History of the Portuguese Communist Party
Encyclopedia
The history of the Portuguese Communist Party , spans a period of more than 85 years, since its foundation in 1921 as the Portuguese section of the Communist International (Comintern) to the present. The Party is still an active force within Portuguese society.
After its foundation, the party experienced little time as a legal party before it was forced underground after a military coup in 1926
. After some years of internal reorganization, that adapted the PCP to its new clandestine condition and enlarged its base of support, the party became a force in the opposition to the dictatorial regime led by António de Oliveira Salazar
, despite being brutally suppressed several times during the 48 years of resistance and having spent several years with little connection with the Comintern
and the World Communist Movement.
After the end of the dictatorship, with the Carnation Revolution
in 1974, the party became a major political force within the new democratic regime, mainly among the working class. Despite being less influential since the fall of the Socialist bloc
in eastern Europe
, it still enjoys popularity in vast sectors of Portuguese society, particularly in the rural areas of the Alentejo and Ribatejo
, and also in the heavily industrialized areas around Lisbon
and Setúbal
, where it holds the leadership of several municipalities.
, 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 an emerging labour movement
, the workers achieved some of their objectives, such as the historic victory of an eight-hour working day.
In September 1919, the working class movement founded the first Portuguese Labour Union Confederation, the General Confederation of Labour
(CGT) that saw a steady increase to 100,000 members in few months. But 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. The FMP started publishing the weekly Bandeira Vermelha (Red Flag) which became a popular newspaper among the Portuguese working classes.
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 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 Communist International (Comintern), in 6 March 1921. Soon after, the party's first youth organization, the Communist Youths (Portuguese: Juventudes Comunistas) was created.
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. 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 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 leading the party. The theses of the congress had previously been published in O Comunista and discussed by all the local organizations. 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 uprising in Portugal was a serious threat to the party and to the country.
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 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 a wave of detentions.
The reorganization of 1929 made the party more effective and influential, especially among the labour movement. However, with the rise of Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, in 1933, suppression of the party grew. The strike
s and the creation of new labour unions were made illegal in September 1933 with the existing unions being forced to adopt the new corporativist
rules. This would greatly limit the party's pull among the working classes. This, along with ideological struggles between Marxist and anarcho-syndicalist factions and the conflicts with the Comintern, would lead to a new decline in the party's action in the late 1930s. Meanwhile, in 1931, the first number of Avante!
was published. Despite its illegal status, the newspaper would become the most important publication of the party, being distributed among clandestine members. However, due to the constant assaults of the clandestine printing offices, the newspaper would not become widely available until the 1940s.
Despite the growing repression against the communists, that included the obligation of all civil servant to sign an anticommunist statement, the party still managed to influence riots and demonstrations. In 1934, following the closure of the free labour unions, several riots and strikes started, the most notable of them in Marinha Grande. There, on January 18, the workers, led by José Gregório
, António Guerra and other Party members, controlled the entire town and only a massive intervention by the military would end the riot. In 1936, the party's influence inside the navy led to a mutiny in several ships, 10 of them were killed and another 60 were sent to Tarrafal
.
Also in 1936, the Spanish Civil War
began. Despite some appeals from the Communist Party of Spain and the Comintern for the members of the party to enlist, the fragilized structure of the late 1930s never allowed it to send a reasonable force. Nonetheless, an estimated 1,000 Portuguese fought against the Francoist forces, integrated the Republican
ranks.
In the late 1930s, 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 died there. The vast wave of arrests in the previous years led to the announcement of the definitive end of the PCP by the government, which, along with a growing confidence in the German
victory in World War II
, led to the liberation of several communist prisoners from Tarrafal and other prisons in November 1940, among them, Álvaro Cunhal
, Militão Ribeiro
and Júlio Fogaça
. The release of important cadres, combined with the internal dissatisfaction about the decline of the party influenced a major reorganization in 1940–41, named the Reorganization of 40.
Meanwhile, in 1938, the Portuguese Communist Party had been expelled from the Communist International. The reason for the expulsion was a sense of distrust inside the Comintern, caused by a sudden breakdown in the party's activity, 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 re-establish its relations with the Communist movement and the Soviet Union in 1947, after some sporadic contacts made, at first, through the Communist parties of Spain and France and later through Mikhail Suslov
.
The 3rd congress (the first one after the reorganization) was held in 1943, and stated that the party should unite with all those who also wanted the end of the dictatorship. Another important conclusion was the need to increase the party's influence inside the Portuguese army. For the first time ever, the party was able to build a strong clandestine organization, with a net of clandestine cadres, which would make the party the foundation of the Portuguese resistance against the regime. These improvements in the party's structure led to the creation of the first national platform of democratic organizations, the Movement of National Antifascist Unity
(MUNAF), in December 1943. In 1944, the Portuguese support of the German war effort created severe shortages of food and goods, greatly decreasing Portugal's living standards. The situation led to waves of strikes, greatly influenced by the party, in the regions of Lisbon
, Ribatejo
and Alentejo. By this time, with the reorganized structure successfully avoiding the persecutions, the Avante! was being published at least once per month, stating the party's support to the popular turmoil.
, Salazar was forced to make some superficial democratic changes in order to raise Portugal's image in the eyes of its western allies. 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 soon became strongly influenced by the PCP that controlled its youth wing. Among the leadership of the youth wing were several communists, including Octávio Pato
, Salgado Zenha
, Mário Soares
, Júlio Pomar
and Mário Sacramento
. This influence led to the MUD being made illegal 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 popular movement. This, along with the improvement of the party's clandestine action, was the main focus of the congress. A brief report of the conclusions of this congress was published by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU). For the first time since the party had been expelled from the Comintern, the CPSU published info about the PCP, a slight change in the Soviet stance on the party. At this time, Álvaro Cunhal
travelled to Yugoslavia
with the aid of Bento de Jesus Caraça
in order to improve the relations with the Socialist Bloc. Later, in 1948, he travelled to Soviet Union in order to speak with Mikhail Suslov, after the ties between the PCP and the International Communist Movement were re-established. Soon after returning from Soviet Union, Cunhal was arrested by the political police.
In 1951, after the death of the president António Carmona, the government, continuing the policy of staging democratic changes, called for an election. The Party, along with other sectors of the opposition, supported the mathematician Ruy Luís Gomes
, who would be declared ineligible five days before the election. During the campaign, some supporters of his candidacy had been imprisoned and Gomes himself had been beaten in the Rio Tinto
. Following these events, the other oppositionist candidate, Quintão Meireles, abandoned the elections and the official candidate, Craveiro Lopes, was elected unchallenged.
was murdered by a lieutenant of the Guarda Nacional Republicana after attempting to ask her supervisor for a pay raise. Catarina became a martyr
of the party's struggle for better living conditions for the peasants in Alentejo. After the Carnation Revolution, the Party erected a monument to Catarina in her hometown, Baleizão
.
The fifth congress, held in September 1957, was the first and the only to be held outside Portugal. In Kiev
, Soviet Union
, the Party approved its first program and statutes, revealing an increase of the Party's organic stability. The congress took, for the first time, an official position on colonialism
, stating that all people had the right to 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
. This was the first congress in the party's history to receive salutations from foreign communist parties.
In 1958, the government announced that a presidential election would be held; however, as in the previous elections, the opposition groups had little trust in the fairness of the electoral act. The candidate supported by the party, Arlindo Vicente, left the race and supported Humberto Delgado
, who was gathering support from several democratic groups. Despite a massive campaign with a major rally in Porto, attended by 200,000 people, the government's candidate, Américo Tomás, won the election through massive election fraud. Delgado would later be assassinated by the PIDE
.
In January 1960, a remarkable event in the party's history occurred: A group of ten PCP members managed to escape from the high-security prison in Peniche. The escape returned to freedom many top 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 early 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 13 years and devastated Portuguese society, forcing many thousands of Portuguese citizens, mainly young people, to leave the country seeking a better future in countries like France, Germany or Switzerland
, and also to escape conscription
. The Party, 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 political support of the anti-colonial movements. The war initiated a process of decline of the regime as it caused a growing unrest inside Portuguese society.
In 1962 the "Academic Crisis
" occurred. The Portuguese regime, fearing the growing popularity of democratic ideas among the students, carried out the boycott and censure 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 forbidden to continue their university studies. The students, with strong aid from the PCP, responded with demonstrations that culminated on 24 March with a huge student demonstration in Lisbon. The demonstration was brutally suppressed by the shock police, leading to hundreds of student injuries. Immediately thereafter, the students began a strike that became an important point in the resistance against the regime. In 1987, the 24th of March was declared the National Day of the Students by the Portuguese parliament, which is celebrated every year, mainly by university students.
The sixth congress in 1965 became one of the most important congresses in the party's history. Álvaro Cunhal, elected General-secretary 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 within 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. By this time, the Sino-Soviet split
and the criticisms of Maoism
made during the congress caused the Maoist members to leave the party.
In 1970, the Armed Revolutionary Action made its first attack, sabotaging the Cunene, a ship used to transport supplies for the troops in Africa. The ARA would keep attacking political and military targets of the regime until August 1972. Some of its major attacks included an attack to the school of the political police, the PIDE, the bombing of the Niassa ship, the destruction of several war helicopters in the Tancos
air base, the bombing of the cultural center of the United States embassy and an attack to the regional NATO command
in Oeiras.
In 1972, the Communist Students League
, the first organized youth wing in several years, was founded. It would later become the Portuguese Communist Youth
.
Following several years of turmoil, due the prolonged war and by the growing unrest caused by the lack of liberties, the regime fell. 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.
returned to Lisbon, where he was received by thousands of people. May 1 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 the speeches of the party's leader Álvaro Cunhal and the socialist Mário Soares
. On May 17, the party's newspaper, Avante!
, produced the first legal issue of its history.
The following months were marked by radical changes in the country, always closely followed and supported by the PCP. Several parties were created. The major political and military leaders for the former regime were exiled or dismissed. A process to give independence to the colonies started with the full support of the party and, within one year, Guinea-Bissau
, Angola
, Mozambique
, Cape Verde
and São Tomé and Príncipe
would become independent countries. By that time, the party was holding several rallies per week. A good part of the party's political proposals were being met. A major struggle of the party was assuring the unity of all labour unions inside the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers
, which was opposed by the Socialists and the Social Democrats. The Party also criticized the growing interference by NATO in the revolutionary process, which was supported by the Socialists and by the right-wing.
Six months after the Revolution, on 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 spent more than 300 years in jail.
On 12 January 1975, the Portuguese Communist Party became the first legally recognized party, after the opening of the legalizing process by the Supreme Court of Justice
. Meanwhile, the revolutionary process continued. On 11 March 1975, the left-wing military forces defeated a coup attempt perpetrated by the right wing military connected to the former regime. This resulted in a turn of 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 of Portugal
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 called the Zone of Intervention of the Agrarian Reform (ZIRA), which included the land south of the Tagus River. The Party took the lead of that process and drove it according to the party's program, organizing many 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 southern regions of Portugal the major stronghold of the PCP.
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 summer of 1975 the revolutionary process reached its climax, and the government of Vasco Gonçalves
, influenced by the left, was under attack from the Socialist Party and the right-wing. Several rallies and demonstrations both in support of and against the government were being held. During the summer, several party offices were attacked, pillaged or set on fire. On July 19 a major rally organized by the Socialists against the party was held in Lisbon. In August, nine influential military officers (the Group of 9) issued a document against Vasco Gonçalves and the Movement of the Armed Forces. In the following months the tension continued between the PCP and the moderated parties. In September, Gonçalves was replaced by Pinheiro de Azevedo. The divisions inside the military were growing, and, on November 25, a coup attempt by the radical left was thwarted by the right wing military. In the aftermath, the party was attacked by the remaining forces, but a notable speech by Melo Antunes
, a member of the Group of 9, asserted the importance of the PCP inside the Portuguese democratic regime.
In the following months the attacks against party offices continued with a lower intensity, however. In 1976, the building of the current democratic regime was starting and, on April 2, the new democratic constitution, which included several references to "Socialism" and a "Classless Society", was approved with the party's support. On April 25, the second democratic election
was carried out and the party raised its share of the vote to 14.56% and 40 MPs. In June, the first democratic presidential election
was held and the party's candidate, Octávio Pato
, garnered 7.5% of the votes. The winner of the election was Ramalho Eanes, an officer of the moderate military wing.
In that same year the first Avante! Festival
took place. The festival would become a major political and cultural event in Portugal and is still held yearly, as of 2006. The eighth congress was held in Lisbon from November 11–14. 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 were opposed to the Agrarian Reform process. In December, in the first local election
, the party, in coalition with the Portuguese Democratic Movement
and the People's Socialist Front
, attained 18% of the vote, electing 37 mayors.
after a wave of political turmoil caused the fall of the government. The party formed the United People Alliance
, in coalition with the Portuguese Democratic Movement
and increased its vote to 18.96% and 47 MPs. The election was won by a right-wing coalition, led by Francisco Sá Carneiro
, which immediately started a policy that the party considered to be contrary to working-class interests. In the same year, local elections were held
and the party gathered 20.5% of the vote and elected 50 mayors, also as part of the United People Alliance. In November 1979, the Communist Students League
merged with the Young Communist League
to form the Portuguese Communist Youth
, which is still the party's youth organization.
In 1980, a new election
was called and the party dropped to 41 seats. Also in 1980, in the presidential election
, the party's candidate left the race and supported Ramalho Eanes. In the local elections of 1982
the UPA secured the leadership of 55 municipalities, achieving its best result ever, with 20.7% of the vote.
After the sudden death of Sá Carneiro in an airplane crash in 1980, the political instability returned and the right-wing coalition government disintegrated in 1983. In the subsequent legislative election
, the party achieved 44 MPs and 18.20% of the vote as part of the APU in the 1983 elections. The election was won by the Socialists that formed a grand coalition
with the Social Democrats. Also in 1983 the party held the tenth congress that again criticized what it saw as the dangers of right-wing politics. In 1985, a new election
was called, prompted by the unstable balance of forces inside the grand coalition and Cavaco Silva led the Social Democrats to a narrow victory, the party initiated its electoral decline, gathering only 15.5% of the voting.
In 1986, the surprising rise 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 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 lost. The Congress was considered a success, despite being prepared with such short notice. In 1987, after the fall of Cavaco Silva's government, another election
took place. The Party, now in coalition with the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV) and with the Democratic Intervention
(ID), a political association, in the Unitarian Democratic Coalition
(CDU) saw an electoral decline to 12.18% and 31 MPs. In the election, Cavaco Silva consolidated his power with an absolute majority.
, in which more than 2,000 delegates participated. The congress analyzed the evolution of the political situation in Eastern Europe and also the right wing policies carried out by the government of Cavaco Silva. A new set of statutes and a program were put forth, with the new program being titled, "Portugal, an Advanced Democracy for the 21st Century". The program, which is still the party's program (as of 2006), traced five major objectives to the party's struggle: a free democratic regime, based on the citizens' participation
, an economic development
based on a mixed economy
at the service of the people, a social policy capable of assuring the rise of the country's living standards, culture available to everyone, and an independent and sovereign
Portugal, pursuing peaceful relations with all countries and peoples.
At the end of the 1980s, the Socialist Bloc of Eastern Europe started to disintegrate and the Party faced new challenges. With many members leaving, the Party called an extra congress for May 1990, in Loures
. There, the majority of the more than 2,000 delegates 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 Marxist-Leninist guidelines. The congress asserted that socialism in the Soviet Union had failed, but a unique historical experience, several social changes and several achievements by the labour movement
had been influenced by the Socialist Bloc. Álvaro Cunhal was re-elected General Secretary and Carlos Carvalhas
was elected Assistant General Secretary.
the Party won 8.84% of the national vote and 17 MPs, continuing its electoral decline. The Party's candidate to the presidential election of the same year
, Carlos Carvalhas
, finished 3rd, after gathering 12.5% of the votes.
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 created by the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Socialism in Eastern Europe. The Party also outlined measres intended to put Cavaco Silva
and the right-wing government on its way out, which occurred shortly thereafter. 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 Party received 8.61% of the votes. Meanwhile, in the European election of 1994
, the Party elected 3 MEPs, gathering 11.2% of the voting.
In December 1996 the fifteenth congress was held, this time in Porto
, with more than 1,600 delegates participating. The congress criticized the right-wing policies of the Socialist government of António Guterres
and also debated the future of the Party following the debacle of the Socialist Bloc. During the first government of Guterres, the first referendum to the abortion law
was held in Portugal. Despite a massive campaign from the Party and the remaining leftwing forces, the liberalization of abortion was rejected by the voters.
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 re-elected General Secretary. In the legislative election of 2002
, held after the resignation of the socialist Prime-Minister António Guterres
, the Party achieved its lowest voting result ever, with only 7.0% of the votes. The right-wing returned to power with a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party. The new government introduced several changes in the labour laws that triggered the first general strike
in many years, in November 2002. With the strong support of the Party and of the CGTP
, hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the strike.
In the following European election of 2004
, the CDU managed to keep its two MEPs, after claiming 9.1% of the vote. The two members of the European Parliament, Ilda Figueiredo
and Pedro Guerreiro
sit in the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.
The most recent Congress, the seventeenth, in November 2004, elected Jerónimo de Sousa
, a former metallurgical worker, as the new General Secretary and analyzed the political situation since the last congress in 2000. It also reaffirmed the program adopted in the 12th Congress. Minor changes in the statutes, such as considering the official website as the Party's official press or adapting the voting methods to the new laws that made voting by showing hands illegal, were also introduced. In January 2005, the right-wing majority in the parliament was dissolved and a new legislative election was held
. The Party raised its share of the vote and is now represented in the parliament by 12 MPs of 230, after receiving about 430,000 votes.
Álvaro Cunhal
died on 13 June 2005 after being away from the public eye for several years. Two days later, 250,000 people gathered in Lisbon to attend to his funeral, one of the largest funerals in Portuguese history.
After the last local election, in 2005, in which the Party regained the presidency of 7 municipalities, the Portuguese Communist Party holds the leadership of 32 (of 308) municipalities, most of them in Alentejo and Setúbal
, and has leadership of hundreds of civil parishes, and local assembly members. The local administration of the PCP often concerns itself with 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
and water treatment.
The Party's work still follows the program set forth by "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.
In English:
After its foundation, the party experienced little time as a legal party before it was forced underground after a military coup in 1926
28th 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...
. After some years of internal reorganization, that adapted the PCP to its new clandestine condition and enlarged its base of support, the party became a force in the opposition to the dictatorial regime led by 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...
, despite being brutally suppressed several times during the 48 years of resistance and having spent several years with little connection with 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...
and the World Communist Movement.
After the end of the dictatorship, with 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...
in 1974, the party became a major political force within the new democratic regime, 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"...
, it still enjoys popularity in vast 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 also 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.
Origins and foundation
At the end of World War IWorld 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 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 an emerging labour movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
, the workers achieved some of their objectives, such as the historic victory of 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...
(CGT) that saw a steady increase to 100,000 members in few months. But 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. The FMP started publishing the weekly Bandeira Vermelha (Red Flag) which became a popular newspaper among the Portuguese working classes.
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 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 Communist International (Comintern), in 6 March 1921. Soon after, the party's first youth organization, the Communist Youths (Portuguese: Juventudes Comunistas) was created.
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
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 syndicalism. Both of these groups, at the time, were the most active factions of 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...
. In the same year, 1921, it also opened the Communist Centers of 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...
, Évora
Évora
Évora is a municipality in Portugal. It has total area of with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Évora District and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 civil parishes, and is located in Évora District....
and Beja
Beja (Portugal)
Beja is a city in the Beja Municipality in the Alentejo region, Portugal. The municipality has a total area of 1,147.1 km² and a total population of 34,970 inhabitants. The city proper has a population of 21,658....
. 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 leading the party. The theses of the congress had previously been published in O Comunista and discussed by all the local organizations. 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 uprising in Portugal was a serious threat to the party and to the country.
From the 1926 military coup to the Reorganization of 40
28th 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 the tasks. 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 party to its new illegal status, the reorganization created a net of clandestine cells to avoid a wave of detentions.
The reorganization of 1929 made the party more effective and influential, especially among the labour movement. However, with the rise of Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, in 1933, suppression of the party grew. The strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
s and the creation of new labour unions were made illegal in September 1933 with the existing unions being forced to adopt the new corporativist
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
rules. This would greatly limit the party's pull among the working classes. This, along with ideological struggles between Marxist and anarcho-syndicalist factions and the conflicts with the Comintern, would lead to a new decline in the party's action in the late 1930s. Meanwhile, in 1931, the first number of Avante!
Avante!
Avante! is the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party . Founded in 1931, it continues to be published to this day...
was published. Despite its illegal status, the newspaper would become the most important publication of the party, being distributed among clandestine members. However, due to the constant assaults of the clandestine printing offices, the newspaper would not become widely available until the 1940s.
Despite the growing repression against the communists, that included the obligation of all civil servant to sign an anticommunist statement, the party still managed to influence riots and demonstrations. In 1934, following the closure of the free labour unions, several riots and strikes started, the most notable of them in Marinha Grande. There, on January 18, the workers, led by José Gregório
José Gregório
José Gregório was a Portuguese glassmaker in Marinha Grande, a center of the glass industry in the country, a trade unionist and a member of the Portuguese Communist Party...
, António Guerra and other Party members, controlled the entire town and only a massive intervention by the military would end the riot. In 1936, the party's influence inside the navy led to a mutiny in several ships, 10 of them were killed and another 60 were sent to Tarrafal
Tarrafal camp
Tarrafal was a prison camp in Cape Verde, then a Portuguese colony, set up by the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , where opponents of his right-wing authoritarian regime were sent...
.
Also in 1936, the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
began. Despite some appeals from the Communist Party of Spain and the Comintern for the members of the party to enlist, the fragilized structure of the late 1930s never allowed it to send a reasonable force. Nonetheless, an estimated 1,000 Portuguese fought against the Francoist forces, integrated the Republican
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
ranks.
In the late 1930s, many members were arrested, tortured, and executed. Many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the 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...
Islands. This included Bento Gonçalves, who died there. The vast wave of arrests in the previous years led to the announcement of the definitive end of the PCP by the government, which, along with a growing confidence in the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
victory 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...
, led to the liberation of several communist prisoners from Tarrafal and other prisons in November 1940, 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...
, Militão Ribeiro
Militão Ribeiro
Militão Bessa Ribeiro was a Portuguese politician, member of the Portuguese Communist Party, during the illegality, that struggled against the fascist regime of Estado Novo....
and Júlio Fogaça
Júlio Fogaça
Júlio de Melo Fogaça was a Portuguese politician and member of the Portuguese Communist Party , who had a major role in the resistance against the dictatorial regime that ruled Portugal from 1926 to 1974....
. The release of important cadres, combined with the internal dissatisfaction about the decline of the party influenced a major reorganization in 1940–41, named the Reorganization of 40.
Meanwhile, in 1938, the Portuguese Communist Party had been expelled from the Communist International. The reason for the expulsion was a sense of distrust inside the Comintern, caused by a sudden breakdown in the party's activity, 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 re-establish its relations with the Communist movement and the Soviet Union in 1947, after some sporadic contacts made, at first, 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...
.
The 3rd congress (the first one after the reorganization) was held in 1943, and stated that the party should unite with all those who also wanted the end of the dictatorship. Another important conclusion was the need to increase the party's influence inside the Portuguese army. For the first time ever, the party was able to build a strong clandestine organization, with a net of clandestine cadres, which would make the party the foundation of the Portuguese resistance against the regime. These improvements in the party's structure led to the creation of the first national platform of democratic organizations, the Movement of National Antifascist Unity
Movement of National Antifascist Unity
The Movement of National Antifascist Unity was a political platform of democratic organizations that struggled against the Portuguese fascist-leaning regime, led by António de Oliveira Salazar...
(MUNAF), in December 1943. In 1944, the Portuguese support of the German war effort created severe shortages of food and goods, greatly decreasing Portugal's living standards. The situation led to waves of strikes, greatly influenced by the party, in the regions of 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...
, 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 Alentejo. By this time, with the reorganized structure successfully avoiding the persecutions, the Avante! was being published at least once per month, stating the party's support to the popular turmoil.
Post-war and the Movement of Democratic Unity
In 1945, with a whole new international community created by the defeat of the major fascist regimes in World War IIWorld 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 make some superficial democratic changes in order to raise Portugal's image in the eyes of its western allies. 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 soon became strongly influenced by the PCP that controlled its youth wing. Among the leadership of the youth wing were several communists, including 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 made illegal 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 popular movement. This, along with the improvement of the party's clandestine action, was the main focus of the congress. A brief report of the conclusions of this congress was 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...
(CPSU). For the first time since the party had been expelled from the Comintern, the CPSU published info about the PCP, a slight change in the Soviet stance on the party. At this time, 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...
travelled 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...
in order to improve the relations with the Socialist Bloc. Later, in 1948, he travelled to Soviet Union in order to speak with Mikhail Suslov, after the ties between the PCP and the International Communist Movement were re-established. Soon after returning from Soviet Union, Cunhal was arrested by the political police.
In 1951, after the death of the president António Carmona, the government, continuing the policy of staging democratic changes, called for an election. The Party, along with other sectors of the opposition, supported the mathematician Ruy Luís Gomes
Ruy Luís Gomes
Ruy Luís Gomes was a Portuguese mathematician and founder os the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute...
, who would be declared ineligible five days before the election. During the campaign, some supporters of his candidacy had been imprisoned and Gomes himself had been beaten in the Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto (Gondomar)
Rio Tinto is a Portuguese city and parish, located in Gondomar Municipality, in northern Portugal. It has a population of 50 762 inhabitants and a total area of 9.5 km²....
. Following these events, the other oppositionist candidate, Quintão Meireles, abandoned the elections and the official candidate, Craveiro Lopes, was elected unchallenged.
Portuguese Colonial War and last years of the regime
In 1954, a harvest-worker named Catarina EufémiaCatarina Eufémia
Catarina Efigénia Sabino Eufémia was an illiterate harvester from Alentejo, Portugal who was murdered during a worker's strike by lieutenant Carrajola of the Guarda Nacional Republicana in Monte do Olival, Baleizão, in Beja, Alentejo...
was murdered by a lieutenant of the Guarda Nacional Republicana after attempting to ask her supervisor for a pay raise. Catarina became a martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
of the party's struggle for better living conditions for the peasants in Alentejo. After the Carnation Revolution, the Party erected a monument to Catarina in her hometown, Baleizão
Baleizão
Baleizão is a Portuguese parish of the municipality of Beja. It is 138.25 km² in area, with 1,056 inhabitants as of 2001.The parish contains Monte do Olival , where Catarina Eufémia was murdered in 1954. She subsequently became a national icon of the resistance against the Estado Novo regime....
.
The fifth congress, held in September 1957, was the first and the only 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....
, 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....
, the Party approved its first program and statutes, revealing an increase of the Party's organic stability. The congress took, for the first time, 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 all people had the right to 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....
. This was the first congress in the party's history to receive salutations from foreign communist parties.
In 1958, the government announced that a presidential election would be held; however, as in the previous elections, the opposition groups had little trust in the fairness of the electoral act. The candidate supported by the party, Arlindo Vicente, left the race and supported Humberto Delgado
Humberto Delgado
Humberto da Silva Delgado, GCL was a General of the Portuguese Air Force and politician.Delgado was born in Brogueira, Torres Novas. He was the son of Joaquim Delgado and wife Maria do Ó Pereira and had three younger sisters, Deolinda, Aida and Lídia....
, who was gathering support from several democratic groups. Despite a massive campaign with a major rally in Porto, attended by 200,000 people, the government's candidate, Américo Tomás, won the election through massive election fraud. Delgado would later be assassinated 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...
.
In January 1960, a remarkable event in the party's history occurred: A group of ten PCP members managed to escape from the high-security prison in Peniche. The escape returned to freedom many top 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 early 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 13 years and devastated Portuguese society, forcing many thousands of Portuguese citizens, mainly young people, to leave the country seeking 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 also to escape conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
. The Party, 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 political support of the anti-colonial movements. The war initiated a process of decline of the regime as it caused a growing unrest inside Portuguese society.
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 Portuguese regime, fearing the growing popularity of democratic ideas among the students, carried out the boycott and censure 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 forbidden to continue their university studies. The students, with strong aid from the PCP, responded with demonstrations that culminated on 24 March with a huge student demonstration in Lisbon. The demonstration was brutally suppressed by the shock police, leading to hundreds of student injuries. Immediately thereafter, the students began a strike that became an important point in the resistance against the regime. In 1987, the 24th of March was declared the National Day of the Students by the Portuguese parliament, which is celebrated every year, mainly by university students.
The sixth congress in 1965 became one of the most important congresses in the party's history. Álvaro Cunhal, elected General-secretary 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 within 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. By this time, the Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
and the criticisms of Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
made during the congress caused the Maoist members to leave the party.
In 1970, the Armed Revolutionary Action made its first attack, sabotaging the Cunene, a ship used to transport supplies for the troops in Africa. The ARA would keep attacking political and military targets of the regime until August 1972. Some of its major attacks included an attack to the school of the political police, the PIDE, the bombing of the Niassa ship, the destruction of several war helicopters in the Tancos
Tancos
Tancos is a Portuguese parish, located in the municipality of Vila Nova da Barquinha. It has a population of 295 inhabitants and a total area of 1.56 km².Tancos is the location of a major air base and a military academy....
air base, the bombing of the cultural center of the United States embassy and an attack to the regional NATO command
Joint Command Lisbon
Allied Joint Force Command Lisbon or JFC Lisbon is one of the three main subdivisions of NATO's Allied Command Operations. It is based in Oeiras, near Lisbon, Portugal...
in Oeiras.
In 1972, 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....
, the first organized youth wing in several years, was founded. It would later become 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....
.
Following several years of turmoil, due the prolonged war and by the growing unrest caused by the lack of liberties, the regime fell. 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.
Revolutionary period
Immediately after the revolution, basic democratic rights were re-established in Portugal. On 27 April, the political prisoners were freed, including a large number of imprisoned Party cadres. On April 30, Álvaro CunhalÁlvaro 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 1 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 the speeches of the party's leader Álvaro 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 of its history.
The following months were marked by radical changes in the country, always closely followed and supported by the PCP. Several parties were created. The major political and military leaders for the former regime were exiled or dismissed. A process to give independence to the colonies started with the full support of the party and, within one 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...
would become independent countries. By that time, the party was holding several rallies per week. A good part of the party's political proposals were being met. A major struggle of the party was assuring the unity of all labour unions inside the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers
General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers
The General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers is the largest trade union federation in Portugal...
, which was opposed by the Socialists and the Social Democrats. The Party also criticized the growing interference by NATO in the revolutionary process, which was supported by the Socialists and by the right-wing.
Six months after the Revolution, on 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 spent more than 300 years in jail.
On 12 January 1975, the Portuguese Communist Party became the first legally recognized party, after the opening of the legalizing process by the Supreme Court of Justice
Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice
Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice is the highest court of law in Portugal without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Constitutional Court.The President of the Supreme Court of Justice is elected by and among the members of the court....
. Meanwhile, the revolutionary process continued. On 11 March 1975, the left-wing military forces defeated a coup attempt perpetrated by the right wing military connected to the former regime. This resulted in a turn of 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 of Portugal
Prime Minister of Portugal
Prime Minister is the current title of the chief of the Portuguese Government. As chief executive, the Prime Minister coordinates the action of ministers, representing the Government from the other organs of state, accountable to Parliament and keeps the President informed...
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 called the Zone of Intervention of the Agrarian Reform (ZIRA), which included the land south of the Tagus River. The Party took the lead of that process and drove it according to the party's program, organizing many 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 southern regions of Portugal the major stronghold of the PCP.
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 summer of 1975 the revolutionary process reached its climax, and the government 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....
, influenced by the left, was under attack from the Socialist Party and the right-wing. Several rallies and demonstrations both in support of and against the government were being held. During the summer, several party offices were attacked, pillaged or set on fire. On July 19 a major rally organized by the Socialists against the party was held in Lisbon. In August, nine influential military officers (the Group of 9) issued a document against Vasco Gonçalves and the Movement of the Armed Forces. In the following months the tension continued between the PCP and the moderated parties. In September, Gonçalves was replaced by Pinheiro de Azevedo. The divisions inside the military were growing, and, on November 25, a coup attempt by the radical left was thwarted by the right wing military. In the aftermath, the party was attacked by the remaining forces, but a notable speech by Melo Antunes
Melo Antunes
Ernesto Augusto de Melo Antunes, GCL was a Portuguese military officer who had a major role in the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974.-Background:...
, a member of the Group of 9, asserted the importance of the PCP inside the Portuguese democratic regime.
In the following months the attacks against party offices continued with a lower intensity, however. In 1976, the building of the current democratic regime was starting and, on April 2, the new democratic constitution, which included several references to "Socialism" and a "Classless Society", was approved with the party's support. On April 25, the second democratic election
Portuguese legislative election, 1976
The Portuguese legislative election of 1976 took place on April 25, exactly one year after the previous election, and two years after the Carnation Revolution...
was carried out and the party raised its share of the vote to 14.56% and 40 MPs. In June, the first democratic presidential election
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...
was held and the party's candidate, 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...
, garnered 7.5% of the votes. The winner of the election was Ramalho Eanes, an officer of the moderate military wing.
In that 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. The festival would become a major political and cultural event in Portugal and is still held yearly, as of 2006. The eighth congress was held in Lisbon from November 11–14. 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 were opposed to the Agrarian Reform process. In December, in the first local election
Portuguese local election, 1976
The Portuguese local election of 1976 took place on December 12. This was the first local election in Portugal. The democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power, that should be exerted by the citizens in their towns and cities....
, the party, 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...
and the People's Socialist Front
People's Socialist Front
The People's Socialist Front was a socialist political party in Portugal, founded in 1974, immediately after the Carnation Revolution....
, attained 18% of the vote, electing 37 mayors.
Late 1970s and early 1980s
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 keep the nationalized economy. In December 1979, an extra legislative election took placePortuguese legislative election, 1979
The Portuguese legislative election of 1979 took place on December 2. The last election, three and a half years before, in April 1976, was won by the Socialist Party under the lead of Mário Soares, who became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government after the revolution...
after a wave of political turmoil caused the fall of the government. 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...
, 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...
and increased its vote to 18.96% and 47 MPs. The election was won by a 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 started a policy that the party considered to be contrary to working-class interests. In the same year, local elections were held
Portuguese local election, 1979
The Portuguese local election of 1979 took place on December 16. This was the second local election in Portugal since the democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power....
and the party gathered 20.5% of the vote and elected 50 mayors, also as part of the United People Alliance. In November 1979, 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....
merged with the Young Communist League
Young Communist League
The Young Communist League was or is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX was generally taken by all sections of the Communist Youth International.Examples of YCLs:...
to form 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....
, which is still the party's youth organization.
In 1980, a new election
Portuguese legislative election, 1980
The Portuguese legislative election of 1980 took place on October 5.In January 1980, the Democratic Alliance, which had won the previous election, on December 2 of 1979, entered office with Francisco Sá Carneiro leading the government...
was called and the party dropped to 41 seats. Also in 1980, in the presidential election
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,...
, the party's candidate left the race and supported Ramalho Eanes. In the local elections of 1982
Portuguese local election, 1982
The Portuguese local election of 1982 took place on December 12. This was the third local election in Portugal since the democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power....
the UPA secured the leadership of 55 municipalities, achieving its best result ever, with 20.7% of the vote.
After the sudden death of Sá Carneiro in an airplane crash in 1980, the political instability returned and the right-wing coalition government disintegrated in 1983. In the subsequent legislative election
Portuguese legislative election, 1983
The Portuguese legislative election of 1983 took place on April 25. The last election, in October 1980 had been won by a right-wing coalition, the Democratic Alliance and Francisco Sá Carneiro had retained office as Prime Minister with an increased majority...
, the party achieved 44 MPs and 18.20% of the vote as part of the APU in the 1983 elections. The election was won by the Socialists that formed a grand coalition
Grand coalition
A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government...
with the Social Democrats. Also in 1983 the party held the tenth congress that again criticized what it saw as the dangers of right-wing politics. In 1985, a new election
Portuguese legislative election, 1985
The Portuguese legislative election of 1985 took place on October 6. In June of the same year, the former Prime-Minister, Mário Soares, had resigned from the job due to the lack of parliamentary support, the government was composed by a coalition of the two major parties, the center-right Social...
was called, prompted by the unstable balance of forces inside the grand coalition and Cavaco Silva led the Social Democrats to a narrow victory, the party initiated its electoral decline, gathering only 15.5% of the voting.
In 1986, the surprising rise of 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:...
, 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 lost. The Congress was considered a success, despite being prepared with such short notice. In 1987, after the fall of Cavaco Silva's government, another election
Portuguese legislative election, 1987
The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on July 19. In the last election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had achieved a relative majority, thing that made its government very weak, managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic Social Center and the Democratic Renovator...
took place. The Party, now in coalition with the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV) and with 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...
(ID), a political association, 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"...
(CDU) saw an electoral decline to 12.18% and 31 MPs. In the election, Cavaco Silva consolidated his power with an absolute majority.
From the end of the Socialist Bloc to the present
From the late 1980s until 1991
In 1988 another congress took place, the twelfth, held in PortoPorto
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...
, in which more than 2,000 delegates participated. The congress analyzed the evolution of the political situation in Eastern Europe and also the right wing policies carried out by the government of Cavaco Silva. A new set of statutes and a program were put forth, with the new program being titled, "Portugal, an Advanced Democracy for the 21st Century". The program, which is still the party's program (as of 2006), traced five major objectives to the party's struggle: a free democratic regime, based on the citizens' participation
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...
, an economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
based on a mixed economy
Mixed economy
Mixed economy is an economic system in which both the state and private sector direct the economy, reflecting characteristics of both market economies and planned economies. Most mixed economies can be described as market economies with strong regulatory oversight, in addition to having a variety...
at the service of the people, a social policy capable of assuring the rise of the country's living standards, culture available to everyone, and an independent and sovereign
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
Portugal, pursuing peaceful relations with all countries and peoples.
At the end of the 1980s, the Socialist Bloc of Eastern Europe started to disintegrate and the Party faced new challenges. With many members leaving, the Party called an extra congress for May 1990, in 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...
. There, the majority of the more than 2,000 delegates 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 Marxist-Leninist guidelines. The congress asserted that socialism in the Soviet Union had failed, but a unique historical experience, several social changes and several achievements by the labour movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
had been influenced by the Socialist Bloc. Álvaro Cunhal was re-elected General Secretary 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 Assistant General Secretary.
From the 13th Congress to the present
In the legislative election of 1991Portuguese 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 MPs, continuing its electoral decline. The Party's candidate to the presidential election of the same year
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...
, 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....
, finished 3rd, after gathering 12.5% of the votes.
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 created by the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Socialism in Eastern Europe. The Party also outlined measres 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, which occurred shortly thereafter. 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 Party received 8.61% of the votes. Meanwhile, in the European election of 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...
, the Party elected 3 MEPs, gathering 11.2% of the voting.
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 1,600 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 also debated the future of the Party following the debacle of the Socialist Bloc. During the first government of Guterres, the first referendum to the abortion law
Portuguese referendum on Abortion, 1998
On 28 June 1998 a referendum on a new abortion law was conducted in Portugal; it was the first national referendum in the Portuguese history. The law was proposed by the Portuguese Communist Party and it decriminalized abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy and was considered by the left...
was held in Portugal. Despite a massive campaign from the Party and the remaining leftwing forces, the liberalization of abortion was rejected by the voters.
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 re-elected General Secretary. 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...
, held after the resignation of the socialist Prime-Minister 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:...
, the Party achieved its lowest voting result ever, with only 7.0% of the votes. The right-wing returned to power with a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party. The new government introduced several changes in the labour laws that triggered the first general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
in many years, in November 2002. With the strong support of the Party and of the CGTP
General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers
The General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers is the largest trade union federation in Portugal...
, hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the strike.
In the following European election of 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...
, the CDU managed to keep its two MEPs, after claiming 9.1% of the vote. The two members of the European Parliament, 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...
sit in the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.
The most recent Congress, the seventeenth, in November 2004, 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 metallurgical worker, as the new General Secretary and analyzed the political situation since the last congress in 2000. It also reaffirmed the program adopted in the 12th Congress. Minor changes in the statutes, such as considering the official website as the Party's official press or adapting the voting methods to the new laws that made voting by showing hands illegal, were also introduced. In January 2005, the right-wing majority in the parliament was dissolved and a new legislative election was held
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 raised its share of the vote and is now represented in the parliament by 12 MPs of 230, after receiving about 430,000 votes.
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...
died on 13 June 2005 after being away from the public eye for several years. Two days later, 250,000 people gathered in Lisbon to attend to his funeral, one of the largest funerals in Portuguese history.
After the last local election, in 2005, in which the Party regained the presidency of 7 municipalities, the Portuguese Communist 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 has leadership of hundreds of civil parishes, and local assembly members. The local administration of the PCP often concerns itself with issues such 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 Party's work still follows the program set forth by "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.
See also
- Portuguese Communist PartyPortuguese Communist PartyThe 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....
- Electoral results of the Portuguese Communist PartyElectoral results of the Portuguese Communist PartyThis is a table of the electoral results of the Portuguese Communist Party. Despite the Party had been founded in 1921, the party experienced little time as a legal party, being forced into clandestinity after a military coup in 1926. In the following decades, Portugal was dominated by the...
- History of PortugalHistory of PortugalThe history of Portugal, a European and an Atlantic nation, dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia and...
- 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...
- Catarina EufémiaCatarina EufémiaCatarina Efigénia Sabino Eufémia was an illiterate harvester from Alentejo, Portugal who was murdered during a worker's strike by lieutenant Carrajola of the Guarda Nacional Republicana in Monte do Olival, Baleizão, in Beja, Alentejo...
External links
In Portuguese:- Portuguese Communist Party official web site
- History section of the Party's official website
- Avante Festival! official website
- Avante! newspaper online edition
- PCP's short biography by the Carnation Revolution archive center
In English: