International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties
Address by Jerónimo de Sousa, General Secretary of PCP

Dear participants in the International Meeting
Dear Comrades

It is with great joy that on behalf of the Portuguese Communist Party I extend to you a fraternal welcome to Portugal and wish you a pleasant and fruitful stay in our country. I hope that you have the opportunity not only to benefit to the fullest extent from this International Meeting, but also to become acquainted with the reality of our Party and our Country, which is marked at present by important processes of social struggle.

And speaking of struggle, dear comrades, you will surely understand if, from this tribune, I express solidarity with the public employees that, yesterday and today, engage an important strike in defence of their rights, which the present Socialist Party Government attempts to erode and destroy.

Comrades:

It is a great honour for the Portuguese Communist Party to receive so numerous and responsible representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties of the world in this meeting.

We have before us three days of intense work, of discussion and exchange of information and opinions about the evolution of the international situation. And, based on the diversity of positions and conditions of struggle each of our parties face, to find forms of common or convergent action among our parties.

It is a demanding challenge, but the fact that we decided to accept the challenge – in a context of deep respect for the characteristics, autonomy and History of each of our parties – is in itself an important sign of will from us all that we seek cooperation and common action.

For PCP, the realization of meetings of this type has today a great importance.

Firstly, because these meetings respond to the need for regular exchange of information and opinions about the evolution of the situation within each of our countries and of the international situation. A need which is felt ever so strongly as the evolution of the international situation assumes amazing pace, contradictory aspects and is marked by a high degree of instability and insecurity. Continuing to attribute great importance to bilateral relations, we think at the same time that moments like these are very rich opportunities not only to deepen our knowledge and analysis, but also to identify, in the context of a multifaceted offensive of imperialism, the main trends of development of the international situation.

Secondly, because we think that given the close cooperation of the ruling classes and the global offensive of imperialism, it is increasingly necessary to respond with common or convergent action. One that gives a voice to the aspirations of workers and peoples, that halts the advances of the violent offensives of imperialism, and that strengthens our reciprocal understanding.

Assuming the fundamental principle that the place for Portuguese communists is among the workers and the people; assuming the central idea that the national context continues to be determinant in the evermore alive and intense class struggle; assuming the central idea that the greatest contribution this Party can give to the broader struggle, for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, is to strengthen its organization and its ties to the masses – we understand that it is also necessary to collectively find more stable solutions of cooperation that affirm the alternative politics defended by communists and revolutionaries. Cooperation and solidarity are, for us, the basis for strengthening our movement and - in a situation still characterized by resistance and accumulation of forces, but also by signs, although still in early stages, of recovery – we must have the ability to identify and value that which can unite us.

Thirdly, because meetings like these are key moments to understand the struggles our peoples are involved in. A better reciprocal understanding strengthens confidence and internationalist solidarity. Solidarity that is not momentary, but is intrinsic to our values, our common History, our way of being in the world as communists and revolutionaries. It is a solidarity with a political content, a solidarity intimately tied to the fundaments of workers internationalism, a solidarity of class. Therefore, I salute all the revolutionary forces, all the communist parties, that in the most varied forms, pursue courageous processes of resistance against foreign military occupation, against the aggressions, threats and interferences of imperialism, or that ones that pursue, some for decades, struggles for their national rights. I would also like to salute all those that subject to increasing anti-communism and anti-democratic measures, facing fascistic political persecution, proceed in their struggle in extremely difficult conditions, including underground activity. I salute all, and hope that from this meeting, concrete and active solidarity may arise reinforced, via political positions or common actions and initiatives.

Lastly, we give great importance to meetings of this type, because in them, as in other bilateral or multilateral meetings, we can make progress in the analysis and action that may lead to assert socialism - in a necessarily renewed conception, enriched by the lessons of experience - as the only real alternative to the present system. And this, comrades, is a fundamental task of our parties. We live in a time of intense ideological struggle, with important potential for progressive advances, creating a need to give greater visibility to the present relevance of the communist ideal, of socialism. Learning from positive and negative experiences, with victories and defeats, rejecting the distortion, caricature and revisionism of the glorious History of liberation of peoples; fighting the new old tendencies of criminalization of resistance, and in particular those of communists, and affirming, the novelty, the intrinsically democratic character of socialism, we will undoubtedly, comrades, contribute towards Humanity reaching a future which is more free, more just, peaceful, fraternal and democratic.

To all, I wish you good work and a final word of great confidence. Confidence we feel presently in Portugal. Confidence in the workers, in our people and their struggle. Confidence in our Party and in our struggle. Confidence that, looking around this room we feel in the future of the peoples of the world.