Political  resolution  of the xxi pcp congress

 

CHAPTER I

 

International situation

 

1.1 The crisis of capitalism

 

The international situation’ evolution is still, in essence, marked by the deepening structural crisis of capitalism; by imperialism’s exploitative and aggressive counter-offensive in the wake of socialism’s defeats in Eastern Europe and the disappearence of the USSR, seeking to regain the positions lost during the course of the 20^th Century and to assert its hegemonic domination of the world; by the continued resistance and struggle of the workers and the peoples within a world balance of forces that is unfavourable to the Communist Parties and other anti-imperialist forces. In this context, there is an ongoing and complex process of realignment of forces on a global scale, which highlights the USA’s relative decline. The situation has generally worsened, particularly as regards the intensification of international tension, the advance of reactionary and fascistic forces and the danger of war.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified the trends marking the international situation’s evolution and exposes even more sharply the deep and irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism and the structural crisis which plagues it, with expressions at various levels, namely economic, social, political, cultural and environmental.

The developments in the international situation confirm the exploitative, oppressive, aggressive and predatory nature of capitalism and how it is incapable of responding to the problems confronting Humanity, for which it is responsible.

Within this general framework, characterized by great instability and uncertainty, the following traits can be highlighted:

- Accumulation of elements of economic stagnation and recession, particularly in the capitalist great powers, and the succession, at shorter intervals and with varying intensity, of peaks of crisis, in the context of the structural crisis, which are rooted in overaccumulation and overproduction, that are intrinsic to the capitalist system.

- Persistence and even intensification of the factors underlying the crisis that erupted in 2007-2008 and the recognized – including by sectors of the ruling class – inevitability of further, possibly even more serious, cyclical crises. The Covid-19 pandemic, which broke out in an already latent situation of crisis, is being harnessed to intensify exploitation and attack rights and freedoms.

- Increasing concentration and centralization of capital and wealth and worsening social inequality, a trend marked by a more unequal distribution of income between Labor and Capital, the drainage of public resources for speculative activities and for economic groups, especially for the finance sector, by a new impetus in the processes of privatization, mergers and acquisitions.

- A brutal intensification of the exploitation of workers with a violent attack by big capital on labor rights, trade union rights and working-class organizations.

- Attacks against social rights, particularly by calling into question public services and the State’s social functions, with privatization processes at the core.

- Deepening injustice and discrimination, particularly against youth, women and immigrants.

- The capitalist system’s difficulty in relaunching significant cycles of accumulation and in countering the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, driving a growing financialization of the economy, an overexploitation of workers and the development of new lines of capitalist reproduction and accumulation.

- Worsening environmental problems, the destruction of ecosystems and the predation of natural resources, which are inherent to the capitalist system, as well as their instrumentalization to subordinate labour and workers' rights, develop new business areas, impose greater concentration and centralization of capital and new privatizations and renewed forms of economic and geostrategic domination.

- A new qualitative leap in the scientific and technical revolution characterized by using machines for tasks that until now required abstract brain functions (artificial intelligence) and other developments, in particular in areas such as information and communication technologies, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, nanotechnology, genetic engineering or synthetic biology. A leap presented by the ideologues of capitalism as the solution to economic, social and environmental crises for which it is responsible and which they use as pretexts and blackmail on workers to impose unemployment, low wages and inequality, the liberalization of the labour force market.

- A good use of remarkable scientific and technical advances – which contain exceptional potential if used for the benefit of the workers and peoples – is constrained and even subverted by capitalist relations of production that seek to step up exploitation, maximize profit or develop new and powerful military weaponry.

- The affirmation of the role and power of multinational corporations of the so-called digital sector, mostly US-owned, which embodies enormous perils in the economic, social and media spheres, as well as for freedom, democracy and sovereignty, and contributes to increase the domination of economic power over political power, and of imperialism over the peoples.

- The growing domination by finance capital and the sharpening contradiction between the social character of production and the private appropriation of the means of production.

- The financialization of the economy, with growing endebtment and speculation, and the increasingly parasitic nature of the system. Tax havens, corruption and all sorts of criminal trafficking which are inherent to capitalism.

- The ever sharper contradictions between the great imperialist powers as a result of the system’s deepening crisis and, at the same time, their class collaboration against the workers and peoples, within the framework of imperialist rivalry-concertation relations. The insistence by the US on preserving its hegemony over the imperialist camp and, at the same time, dragging its allies into its escalation of confrontation and aggression on the world level.

In the USA, the hegemonic power of the capitalist world – with its enormous economic, scientific and technical, military and ideological potential – the problems, contradictions, inequalities and social conflicts are more intense and evident, together with visible cleavages within the ruling class, in particular as to how to counter the relative decline of the USA at the international level.

The Trump administration carried further the policy of favoring big capital, promoted an even more reactionary drift, encouraging far-right, racist and fascist forces, and stepped up the arms race and US imperialism’s policy of confrontation, interference and aggression.

Not underestimating the desire for change on the part of the people of the United States and differences that may occur as regards domestic policies, the election of Joe Biden as President will translate into the continuation of a foreign policy that reaffirms the goal of preserving the USA’s hegemonic domination in the world, with the inherent threat to the sovereignty and the rights of peoples, international security and peace.

With deepening contradictions and the crisis of the European Union (EU) – expressed by the United Kingdom’s departure and the divisions in the face of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic – the European capitalist big powers, especially Germany, seek to assert the EU as an imperialist bloc under their rule, while aligning with the US strategy of siege of Russia and confrontation with China, considered as strategic adversaries.

Japan, which continues with anemic economic growth, is pursuing its militaristic policy, strengthening partnerships and agreements in this area, particularly with the USA.

The development of a complex world-wide process of realignment of forces has as dominant features: the relative decline of the capitalist center’s global influence, and first of all that of the USA; China’s economic and scientific-technical advances and international assertion; the role of States such as India and Russia or the importance, at the regional level, of other States such as South Africa, Brazil, Iran or Turkey.

A dangerous escalation of confrontation is being promoted by the USA against the People's Republic of China, which is inseparable from the growing weight and role of this country at the international level.

There are worsening problems in several countries, particularly in Africa, expressed in underdevelopment, dependence, neocolonialism, poverty, migration and refugee flows, or environmental problems and the predation of resources, realities that are being increasingly encouraged by imperialist interference and plunder, which seeks to pursue, in new ways, the exploitation and domination of these countries.

There is a multiplication of hotbeds of tension and actions of aggression promoted by imperialism, notably US imperialism, with the real danger of triggering conflicts of great proportions, including with a nuclear dimension.

There is a crisis and discredit of the liberal-bourgeois political system and the political parties that have alternated for decades in power (right/Christian democrats and social democracy), of the dominant neoliberal and supranational policies, of their institutions, as in the case of the European Union. The promotion of demagoguery and far-right forces as a means by which big capital tries to preserve its neoliberal dogmas, strengthen its instruments of domination and impose its goals of exploitation and oppression.

The offensive against social and cultural rights is articulated with the offensive against political rights, the growing attack on fundamental rights and freedoms, the intensification of the repression of popular struggles, the whitewashing and trivialization of fascism and the ‘normalization’ of the institutional role of fascist forces, the promotion and advancement of xenophobic, racist, far-right and fascist forces, along with the promotion of reactionary and anti-democratic conceptions, an obscurantist backlash, anti-Communism, including as a State policy, as in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

Displaying forces and capabilities that must in no way be underestimated, Capitalism seeks to counter its deepening structural crisis by using the economic, financial and political tools available and its military power and ideological influence – largely through the use of the mainstream mass media – sometimes managing to recover lost positions, as was the case in some Latin American countries.

However, the continuing and persistent struggle of the workers and the peoples, which in its diversity has registered expressions of great importance, confirms the widening discontentment with enhanced exploitation, social injustice and inequalities and with neocolonial oppression. [This struggle] undermines the social support base of capitalism, imposes setbacks and defeats on imperialism – as in the case of Syria or Venezuela or, more recently, Bolivia and Chile – and it may evolve into major social conflicts and, depending on the concrete conditions, progressive and revolutionary processes of transformation.

In a complex international situation, several countries have emerged with increasing economic and political weight and capacity for initiative in international relations. There are  increasingly important bilateral relations and alliances, structures and spaces of cooperation and multilateral integration with very diversified goals and scopes. These are arenas which express convergences of differing nature, configuration and stability, with contradictions that result from different economic and political realities in the countries that integrate them, and with a direction of development that must continue to be assessed.  Among them, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America - Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), among other regional cooperation structures, or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS.

The evolution of the international situation confirms that there is great potential for the development of the struggle, but it also confirms that discontentment among the masses does not always and automatically lead to a consequent and organized struggle. It is sometimes straitjacketed, manipulated or recovered by the system itself, either through the role of right-wing forces and social democracy or by resorting to far-right forces or other provocative groups.

Mass actions have emerged focusing on various causes – such as those relating to women's rights, the fight against racism and xenophobia and the protection of the environment – which, while reflecting discontent with real problems, inequalities and discrimination that must be confronted and which are rooted in the capitalist system, have sometimes been exploited by the latter as a way of promoting division and concealing its responsibilities.

These are important causes that require active intervention in order to solve the underlying problems and become objectively part of a process of social transformation. These problems will only be fully overcome in the construction of a society freed from all forms of exploitation and oppression.

Recognizing the unsustainability of brutal inequalities and so as to divert the masses from a coherent struggle for social transformation, big capital and the forces that defend its interests try to change something so that everything will remain the same. They promote the idea that «one cannot live as before», criticizing certain aspects of neoliberalism to try to save Capitalism and speculating on a «new» Capitalism which they call «Green», «progressive», «at the service of all» or «democratic».

In the present circumstances, the evolution of information and communication tools takes on a redoubled importance in the ideological struggle, particularly when imperialism continues to dominate and control the main information centers and agencies, spreading anti-Communism and the falsification, bias and manipulation of information.

Despite the diversity of situations, the development of the objective material conditions for the revolutionary overcoming of capitalism does not match the current state of development of the subjective factor. The current situation is still, at the global level, one of resistance and accumulation of forces.

Capitalism’s deepening structural crisis and the international context confirm the importance of the PCP's thesis that «great dangers of social and civilizational regression coexist with real potential for progressive and revolutionary advances» and the need to be prepared for rapid and unforeseen developments and, therefore, for the use of forms of struggle that the development of the situation may demand.

1.2. Imperialism’s offensive

 

The world reality reflects the intensification of capitalism’s contradictions and its deepening structural crisis, with continued attacks against the rights of workers and peoples, democracy and sovereignty, as well as the intensification of imperialism's interference and aggression against the independence of States. Conflicts are becoming more widespread as a result of the increasingly militaristic drift of the US and its allies, notably the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The period since the 20^th Congress is marked by imperialism’s violent and multifaceted offensive, with the most reactionary and aggressive sectors of imperialism increasingly betting on fascism and war as a «way out» of the crisis with which capitalism is struggling.

An offensive which, invoking the crisis itself, or using pretexts such as the pandemic, seeks to continue a thorough destruction of economic, social, political, cultural and national rights; to further change the balance of forces in favour of Capital; to intensify exploitation and to take control of, and plunder, resources; to deepen the undemocratic, reactionary and even fascistic nature of the political system and roll back the peoples’ consciousness regarding their legitimate rights and aspirations and alternative paths of development and emancipation.

Imperialism’s provocative, destabilizing and aggressive offensive targets, in particular, States and peoples that assert their sovereignty and right to development and regions of great concentration of natural resources, raw materials and energy routes, cheap labour and expanding markets, or that are of great importance from a geostrategic point of view. This offensive is accompanied by a diversification and deepening of attacks against labour and social rights, the looting of public resources, including the privatization of public services and social functions of the State and of strategic sectors of the economy.

The inhumane and criminal nature of Capitalism is on display with hundreds of millions of workers who are unemployed or have precarious jobs; with the denial of fundamental rights and the lack of response to the most basic needs; in poverty, hunger, malnutrition, the denial of access to healthcare and social security; in child labour, or slave labour or the dramas that affect millions of refugees or migrants; in the trafficking of human beings, the trade of human organs and the  exploitation of human beings for sexual purposes.

NATO, under US hegemony despite contradictions that will tend to increase as the crisis becomes deeper, continues to assert itself as the most important and dangerous instrument of the aggressive imperialist offensive.

The struggle for peace, disarmament and, in particular, against NATO’s aggressions and for its dissolution, is of the utmost importance when Humanity is confronted with enormous threats such as the arms race; with the failure to comply with, and the unilateral withdrawal from, agreements on disarmament and the limitation of nuclear weapons; with disrespect for the principles of the United Nations’ Charter and of international law; with the proliferation of hotbeds of tension and instability; with the threats and wars of aggression. These are expressions of an escalating confrontation sponsored by the USA and its allies.

Imperialism’s offensive seeks to hinder and even prevent the exercise of States’ sovereignty and independence. The right of peoples to decide their own destiny is increasingly under attack. In this sense, the US, with the active or passive support of its allies, intensifies the imposition of blockades and sanctions, including of an extraterritorial nature, among other economic, financial, political, diplomatic or military measures, thereby violating international law. They promote the perversion and instrumentalisation of genuine expressions of popular discontent and carry out operations of interference and aggression under false cover, such as «humanitarian intervention», «defence of human rights and democracy» or «failed states». They instrumentalize corruption and other scourges that are intrinsic to capitalism and fuelled by it, in order to cover up so-called «regime change» operations. They resort to terrorism, either State terrorism or by groups that carry out criminal and terror actions. They institutionalize aid policies, under the cover of «solidarity» and «humanism», which foment underdevelopment and dependence, including through  instruments such as numerous foundations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other structures linked to governments and multinationals.

In the pursuit of these goals, a key role is played by a variety of international institutions and forums, which seek to impose the rule of imperialism and which have  unequal relations of power in their midst – among them, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the G7, the European Union and the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as, on a different level, the centers for strategic concertation and ideological production, such as the Trilateral Commission, the Davos Forum, or the Bilderberg conferences.

Together with the ongoing attempt by imperialism to instrumentalize the United Nations, there are increasingly numerous instances - due to increasing difficulties in imposing their policies - of devaluation and abandonment by the United States of United Nations agencies and bodies, and even calling into question the functioning of other international organizations - such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) – whose principles they themselves dictated.

The process of reconfiguring States includes a growing attack on freedom and democratic rights. Imperialism and the political forces and institutions at its service multiply actions aimed at rolling back the democratic advances achieved by the struggle of the workers and peoples and at perverting the concept of democracy, distorting and molding it to its interests and goals, by attempting to contain, suppress and criminalize the struggle of workers and the social struggle as a whole; by the State’s greater role in the repression of resistance and the restriction and persecution of trade union and political activities and organization, in particular by limiting or prohibiting the right to demonstrate and strike; by the political persecution and illegalization of Communist parties and other revolutionary and progressive forces; by promoting and institutionalizing anti-Communism; by plotting and executing coups d'État in countries pursuing sovereign progressive and democratic courses; by imposing governments that do not respect the popular will; by ever more widespread interference and blackmail against peoples; by the increasing tendency to militarize domestic security matters; by ever greater control and violation of the private lives of citizens, including through ever greater use of surveillance technologies.

The policies that intensify exploitation, impoverishment, precariousness, unemployment, oppression - namely national oppression - and the stigmatization of immigrants, create fertile ground for the spread of the xenophobic and racist ideology of far-right forces and fascistic groups which, proclaiming themselves as «against the system», are used in reality by the system itself to try and impose its anti-democratic goals and projects.

Imperialism steps up the ideological offensive by trying to conceal the exploitative, oppressive, aggressive and predatory nature of capitalism. It promotes factors of class division, projects fear, conformism, individualism, the inevitability of impoverishment, the withdrawal of rights and social regression, the impossibility of fundamental change to the capitalist system presented as [the] ultimate [system], the «need» for submission to the interests of big Capital and the great powers. Openly reactionary, racist and xenophobic views are encouraged, obscurantism is promoted, philantropy and charity are institutionalized. Educational systems increasingly take on the role of tools for ideological formatting, the commodification of knowledge and of training.

Belying the theses about «digital democracy» and a «free access to knowledge and information», the global web of multinational communication corporations is today one of the main underpinnings of imperialism’s ideological offensive. By stressing private appropriation and the instrumentalization of the extraordinary scientific-technical achievements, imperialism increasingly manipulates, centralizes, perverts and dominates information and communication technologies (ICT). But, as in other areas of social life, the «world» of ICT, and in particular of the so-called «social networks», is the arena of an intense ideological struggle in which it is important to participate, despite the disproportion of means available and the just concerns about the manipulation and censorship to which these networks are subject.

The obvious threats that hang over the workers and peoples makes it increasingly necessary for the forces of peace and social progress to converge, both in each country and at the international level, in the anti-imperialist struggle, in the struggle for peace, freedom, sovereignty and social progress.

1.3. The struggle of the workers and the peoples

 

The international situation’s evolution, laden with serious and dangerous developments, highlights that the resistance of the workers and peoples against imperialism’s exploitative and oppressive offensive continues, with potential to develop the struggle for progressive and revolutionary transformations. This resistance and struggle - which takes place under the most varied conditions, adopting different forms and striving for diverse concrete and short-term goals - is of great importance and must be valued.

 

All over the world, even in the most difficult conditions, the workers and the peoples resist and fight: for the right to work and other labour rights, for trade union rights, for social rights; against all forms of exploitation and discrimination; in defense of women's rights; to defend and ensure public services such as healthcare, education, and welfare, as well as other social functions of the State; for the right to retirement and for pensions that ensure dignity; against privatizations and for public control of strategic sectors; for the right to water; for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources; for the right to housing; for the right to land and for food sovereignty and security; in defense of democratic freedoms, rights and guarantees, against anti-Communism, against repression, against fascism; in defence of sovereignty and national independence, for democracy, against the blackmails and supra-national impositions dictated by the interests of big Capital and the great powers, against free trade and services agreements; against war and for peace; for the liberation from oppression, including national oppression; for justice and social progress; for democratic, antimonopoly and anti-imperialist transformations; for Socialism. These are the resistance and struggles that, flowing into the struggle against imperialism, are interconnected within a common liberating ideal and world process.

 

As a result of the imperialist offensive, the class struggle is sharpened and the social support base of Capitalism is objectively narrowed. In this context, it is particularly important for the struggle of the working class and working people to converge with the struggle of other classes and social strata and the peoples’ struggle in defense of social, economic and national rights, broadening and diversifying the forces that objectively converge in the resistance to imperialism. The international situation’s evolution highlights the importance of the national issue and its interconnection with the class issue, confirming the national framework as the determining field of struggle and the exercise and assertion of national sovereignty as a condition for defending and winning rights, to promote economic and social development, to advance the processes of transformation.

 

Initiatives seeking to create structured dynamics or organic forms of an international scope lead, as reality has already shown, to devaluing the diversity of national realities and can – instead of promoting arenas of broad unity – disperse forces and create difficulties for the necessary convergence in the struggle around concrete objectives.

 

In a framework that is still of resistance and accumulation of forces at the world level, situations of retreat coexist with advances by progressive and revolutionary forces and of the workers’ and peoples’ struggle in defense of their rights and sovereignty.

 

Despite important situations of resistance and progress that cannot be underestimated, the PCP considers that the international Communist and revolutionary movement has not yet been able to recover from the harsh retreat suffered with the defeats of socialism in Eastern Europe and the disappearance of the Soviet Union.

 

Bearing in mind the existence of diversified situations in each country, the great challenge confronting the Communists and other revolutionary forces in global terms is to develop the subjective factor, starting with the strengthening of the Communist and revolutionary Parties.

 

Reality shows the need for a strong and vigorous international Communist and revolutionary movement, which can express the existence of strong organized Communist and revolutionary Parties, rooted in the working class and the popular masses, linked to their national realities, with strong political, ideological and social influence, with their class independence and ideology, their Communist identity and revolutionary project, their internationalist cooperation and solidarity. Whatever the conditions, their role is irreplaceable both for the resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples in defense of their rights and sovereignty and for the advancement of social transformation and the revolutionary overcoming of capitalism.

 

For the PCP, patriotism - and the struggle in defense of national sovereignty and independence, which are fundamental requirements for the fight against imperialism – and internationalism – in a broad and diverse anti-imperialist dimension, but having at its core proletarian internationalism and the relations between Communist parties – are inseparable and are fundamental components of the Communist identity.

 

While strengthening the unity, co-operation and solidarity of the world Communist and  revolutionary movement is an essential task, the PCP considers that the fulfillment of a Communist Party’s national task in its own country is, not just its very raison d’être, as its major contribution towards strengthening the world Communist and revolutionary movement and advancing the world-wide struggle for social and national emancipation. The national task is the first internationalist task of a Communist Party, a priority when assigning its forces. It requires determination and persistence to overcome weaknesses, difficulties and obstacles, bearing in mind the struggle for concrete and immediate objectives as a basic and essential factor of resistance and to advance the struggle for progressive and revolutionary transformations and for Socialism.

In this sense, and taking into account the experience of the international Communist and revolutionary movement, the PCP based the elaboration of its Programme on Portugal’s concrete reality, on the definition of the current stage of the Portuguese revolution and on the corresponding policy of social alliances and their expression at the political level.

Faced with the violent political and ideological offensive of the ruling class – in which, among other aspects, anti-Communism, the persecution and banning of Communist parties and other democratic forces, and gigantic operations of falsification of History and reality are rampant – and with the prospect of a harsh and prolonged phase of resistance and accumulation of forces, side by side with situations of solid analyses and firm and steadfast stances and activity, there are also liquidationist and social-democratizing views and attitudes of adaptation to the system, with the abandonment of the ideological references, organizational principles and revolutionary project which characterise a Communist Party; or the development of dogmatic and sectarian views and attitudes, which display impatience and «leaps forward», that seek to impose single models of social transformation, the seizure of power by the working class as an immediate universal task, and initiatives aimed at an organizational centralization and the political and ideological homogenization of the Communist movement.

The PCP considers that such tendencies hinder the strengthening of the international Communist and revolutionary movement and introduce factors of misunderstanding and division that delay the necessary advances in cooperation and solidarity and in the relationship with other progressive and anti-imperialist forces and particularly in developing unity in action against the common enemy.

The problem lies not so much in the existence of differences of opinion or even divergences – which are all the more natural in view of the complexity of the international situation and the diversity of national realities – but in methods of action that do not follow tested principles of relationship, such as equal rights, respect for differences, autonomy of decision-making, non-interference in internal affairs, frankness and mutual solidarity.

Persistent action is needed to overcome factors of distancing between Communist Parties, through greater mutual acquaintance and understanding, a fraternal discussion of natural differences of opinion and divergences and of common problems, the approximation of political and ideological positions, valuing what unites, contributing towards cooperation, mutual solidarity, unity in action – goals that can only be achieved based on what must be a common will and effort.

Giving particular attention to developing bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation, the PCP values multilateral forms of cooperation and joint and convergent action, seeking unity in action.

The International Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP), whilst not exhausting bilateral or multilateral relations between Communist Parties, are a space for exchange of opinions, debate, adoption of common or convergent positions and actions,  and should contribute to this objective. It is an unstructured process of multilateral cooperation, but which has, despite shortcomings, enabled better mutual acquaintance, to deal with many aspects of the international situation and to seek guidelines for common or convergent action in the struggle against big Capital and in solidarity with the peoples fighting against imperialist interference and aggression.

At the European level, the PCP aims at bringing closer together the Communist Parties, and these  with other progressive forces, putting at the forefront the issues most felt by the workers and peoples and the struggle for a Europe of cooperation between sovereign States, equal in rights, and for social progress and peace.

Reality confirms that the Party of the European Left – a reformist and supranational structure that is part of the EU's dynamic – has introduced new factors of division and misunderstanding, hindering progress in the cooperation between Communist and progressive forces in the struggle for a Europe of the workers and peoples.

The PCP has been active in ensuring the continuity of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament, preserving its confederal nature, the respect for the political independence of its components, its own identity and independence from other areas of cooperation or structures, its affirmation as an alternative voice to the right and to social democracy.

The structural crisis of capitalism and the violent imperialist offensive raise the need to strengthen the anti-imperialist and internationalist solidarity, thus contributing to develop the liaison, co-operation and unity in action of patriotic, progressive and revolutionary forces, in a broad anti-imperialist front, which may halt imperialism’s offensive and open the path towards a new international order, of peace, sovereignty and social progress.

In this sense, international organizations such as the World Peace Council (WPC), the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), or the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) have an important role, requiring the rejection of lines of decharacterization that contradict their anti-imperialist nature and the defense of their broad-based nature.

Confronted with imperialism’s aggressive offensive, spearheaded by the USA and its allies, which represent the most serious threat that the workers and peoples face, it is essential to ensure, in the context of very different situations, the confluence of:

- countries which, led by Communist parties, affirm the goal of building socialism;

- countries that, led by progressive forces, assume the defense of national sovereignty and independence and choose paths of development and social progress;

- countries which, led by diversified forces, contribute, even with contradictory elements, to objectively confront imperialism's intents;

- the Communist parties and other revolutionary parties;

- the class trade union movements and organizations, which fight in defense of workers' rights and interests;

- the progressive and patriotic forces, which assume the defense of their peoples’ interests;

- the movement for peace and solidarity and other mass movements with different expressions and objectives, that are part of progressive, non-divisionist or disaggregating dynamics.

The world Communist and revolutionary movement has a special responsibility in building social and political alliances that can contain and push back the most reactionary and aggressive sectors of imperialism, defeat the attempts of hegemonic domination by US imperialism and its allies.

This underlines the need for convergence, to strengthen the ties of solidarity and co-operation of Communist parties and other revolutionary forces – asserting their own goals and without any dilution of their identity - with other peace-loving, patriotic, democratic, progressive, anti-imperialist forces, thereby contributing to unity in action to attain immediate goals of struggle, that may help to defend the sovereignty and rights of the peoples.

Solidarity and cooperation which do not mean, require, or are conditioned by, a total identification between the forces that resist and fight, but which put at the forefront the defense of principles and goals, in particular the sovereignty and rights of peoples, which in turn advance the struggle for their social and national emancipation.

1.4. Socialism, a demand for the present and the future

 

Capitalism is not the final system of human History. Its revolutionary overcoming and the construction of a new society without exploiters or exploited are a demand of the present and for the future, which is increasingly relevant in the workers’ and peoples’ struggle.

 

Socialism is a necessity of our times. The extraordinary degree of concentration and centralization of capital, the worsening social inequalities and scourges, the ever more intense irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism, which cannot respond to the problems and aspirations of Humanity despite the extraordinary potential of scientific-technical development – all this contributes to the maturation of objective material conditions for the development of revolutionary processes that aim at Socialism, regardless of the phases, stages and  forms they will take, in accordance with each country’s specific situation.

 

The historical process of replacing the Capitalist with the Socialist economic-social formation is not automatic:

 

- it requires the struggle for concrete and immediate goals, the struggle for the demands of workers, the struggle of the peoples in defense of their rights and aspirations, the struggle in defense of freedom and more profound democracy in its fundamental aspects - economic, social, political and cultural -, the assertion of national sovereignty and independence, struggles that are not only not contradictory but are part of the struggle for the more global and strategic objective of building socialism;

 

- it requires a policy of alliances of the working class with other anti-monopoly classes and social strata, according to the tasks of each of the phases and stages of the process of social transformation;

 

- it requires the creative intervention and organization of the working class and all working people, the popular masses, as protagonists of the process of social transformation;

 

- it requires as an essential condition the existence of a vanguard revolutionary force capable of, in each country, leading the struggle for the workers to seize power;

 

- it requires the creative application of Marxism-Leninism, a materialist and dialectical view of the world, an instrument of analysis and guide to action, essential in interpreting the world and for its revolutionary transformation.

 

The October Revolution, with its profound transformations and extraordinary historical achievements and its global impact that continues to this day, was a historical experience of universal significance and ushered in a new epoch in the history of mankind, the epoch of the transition from Capitalism to Socialism.

 

Systematic anti-Communist campaigns, aimed at denigrating what the construction of socialism in the USSR and in other countries was, and what it represented, cannot conceal the extraordinary political, economic, social, cultural and scientific achievements and its role as a powerful factor for progress and world peace.

 

The decisive contribution of the USSR to the victory over Nazi-fascism, whose 75^th anniversary is marked in 2020, was an expression that cannot be erased of socialism’s superiority and of its decisive contribution for the great revolutionary achievements of the 20^th Century.

 

The disappearance of the USSR and the defeats of socialism in Eastern Europe do not counter the need and the possibility of building a new society without exploiters or exploited. On the contrary,  these are confirmed by the cruel reality in which millions of human beings are living and the increasingly dangerous international situation arising from the nature of Capitalism and the action of imperialism.

 

Capitalism, its deepening structural crisis, its nature, the threats and dangers it poses to Humanity, its ever sharper contradictions and the development of the struggle of workers and peoples, make their social and national emancipation more relevant and objectively necessary.

 

The historical experience of struggle - in its multiple aspects and teachings, both in the advances and successes as in the mistakes and defeats – has revealed just how extraordinarily complex, uneven, and difficult is the process of the workers’ and peoples’ social emancipation. It also shows that the paths of the revolution - while being diverse and following phases and stages that are different from country to country - obey general laws, which practice has confirmed. Laws regarding the role of the working class, workers’ power, the nature of the State, the social property of the fundamental means of production, planning and, above all, the creative intervention of the popular masses.

 

Taking into consideration the experience of the world Communist and revolutionary movement and the experiences of building Socialism, it is based on the concrete Portuguese reality and our experience as Portuguese Communists that the PCP indicates the way to Socialism and the fundamental characteristics of the Socialist society in Portugal. Its fundamental lines - inseparable from the particularities that mark the history of the Portuguese people, the social reality and the international context for our country – are defined in the PCP’s Programme «An Advanced Democracy - The values of April in the Future of Portugal».

https://www.pcp.pt/en/xxi-congress