Contribution of the PCP, by Albano Nunes - Minsk - 3-5th November 2007

Comrades,

On behalf of the Portuguese Communist Party I convey to you all fraternal greetings to all present and wishes of great success to this Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties. We thank the comrades of the Communist Party of Belarus for their invitation and fraternal hosting, and express our joy to be in the land that witnessed the birth and first steps of the Russian Social Democrat Labour Party that, under the leadership of Lenin, transformed itself into the revolutionary vanguard of the Russian working class and led the glorious October Revolution, whose 90th anniversary we commemorate. The Belo Russian communists and people face complex challenges today. Imperialism is not conformed with the Belo Russian refusal to submit to its diktat. We want to express to our Belo Russian comrades the solidarity of Portuguese communists with their struggle in defence of national sovereignty and for the right of their people to choose, without foreign interference, their own path of development.

Comrades,

this meeting takes place under very complex and dangerous international circumstances, but which also holds great revolutionary potential.

The October Revolution, with the triumph of the first socialist revolution in the history of humanity and the undertaking of a new society that gave rise to the USSR, exerted a determining influence in the course of the XXth century and the liberating advances that marked it. The formation of communist parties and the development of an international communist movement, the expansion of the values and ideals of socialism among the working class, the conquests of the labour movement in capitalist countries, the rise of the national liberation movement and the fall of colonial empires, the defeat of nazi-fascism - to which the Red Army and the peoples of the USSR, including the belorussian people, gave a gigantic contribution - all of this is inseparable from the October Revolution, the accomplishments and victories of socialism, the policy of peace and internationalist solidarity of the multinational USSR. This reality led to a new correlation of forces at the international level, favourable to the forces of social progress and peace, and the socialist camp affirmed itself simultaneously as a stimulus to revolutionary forces and its secure rear force, and as a powerful factor of contention of the exploitative and aggressive policies of
imperialism.

This is the historic truth that is not called into question by delays, errors or distortions that (in a context of permanent hostility and imperialist threat) led to the defeat of a unprecedented undertaking of a society without explorers or exploited. A truth that is necessary to state and defend before the violent campaigns of historic revisionism and of calumny and criminalization of communists and all the forces and peoples that resist imperialism. A truth that the terrible regressions resulting from the victory of the counter-revolution and the destruction of the USSR paradoxically stresses.

While the October Revolution impelled great liberating advances and conquests of civilization, today it is evident that the victory of the counter-revolution in the USSR and its destruction represented an enormous historic retreat, great suffering for its peoples, and immense dangers for the survival of Humankind itself. But while there is surely a unfavorable correlation of forces, with imperialism on the offensive and a labour, communist, and revolutionary movement not yet recovered from dramatic processes of division and liquidating transformation, while we still live in times of resistance and accumulation of forces, it is no less true that imperialism faces strong resistance (in Iraq, Afghanistan, in Palestine and other parts of the world), that there are important processes of reshuffling of forces with an objectively anti-imperialist character, that in several countries (like in Latin America with socialist Cuba or the bolivarian revolution in Venezuela) there are courageous statements of sovereignty and hopeful processes of progressive and revolutionary transformation of society.

The contradictory character of the situation - dangers and revolutionary potential - lies in the character of the times in which we live, a period of transition from capitalism to socialism that the October Revolution inaugurated. The capitalist system demonstrated an unexpected ability for survival, but it is mined by a structural crisis it is incapable of surpassing. Never as today was the concentration and centralization of capital so large, and so narrow the social support base of capitalism. The aggressiveness of imperialism is not a sign of strength of the capitalist system, but a result of the difficulties and contradictions that corrode it, of its inability to respond to the problems of social development, of its impotence to suffocate popular aspirations and subjugate the liberating struggle of workers and peoples.

As life is demonstrating, the reproduction of the capitalist system can only mean more monopolistic concentration, more exploitation, greater inequalities, more attacks on basic rights and freedoms, more environmental disasters, more weapons and more war. The development of the mass struggle in each country and its growing international coordination, the strengthening of an anti-imperialist front and the struggle against war can force imperialism to retreat in its dangerous race forward.
But the exit to the present dangerous situation can only be found in a path of profound economic and social anti-monopolistic transformation, in the path towards socialism.

Contrary to what its detractors pretend, the October Revolution was not a "mistake, nor a historic "accident", nor a Bolshevik "coup", nor a "specifically Russian phenomena". It was the result of a revolutionary situation that arose in the Russian society, corresponding simultaneously to a need determined by the imperialist stage of capitalism discovered by Lenin. Precisely what gives the October Revolution its greatest importance is its universal historic dimension. It was because it corresponded to a deep demand for social development that the October Revolution was able to awaken the committed and creative intervention of the masses, have such a gigantic international impact and manage to not only defend itself from the imperialist siege and invasion but achieve extraordinary successes in every domain.

Ninety years after the 7th of November of 1917, great changes have taken place in the world. But its need for revolutionary transformation of society not only lasts, but has become more current and urgent. While refusing "models" of revolution and the mechanic copying of solutions, the PCP considers that the October Revolution and associated works of Lenin, constitute an inexhaustible source of inspiration, experiences and lessons of the greatest value for the revolutionary struggle in the present times. Namely with regards to the role of the working class, the nature and basic characteristics of the party of the vanguard, the role of the masses and policy of alliances, the state as a central issue of the revolution, and many others.

The PCP, itself a product of the Portuguese working class born under the influence of the October revolution, remains faithful to its founding legacy. Not out of nostalgia but because, with its own elements of identity and history that mesh with the history of the Portuguese labour movement and people, PCP recognizes itself in the values and ideals of October and in the project for a new society that had in the Bolshevik revolution the first of many attempts that, in a bumpy processes, make of advances and retreats, victories and defeats, will end in liberating the world from the burden of capital.

It is with this profound conviction that we struggle in Portugal.

More than 30 years after the revolution of the 25th of April, 1974 - that benefiting from a favourable international conjecture, destroyed monopolistic capitalism and enshrined in the Constitution the goal of socialism - the Portuguese people face a global and violent offensive
against the rights of workers, against basic social accomplishments like the right to education, to health, to social security, against the democratic regime, against the sovereignty and independence of Portugal, evermore dangerously affected by its submission to the diktats of NATO, the European Union, and, in general, big transnational capital and imperialism. The role of the present Socialist Party Government during the EU presidency is particularly shameful, namely by approving a treaty that represents a new leap forward - neoliberal, federalist and militarist - in the process of capitalist integration and configuration of a powerful imperialist block dominated by Germany and the other great powers.

By struggling for a break with such policies and for a democratic alternative, the PCP holds the development of mass struggle and the strengthening of the party as central and decisive tasks, giving particular attention to its roots in the companies and workplaces. This is a guideline proven by our own experience and that of the communist and revolutionary movement, starting with the experience of the October Revolution: it was the existence of a "new type" of party, a class party, with a revolutionary theory, solid ties with the masses and a clear project for the revolutionary transformation of society, that allowed the solution of new problems and the achievement, defence and consolidation of proletarian power.

The situation in Portugal is difficult, but there are solid motives for confidence. The Party has become stronger. The resistance and popular struggle grows. The success of the General Strike in May and the powerful demonstration of more than 200 thousand people on the 18th of October, during the EU summit in Lisbon, called by the large trade union confederation of Portuguese workers had enormous
political meaning and constitute, together with other important struggles that have taken place in other countries, a significant contribution to the necessary recovery of the labour and trade union movement in the European continent, lately very weakened and dominated by conformity and class collaboration.

In its daily action in defence of the interests of the workers, people and country, PCP seeks to gain the masses to its program of an Advanced Democracy, holding on the horizon the construction in Portugal of a socialist society that, based on the concrete reality of the country, takes into consideration the reserve of accumulated experiences - which the revolutionaries of October did not yet possess - where the counter-revolution eventually triumphed and from where communists are in power and persist in the goal of socialism.

Comrades

While invoking the October Revolution we need to underline its profound internationalist significance, the fight against opportunism and revisionism dominant in the II International, and the foundation of the Communist International. A long path has since been travelled, but the cooperation and solidarity of communists, the international communist movement, is still an intrinsic need to the realization of the historic mission of the working class.

The PCP, which held with great satisfaction the last meeting in Portugal, highly values the process of the Meetings of Communist and Workers Parties. They constitute a useful venue of interchange and internationalist cooperation and contribute to the necessary affirmation internationally of the communist ideals and projects. With respect for the independence, positions and identity of each Party, the PCP is in favour of seeking forms of consultation and articulation between Meetings that improve the circulation of information and favour common or convergent actions around specific problems and objectives.

An important teaching of Lenin and October is that the strengthening of communist parties and their internationalist cooperation are not in opposition, rather it is indispensable for the construction of broader alliances (albeit transitory and conjectural) against the more nefarious and dangerous expression of capitalism, like fascism, militarism and war. PCP rejects and considers harmful to the advancement of the struggle against capital unprincipled understandings with the social democracy - today structurally dependent on capitalism - or solutions such as the "left european party". At the same time, we consider that the strengthening of cooperation among communists is inseparable from the necessary strengthening of the anti-imperialist front in diverse components.

We are thus committed in contributing for the success of our Meeting, to come up with lines of intervention, concrete objectives and initiatives to strengthen our cooperation, reinforce the anti-imperialist combat and project the alternative of Socialism to increasingly wider masses.