Everything about The Portuguese Communist Party totally explained
The
Portuguese Communist Party (
Portuguese:
Partido Comunista Português,
pron. ; or
PCP) 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 dictature, 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.
History of the Portuguese Communist Party
Origins and foundation of the party
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.
Outlawing of the party
After the
military coup of May 28, 1926, 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
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. 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
March 24 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
April 25,
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.
Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the first years of democracy
Immediately after the revolution, basic democratic rights were reestablished in Portugal. On
April 27, 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 1st Stadium) in
Lisbon to hear speeches by the 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
January 12,
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 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.
Internal organization
The main principle that guides the party's internal structure, being a
Leninist party, is
democratic centralism, 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 doesn't recognize the existence of organized factions inside it. 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 in 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's regularly updated. The campaign radio broadcast evolved into an online radio named
Comunic was created. It broadcasts thematic interviews with Party's members, music and propaganda.
Usually the Party's largest political campaigns and struggles are supported by massive leaflet distributions 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.
Avante! - online edition
O Militante - online edition
Portugal e a UE - online edition
Emigração - online edition
Avante! Editions web site
Comunic - online radio show
The youth organization
The youth organization of PCP is the Portuguese Communist Youth (Portuguese: Juventude Comunista Portuguesa) and was founded in November 10, 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.
Avante! Festival
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's 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) 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, 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.
Avante! Festival main website
Complete list of the artists present in the 27 editions of the FestivalFurther Information
Get more info on 'Portuguese Communist Party'.
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