Press Statement by Jeronimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the PCP, on the conclusions of the Meeting of the CC

The country´s submission to the foreign intervention programme established by PS, PSD and CDS with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund represents the central and dominating factor of the current political framework and is, also, marked by the outcome and institutional correlation of forces resulting from the recent legislative elections.

The submission to this profoundly antipatriotic programme is present in the decisions and the more recent developments of the present PSD/CDS majority, which has the obliging complicity and demonstrations of commitment by PS and a growing assumption by the President of the Republic of an active role of support in its implementation.

A submission which is present in the political agreement «a majority for change» signed by the parties of the new majority; in the choice of the composition of the government and in the presentation of its Programme which, as witnessed in its general terms, is a true declaration of war against the workers and the people.

In the prosecution of the agreement with the troika, the government´s programme: attacks the rights of the workers with the prospect of changes in labour legislation in several important fields, namely on matters such as making redundancies easier, working hours, overtime pay; proceeding with a number of privatizations of public companies and services; at the same time increasing restrictions on social rights; plans a new attack on public administration and its workers; anticipates restriction on the right to health care, breakdown of public education and a ceiling on social security; increases taxes on labour, housing and consumption, among other matters.
The anticipation of a number of measures shows more clearly the nature and aims of the government programme as a tool at the service of accumulation of profits by big business and of exploitation and sacrifices for workers and people. The anticipation of the calendar of privatizations and in particular the announcement of the theft of the Christmas bonus that PSD and CDS are trying to impose on those who live on their wages or pensions and which denies everything said during the campaign, express a policy meant to further injustice and keep untouched benefits and support to banks and economic groups.
It should be noted that the programme that the government, with the collaboration of PS, is preparing to apply does not represent a solution, but rather a factor that will lead to a dramatic worsening of the national problems. A programme that the workers and the people have not only the right, but the duty to challenge, resist and defeat.
The current situation of the country, namely at the economic level, with a growing worsening of the structural deficits, with the prosecution of destruction of the productive tissue, in a context of prolonged stagnation and economic recession, and also at the social level with a growing increase in inequalities, spread of poverty and unemployment and great weakening of social protection that the present programme of aggression is deepening, makes more pressing and indispensable a clean break with the current course and carrying out a patriotic and left-wing policy to answer the problems of the country, overcome the difficulties and ensure its development.
To reject the illegitimate programme of foreign submission, renegotiate the public debt, defend national production and a fair distribution of wealth, constitutes a patriotic and left-wing answer that the country needs, and around which the workers and the people should mobilize and unite.
A process of renegotiation – of terms, interest and amounts – compatible with a strategy of sustainable financial stabilization, economic growth, balance of public accounts and jobs.
A process to boost a policy of promoting national production which will: valorise agriculture and fishing and undertake a programme of industrialization of the country; valorise domestic market with the indispensable raise of peoples´ wages, pensions and income; strengthen public investment aimed at economic growth, defend and strengthen the state business sector in the basic and strategic sectors; support micro, small and medium-size companies, namely by controlling the cost of the main factors of production and by public funding.
The worsening of capitalism´s crisis in the countries of the Triad confirms the deepening of the contradictions and rivalries with unforeseeable consequences, like those taking place in the monetary system and supply of raw materials, with a situation of a violent social regression.
The situation is particularly serious in the European Union. The steps concerning “economic governance” adopted by the European Council of 23 and 24 June, represent a new leap in the violation of national sovereignties and will create more unemployment, more attacks on workers´ rights, cuts in public investment, more “crises of sovereign debt”.
The Central Committee draws attention to the purpose of the PSD/CDS-PP government to adopt a set of serious measures in the coming months. Reaffirming that each of the measures of this vast programme of aggression is dependent on approval and materialization, it should be noted that it is very important to ensure right away a strong intervention in terms of political action and mass struggle.
The mass struggle, a fundamental right laid down in the Constitution of the Republic, represents in the current situation, a determining answer to the assault and aggression faced by the workers, the people and the country and an essential factor to build a more developed and fairer Portugal.
In the struggle of the workers the main goals are increase of wages, defence of working hours and demand their reduction, the fight against precarity, changes for the worse in labour legislation, cuts in unemployment benefits and the attack against social security.
The struggle of the workers also involves factors common to other sectors and to the Portuguese people in general, like the struggle against privatizations, the extinguishing of public companies and services, the defence of the National Health Service and public education, the guarantee of a public transport system and the fight against price rises. The different social classes and strata that are being strongly affected by the policy at the service of national and international monopoly capital has in the action and struggle the only way for the defence of their interests.
The Central Committee welcomes the struggle of the workers in the various sectors, namely the workers from the Viana do Castelo Shipyards and appeals for the intensification of the mass struggle and stresses the importance of the week of struggle called by CGTP-IN between 11 and 15 July, with actions all around the country.
The situation created by the right-wing and national abdication policy demands the Party´s intervention and initiative in various fields, at the national level, in the action of the communists in the mass movements and organizations, in the initiatives of the institutions, in the direct intervention by the party organizations, namely:
- the presentation of a draft resolution with a pioneering project of the debt renegotiation, as well as initiatives to convert false independent worker payments into labour contracts and for the viability and defence of the public character of the Viana do Castelo Shipyards;

- carrying out an initiative of political action during the month of July “On the renegotiation of the public debt, national production, the rights of the workers and labour legislation” by holding public actions, a rally in Lisbon on 8 July, a special sale of “Avante!” on 14 July and actions around the country until 24 July;
- carrying out in the various regions, as well as in other sectors, meetings open to the participation of those who support CDU and other citizens without any party affiliation to exchange views on the country’s situation;
- prepare and successfully hold the Avante” Festival.
The Central Committee draws special attention to the importance and demands in the preparation and tasks regarding the elections for the Legislative Assembly in the Autonomous Region of Madeira next October.
In the context of the worsening of the political, economic and social situation it is important to take measures in the Party organizations to execute the action “Forward! For a stronger PCP!” aiming to strengthen the party organization, launched in the 18th. Congress and which has special priority and demand in this framework, considering the imperative need to broaden and further the mass struggle.