Appeal Political Committee of the Central Committee

Let us all march on May 1st!

Let us all march on May 1st!

1. The Political Committee of the Central Committee of the PCP appeals to all workers and the Portuguese people for a massive participation in the May 1st. demonstrations called by CGTP-IN all over the country.

In the year that marks the 40 years of the day of the heroic struggle that May 1st. 1974 constituted – marking the popular uprising that followed the action of the soldiers, establishing the support of the workers and the people to the process initiated on 25th. April and branding it with their demands and objectives – May 1st. 2014 represents an action of great importance in view of the situation faced by the workers, people and country.

2. The right-wing policy, implemented for 37 years by PS, PSD and CDS-PP, worsened in recent years by the policies of successive SGPs [Stability and Growth Pact] and the Pact of Aggression, signed by these parties with the IMF, the EU and the ECB, are leading the country into recession and decline.

Deterioration in the purchasing power of wages, including the minimum wage, cuts in wages and pensions, increase and deregulation of working hours, unemployment, absence of social benefits, job insecurity, emigration, denial of access to health, attack on public schools , mischaracterization of social security, brutal tax increases for most of the population - this is the content of a program of exploitation and impoverishment that under the guise of "austerity" heightens injustice and inequalities.

A policy which, under the guise of fighting the deficit and debt, aims to conceal its class nature at the service of big national and transnational capital, whereby the theft of wages, pensions, of financing of public services and of money from rising taxes on workers, pensioners, small and medium-size entrepreneurs and the population in general is being channelled into the thousands of millions euros of profits and dividends of big business, to serve the7 thousand million euros that annually are taken to pay interest on a largely illegitimate debt, for the SWAPs and PPPs, for the scandals of the BPN, the BPP and BCP banks.

This is the real aim of the right-wing policy that, in a broad and systematic confrontation with the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, impels the country towards disaster and undermines national sovereignty and independence.

3. The Political Committee of the Central Committee of the PCP warns that the supporters and executors of the SGPs and the Pact of Aggression, each in their own way, while arguing with demagoguery about the end of the troika, are preparing to pursue the policies of the troika.

More than the demagoguery , what they are preparing is: more cuts in wages and pensions , in social benefits, in 2015 and the following years , aggravating the consequences of the cuts applied every year during the last few years; make further changes for the worse to the Labour Code in order to facilitate the unfair dismissal and further weaken collective bargaining ; aggravate the labour legislation of the Public Administration workers ; attack the pensioners and the retired and the right to retire ; further promote insecurity and wage cuts; continue the destruction of public services and social functions of the state, particularly of the National Health Service , public schools and social security ; promote further privatization and increasingly bind the country to the domination of the euro and the EU.

With this policy, with this government or another that follows its path, there is no post-troika. The Irish way, with or without precautionary program, with the Budgetary Treaty and other instruments of domination of the European Union and the euro, the policy of the troikas, the policy of exploitation and impoverishment of the workers, the people and the country in favour of big business has, in the opinion and will of the parties subscribers of the SGPs and of the Pact of Aggression Pact, to continue. This is exactly what was expressed with the purpose of ensuring that the speculators can continue to have direct intervention in the country with special missions every six months until 2038.

4. The Political Committee of the Central Committee of the PCP stresses the need of a rupture with the right-wing policy, states that there are solutions to the problems of the country, pointing the way of a patriotic and left-wing alternative and emphasizes that today, as always, the future lies in the hands of the workers and the people.

Following the demonstrations of the 40th anniversary of the 25th April, a powerful affirmation of the values ​​of April and its projection in the future of Portugal, and preceding the elections to the European Parliament, a great event where the workers and people with their vote on the CDU have an efficient form of struggle to defend their interests and safeguard the future of the country, May 1st, International Workers’ Day, a great popular action of unity and struggle of the working class and of all working people, is of fundamental importance.

The Political Committee of the Central Committee of the PCP stresses its confidence in the struggle of the workers and the people and appeals to them, to make the May 1st.demonstrations called by CGTP, a great action to defend their rights , to increase wages, including the national minimum wage , against precariousness and deregulation of working hours , for the defence and restoration of the 35-hour week in Public Administration and its progressive application to all workers , for the valorisation of labour and the workers.

The Political Committee of the Central Committee of the PCP calls for the participation of workers and people in the demonstrations of May 1st called by CGTP, a great show of force against exploitation and impoverishment, for the rupture with the right-wing policy, for the dismissal of the PSD government / CDS - PP, for a patriotic and left-wing alternative, for the values ​​April in Portugal's future.

For April!
Against exploitation and impoverishment!
For the valorisation of labour and the workers!
Let us all march on May 1st!