(excerpts)
Speaking during the rally of the 25th. "Avante!" Festival, we know perfectly well that even the most inspired words could never fairly express everything about the 25 years of this event and its meaning.
And this is, first of all, the first great homage that can be done to our Festival which, being so rich and so diversified, being a surprising thousand-faced mirror, being an admirable saga of communist militancy and human effort and a splendorous artistic, cultural and political accomplishment, is always more expressive than all words, always more intense than all portraits, always stronger and moving than all definitions.
26 years and 25 festivals after FIL [Lisbon International Fair] [...] there is above all a justice that deserves to be done, a homage that has to be paid and a gratitude which we owe each other.
The justice, the homage and the gratitude to the many thousands of militants and friends of the Party, the successive generations of men, women and youth from a variety of professions, qualifications, knowledge and experiences, who, in a feat of singular generosity, year after year, in millions of hours of work and creation, raised the 25 editions of this great and incomparable festival of the PCP, a festival of April, a festival of the people, a festival of freedom and democracy, a festival of the youth and the future.
This great and incomparable Festival that we see and feel not as a small perfect world for our self-content, but as a territory of affirmation of our responsibilities and commitments and as a space open to the country and its problems, open to life and its challenges, open to the world and its interpellations.
This great and incomparable festival of a will to change which does not give up, a festival of a hope that does not falter, a festival of democratic convictions which do not give in nor abdicate, a festival of communist values and ideals which renew and enrich themselves but do not surrender, a festival of in submission and verticality which will never allow themselves to be humiliated or broken, a festival of the Portuguese Communist Party, which has been making history and building the future through out 80 years.
[...]
We shall shortly be debating the Budget and it is clear that the Socialist Party (PS) will present it as if it were its first Budget, and not the 7th., as if the previous ones were not made viable by the right-wing, as if this Budget had not the genetic markings of the Stability Pact, the privatisations, the Rectifying Budget and the 50 measures of the so-called contention of expenditure.
And just like a vestal, playing the role of a victim and trying to blame on the oppositions, it will wrap it in high-sounding words, with many designs, many declarations of social conscience, many references to external conjuncture, many promises and many appeals for understanding and resignation.
But nothing of it resists the evidence of facts and responsibilities of the executed policy.
That is why, from here we say, that it will follow a bad path if, instead of joining its voice to that of the countries which question the Stability Pact,
as is the case of the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, maintains a fundamentalist and well-behaved pupil's posture, as the present finance minister recently did when saying that " Portugal has to fulfil its European commitments", and holding as real dogmas the percentages of the deficits relating to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
[...]
Our Parliamentary Group will present in the Assembly of the Republic a bill for the Portuguese government to carry out diplomatic actions aiming at the suspension and revision of the Stability Pact.
At a time when there are increasing negative signs in the Portuguese economy, essentially due to the right-wing policy, it is necessary that the Budget, at least in part, would counterbalance the contracting situation and not the opposite.
[...]
We do not just take a stand
On our part we can truthfully say that all that was positive approved in the Parliament had the initiative, or the impulse, the intervention, the mark and the vote of the PCP, as was the case of the tax reform on income, the judges of peace, the improvement in labour legislation - compensation of workers in bankruptcy cases, fight against job precariousness, punishment of discriminatory labour practice based on sex - or the measures of social support to unwed mothers and student fathers, guaranty of access of emergency contraceptive medicines, protection of de facto unions, policy of cooperation in the fight against Aids and all our struggle for improvements of wages, retirement pay, pensions, the situation of the handicapped.
In fact, in the great causes and issues of national life, this Party did not just take a stand. With the sense of struggle and proposal, it mobilized wills and took the initiative, had intervention, identified with or adopted as its own the more heartfelt and true aspirations and claims of the male and female workers, the youth and the populations.
In a framework of worsening social problems we left last year's Avante Festival and commemorated the Party's 80 years, contacting hundreds of thousands of workers during two National Campaigns, centred on the struggle against job precariousness and labour casualties, the demand for more justice on taxes, demand of timely payment of back pay to workers in companies under bankruptcy.
We were on the field in the companies, the workplaces, while giving legislative expression to these problems, presenting bills to change the law on term contracts, the revaluation of labour accident pensions, the acceleration of the payment of wages owed to the workers from companies in situations of bankruptcy. Bills, some of which were approved and were not more advanced in the proposed solutions due to the vote by PS and the right.
We fought for a tax reform that would collect more taxes from the fabulous and speculative profits and would unburden the labour and family incomes.
We presented a bill for land restructure in the perimeter of the Alqueva Dam irrigation which, under the Constitution of the Republic, will give land access to small farmers, farm employees and young farmers. Access to all those who want to farm and can actually transform the huge public investment into a pole of development of Alentejo. I want to announce that PCP's Parliamentary Group will put our bill on the agenda for discussion at the opening of the next legislative session of the Assembly of the Republic.
We defend a Basic Law on Social Security, which would preserve its public and universal character, respecting the already acquired workers' rights, as well as those under formation.
[...]
100 thousand signatures for better wages
New and increasing threats to the workers and their rights loom in the horizon.
[...]
It is in this framework of apprehension and trust, taking into account this great Party which does not turn its back to difficulties, that we want to announce from this rostrum, beginning with this rally, the launching of a national signature campaign with the aim of collecting one hundred thousand signatures under the motto " For fairer wages, for more quality of life", addressed to the Prime Minister, proposing a general and real increase of wages and of pensions and retirement pay; the recovery of the buying power lost through the increase in the cost of living. Defending the convergence of the minimum national wage with the average salary and the values practised in other European Union countries. Demanding the repeal of the measures aiming to penalise the salaries and the rights of the Public Administration workers.
[...]
CDU- a great Local Government project at the service of the populations
The local elections are near. During the coming months a lot of the energy and availability of thousands of PCP's militants and CDU activists will be concentrated on this important political battle, which we have to wage successfully and confirm CDU as a great Local Government force at national level. We set out for these elections to advance and grow. Aware of the difficulties and obstacles that lie ahead, but with trust in our posssibilities, the value of our proposals and our project, the merit of our candidacies. We are aware of the disproportion of means, the increasing use of the State apparatus and public funds in favour of the candidates and the objectives of the party in government, the artificial dramatization of the electoral fight in several municipalities. To face this, we rely on the engagement and generosity of our activists and militants, the proximity with the populations and their problems, the recognized testimony of the action in local government marked by seriousness and competency. The populations know us. They know they can count on our work and dedication and our engagement to work for the improvement of the living conditions. And they know that we will be at their side in the struggle for their rights and the satisfaction of their aspirations.
[...]
To give more strength to CDU in the coming local elections is to confirm CDU as the main left-wing force in Local Government, ensure the continuation of a serious work, be it in majority or in minority, and a work which has been proven in dozens of municipalities and which changed for the better the living conditions of the populations, strengthen the presence of those who do not keep away from struggle, do not silence before injustice and give voice to those who don't have a say. To strengthen CDU is to contribute to the defence and valorisation of local government, widen the current of those who fight for decentralisation and those who wish to preserve the democratic plurality of local power. To strengthen CDU is also, naturally, to contribute to the strengthening of the possibilities of opening the way, in our country, for a new policy at the service of the people and the country.
Capitalist "globalisation" is not a fatality
The struggle at the national level and the struggle, solidarity and cooperation at the regional and international level is the path of the revolutionary, left-wing and progressive forces. The fruits of the "new imperialist order" are there, in the world situation, in the various conflicts, in the fantastic
concentration and centralisation of capital, in the fantastic concentration of wealth, in the extension of poverty, even in the more developed countries, in the successive regional crises of capitalism and in the accumulation of the crisis factors at global level, in the strong decreasing acceleration of the American economy and in the acceptance that the problem lies in "the surplus productive capacity caused by over-investment in technology fed by the "bubble" of the stock exchange".
The Darwinian logic which presides capitalist "globalisation" has its limits, in spite of the "happy globalisation" sold by the "snake oil vendors". The situation lived by a large part of humanity, the crises in Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Argentina … speak for themselves.
Humanity is not doomed to capitalism nor to the arrogance of the North American imperialism, as witnessed among other events, by the bombings in Iraq, the refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the rejection of UN observers in Palestine, the re-edition of the "star wars" and the arms race, the boycott of the Security Council decision to hold a referendum in Western Sahara, the refusal to apply the Convention on chemical and bacteriological arms, the "Echelon" spy system, the destabilisation in the Balkans and its ideological creed: less taxes, that is, less taxes on capital; more flexibilisation , that is, less rights for the workers; more free exchange, that is, more facilities for the dominance by multinationals.
This policy - and this is a positive aspect of the international situation that is important to valorise - faces an increasing resistance and opposition from several states and peoples. But we consider it necessary to pay still more attention to the struggle against militarism and the arms race an intervene firmly, to make Portugal, in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the Constitution of the Republic, give an active contribution to the cause of peace and disarmament.
From this "Avante!" Festival we wish to greet all the peoples and workers in struggle, but let me refer and greet the people of Timor who, as you will remember, two years ago at this very place, in a particularly dramatic moment, was involved in a strong embrace of solidarity, and to whom we renew our entire solidarity, in its struggle for freedom, democracy, independence and the reconstruction of their country. And allow us, while greeting the people of Timor, to warmly greet Fretilin and its expressive and unequivocal electoral victory.
At the present time it is also particularly necessary and urgent to give solidarity to the Palestinian people, who is being victim of one of the most cynical aggressions of modern history. The Palestinian people cannot continue to be persecuted, humiliated and barbarously assaulted in their own land, in their own country. Ariel Sharon, his followers and his arrogant, belligerent and provocative policy have to be isolated and fought, and Israel has to be condemned for its flagrant disrespect for the United Nations Charter and insolent affront of International Law. The pertinent UN resolutions, namely 242 and 338, should be implemented without delay. The escalade of violence is not the way for the resolution of problems, as is also recognized by the peace forces in Israel.
The PCP sees the liberating struggle and the courageous Intifada of the Palestinian people as its own and considers unacceptable the silent posture of the government. PLO, Fatah, the People's Party of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose General Secretary was abjectly murdered a few days ago, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all the fighters of the Palestinian freedom cause, can count upon the friendship and active solidarity of the Portuguese communists.
A word on the Angolan situation and to demand from this rostrum that the sanctions and political isolation decided by the UN against UNITA and the sinister Jonas Savimbi, be effectively applied and , to begin with ,by the Portuguese government.
We also want to greet the struggle of the revolutionary parties, the Unions and different social movements, who, after the success of the struggle against the Multilateral Investment Agreement (AMI) have been impelling important interventions against capitalist globalisation and dynamics awakening consciousness of the peoples as in Seattle and Genoa, following among others, the Göteborg Summit, the IMF meeting in Prague and the Porto Alegre Forum.
We are aware of the capacity of adaptation by capitalism and its operations to reconvert, integrate, and if possible, neutralise the movements who question the system and fondle the inconsequent provocative movements. But we are convinced that there is great potential and possibilities to increase the fight against the new imperialist order and the new WTO projects, which try to turn into merchandise all human activities, including human life.
The consistent struggle at the national level and the convergence or complementarity of the struggles at regional and international level for social change, "globalisation" of solidarity, cooperation and peace is ever more necessary, as well as the struggle, in vaster areas like the European Union, for specific, even though limited, objectives, such as the struggle against job precariousness and employment with rights and a fairer distribution of National Income, the struggle for a 35-hour week without reduction of pay or loss of privileges, the struggle for the implementation of the Tobin Tax, the struggle against the dislocation of companies in search of lower wages and deregulations …
In this unique and touching human meeting, where is affirmed the role of labour, creation, beauty, art and culture, where principles and convictions are reaffirmed, where the banners of great causes are raised, PCP's deep popular roots, the justness of its struggle, the actualness and vitality of the communist ideals, stand out in an undisguisable way.
Each and every day, we try to prove that there are reasons for more Portuguese men and women to support us and this is surely a great lever for the pressing national changes.
But we are not like those who only say to the Portuguese people: trust us.
No, we always say that there are reasons to trust us, and at the same time, we also say that there are reasons for the working men and women and the citizens in general to trust the strength of their reasons, trust the efficacy of their own intervention and struggle, and which nothing or no one can replace.
That is why, once again on the threshold of great battles, we address all men and women who are sensitive to the ideals of social progress, to blow away the smoke curtains that are continuously launched to hide the real causes of the problems, drive away the supreme mystification that the parties, all parties, are equal, reject the pressures to turn you into mere spectators of a purposely tiresome and artificial "political game" and strengthen your conscience that through your opinion and intervention you can and you should be the agents of the political change that is necessary for our country.
In this 25th.edition of the Festival, where we also celebrate the 70 years of our "Avante!" and the 80 years of life and struggle of our Party, with its valuable and irreplaceable heritage, we reaffirm to the workers, our people, our foreign friends, that the PCP will not desert the great causes which are a reason for its existence, and that, with renewed energies and renewed vigour, it will continue the struggle for social change, the deepening of democracy, the great universal cause of human dignity and emancipation, always beside the workers, always beside the people, always for socialism, always for Portugal.
Long live the 25th. "Avante!" Festival!
Long live JCP!
Long live PCP!
