(excerpts )

Comrades and friends,

As it has and will go on happening in many different places throughout our country, here we are gathering, today in Lisbon to evoke, with repeated emotion and renewed pride, the 80 years of life and struggle of our Party, the Portuguese Communist Party.

And in this occasion the first assertion that, on behalf of truth and fairness, it matters to make is that if our Party - born and founded on the twenty-first year of last century - has so come to the first year of a new century and a new millennium it is not due to hazard, luck or destiny.

If, as a Party we came - as no other Portuguese political force or current can do - to commemorate 80 years of life and struggle it is because its creation and its course responded to a real need of the Portuguese working class and workers. It is because the PCP, making its way across the storms, convulsions and battles of the 20th century, always knew how to keep, affirm and develop its deep roots in the Portuguese people, knew how to interpret, give voice and serve the great and undefeated aspirations of the Portuguese people for a society of freedom, justice and social progress. It is because it always knew how to express the horizon and yearning for a new society, liberator of exploitation of man by man, socialism.

And, fairer and more truthful than everything else, if we reach the celebration of the PCP's 80 years (not as a celebration of a mere survival but as a celebration of 80 years of a life lived aplenty, vertically and with pride, a life imprinted by an immense, incomparable and undeletable heritage of heroism, dedication, generosity, struggle, transforming commitment and revolutionary determination that influenced in a decisive way the history of our nation for the last eight decades, it is because from 1921 to the present days, successive generations of thousands and thousands of men and women (in a saga whose grandeur, richness and dimension will never be possible to fully reconstitute) have (with their energy, their sacrifice, their combativeness, their intelligence, their dedication to the interests of the workers and the people, their convinced attachment to communist ideals ) contributed in building an historical pathway (paved by defeats and victories, grieves and joys, disillusions and hopes) that honours us and above all confronts us as well forthcoming communists with the indeclinable responsibility to continue, honour, proceed, develop and enrich. We are certain that as nobody can take away from us this impressive past of 80 years neither can anyone shut the gates of a large and hopeful future for our Party. The future to which we look upon, the future of growth and advance to which we are directed, the future we want to conquer.

As we speak of those men and women who along these 80 years have made the history of our Party, our recollection, recognition and gratitude obviously go in particular to the many - and we all know the names of many of them - who by their heroism, courage or remarkable role gave a much distinguished contribution to the PCP's struggle and for that very reason, if prejudice does not overcome truth and if blindness does not defeat fairness, deserve to be considered major protagonists of Portugal's history in the 20th century.

But we are sure that those who fortunately still stay with us in the fight for communist convictions and ideals (precisely because they gave the best of themselves for our cause without waiting for medals, consecrations or honours) will be the first ones to agree that as we commemorate our Party's 80 years we evoke not what the Party owes but what liberty, democracy, the Portuguese people and Portugal owe to all communist men and women who, within the measure of their strength, capabilities and possibilities (either during the first and unsecured steps until 1926, or along the 48 years of fascist dictatorship or during these last 26 years after the unforgettable and glorious April Revolution ) rose resistance lines to fascist repression and terror, drew horizons of hope ( even during the most desperate and shady moments ) cleared and broadened the rough path towards freedom, propelled accomplishments and social, economic, cultural and political changes of historical consequence, encouraged and still
encourage a combat that goes on for democratic and left wing ideals, values and objectives.

These 80 years of a life intensively lived, of a struggle passionately carried out, just by themselves, may not give the answers to all interrogations of our present, may not be the solution for the problems and challenges we face, may not be the miraculous prescription for the difficulties we have to overcome today and tomorrow. But they are undoubtedly a valuable and irreplaceable patrimony of experience and struggle, and above all, of the social and national roots that constitute a great incitement to our engaged and creative action to strengthen our Party and implement the resolutions of our 16th Congress. It is also an unvaluable factor of confidence for the struggles that the Portuguese communists will engage in this new century.

Always with the workers, always with the Portuguese people, always with democracy, always for socialism, always for Portugal, always with the universal cause of human dignity and emancipation. Always making history and shaping the future.

A few lessons of our history

Comrades:

Looking back upon the 80 years of our Party's life and struggle, according to sensitiveness, memory, and view of things, every one of us may come across a number of lessons and teachings that may be considered as valid and useful to pursuing our combat.

So, allow us to underline here what, in our opinion, is most important and opportune for our present and future activity.

. the capability our Party had ( while taking into consideration the efforts and experiences of the construction of a new society and looking to them not only as a reference but also as an incitement to its own struggle) to adopt as its fundamental reference the interests of the Portuguese workers
and people;
the capability our Party had to promote a vast and active policy of unity and ( among other aspects ), to favour a strong and solid alliance between
the forces of labour and culture which showed to have a decisive importance in the resistance against fascism and in building the Portugal of April;
. the humbleness that in general our Party had of not seeing itself as the guardian of all truths and all wisdom but, on the contrary, being able to learn in dialogue and in critical confrontation with others and, above all, being able to learn from the workers and the people;
. the capability that in general our Party had to make compatible its own responsibilities as a vanguard force with a clear and solid concept on the
importance and decisive role of the workers' and citizens' initiative, opinion and direct action in defending their interests and aspirations;
. the confirmed capability that in general our Party had to live and fight harmonise an indispensable fidelity to the great values, objectives and its
communist identity with rectifying, changing and renewing processes required by life and by new situations and realities;
. the capability that in general our Party had to create and develop rules and principles of collective work and collective direction ( opposed to the
uncritical cult of "chiefs" or dangerous devotions to providential men ) and rules and working principles of collective leadership which accept, co-exist and are enriched by personal responsibility, initiative and merit;
. the capability that our Party had to link the immediate struggle, although for limited and concrete goals, with the affirming process of its objectives and its larger political project. And to bring together very different ways of action and participation plans in a transforming process reality and of accumulating forces;
. and finally among many other lessons, the capability that in general our Party and communists had to live and fight along these 80 years, not asking or wanting to guess or announce the exact day of victory or victories for which they fought, rather focusing on uniting forces and wills, on aggregating efforts and multiplying the indispensable struggles on the path to victory.
(...)

A left wing policy is needed

A different policy is necessary. This requires the strengthening of the PCP and a change in the balance of weight between the PS and us.

To turn left, to make our country progress and fight social injustice, it is necessary to materialise a policy that gives priority to productive activities,
and not to speculative and parasite ones. A policy that stops privatisations and the delivery of basic and strategic enterprises to foreign countries. A
policy that stimulates efficiency, organisation and modernisation of economy, not low wages. A policy that looks upon small and mid-sized enterprises rather than privileging big corporations.

The fight against the dismantling of the public sector, the dismissals, the blockage of collective bargaining and wage devaluation is the best answer the workers and the Party can give to the policy that the government insists on carrying on.

The strikes and street actions of the workers of the Arsenal, OGFE, OGME and OGMA for their jobs at the armed forces industrial plants, the converging action of transport workers organisations to defend the social function of means of transportation, for their rights and the passengers' rights are examples that we hereby salute and support.

The disappearing (in a short period and in four companies only) of over 2,500 jobs in Siderurgia Nacional, in Auto Europa, in Clark and in Indelma,
as a result of a policy turned to devaluate and destroy the national production is so much more serious as the number of temporary jobs increases. This fact affects about one million workers among whom the youth and women are favoured targets.

This insecurity, this sort of anything-goes (as a result of the variety of precarious labour contracts and sub-contracts leads forcibly to increasing casualty and labour accidents. This turn outrageously to advantage for highly profitable business to insurance companies at the expense of the victimised workers.

We do not confine ourselves to denunciation. Within the framework of our legislative initiative, we presented bills to the Parliament which, if approved, will fight the abuse of short-term contracts and will raise pensions and retirement pensions of those who had labour accidents or suffer from professional diseases.

The struggle for better wages, taking into consideration the increase of the cost of living and the widening of the gap between Portuguese workers' wages and average wages of European Union workers, is not only just, it is also necessary.

However, the big capital associations, namely the bankers' association (the poor chaps!) are now proclaiming, with the handy support of the Governor of the Bank of Portugal and some economists who made their teaching during the Cavaco's (former PM) consulate, proclaim now not only wage moderation and even wage decrease. They advocate freezing union contracts and are lobbying against free union bargaining in sectors such as banking, construction, textile, clothing industry, printing, tannery. They are thus paving the way to justify a reduction on salaries of civil services in a near future.

The CGTP's decision to call for a nation-wide journey of struggle, to be held in Lisbon and in Oporto, on March, 24, preceded by other struggles in a number of companies and sectors, and the commemoration of the 8th of March show the workers' movement and the trade unions' determination and vitality of the workers and trade-unions' movement to struggle for a better life for those who work.

In this battle, with that confidence and solidarity, will be the Portuguese Communist Party!

Here from this mass-meeting we want to salute the workers in struggle and their great trade unions confederation, the CGTP-IN!

From here we want to greet as well the students' fight for better education and against elitism in education, to put an end on numerus clausus, for a serious intervention at elementary and high-school levels, with the participation of teachers and students. We want to address a special greeting to the JCP, the youth of the PCP.

The so-called passion for education, just like the second for health care have achieved well known results.

In the health care system you just have to look at the recurrent budget derailments, the long waiting lists for surgery, the medicines policy, the promiscuity between public and private sectors, the neo-liberal and random management to conclude that it would have been much better if the Prime-Minister had never had either the first or the second referred passion.

Comrades

Although our rally has taken place a day after the 8th March, I would like to take this opportunity, not merely out of routine or tradition, but in accordance with our values and our long time struggle, to salute the struggles of women for their rights, their struggles for equal participation, to salute International Women´s Day, a major symbol of a long route of women towards the conquest, defence and assertion of their rights, major symbol of one of the greatest civilisational struggles which have crossed the 20th century and which will have in the present century new advances against prejudice, discrimination, against social, economic, political and cultural restraints and conditionings that still prevail in the Portuguese society.

(...)

A participated management at the service of the community

Comrades,

The struggle for the local elections is the great political struggle which we face this year. It is necessary that this struggle is embodied by all our
militants and party supporters as the great struggle of our Party. The prestige of the CDU [Unitary Democratic Coalition] local government project is closely linked with our attitude, with the way we exercise power and with the fact that we can really claim such attributes as hard work, honesty, competence and experience.

Therefore it is with great conviction that we clearly state that, to reinforce the power of the CDU is to defend a democratic and pluralist local government against all attempts to adulterate it. The return of the central block [PS-PSD rule] which tries to impose an uncontrolled absolute power in local government by means of a new electoral law has been once again, defeated. But it is necessary to continue the struggle and work to inform the populations as this retreat by the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) does not represent any revision of their antidemocratic views but rather the result of their isolation and the opposition from large sectors of public opinion and the local administrations
against their intents. Once again we can state that it was worth fighting and that the activity of the PCP and those elected by the CDU was of decisive importance to, once again, prevent the manipulations which the right wing policies and views want to impose upon Local Government.

And surely the PS will, in the future, present a new proposal to change the electoral law for the general elections, with single-mandate electoral circles, trying to win in office what it foresees will lose among the voters. If the PS continues along this path, it will have to face our firm and decisive opposition and we are convinced that with democratic opinion this new offensive will be defeated.

To give more strength to the CDU is also to give voice to the struggle against the shameless use of the state apparatus and public funds by the government, to promote the electoral strategy of the PS. It is to denounce and penalise the to and fro of ministers and [unelected] Civil Governors who tour the country handing out cheques, the manipulation of employment and social support programmes according to the political colour of the local government, the misuse of public investments in accordance with the electoral objectives of the Party in Government, the appointment of members of the Socialist Party to public posts as launching platforms for subsequent candidatures for Local Government, the use of meetings
of government departments to debate Party strategies. These are not inventions. Just recall the role of former [cabinet] Minister Jorge Coelho rushing to Sintra to give a helping hand to the socialist-run local authority or announcing to the local Socialist Party Federation that the investments of his ministry woud not fail those constituencies which coincide with the electoral priorities of his Party. Just recall a Civil Governor announce his intention to run for local government on a PS ticket, while retaining his government functions in order to better act electorally.

To give more strength to the CDU is, in the year marking the 25th anniversary of the first local elections, to reinforce and restate Local Government as one of the most important achievements of the April [1974 Revolution], to opt for a project of shared control with the involvement of the populations, for a project seeking progress and development, an improvement in the living conditions of the people and the defence of their interests and aspirations.

To give more strength to the CDU is to enlarge the scope of the civic and democratic participation of thousands of citizens who fight for justice and
a better life. That is why we should do our best, with confidence and determination, to succeed in this struggle.

Mankind is not doomed to capitalism

Comrades,

At the beginning of this new century it is shocking to witness the contradiction between the prospects opened by the amazing scientific and technical achievements and the social situation of many millions of human beings.

The triumphant and arrogant capitalism wants to impose its order, its concepts and its practice but the peoples, the workers, the trade-union members, in Chiapas, in Timor, in Brazil the Landless Peasants, in the European Union, in Portugal and in many, many other places are fighting and resisting.

The fantastic concentration of wealth alongside the greatest poverty is the portrait of the imperialist and capitalist logic.

It is intolerable to be confronted, for example, with the news that one of the most powerful pharmaceutical groups has brought a law suit against the South African government because in 1997 Nelson Mandela signed a law allowing the manufacture of generic medicines to fight AIDS, a disease that in this country has more than 4 million HIV-positive persons, medicines based upon those produced by those multinational firms, but a great deal cheaper.

Once again it is profit above people, the spectre of death hovering over millions of human beings against sheer profit.

It is shocking, for example, to watch the utter disregard with which Mr Bush and Mr Blair, for no plausible reason, ordered the bombing of Iraq and the hypocrisy of those who claim to be concerned with human rights and want to introduce life imprisonment in our country in order to join the ICC (International Criminal Court), but remain silent on the trial of those two creatures!

In Parliament we tabled a motion, with several arguments, asking for a pronouncement against the bombing of Iraq. The PS, PSD and PP (Popular Party) voted against [the motion] with a declaration from the latter stating that it agreed with our arguments, as they were true, but that did not wish to vote against the allies...

When allies are at stake, human rights have to be elastic...

We all understand and... that is it.

But it is also shocking to see these parties who were in favour of the bombing of Yugoslavia turn their backs to the consequences of depleted uranium. On this issue there is a veil of silence and oblvion or casting doubts on the causes of the deaths of the soldiers and police from several countries who served in the Balkans. That was the case of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the effects of which upon the population were only recognized by the Americans 20 years later and with the Gulf war when after years of silence, NATO officially recognized the use of weapons with depleted uranium and plutonium.

The diversion and intoxication strategies on this and other subjects will continue, trying to mould the thinking according to the interests of imperialism, within the framework of the so called "single thought".

The dominant ideology, expression of the ruling classes' interests, was in fact turned into a "single thought", with its theologians, its dogmas, its mercenary pundits, trying to sow resignation and fatalism, trying to re-write History and to withdraw from the lexicon such concepts as class
struggle, exploitation, surplus value and imperialism, trying to spread the idea that there is no alternative to capitalism and trying to deviate, especially the younger generations, from the fight against the system.

But the PCP as a party of struggle and of proposals with its coherence and generosity, with its causes, values and project arouses the interest, support and adhesion of the new generations of workers and students as can seen in the growing number of young people joining the PCP or JCP [Communist Youth) bringing new blood and new energies which are indispensable to the continuation of our struggles.

New generations of militants that think, as do the other generations, that Portugal cannot spare, but needs more and more, a Party like the PCP whose main reason for existing and fighting is defending the interests of the workers and the people.

You certainly agree that the PCP will go on demanding the whole truth on this matter, as well as the withdrawal of the Portuguese troops from the Balkans.

Comrades,

When evoking and celebrating the 80th anniversary of the PCP we do not want to give our enemies or opponents any reasons to accuse us of filtering our history or the history of the communists the world over, forgetting those errors, deviations, conflicts, shady situations that no political or human achievement can be exempt from.

And of course we do not want to forget all the negative and tragic facts which occurred in the experiments and routes towards the construction of socialism and which brought to our cause so many problems, difficulties and distress.

As we have already stated in the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, we face with truth and courage all our history and all the facts of the world history of the Communist movement, however hard they may be, as we have already clearly showed in the analyses of our 13th Extraordinary Congress.

And we assumed thoroughly the pledge to reflect and act in a better and more active way towards the enrichment of a Communist project according to the needs of our country and the challenges posed by the times we are living in, completely independent from all that has hindered the attraction capacity of our ideals, highly anchored in our own history and in our struggle of the past 80 years. A project highly supported by an indissoluble political commitment that blends freedom and democracy with a project of real social change, the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and the overcoming of capitalism.

But at the same time, we refuse and will go on refusing, to accept those who charge us with direct or indirect responsibilities which we do not have and, truly speaking, we see no reason to shoulder.

We refuse and will go on refusing to accept those who defend capitalism (and who are obviously not prone to assuming the responsibility for the errors, tragedies and crimes of the system which they defend) appoint themselves as a Historical Tribunal which will unacceptably "criminalise" the Communist ideals and the Communists.

We refuse and will go on refusing to accept the fact that one may want to channel and limit all the idealistic aspirations, the heritage and the project
of the Communists to some aspects of the concrete experiences of building socialism, thus forgetting that in these aspirations, heritage and project lie the struggles of millions of men and women and dozens of Communist Parties that through their generous activity during the 20th century, through the high tribute paid in sacrifices and blood in the resistance against fascism, have given invaluable contributions towards the cause of freedom and are the basis for many advances in our civilization and for the most important political and social achievements.

We refuse and will go on refusing to accept that, in what concerns the experiences of building socialism, the dramatic and sad events of the early 90s, which have led to necessary and indispensable re-assessments, may unjustly bury all the new, hopeful and positive achievements, all the joys lived, all the changes operated, all the dedication, generosity, work and effort of millions of men and women in building a new life and new horizons of happiness for human beings.

To those who are always re-stating old accusations and slanders against the PCP and the Communists it is necessary to remind that the Portuguese Communists are not in the list of the torturers but in the list of those who were tortured; not in the list of the executioners, but in the list of the victims; not in the list of murderers of liberty, but in the lists of the most dedicated and self-sacrificed fighters for freedom.

It is necessary to remind them that the Portuguese communists and their party are not among those that collaborated with, or peacefully accepted, fascism, but among those that fought without truce or limits against it; they are not among those who after the 25th April 1974 plotted against freedom, against the new liberating movement and the legitimate ascent of the workers and popular strata of our society to the front ranks of the political and social scene, but among those who more generously and responsibly contributed to the success of the fundamental tasks to democratise national life. They are among those who more persistently stimulated the intervention of vast masses of people in the civic and political life and in the destiny of a democratic Portugal, among those who contributed, to a higher degree, to the transforming importance of
the popular achievement of freedom, dignity and citizenship, among those who have spent a greater amount of energy and made greater efforts for the small or big advances, achievements and conquests that have changed the face of our country, among those who have assumed a decisive role in the foundation and construction of the democratic regime based on the 1976 Constitution.

It is necessary to remind them that the Portuguese communists, as the communists from countless countries in the world are not in the list of those
who, today, act to strengthen the exploitation of those who work, to restrict freedom and to impoverish and mutilate political democracy, to imprison citizens in the webs of new and old alienations, to aggravate injustice and social inequalities that, in the beginnings of the 3rd millennium, are an intolerable outrage against Human beings. On the contrary, they must be ranked among those that, day after day, with their ideals, proposals, activities and multifaceted struggles and participation make a difference in the fight to defend the rights of the workers and the interests of the people in general, to defend, expand and materialize the rights and freedoms of citizens, to increase the people's participation, for democratic social and economic reforms that may solve the acute problems and needs of the people and the country, for a better life for all citizens, for a democracy in accordance with the advances and progress achieved by the struggles in the difficult course of the 20th century and the needs, hopes and possibilities of present times.

For all this, with 80 years of life and struggle we wave with confidence the banner of social justice, of human emancipation, of socialism.

With you, with the workers, with the people, let us go on making history and building the future.

Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!