Portuguese legislative election, 2009 Legislative elections in Portugal were held on 27 September 2009 to renew all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates, won the largest number of seats, but didn't repeat the overall majority they gained in 2005.The Socialist... |
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| 2011 Portuguese legislative election, 2011 A general election was held in Portugal on 5 June 2011 to elect all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. Pedro Passos Coelho led the center-right Social Democratic Party to victory over the Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates... |
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(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)
Note:
- In 2004, after the enlargement of the European UnionEnlargement of the European UnionThe Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union through the accession of new member states. This process began with the Inner Six, who founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952...
, the number of MEPs elected by PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
decreased from the original 25 to 24. - The Local election results report the voting for the Municipal ChambersMunicipal ChambersMunicipal Chambers can refer to:* City and town halls* Câmara Municipal, executive body of a municipality in Portugal and former colonies...
only and don't include occasional coalitions in some municipalities, e.g. in LisbonLisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, between 1989 and 2001. Voting for the Municipal Assemblies and Parish Assemblies is usually higher (11.7% and 12.0%, respectively, in 2005). - The number of mandates denotes the number of councillors in Local elections, MPs in Parliamentary elections and MEPs in European Parliament elections.
- The CDUUnitarian Democratic CoalitionThe Democratic Unity Coalition is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens"...
is composed of the PCP, the PEV and the IDDemocratic Intervention (Portugal)The Democratic Intervention is a Portuguese left-wing political association founded in order to promote and defend socialist ideas in Portugal. Members of it take part as independents in the electoral alliance Unitarian Democratic Coalition, along with the Portuguese Communist Party and the...
Presidential elections
| Results in Presidential Elections (year links to election page) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidate supported | Votes | % | Elected? | ||||
| 1976 Portuguese presidential election, 1976 The Portuguese presidential election of 1976 was held on June 27.With a broad base of support that comprised the center-left and the center-right, Ramalho Eanes won the election on the first round and became the first elected President of Portugal after the Carnation Revolution.The Portuguese... |
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| 1980 Portuguese presidential election, 1980 The Portuguese presidential election of 1980 was held on December 7.Incumbent president General Ramalho Eanes gathered the support of the Socialist Party, despite the objection of their leader, Mário Soares, and also the support of the Portuguese Communist Party, whose candidate, Carlos Brito,... |
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| 1986 Portuguese presidential election, 1986 The Portuguese presidential election of 1986 was held on January 26, the second round took place on February 16.This was closest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5% at opinion polls.In first round was easily won by... |
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| 1991 Portuguese presidential election, 1991 The Portuguese presidential election of 1991 was held on January 13.The re-election of the hugely popular Mário Soares was never in doubt, specially after the then-ruling PSD, led by prime-minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva announced its support... |
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| 1996 Portuguese presidential election, 1996 The Portuguese presidential election of 1996 was held on January 14.Incumbent president Mário Soares was constitutionally barred from a third term.... |
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| 2001 Portuguese presidential election, 2001 The Portuguese presidential election of 2001 was held on January 12.The victory of incumbent president Jorge Branco de Sampaio was never in doubt and the turnout was therefore quite low... |
António Simões de Abreu António Simões de Abreu, ComL, known simply by António Abreu is a Portuguese engineer and politician.He joined the Portuguese Communist Party in 1969. From 1969 to 1973 he was an active member of the democratic opposition to the Fascist regime of Marcello Caetano... |
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| 2006 Portuguese presidential election, 2006 The Portuguese presidential election were held on 22 January 2006 to elect a successor to the incumbent President Jorge Sampaio, who was term-limited from running for a third consecutive term by the Constitution of Portugal... |
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| 2011 Portuguese presidential election, 2011 The 2011 Portuguese presidential election was held on January 23, 2011. This election resulted in the re-election of Aníbal Cavaco Silva to a second term as President of Portugal. Turnout in this election was very low, where only 46.52% of the electorate cast their ballots... |
Francisco Lopes Francisco José de Almeida Lopes is a Portuguese politician who, supported by the Communist Party, ran for president in the Portuguese presidential election of 2011.... |
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(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)
Notes:
- In 1980, Carlos Brito withdrew in favor of Ramalho Eanes, won.
- In 1986, the Party's first candidate was Ângelo VelosoÂngelo VelosoÂngelo Veloso was a Portuguese politician.A member of the Portuguese Communist Party since the days of the Estado Novo dictatorial fascist regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, Veloso was imprisoned in Peniche for political views...
, that later withdrew in favor of Salgado ZenhaSalgado ZenhaFrancisco Salgado Zenha, GCL was a Portuguese left-wing politician and lawyer.As a student at the University of Coimbra, he was elected president of the Academic Association of Coimbra, being dismissed some months after because he refused to participate in a demonstration of support to the Estado...
, lost. - In 1986, in the second round, the Party supported Mário SoaresMário SoaresMário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL, KE , Portuguese politician, served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996.-Family:...
, won. - In 1996, Jerónimo de Sousa withdrew in favor of Jorge Sampaio, won.
Principles
The PCP's statutes define it as the political party of the proletariatProletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
and of all Portuguese workers, and also as the vanguard
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
of all working people. That vanguard role results from its class nature and its close liaison with the masses, mobilizing them and winning their support.
The PCP organizes in its ranks industrial and office workers, small and medium farmers, intellectuals and technical workers, small and medium shopkeepers, and industrialists, who fight for democracy and for socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. The party considers itself the legitimate pursuer of the Portuguese people's best traditions of struggle and of their progressive and revolutionary achievements throughout their history.
The PCP takes Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–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...
as its theoretical basis, which is a materialist
Dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism is a strand of Marxism synthesizing Hegel's dialectics. The idea was originally invented by Moses Hess and it was later developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
and dialectical conception of the world and a scientific tool of social analysis. These principles guide the party's action and enable it to systematically answer new challenges and realities. The party also orients its members and its activity in the spirit of proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
, of cooperation between the communist parties and revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
and progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
forces, and of solidarity with the workers of other countries.
Internal organization
The main principle that guides the party's internal structure, being a Leninist party, is democratic centralismDemocratic 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...
, which implies that all party organs are elected from bottom to top and may be dismissed by those who elected them, if needed; the members who have tasks in any structure of the party are responsible to both lower and upper levels, being obliged to report the activities to both and to give consideration to their opinions and criticisms; lower-level structures must respect the decisions of the upper structures; every member is free to give his opinion during the discussion, and the structures must take in account the contribution of every member; every member must obey the decisions achieved by consensus or by a majority; every member must work along with his own structure; the party does not recognize the existence of organized factions inside it.
The structure and internal organization of the PCP are defined by its statutes. The most recent statutes were approved in the seventeenth congress, held in 2004. The upper organs of the PCP at the national level are the congress
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different nations, constituent states, independent organizations , or groups....
, the central committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
, and the central commission of control.
The supreme organ of the party is its congress, which is summoned by the outgoing central committee and held every four years. The congress is composed of delegates elected by the respective lower organs proportional to each organ's membership size. The congress approves its theses after a wide discussion period inside the organizations and may also change the party's program and statutes. All the decisions of the congress are made by the delegates voting. With the exception of the voting for the central committee, which a recent Portuguese law requires to be secret, all voting, including the approval of the theses, are conducted by a show of hands. The theses, after approval, guide all the party's political actions and stances until the next congress.
The main organ between the congresses is the central committee, which is elected in the congresses under a proposal of the retiring central committee. This proposal may only be made after a long period of hearing the lower structures in order to include in it the names they propose. The CC may not change the orientation present in the congress' theses. The main task of the central committee is to define the guidelines of the party's political work and decide the immediate tasks of the party, assuring that the lower structures comply with those decisions. The CC elects, from its members, its Political Bureau, its Secretariat and also the Central Commission of Control. This last must assure the compliance between the Party's activities and the statutes, and control the Party's finances. The CC may, or may not, elect the Party's General Secretary from its members.
The intermediate organs of the Party are, by rule, the organs that coordinate an organization of district, municipality and parish levels, but organizations at a neighborhood or professional class level also exist.
The main organ of an intermediate part of the party's structure is the Assembly. The Assembly
Deliberative assembly
A deliberative assembly is an organization comprising members who use parliamentary procedure to make decisions. In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the English Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became the basic term for a body of...
works as a small Congress for the organization members. The Assembly elects the regional or municipal committees, which are responsible for applying the theses of the Assembly to the organization's work.
The base level organ of the Party is the cell. The cell is defined as being the link between the Party and the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and the masses. A cell is composed of a minimum of three Party members and exists at a work place or neighborhood level. The cell may elect its own secretariat, which has the responsibility of discussing and putting into practice the Party's guidelines. The cell must ensure the recruitment of new members, promote the reading of Avante!
Avante!
Avante! is the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party . Founded in 1931, it continues to be published to this day...
and the other publications, ensure that the members pay their membership fees and keep the upper structures aware of the cell's political work.
Media
The Portuguese Communist Party publishes the weekly Avante!Avante!
Avante! is the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party . Founded in 1931, it continues to be published to this day...
(Forward!), widely distributed throughout the country, and also the magazine of theoretical discussion O Militante
O Militante
O Militante is a magazine of theoretical discussion, founded in 1932 and published by the Portuguese Communist Party. O Militante forms, along with the weekly Avante!, the essential core of the Party's press, but, unlike Avante!, O Militante is only sold in the party's offices or to...
(The Militant), published each two months. The Party's press also includes the bulletin Emigração (Emigration), targeted at the large Portuguese diaspora, and the magazine Portugal e a UE (Portugal and the EU
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
), directed by the Party's members elected in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, which presents information related to the European politics and to the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group. Both Avante! and O Militante are sold in the Party's offices to the members. Buying Avante! is considered one of the members' duties. Avante! is also sold among other newspapers in many news stands around the country.
Avante! was illegally printed and distributed from February 1931 until May 1974. Many times, the newspaper distribution suffered breakdowns due to the suppression by the political police of Party members who helped to distribute the newspaper, or due to the destruction of the clandestine printing offices. Successfully evading official censorship, Avante! was one of the very few Portuguese newspapers that freely reported on events like World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Colonial War
Colonial war
Colonial war is a blanket term relating to the various conflicts that arose as the result of overseas territories being settled by foreignpowers creating a colony...
in Africa or massive workers' strikes and waves of student protest against the dictatorship. Avante! continues to be printed after more than three decades of democracy and has now a full online edition. The Avante! Festival
Avante! Festival
Every year, in the first weekend of September the Avante! Festival is held named after the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party...
was named after the newspaper.
During the campaign for the Portuguese legislative election of 2005, the Party created a radio broadcast on its website and also a digital forum, being the first Portuguese party to use the internet actively in an electoral campaign. After the last Congress, the statutes were changed and the Party now considers its website as another official media and it is regularly updated. The campaign radio broadcast evolved into an online radio station named Comunic. It broadcasts thematic interviews with Party's members, music and propaganda.
Usually the Party's largest political campaigns and struggles are supported by the distribution of a massive number of leaflets and advertising posters in hot spots like train stations, factories, universities, main streets and avenues or markets. The free television spots that the Portuguese law grants to the parties, either in the campaign time or out of it, are used by PCP to promote initiatives and political campaigns.
The Party also owns a publishing company, Edições Avante! (Avante! Editions) that publishes and sells several books related to the Party's history or to Marxism. Classics of Marxism-Leninism, such as The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the...
, Capital
Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
, On the Jewish Question
On the Jewish Question
On the Jewish Question is a work by Karl Marx, written in 1843, and first published in Paris in 1844 under the German title Zur Judenfrage in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher. It was one of Marx's first attempts to deal with categories that would later be called the materialist conception of...
, or What is to be Done?
What is to be Done?
What to do? Burning Questions of Our Movement is a political pamphlet written by the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in 1901 and published in 1902...
, several books of Portuguese authors on the history of the Party and the resistance, official documents like the program or the statutes, books from foreign authors, like Ten Days that Shook the World
Ten Days that Shook the World
Ten Days that Shook the World is a book by American journalist and socialist John Reed about the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 which Reed experienced firsthand. Reed followed many of the prominent Bolshevik leaders, especially Grigory Zinoviev and Karl Radek, closely during his time in Russia...
and several other works are present in the Avante! Edition's catalog.
- Avante! - online edition
- O Militante - online edition
- Portugal e a UE - online edition
- Emigração - online edition
- Avante! Editions web site
- Comunic - online radio show
Youth organization
The youth organization of PCP is the Portuguese Communist YouthPortuguese Communist Youth
The Portuguese Communist Youth is the youth organization of the Portuguese Communist Party and was founded on November 10 of 1979, after the unification of the Young Communist League and the Communist Students League....
(Portuguese: Juventude Comunista Portuguesa) and was founded in 10 November 1979, after the unification of the Communist Students League
Communist Students League
The Communist Students League was the student wing of the Portuguese Communist Party. UEC was founded in 1972....
and the Young Communist League
Young Communist League (Portugal)
Young Communist League was the youth wing of the Portuguese Communist Party. UJC was founded in 1975....
. The Portuguese Communist Youth is a member of 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...
, a youth non-governmental organization that congregates several left-wing youth organizations from all the continents. The WFDY holds an international event, named World Festival of Youth and Students
World Festival of Youth and Students
The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event, organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth , a left-wing youth organization, jointly with the International Union of Students since 1947....
, in which the Portuguese Communist Youth uses to participate.
The youth wing follows a structure similar to the Party's, also based on the Leninist
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
principle of 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 both organizations maintain a cooperative relationship. JCP is, however, an independent organization.
Mainly composed by students and some working class young people, the Portuguese Communist Youth has, as its main political concerns, such issues as the promotion of a free and public education for all ages, employment, peace and housing. It also promotes international solidarity brigades for countries like Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
or Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, alone or with other European Communist youth organizations like KNE or SDAJ. It has its main organizational strength among high-school and university students, with a strong presence among the Students' unions.
Avante! Festival
Avante! Festival
Every year, in the first weekend of September the Avante! Festival is held named after the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party...
(Portuguese: Festa do Avante!). After taking place in different locations around Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, like the Lisbon International Fair, Ajuda
Ajuda
Ajuda is a Portuguese civil parish in the municipality of Lisbon with an area and 17,961 inhabitants ; its density was 5707.3 inhabitants/km².-History:...
or Loures
Loures
Loures Municipality is a municipality to the north of Lisbon. Created on 26 July 1886 by a royal decree, the municipality currently occupies an area of 169 km² and has about 200,000 inhabitants . It borders the municipalities of Odivelas, Sintra, Mafra, Arruda dos Vinhos, Vila Franca de Xira...
, it is now held in Amora, a town near Seixal, on land bought by the Party after a massive fundraising campaign in the early 1990s. The Party considered this campaign to be the only way to avoid the boycott organised by the owners of the previous festival grounds, a boycott that ultimately resulted in the Festival not being held in 1987
The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The events themselves consist of a three-day festival of music, with hundreds of Portuguese and international bands and artists across five different stages, ethnography, gastronomy, debates, a books and music fair, theatre (Avanteatro), cinema (Cineavante) and sporting events. Several foreign communist parties also participate.
Famous artists, Portuguese and non-Portuguese, have performed at the Festival, including Chico Buarque
Chico Buarque
Francisco Buarque de Hollanda , popularly known as Chico Buarque , is a singer, guitarist, composer, dramatist, writer and poet...
, Baden Powell
Baden Powell de Aquino
Baden Powell de Aquino usually known simply as Baden Powell, was one of the greatest Brazilian guitarists. He explored the instrument to its utmost limits, playing it in a distinctive, unique manner, incorporating virtuoso classical techniques together with popular harmony and swing...
, Ivan Lins
Ivan Lins
Ivan Guimarães Lins is a Latin Grammy winning Brazilian musician. He has been an active performer and songwriter of Brazilian popular music and jazz for over 30 years. His first hit, Madalena, was recorded by Elis Regina in 1970. Beyond his own performance of his compositions, Simone is his most...
, Zeca Afonso
Zeca Afonso
José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos, known as Zeca Afonso or just Zeca , was born in Aveiro, Portugal, the son of José Nepomuceno Afonso, a judge, and Maria das Dores. Zeca is among the most influential folk and political musicians in Portuguese history...
, Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
, Holly Near
Holly Near
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...
, Johnny Clegg
Johnny Clegg (musician)
Jonathan "Johnny" Clegg is a musician from South Africa, who has recorded and performed with his bands Juluka and Savuka. Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc , he is an important figure in South African popular music history, with songs that mix Zulu with English lyrics, and African with various...
, Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Ska-P
Ska-P
Ska-P is a ska punk band formed in , Spain, in 1994.The band can be categorized, politically, as an anti-establishment musical group. It is one of the most popular ska bands in Spain, Europe, and Latin America....
, The Soviet Circus Company, the Kuban Cossack Choir
Kuban Cossack Choir
Kuban Cossack Chorus is one of the leading Folkloric ensembles in Russia. Its repertoire and performances reflect the songs, dances and folklore of the Kuban Cossacks.-Early years:...
, Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which went No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart....
, The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, Hevia
Hevia
José Ángel Hevia Velasco, known professionally as Hevia , is a Spaniard bagpiper – specifically, an Asturian gaita player. He commonly performs with his sister, Maria José, on drums...
, Brigada Victor Jara
Brigada Víctor Jara
The Brigada Víctor Jara is a Portuguese folk band, with a career of more than 30 years and among the most influential bands of the Portuguese folk....
, Adriano Correia de Oliveira
Adriano Correia de Oliveira
Adriano Maria Correia Gomes de Oliveira, GCIH, ComL, or just Adriano was a Portuguese musician, born to a conservative Roman Catholic family in Porto. His family moved to Avintes after his birth...
, Carlos Paredes
Carlos Paredes
Carlos Paredes, ComSE, was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player, born in Coimbra, son of the equally famous Artur Paredes. He is credited with popularising the medium internationally during the 20th century, being frequently considered to be the most talented Portuguese musician in the 20th century...
, Jorge Palma
Jorge Palma
Jorge Manuel d’Abreu Palma, known as Jorge Palma , is a Portuguese singer and songwriter.-Early life and career:At just the age of six, Palma learnt to play the piano and to read...
, Manoel de Oliveira
Manoel de Oliveira
Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira, GCSE is a Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Porto. He began working on films in the late 1920s, but did not receive international recognition until the early 1970s. Since the late 1980s he has been one of the most prolific working film directors and...
, Babylon Circus
Babylon Circus
Babylon Circus is a ten piece ska and reggae group founded in 1995 in Lyon, France. Since forming, they have released four full - length albums and one EP. They have played over 1000 shows throughout Europe, and have toured as far as Syria and Australia....
, and many others.
The preparation of the party begins right after the end of the previous festival. Hundreds of the Party's members and friends, mostly young people, volunteer for the hard work of building a small town in a few months.
- Avante! Festival main website
- Complete list of the artists present in the 27 editions of the Festival
See also
- Politics of PortugalPolitics of PortugalPolitics in Portugal take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President of the Republic is the head of state and has several significant political powers, which he...
- List of political parties in Portugal
- Carnation RevolutionCarnation RevolutionThe Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
- Unitarian Democratic CoalitionUnitarian Democratic CoalitionThe Democratic Unity Coalition is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens"...
- Avante!Avante!Avante! is the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party . Founded in 1931, it continues to be published to this day...
- MarxismMarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
- LeninismLeninismIn Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
External links
In Portuguese:- Portuguese Communist Party official web site
- Portuguese Communist Youth official web site
- Avante Festival! official website
- Avante! newspaper online edition
- Comunic website, the online radio of the Party
- PCP's short biography by the Carnation Revolution archive center
In English: