(excerpts)
Our Conference is drawing to a close, after a great effort by the organisations to involve the militants in the debate and reflection to find answers and ways to enable us to overcome deficiencies, dynamize the political initiative from the base to the top, strengthen our capacity of struggle and qualified intervention in opposing the policy of the right.
And we can affirm that, the materialization of the first measures of this government, further confirm the need of this Party and its reinforcement and further confirm the importance of the contributions that were brought to this Conference.
But, at the closing of our National Conference, we wish to salute in a special way all the militants of the Party who, through their participation and intervention in the meetings and assemblies held for the political debate and election of the delegates or through other individual contributions and reflections, were engaged in expressing their viewpoints and in fully exercising their democratic rights in the internal life of our Party and reaffirmed the irreplaceable value of the frank and loyal debate with their comrades. Through their participation they gave a new testimony of how, in spite of everything, there continues strong and alive in our Party the just conception that there will be in the PCP different responsibilities, experiences, paths, types of knowledge and opinion, but none of this can erase neither the equality of rights and duties among members of the PCP, nor the indispensable conscience that, always and always, we all have to learn from all.
It is known, and here we reaffirm without any margin of doubt, that we have our own standards, demands and ambitions for the democratic functioning of our Party, which set us apart from any self-contentment deriving from the simple comparison of our life, our rules and criteria from those of other parties.
That is why, it is well known, and here we clearly reaffirm, that we consider it perfectly natural that there are dissatisfactions and criticisms but also our common engagement in strengthening our internal democracy and the largest possible participation of the militants in setting the guidelines and intervention of the Party.
But this does not hinder us from finding it strange that all those who view PCP from the outside and who, from the outside, render devastating opinions on it and pour upon it arrogant sentences, only “discover” the “problems” of the internal democracy of the parties because of PCP’s Congresses and Conferences (and never about the Congresses and Conferences of other parties), just as because of the PCP “discover” and are interested in the number of the militants and their respective age groups, the percentage of the payment of dues and many other internal aspects, without being frank in recognizing that they can only talk about this because the PCP calmly discloses the data that other parties almost systematically hide or omit.
To avoid any misunderstandings, we repeat: we maintain our dissatisfactions and awareness of the deficiencies we have to overcome and, definitely, we are not cultivators of criteria and techniques of consolation. But we challenge those in good faith to look at the last local and legislative election results and the parties who suffered defeats, and see if they can discover any other party, besides the PCP, which is presently at the end of an almost six month long debate. Any other party, besides the PCP, which has so straightforwardly assumed the problems, doubts and challenges created by these results and the political changes they brought. Any other party, besides the PCP, which has created so many spaces for the militants’ intervention and opinion. Any other Party, besides the PCP, which has published in its newspaper almost 150 articles with diversified opinions from its militants and carries out a democratic election of delegates to an important period of political debate.
The Political Resolution proposal now voted, dedicates its first chapter, from the very instant, to the new political framework deriving from the17th March election results, and the formation of the PSD/CDS-PP government, holding an absolute majority of deputies.
As is there expressed, we are facing a very negative situation as proved by the Programme of Government and the measures announced there, which point to the worsening and deepening of the policies of the right, to further pursue the neo-liberal policies, go a step further towards the privatisation of important companies and the public systems of healthcare, education and other public services.
Taking advantage of the so-called “grace period”, and using its absolute majority, the government has launched a wide offensive.
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At a time when the recessive trends are evident, the budgetary policy should have been an instrument of compensation, namely through productive public investment and not the opposite. The “in great haste restrictive policy and declarations on the country being penniless” are creating an extremely negative climate, which cannot be recovered by the political marketing of presenting 40 measures, said to revive the economy.
The subordination of the productive apparatus, the liquidation of our fisheries and our agriculture and the handing over of important strategic companies through privatisation to foreign capital domination, has meant a growing substitution of national by foreign production, alarmingly increasing the external accounts deficit and foreign debt. The pursuit of this policy will increase the subordination of the political power to the economic power, which in turn will increasingly be determined by foreign decision centres.
The great interests are now directly represented in government through ministers and state secretaries. Their class options are clear, although the government tries to mystify them with financial difficulties and a rhetoric of victimization such as: “ we found a very bad situation, we have to take measures, no government likes to take unpopular measures!” We accept that no government “likes” to take unpopular measures, but it is evident that one cannot satisfy the greed of the great interests and find ways of meeting the just popular aspirations and claims, namely when the submission to the Stability Pact cannot make ends meet.
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Confronting the government coalition parties with their electoral promises, PCP’s Parliamentary Group presented a proposal by which government would compensate the lowest pensions and wages in Public Administration, where the loss of buying power due to inflation has been significant.
It is worth reminding that both PSD and PP voted against PCP’s proposal. It was thus clear what PSD’s and PP’s promises during the election campaign meant and how these parties honoured their pledges. At the same time PS’s opposition was clear, having sided with the parliamentary right due to its own governmental policy.
In its first measures the government of the right has often confronted PS, using affirmations, practices and pledges of the previous government with wretched policies in the fields of health, education, tax reform, policy of wages and even in relation to the “ceiling” in Social Security.
Even in relation to the privatisation plan announced by the present government, Jaime Gama was charged with revealing, amid smiles from the deputies of the rest of the parliamentary groups, that this was the list, which the socialist government had set for materializing! This revelation, by itself, is yet another example of the line of the neo-liberal policy that the previous government wanted to pursue, also created discomfort among some PS deputies, precisely among those who now want to give an image of PS as a great opponent of the government policy and wipe out from memory the practices, pledges and policies of the right.
On our part, we have been presenting in the Assembly of the Republic the various proposals we presented to the Portuguese people, honouring our word and confronting the government with its true options.
In truth, in spite of having been involved during these three months in a deep political debate in preparation of this Conference, PCP did not close for discussion, nor diminished its intervention in the field of mass struggle and institutional level.
The communists were all over the country in small and great struggles in defence of jobs, improvement of wages, and rights of those who work, just demands of the populations.
The PCP also participated in vigils of solidarity with the Palestinian people and the demonstrations and rallys for Peace in Lisbon, Oporto, Coimbra and Évora.
It carried out actions of explanation and protest on the tax increase and cuts in government-subsidized loans for buying homes.
It was present in demonstrations by RTP (Portuguese television) workers and protests against government policy on this matter; in demonstrations and protest by Public Administration, CGTP-IN, students, fishermen, and textile workers and in launching new and important battles such as the campaign “ a lot of energy for so little money”, for the dignification of the building workers. The PCP also showed its active solidarity with the workers from the several companies, which were closed or relocated in several districts, also confronting the government on this subject with its responsibilities and pledges by PSD and PP in the previous legislature.
At the institutional level, the bills on Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy, the reinstitution of adding stock profits to the income tax, the lowering to the 35-hour week, a special updating of disability and old age pensions, the creation of Lisbon and Oporto Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, the increase of the national minimum wage, were the first to be presented in the Assembly of the Republic in this legislature.
Later on, we presented legislative proposals in such diverse matters as changes in the law on “ Portuguese Communities Council”; the creation of Representative Organs of Portuguese living abroad; the recovery of empty and degraded buildings in historical centres and cores; changes in the scheme of entry, stay, exit and dismissal of foreigners from the national territory, the revocation of legal discrimination on access to jobs due to nationality; the combat against evasion and fraud in contributions to the Social Security scheme; popular legislative initiative; a new form of Social Security financing based upon gross value added and changes in the scheme of the exercise of the right of petition.
We prompted parliamentary appreciation of the National Water Plan, we presented Projects of Resolution in defence of the national rights on the revision the Common Fishing Policy, for a real policy of defence and promotion of the Teaching of Portuguese Language and Culture abroad and on the situation in the Middle East. We also proposed the setting up of a Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the acceptance by the State of Benfica’s shares, as guaranty against tax arrears under execution.
Among many other interventions, stands, the PCP materialized a valuable hearing on public service in Television and Radio and a highly participated public meeting on the government’s decision to merge Institutes linked with Prevention and Fight against Drug Addiction. I believe these are clear examples of an engaged and diversified initiative and intervention by our Party.
In spite of this whole intense and qualified intervention by our Party during these last two months of the new government, a media organ yesterday referred to the PCP as a party “incapable of having a political and parliamentary presence which makes the headlines” and as a party affected by “a political inexistence as leading actor of the opposition”.
We are not surprised by this blindness and autism. Those who mistake the prejudiced pages they write as a mirror of the reality, those who will always find more interesting a sneeze or a good intrigue in the passages of the Assembly of the Republic than a good and serious bill by PCP, those who do not give up bending the truth and reality till it fits their dogmatic mental schemes about the PCP, will always think so and always write so. Because, to these souls, the separation between the monsters and the beauties, between greys and mediatic, between brilliant and dim, between fresh and tired, between angels and devils, has already been made long ago and will never suffer change or renovation.
The policy of the right, which the workers and the people are faced with, makes it all the more necessary to have a strong, more acting and more intervening PCP. And with also this in aim we held this Conference.
From here we would also like to salute the struggle of the Public Administration and Common Front, as well as the CGTP-IN, the great Trade Union central of the Portuguese workers and stress the meaning of the two magnificent demonstrations in defence of the workers, which we fully supported.
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The new political framework and our responsibilities to the workers, the people and the country, demands that this Party strengthen its influence that also has to do with its organisation, as a fundamental instrument of linkage to the masses and a means of giving material strength to our ideas, proposals and objectives.
The set of guidelines which are part of the approved Resolution are of a great importance, like the stimulus and valorisation of militancy, the own initiative of each organisation and the militants, with the clear idea that the Party is not an abstract entity but - in each workplace or place of dwelling – that which all its militants manage to attain, through their initiative inserted in the dynamics and functioning of the Party collective.
The growth of the active nucleus, the renovation and rejuvenation of organisms, the increase of the number of comrades with tasks and responsibilities and a wider attribution of responsibilities of cadres are objectives of great importance and actuality, which have now to be materialized, It is also of great importance and meaning the launching and success of the campaign of recruitment of 2000 new militants at the end of next year’s first six months.
In relation to this issue, countering all those who along the years have been sentencing PCP’s ageing (in superficial analyses which seem based upon the strange principle that only PCP’s members age and the others do not), its lack of capacity of attraction and death, from this rostrum we want to inform the Conference and the party collective that during the past year the enlistment in the Party came to more 2400 members, 45% of which with less than 30 years, without obviously counting on JCP. For someone who, as some say, has lost its power of attraction and mainly in relation to the younger generations, these numbers are a cold shower, but also the confirmation that this Party of causes and values, of struggle and project, has a future and with its eyes on the future.
The flow of young sympathizers and the significant growth of youth who have lately come to the Party, and who are now militants, demand on our part an increasingly bolder policy of insertion, valorisation and responsibilisation of these new generations of cadres. And we have to pay more attention and deepen the issues of youth and the dialogue of the Party with the new generations. And from this rostrum we want to valorise and salute the struggle and action of JCP, PCP’s youth, which have been enlarging its ranks and will shortly hold its Congress.
Also of great importance is the development of work with other social strata and sectors, namely, the intellectuals and technical cadres, the micro, small and medium size entrepreneurs, the retired, pensioners and handicapped. It is equally necessary to consider measures to strengthen the action aimed at the participation of women in equality and our intervention with the farmers and fishermen.
Another issue which has to be always present and should be as natural as the air we breathe, is the exercise of internal democracy as an essential characteristic of the Party’s functioning which, as the Resolution affirms, is not defined only by the its constitutional norms but fundamentally by concrete practices.
The respect for the opinion of others, to know how to listen and to be heard, the rejection of authoritarianism, of giving orders and the imposition of individual and group opinions over collective opinion; the dynamization of Organisation Assemblies; the holding of plenary sessions of militants where opinion largely circulates; the launching of an action in the whole Party organisation to accelerate the clearing of the situation of the Party members to know with more rigour how many we are and what we are and contribute for the integration of militants in organisms and organisations; a regular rendering of accounts; the development of PCP’s site on the Internet and a more regular attribution of space in “Avante!” for the participation of Party members, are directions of great importance so as to deepen internal democracy.
PCP’s electoral influence
The electoral acts and the factors that weighed most heavily on the bad results were also examined in preparation of our Conference.
Much has been said and put forward in approaching the factors that determined the bad results. But allow me to say something else in relation to the legislative elections, because this theme requires to be deepened.
And the issue I would like to present for your reflection is this: two years ago, in the penultimate legislative elections, with a less discredited PS, we managed to elect two more deputies and a percentage growth, albeit small.
Two years later, with a more discredited and unmasked PS we suffered a bad result. How to explain that two years later, with an important and recognized intervention in the Assembly of the Republic and outside it we had a disappointing result? What weighed?
The events in the East and the organisation difficulties could not have weighed more in these last elections, than in others, such as the mystification centred on the choice of the Prime Minister. Then, what was most important, what was most characteristic and specific in these last elections?
After the sudden call of early elections, in a highly marked political and opinion conjuncture, in relation to CDU (Democratic Unitarian Coalition), due to the various impacts of its bad results in local elections, many voters thought that PS had already been punished in local elections and should be given another chance. Besides, in these elections there was also the real danger of the right returning to power, which rendered the mystification of the useful vote easy.
But, in relation to our Party and without underestimating our deficiencies and mistakes, also weighed heavily and very negatively on PCP’s image, the repeated affirmations made by some Party members with great repercussion in the media, that we had appointed PS as “the main enemy”, that we pushed PS to the right, that we were responsible for early elections and that the expression of our availability to examine with other forces to the left the possibility of materializing a policy of the left was neither credible nor true, putting forward mean and false arguments on this aspect. Also weighed heavily, the label put on us till the last minute, rekindling all anti-communist prejudices, of a party, which did not take into account human aspects, of a cold, insensible, abominable party for not including in its slates such and such a candidate…
We are convinced that, in the Party as a whole, it was felt as not natural nor innocent that, having some members achieved rostrums, means of diffusion and media coverage which in the past were generally denied when holding responsible positions within PCP, they did not made use of these media exposure to present any argument favouring the vote on CDU or make any significant or clear appeal to vote CDU on March 17th.
We are also convinced that, in the Party as a whole, there is large predominance of the conscience of the absolute unacceptability of the pursuit of attempts of imposing, as an accomplished fact, of constitution of organized tendencies, with their own spokesmen and acting, whenever they wish, in public contestation of the Party’s guidelines and pursuing internal group objectives, with group spirit and group tactics, which are frontally offensive of the principles of loyalty and solidarity among communists.
Together with all this, we are convinced that, in the Party as a whole, largely prevails and predominates a vivid conscience that some members of the Party, claim for themselves the “right” to attitudes, methods and procedures that, in the present or in the past, would never have tolerated if directed towards them or against the responsibilities they held or hold. And there is a vivid conscience that the generalization to all militants (and with inevitably diversified guidelines or purposes) of the alleged “rights” that some invoke for themselves, would lead to the complete disintegration of the Party and the inexorable desertion of the responsibilities it has to the workers, the people, democracy and the country.
On this point, and to avoid a well-known attempt of creating confusion, we wish to once again stress what should be obvious and has marked all the positions by PCP’s leadership: these critical remarks are directed to those who made the referred declarations, those who assumed the referred public behaviour and those who promoted, organized and co-ordinated the referred initiatives and not all those who may share similar opinions or perhaps have thought, in a conjuncture of great bitterness and worry, of supporting this or that initiative.
In the preparation of this Conference, successive appeals were made to carry out within the Party a live, frontal and serene debate. What has been at stake are not opinions and much less “crimes of opinion”, but attitudes and behaviours on the margins of the Party and its rules. The Party is not a debating club. There is reflection and debate within the Party. But, after deciding and voting the conclusions, they are meant for the whole party collective.
The Resolution of this Conference clearly pronounces on the indispensability, reinforced in the present context of party life, of re-establishing, preferably by the voluntary decision of the Party members, of the bonds of brotherhood, solidarity, loyalty and the insertion of the legitimate individual opinions in the collective reflection and work, which, constituting an ethical and political imperative deriving from the Party’s Constitution, all members, although maintaining divergences, have pledged to accept.
It is our firmest wish and hope, because it would be best for PCP, that this message and this appeal is understood and heard, so as to put an end to the spirals of crispation and the drifts of systematic confrontation and that, independently of the legitimate maintenance of divergences, the Party members do not accompany, circumscribed but premeditated purposes of causing higher damages to the Party.
An international conjuncture marked by great uncertainties
Our Conference also took place in an international conjuncture marked by great uncertainties and the great uncertainty on the future of the financial and economic situation of many regions. And this at a time when the crisis continues to flagellate several countries in several continents, when there is once again distrust in the main stock markets and when “capitalist globalisation” continues to deepen inequalities, concentration of wealth and condemn millions of human beings to underdevelopment, misery and even death by hunger.
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And it is also, in the framework of this rhetoric that after the tragic events of 11th. September, the subject of the anti-terrorist struggle has served as a screen for the US strategy of hegemonic domination of the Planet. There is no attempt to draw lessons from the events of the 11th.September. It is not considered urgent to put an end to regional conflicts and fiscal havens, where terrorism finds its hotpot culture and financing. The need is not felt of intervening against humanity’s most striking injustices. On the contrary, the struggle against terrorism is to Bush an instrument of his strategy of “variable geometry”, whose final objective is the dominance and satisfaction of US interests against all and everything and which is also expressed in the refusal of the Kyoto Protocol, unilateral commercial protectionism, the concept of the evil axis and the countries which comprise it, in the objectives of harnessing its allies in new bellicist adventures against Iraq and Iran.
In our Conference from this rostrum, we who condemn and fight this policy, express our active solidarity with all the peoples who struggle and namely the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority and also the forces of peace who, with courage, in Israel fight for a just and peaceful resolution, for the end of the spiral of violence and against the criminal policy of Sharon, who with Bush’s support reaffirms that to Israel it is out of the question to return to the 1967 borders or dismantle the settlements.
Also from here we wish to send a word of friendship and solidarity to the people of Angola and MPLA, who now have more certain roads for peace and to the people of East Timor and Fretilin, who just a short while ago celebrated their independence and always counted upon PCP’s solidary support.
In spite of the preparations of the Conference and the energies we have spent on the dynamization of the Party, we have tried, together with the answers to national politics, as we have referred, to also give our positive contribution to the main international events and forums.
During the last years the European Union had a large majority of socialist and social-democratic governments… The policy they pursued was a policy of the right.
The neo-liberal content of the European Union’s policies, the privatisations, the dismantling of public services, the irrational march towards the Stability Pact criteria, the creation of pension funds to feed the stock roulette, the job dismissals to increase the stock value, the policy of ccomplished facts far from popular control, has been feeding the uneasiness and dissatisfaction of the populations and xenophobic, racist, populist and right wing drifts. And then, when the crisis worsens and unemployment rises there is the hotpot for unscrupulous demagogues to hurl upon the foreigner, the immigrant, the one with a different colour, the cause of all evil, from insecurity to lack of jobs.
Also in relation to the issue of immigration, which was part of the agenda of this Summit, it is necessary to reaffirm that, that it is not with police measures that one solves its problems.
The aid for development, the management and legalization of the migratory fluxes, the fair immigration agreements, the combat against the mafias and exploitation of those without papers, the policy of integration and respect for the differences and the combat against the logic of some economic sectors which pressure for the increase of migratory fluxes so as to liquidate the attained rights and reduce wages, are essential vectors for a just and human policy of immigration.
A force with causes and convictions A force with a future
It is necessary that the collective reflection continue during the normal course of the Party’s internal life. But it is also necessary that the Party members answer affirmatively to the vivid sense and strong appeal that the Conference made, so that, through their opinion, work and action be engaged in the materialization of the decided guidelines and work. Open to the outside, looking to the future, with our feet well set on the ground and with a greater and more active intervention and responsibilisation of all militants in the Party’s life, we shall be able to overcome difficulties, strengthen the intervention and the influence and be up to the responsibilities towards the people and the country, as an essential force of the Portuguese democracy, as a driving force against the policy of the right and the future construction of an alternative of the left. As a revolutionary force with causes and convictions, as a force with a future.
Besides its conclusions and the important lines and commitments of work they embody, our National Conference and the democratic debate that preceded it, witness and give strength to a set of attitudes which, once collectively assumed, can be decisive for the present and the future of our Party during the difficult and hard times we face but which we want to change into times of hope and success.
Firstly, the attitude of a Party, which recognises without disguises its difficulties, insufficiencies and problems but wants to affirm its renovated ambition of strengthening its influence and thus serve better the workers and the Portuguese people. But does not wish to commit this slow and daily suicide which would be, in view of the bitterness caused by our difficulties and failures, to proceed to ignore, devalue and raze all that is important, positive and marking resulting from our action and indispensable role in Portuguese society.
Also the attitude of a Party that wants to know better and more profoundly the realities it faces and the movement of ideas and aspirations, which are expressed in Portuguese society. But that it wants to do so to find better ways to enrich its proposals for progress, transformation and liberation and for its better irradiation and not to kneel under accomplished facts and alleged inevitabilities or submit to the dictatorship of viewers’ shares or easy but dishonourable prescriptions of populist demagoguery.
It is, above all, the attitude of a Party that assumes the complexity and density of the interrogations, interpellations and challenges placed on its struggle and future and that knows how to live together with doubts and uncertainties. But that does not give up its vast heritage of struggles and proposals, that is ready to fight for the justice and vitality of its ideals and project, having socialism in horizon, and that holds with vigour and confidence its solid link with the great causes of freedom, democracy, social progress, dignity, human freedom and happiness, a world of peace, a fairer and more solidary world.
Long live the National Conference
Long live PCP
