(excerpts)

Comrades,

There may be people who ask why it is that our Festival, which is now in its 22d edition, continues to give rise to such widespread attention and to evoke in us all such emotion, such admiration and such legitimate pride.

We may reply that it is because the "Avante!" Festival has the undescribable force of a major and moving human gathering with art, with culture, with tolerant and fraternal celebration, with solidarity and the great values and aspirations which are an integral part of Humankind's progressive heritage.

We may reply that it is because the Portuguese communists have conceived it, materialized it and renewed it, year after year, always as an incomparable synthesis of tradition and modernity and as a unique assertion of the value of human labour and of the popular roots of a long-standing and major intervention of our Party in Portuguese society. (...)

All this is true and correct. But we believe that the "Avante!" Festival's success and impact can also not be separated from the fact that here we breath a firm confidence in the importance and the future of our communist ideals and convictions; that this is a celebration, not of resignation, but of the will to fight and to change reality; that what is on display here is not the arrogance and prepotence of the forces of wealth, but rather the voice and the yearnings of working people; that here one can see the coherence, the combativeness, the proposals and the revolutionary project of a great force for freedom, democracy and socialism, of our Party, the Portuguese Communist Party. (...)

No true socialist can applaud a neo-liberal policy which is giving rise to growing inequality, demeaning human labour and the workers, and which is responsible for exclusions and poverty. No true socialist can accept that, instead of carrying out a left-wing policy, the government is priding itself in having privatized more than [the former right-wing Prime Minister] Cavaco Silva, that it has imitated or even exceeded him in providing "jobs for the boys", or in the transfer of high-ranking members of the Socialist Party in the Civil Service to well-paid jobs in private economic groups and, conversely, of people connected to the administrations of such economic groups to the management of public sector companies, in a fusion of great promiscuity. No true socialist can forget or shut their eyes to the fact that their parliamentary group applauded the adoption of the law on abortion only to see their act countered by the about-turn with which a referendum on that law was accepted, with the participation and results that are known to all. No true socialist can accept the rapturous joy displayed by the Socialist Government when it held its famous lunch in Cascais with the crème de la crème of domestic Big Business, an act which in every respect revealed the true options of their policy.

It is for these reasons that there are more and more people, even among the socialists, who are demanding a left-wing policy. But a left-wing policy will require a realignment of forces.

There will be no real change of policies without the PCP, and this requires that the PCP becomes stronger, also in electoral terms.

We are extremely clear as regards our political stands. In Parliament we are a left-wing opposition. We are in opposition to the Government's neo-liberal policies. We have fought with determination, both within and outside the institutions, against all that which is negative for our people and for our country. And we have supported in no uncertain terms whatever - and unfortunately there is very little of it - has been positive or has had some positive aspects or potential.

This has always been, and will always be, our attitude. We do everything to improve the living standards and the quality of life of the workers and the people.

For example: the thirteenth month for pensioners, which is today a reality; or the minimum guaranteed income; or the 40 hour working week; or the Alqueva dam; or the right for policeman to have Trade Unions; the recognition of the right of the military to have their own associations and socio-professional representation; the National Network to Assist Drug Addicts; the banning of wage discriminations against young people when the national minimum wages are set; the increase in working students' rights; the expansion of the public network and the free nature of pre-school institutions; the defeat of the electoral laws that had been tailor-made to fit the needs of the PS [Socialist Party] and the PSD [Social Democratic Party]; the right to equal treatment at work and in employment; greater health and safety norms on the shop floors and the review of the legal framework for Labour Accidents and Professional Illnesses; the defense of maternity and paternity, family planning, sex education; the battle against back-street abortions and the improvement of the National Health Service; subsidies for fishermen and farmers; increased citizens' rights; greater democracy in all its aspects; and the systematic and intransigent defense of the national interest in the European Parliament - all these are causes which have been reflected in concrete initiatives, achievements, struggles or draft laws submitted by the PCP, some of which have been adopted in Parliament. In themselves, they reflect the correctness of the struggle, but also the weight and influence of the PCP.

And comrades, we have just mentioned the struggle to decriminalize abortion.

There may be those who find it strange that we are recalling a battle which we did not win, because as is known, although the Yes vote won a majority [in the Referendum held last June to ratify the Law on abortion] in mainland Portugal, it narrowly lost in the country as a whole.

But we want to say here that although we fought to win, for us what is most important is not whether or not we win, but whether or not what we fight for is correct.

We wish to state here that we are not sorry for having waged that battle, nor for taking the front ranks in defense of women's dignity and health.

We wish to state here that those who should be sorry are those who during the referendum campaign spoke so much, and in such terroristic terms, about the right to life and about killing babies, but who now, after two more months of suffering, fear and danger for the health of hundreds of Portuguese women, are sleeping soundly every night and are merrily going about their own affairs.

We wish to state here that those who think that the issue of decriminalizing abortion has been buried for many more years are wrong.

The PCP will continue to fight for better family planning and for more widespread sex education.

But the PCP will not accept the continuation of back-street abortions and, sooner or later, will renew the battle against an injustice, a hypocrisy and an inhuman reality which should shame our society on the threshold of the third millenium.

And in this direction we shall continue to act, to present proposals and solutions and to fight for their materialization, as we are also doing with the increase in pensions. (...)

Comrades,

Since last year's "Avante!" Festival, many and diverse sectors of the Portuguese population have been forced to act and fight to defend their aspirations and their just demands.

Important battles for progress, for greater democracy, for civilizational advances have been fought. Allow me here to highlight the daily battles by women for their equality and the struggle of young people and of JCP [the Portuguese Communist Youth], for a better education, for a new law to finance Higher Education, for professional outlets, for jobs with rights and for decent wages.

During this period, the social struggle deserves to be highlighted, due to its extent and to the levels of participation by the workers, farmers and other strata of the population.

There is an underlying reason for this. And that is that the Government, whilst babbling on about their assistance and their support for the needy and the poor, has not just forgotten them, as it has harmed the main wealth-creators, that is working people, in their rights, in their wages and often even in their dignity.

With great confidence, our Party, through its political activity, through its struggle and its proposals, through the efforts and militant commitment of thousands of communists on the shop floors, in the trade unions and workers' councils, managed to transform disillusionment and discontentment into struggle, to gather wills, to revitalize hope, to achieve results and victories. In this way we showed that what we said here a year ago was true: when you fight, you may not always win, but when you don't fight, you always lose!

In this way, important sectors of the population, students, teachers and others, scored important achievements. And it was also in this way that the textile workers achieved important victories in reducing their working hours; that transportation workers, public employees, hotel workers, chemical workers, metalworkers and workers of the naval industries, communications workers, shop workers, building workers, workers of the electrical industry, all achieved significant results in terms of wages and rights guaranteed by collective bargains. In a firm and responsible way, they showed that the best way to defend your rights is to make use of them.

And despite the latent threat embodied in the proposals to change the labour legislation and the Social Security system, it was the struggle of the workers and the trade union movement, it was the awareness-raising and militant activity of our Party which led the Government to retreat on their calendar for the implementation of some highly harmful measures. It is a danger that has been postponed, but it is not a battle that has been won.

The proposals which will be submitted to Parliament seek to undermine some of the main pillars of the labour legislation, changing concepts such as employment, wages, holidays, profession, night work, in articulation with the onslaughts on the universal principle of the right to social security. (...)

It is not acceptable that, in the name of past pledges and future constraints, in the name of the "euro" [European currency] and the sinister "Stability Pact", the livelihood of all those who live off their labour force be rendered even more fragile.

The attitude of the Government towards the bureaucrats in Brussels and towards the European Union can not be the attitude of the obedient, well-behaved and subservient pupil.

The PCP and its Members of the European Parliament, whose committed activity and competent work is recognized even by our opponents, will do everything, in converging initiatives, interventions and struggles with the diverse communist, ecologist and left-wing forces, to ensure a new course for the European construction and a different economic policy; to review and flexibilize the Stability Pact and to control the European Central Bank; to ensure that the principle of Economic and Social Cohesion is not just a rhetorical nicety; and so that in all countries of the European Union the workers may achieve and see implemented, in a phased process, the 35 hour working week without loss of pay or of rights. For this reason too, all those men and women who think that Portugal should have an active, non-conformist and committed voice in the European Parliament, should strengthen, with their votes, the PCP and the CDU in the upcoming European elections. (...)

Comrades and friends,

The apologists of the system, the heralds of the "Single Thought" and those who glorify the "triumph of capitalism" seek to present the "New Order" as immutable.

But the "triumph of capitalism" is there for all to see, even in official State data and in the UN publications. Like when we are told that on the threshold of the 21st Century a fair share of the world's population lives on under a dollar a day; or that in the most powerful country in the world, the USA, there are 60 million poor, whilst 1% of the population owns 40% of the wealth in that country; or when we see in the media the imperial arrogance with which they bomb foreign countries, in a violation of their sovereignty, with the pretext of fighting against islamic terrorist groups which in the recent past were financed, armed and trained by the CIA. This attack, which violated all norms of international Law, was legitimately considered by many to be a diversionary manoeuvre in the face of the embarrassments which the current tenant at the White House is facing due to his "inappropriate" liaisons .... This is unacceptable.

The "triumph of capitalism" can also be seen in the European Union, the main trade power which has 57 million poor, or on a world scale, where the fortunes of the 358 largest multimillionaires exceeds the annual income of 45% of the world's population. This is the reality of a system which exploits, oppresses, excludes and enslaves millions upon millions of human beings. In which millions and millions are left on the sidelines of economic growth and of scientific and technological developments, whilst a minority takes control of unparalleled wealth.

The "casino economy" is glorified and the stock markets are venerated as the "temples" of democracy... But the contradictions and the crises are there to see.

The absurdity of it all is such, that on more than one occasion, the announcement that unemployment had dropped in the USA was followed by important downturns in the stock markets.

Fooled by an overwhelming propaganda and by earnings from operations that look like those of [the Portuguese pyramid schemes of] Dona Branca, many citizens are attracted, in particular through the privatizations, into investing their savings in those markets, until the day when the next crash evaporates them and transfers millions to some of the luckier, or insider-trading, speculators who may earn in a single day more than what a whole generation of workers will ever earn during their whole lives. This in itself shows well the iniquity and the absurdity of the whole system.

But the economic crisis, which also revealed who benefited from the neo-liberal recipes and therapies of the IMF, and the various financial explosion in Asia, Latin America, Russia, as well as the shock waves which are now hitting the USA and the European markets with repercussions throughout the world, have deeper roots. They are based on the so-called real economy, on the contradictions and cyclical crises which are inherent to the capitalist system, on "fictitious capital" and the so-called "paper wealth", that is, on the growing financiarization and world-wide speculation of the economy. It is symptomatic, and ironical, that the Europeans and the Americans are asking Japan to increase its domestic consumption...

Every analyst and economist agrees that the crisis in Asia has not yet ended, either in its regional consequences, or in its contribution to the more general momentum towards recession, deflation and depression.

This is the absurdity of profit before people and of profit against people.

This is the absurdity of the fact that, world-wide, financial movements represent 70 times more than the commercialization of goods and services, to which they should correspond.

This is the absurdity of the attempt to give the financial markets, that is, the Banks, the Stock Market, etc., the ultimate say in the decisions and options affecting the peoples.

We will not resign ourselves, nor accept, this pretensely unchangeable "order" which dooms the children and whole continents, which discriminates against and excludes women, which always carries right next to its wallet the rhetoric of human rights, but which in every day life displays, with the utmost hypocrisy, a total indifference for the plight and the dramas of others, and a profound contempt for human beings.

In the year which marks the 150 years of the publication of the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx and Engels, a document which was a landmark for a new, revolutionary prospect of social transformation, we "are here", looking to the future, fighting for the emancipation of human beings from all forms of exploitation and oppression, seeking to establish social conditions which may ensure the "free development of each, as a precondition to the free development of all".

It is with this committed and confident attitude that we shall seek to strengthen and reinforce our solidarity and cooperation, to bring together and strengthen the initiatives and struggles with all communist, progressive and left-wing forces, seeking to provide answers to the yearnings and aspirations of the workers and the peoples.

It is with this committed and confident attitude, with our identity and our political and ideological legacy, that, in a particularly complex and demanding context, that we are engaged in carrying forth and materializing lines of action that are essential to rejuvenate, strengthen and ensure a greater assertion of the PCP, and to preserve a high momentum of intervention in all those problems which most affect the Portuguese people.

It is with this committed and confident attitude that here, in this magnificent "Avante!" Festival, we say to the Portuguese men and women, that they are not doomed to eternally having to choose only between a right-wing policy implemented by the PS and a right-wing policy implemented by the PSD. The PCP will not abandon the just aspirations and causes, it will not tear up, nor bury, the left-wing banners, values and projects. It will not disrespect, nor abandon, the yearnings and demands of those who trust it and who vote for it. That the PCP, this great and generous collective, which is open to the future, will do everything in its reach so that the Portuguese people may have a policy which respects those who work, which responds to the people's real problems, which promotes a harmonious development, and which builds a Portugal of progress and justice in a Europe of peace and cooperation.