Portuguese Communist Party

The Portuguese Communist Party (Portuguese: Partido Comunista Português or PCP) is a major left-wing political party in Portugal, founded in 1921 as the Portuguese section of Communist International (Comintern).

The History of the Portuguese Communist Party

The Origins and Foundation of the Party

The Portuguese Communist Party was founded on 6 March of 1921.

Related Topics:
6 March - 1921

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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 military involvement led to an abrupt rise in inflation and unemployment. The Portuguese working classes responded to the deterioration in their living standards with a vast wave of strikes, supported by the National Workers' Union, the biggest labor union organization at the time, the workers developed a massive struggle and achieved important objectives, like the historic victory of an eight-hour working day.

Related Topics:
World War I - Portuguese military intervention - National Workers' Union - Eight-hour working day

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In September of 1919, the working class movement founded the first Portuguese Labour Union Confederation, Confederação Geral do Trabalho (General Confederation of Labour) that saw a steady increase to 100,000 members in few months. But, the political powerlessness of 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 (Federação Maximalista Portuguesa or FMP) in 1919, in order to promote socialist and revolutionary ideas and to organize and develop the worker movement. The FMP started publishing the weekly Bandeira Vermelha, or Red Flag, which quickly became the a popular newspaper among the Portuguese working classes.

Related Topics:
Confederação Geral do Trabalho - Bolshevik revolution - Russia - Portuguese Maximalist Federation

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After some time, members of the FMP started to feel the need for a "revolutionary vanguard" among Portuguese workers. After several meetings at various Labor Union headquarters and with the aid of the Comintern, this desire culminated in the foundation of the Portuguese Communist Party as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International (Comintern), in 1921.

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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-Syndicalism and revolutionary syndicalism. Both of these groups, at the time, were the most active factions of the Portuguese labor movement.

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The Party opened its first headquarters in the Arco do Marquês do Alegrete Street in Lisbon. In the same year, 1921, it also opened the Communist Centers of Porto, Évora and Beja. Seven months after its creation, the first issue of "The Communist", the first newspaper of the Party, was published.

Related Topics:
Lisbon - Porto - Évora - Beja

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The first congress of the Party took place in Lisbon in November of 1923, with Carlos Rates leading the Party. The congress was attended by about an 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.

Related Topics:
Carlos Rates - Soviet Union

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Outlawing of the Party and the long anti-fascist struggle

After the military coup of May 28, 1926, the Party was outlawed, which caused the party to operate in secrecy. By coincidence, the coup was carried out on the eve of the second congress, forcing the suspension of the tasks. In 1927 the Party's Main Office was closed. The Party was first reorganized in 1929 under Bento Gonçalves. Adapting the Party to its new illegal status, the reorganization created a net of clandestine cells to avoid the wave of detentions.

Related Topics:
May 28 - 1926 - 1927 - 1929 - Bento Gonçalves

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After the rise of the Fascist regime in 1933 led by Salazar, the supression of the party grew. It caused many members to be arrested, tortured, and executed. Many were sent to a concentration camp in Cape Verde Islands, Tarrafal, including Bento Gonçalves, who died there. In 1943, after a major reorganization in 1940-1941, named the Reorganization of 40 (Portuguese: Reorganização de 40), the third congress was held, which stated that the Party should unite with all those who also wanted the end of Fascism.

Related Topics:
Fascist - 1933 - Salazar - Portuguese

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Meanwhile, in 1938, the Portuguese Communist Party was expelled from the Communist International. 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 and also accusations of alleged embezzlement of money carried out by some important members of the Party. 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 Bela Kun) led by Stalin. These series of events, in part, lead to the end of the Comintern in 1943.

Related Topics:
Communist International - Georgi Dimitrov - Communist Party of Poland - Bela Kun - Stalin

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In the fourth congress of 1946, the Congress pointed to massive popular struggle as the only way to overthrow a regime it believed was fascist, and stated the policies that would help the Party lead that same popular movement. During the fifth congress, 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 or PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau.

Related Topics:
Colonialism - MPLA - Angola - FRELIMO - Mozambique - PAIGC - Guinea-Bissau

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In January 1960, a group of ten PCP members escaped from the high-security prison in Peniche. Among the escapees were Álvaro Cunhal, who would be elected the first Secretary-general after the death of Bento Gonçalves, and Jaime Serra, who would become part of 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 Fascism. The ARA is still cloaked in some mystery even today.

Related Topics:
January - 1960 - Peniche - Álvaro Cunhal - 1970s

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In 1961 the Colonial War in Africa began, first in Angola, and in the next year in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. It would be the first of 13 years of a war that devastated Portuguese society, forcing many thousands of Portuguese citizens to leave the country and seek a better living in countries like France, Germany or Switzerland. The Party immediately stated its opposition to the war and its political support of the anti-colonial movements.

Related Topics:
Colonial War - Angola - Mozambique - Guinea-Bissau

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In 1962 the "Academic Crisis" occurred. The Portuguese regime, fearing the growing popularity of democratic ideas among the students, carried out the boycott and enclosure of several student associations and organizations, including the important National Secretariat of Portuguese Students. Most members of this organization were intellectual communist militants that were persecuted and forbbiden to continue their university studies. The students responded with demonstrations that culminated on March 24 with a huge student demonstration in Lisbon that was brutally supressed by the shock police, which led to hundreds of student injuries. Immediately thereafter, the students began a strike that became a mark in the resistance against the regime. After the Revolution of 1974, 24 March would become the National Day of the Students, being celebrated every year, mainly by university students.

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The sixth congress in 1965 became one of the most important congresses in the Party's history, after Álvaro Cunhal released the report The Path to Victory—The tasks of the Party in the National and Democratic Revolution which became an important document in the anti-fascist struggle. 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 so-called Democratic Revolution happened, putting an end to forty-eight years of resistance and marking the beginning of a new cycle in the Party's life.

Related Topics:
April 25 - 1974 - Democratic Revolution

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The Carnation Revolution and the Years of Democracy

Six months after the Revolution, on 20 October 1974, the Party's seventh congress took place, in which the Party set forth important statements that discussed the ongoing revolution in the country.

Related Topics:
20 October - 1974

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On 11 March 1975, the left-wing military forces defeated a fascist coup attempt. This resulted in a turn to the political left, with the main sectors of the economy, such as the banks, transportation, steel mills, mines and communications companies, being nationalized under the lead of Vasco Gonçalves, a member of the military wing who supported the Party and had become prime-minister after the first provisional government resigned. The Party then asserted its complete support for this change and of 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," which included the land south to the Tagus River. The Party took the lead of that process and drove it according to the Party's program, organizing thousands of peasants into cooperatives. That, combined with the Party's strong clandestine organization and support of the peasants' movement during the preceding years in that region, made the south of Portugal the major stronghold of the PCP, which gained more than half of the votes in Beja and Évora in the subsequent elections.

Related Topics:
11 March - 1975 - Agrarian Reform - Tagus River - Beja - Évora

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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 voting and elected 30 MPs. 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).

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In 1976, after the approval of the Constitution, the second democratic election was carried out and the Party raised its share of the vote to 14.56% and 40 MPs. In that same year took place the first "Avante!" Festival, and the eighth congress, which 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 were opposed to the Agrarian Reform process.

Related Topics:
Socialist Party - Centro Democrático Social

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In 1979, the Party carried out its ninth congress, which analyzed the state of the post-revolutionary Portugal, right-wing politics and the Party's struggles to nationalize the economy. In December 1979, new elections took place and the Party, in coalition with the Portuguese Democratic Movement (Portuguese:Movimento Democrático Português) or MDP/CDE forming the United People Aliance (Portuguese: Aliança Povo Unido or APU) increased its vote to 18.96% and 47 MPs. The election was won by a right-wing coalition, led by Sá Carneiro, which immediately started a policy that the Party considered to be contrary to working-class interests. Meanwhile the Party achieved several victories in local elections, winning the leadership of dozens of municipalities, in the FEPU coalition. In 1983, another election took place, after the sudden death of Sá Carneiro in an aircrash, and again in APU, the Party achieved 44 MPs and 18.20%. Also in 1983, the Party carried out the tenth congress that again criticized what it saw as the dangers of right-wing politics.

Related Topics:
Movimento Democrático Português - Aliança Povo Unido - Sá Carneiro - FEPU

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In 1986, the surprising climb of the socialist 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, 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 lost. The Congress was considered a success, despite being prepared with such short notice. In 1987, after the resignation of the government, another election took place and the Party, now in coalition with Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV (The Greens) and with the Democratic Intervention (Portuguese: Intervenção Democrática or ID), a political association, in the Coligação Democrática Unitária or CDU (Unitarian Democratic Coalition) saw an electoral decline to 12.18% and 31 MPs.

Related Topics:
Mário Soares - Presidential election - Salgado Zenha - Freitas do Amaral - Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" - Democratic Intervention - Coligação Democrática Unitária

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In 1988 another congress took place: the twelfth congress, which put forth a new program, titled, "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 its biggest crises ever. With many members leaving, the Party called an extra thirteenth congress for May 1990, in which an huge ideological battle occurred. The majority of the Party's members decided to continue the Party's "revolutionary way to Socialism", clashing with what many other communist parties around the world were doing by keeping its Leninist guidelines.

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In 1991 another election took place and the Party won 8.84% of the national vote and 17 MPs.

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The fourteenth congress took place in 1992 and Carlos Carvalhas was elected the new General Secretary, replacing Álvaro Cunhal. The Congress analyzed the whole new international situation, after 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 in its way out, a thing that would happen shortly after. In 1995 the right-wing government was replaced by the Socialist Party and the Party got 8.61% of the voting.

Related Topics:
Carlos Carvalhas - Cavaco Silva - Socialist Party

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The most recent Congress—the seventeenth congress—in November 2004 elected Jerónimo de Sousa, a former metallurgical worker, as the new General Secretary.

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Currently the Party is represented in the parliament by 12 MPs out of 230, after achieving about 430,000 votes (7.60%) in the last legislative election in February of 2005.

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The Portuguese Communist Party still holds the leadership of 28 municipalities, most of them in Alentejo and Setúbal, and has hundreds of civil parish presidences and local assembly members. The local administration by PCP is usually marked by concern about issues such 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 or water treatment.

Related Topics:
Alentejo - Setúbal - Participatory democracy - Recycling

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The Party's work now follows the program of "Advanced Democracy for the 21st Century." Issues like the decriminalization of abortion—since 21 April of 2005, Portugal awaits a referendum on its decriminalization—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 a constant presence in the Party's agenda.

Related Topics:
Abortion - 21 April - Workers rights - Social safety net - Iraq - Afghanistan - Palestine - Cuba - Basque Country

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The Party also 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.

Related Topics:
Ilda Figueiredo - Pedro Guerreiro - European Parliament - European United Left - Nordic Green Left

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