The Central Committee of the PCP, meeting on June 25, analysed the international situation, the evolution of the national economic, social and political situation and the development of the mass struggle. The Central Committee of the PCP also examined the progress of the preparation of the local elections and the affirmation of CDU, and defined the main lines of intervention, of political initiative and of reinforcement of the Party.

I
Evolution of the national situation

1. The national situation and the prospects of its evolution are still marked by the constraints imposed on the economic and social fields by decades of right-wing policies and the European capitalist integration. Conditions that, as the PCP has emphasized, not only will not disappear in the short term, but their effects and consequences will last the longer the rupture with the orientations and political options that are at their root are postponed.

The answer to the national problems and the application of a solid trajectory capable of ensuring the sovereign development of the Country demands a policy capable of overcoming the structural deficits of the Portuguese economy and the restoration of the instruments indispensable to its sovereignty, a policy inseparable from a rupture from foreign submission and the interests of monopoly capital.

Although limited in scope, the Central Committee emphasizes that the economic and social indicators - growth, job creation, reduction of unemployment, revitalisation of domestic demand, improvement of the trade balance - represent, regardless of the influence of circumstantial factors, the confirmation that the restoration of rights, devolution and increase of wages and incomes, besides their positive social impact, are an essential factor of economic progress.

The course that the Country needs is not deepening the "structural reforms" that led to increased exploitation, liquidation of rights, impoverishment and dependence on the Country, which PSD and CDS wanted to continue, but their rejection.

The course that the Country needs, in articulation with the reinforcement of the productive apparatus and of the national production, is the deepening of measures and policies for the valorisation of rights, wages and incomes - a condition not only of valorisation of social rights, better living conditions but also as a stimulus and dynamization of economic development.

2. The Central Committee of the PCP draws attention to the increasing lack of answers to the legitimate expectations of the workers and to increasingly less resources for the valorisation and operation of public services. Valuing the steps taken in the State Budgets, it is not possible to conceal that the overview of the execution of the State Budget for 2016 reveals aspects that contradict and distort positive features of its content and that several measures adopted in the State Budget for 2017 are yet to be implemented.

It should be stressed that decisions by the European Union, such as the 'exit' from the Excessive Deficit Procedure, do not conceal the fact that it maintains the set of impositions, interference and mechanisms of tutelage on budgetary and economic policy, which limit national sovereignty.

Restrictions on public investment, budgetary captivations that aggravate the allocation of funding in areas such as health, education, culture or the modernization of the transport system, the refusal to go further in restoring rights or responding to issues such as pensions of workers with long contributing careers, all dictated and justified by compliance with the European Union's determinations show, contrary to what the government maintains, the incompatibility of subjection to European impositions with a full and sustained response to the problems of workers, people and the Country.

3. The situation of the national economy continues to portray the options and lasting impacts of decades of right-wing policy, the SGP, the Pact of Aggression and the troika's intervention in Portugal, of submission to the European Union and the Euro, of monopolist domination in strategic sectors, of capitalism’s nature and crisis.

The Central Committee of the PCP draws attention to the subsistence of the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the country in the face of adverse factors such as interest rates, oil prices or the Euro exchange rate, which are expressed in vulnerabilities, namely in terms of food, demography, energy, territorial planning, infrastructure and public services.

Structural vulnerabilities that became obvious during the tragic fires that devastated the central area of the Country, which are closely linked to the absence of implementation of a structural policy for the development and defence of the forest and rural areas.
In a broader framework of constraints - in which structural deficits and in particular productive deficits loom - the weight of the debt, the submission to the Euro and the private control of national banks are particularly topical.

The significance of the debt, which is unsustainable in view of the Country's development needs, requires not a limited response to measures of day-to-day management of the direct debt of the State subject to the implementation of the decisions of the European Union, or to micro solutions, but a renegotiation involving terms, interest and amounts, ensuring effective reduction of the debt and of the debt service.

The Central Committee of the PCP stresses that, contrary to what is claimed by those who wish to belittle the situation and problems in the banking sector, it faces not only the problems collected by years of harmful management and immeasurable accumulation of impairments but also the consequences of a process of concentration of banks dictated by the ECB and the Banking Union strategy. Examples of which are developments in the Novo Banco, with its handing to the Lone Star speculation fund, with unpredictable losses to public resources, the absorption of Banco Popular by the Spanish giant Santander (which had already bought Banif and is preparing to take over other institutions) and above all the ongoing strategy for CGD, which limits its affirmation as a public bank and the role it should be called upon to play in the Country's development.

4. With small fluctuations over time, the last two decades, coinciding with the period of preparation and joining the Euro, were marked by stagnation and economic recession, by the transfer of several instruments of sovereignty - budgetary, monetary, exchange, financial, economic - to the European Union, by the decline of the weight of industry, agriculture and fisheries in national income and employment, by enhancing the peripheral nature of the Portuguese economy in view of the major trends in the international division of labour, with a model based on low wages and low technological intensity, by the increasing transfer of national income abroad, namely through speculation on the debt and the profits and dividends that are drained to economic groups, to whom strategic sectors have been handed, and the articulation between the "free" circulation of capital and the existence of so-called tax havens and fiscal benefits to monopoly groups. Portugal, which has lower levels of wealth production than those of 12 years ago, whose levels of public and private investment have regressed to the point where they fail to replace the natural wear and tear of equipment and machinery, faces problems, constraints and limitations that have a structural dimension.

5. The PCP values ​​the advances and steps taken in the defence, restoration and achievement of rights in the new phase of national political life and the relation of forces existing in the Assembly of the Republic, examples of which are the replacement of public holidays, the replacement of the 35-hour week in Public Administration, elimination of the Income Tax surcharge, reduction of VAT in catering, cuts in user fee rates in healthcare and in the number of patients without access to family doctors, the increase, still falling below the needed, of the national minimum wage. To which we can add the already materialized or under materialization advances appearing in the State Budget for 2017. Examples include the progressive restoration of collective bargaining in the state business sector, the increase in the value of pensions, the increase in child allowances, the increase in the meal allowance in Public Administration, the “green petrol” regime for fishing, free museum entrance or free textbooks for the first cycle of primary education. Meanwhile, the PCP cannot fail to point out that matters set down in the 2017 Budget, have unjustifiably failed to materialize.

6. The Central Committee of the PCP draws attention to the increasingly visible convergence between the PS Government and the PSD and the CDS on matters of relevance. It is particularly significant that, in particular as regards workers' rights, as was already apparent in the Banif case, these three parties converge to ensure that the grievous rules of the labour code remain unchanged. A convergence that proves that when it comes to important class interests the PS does not deviate from what has been for decades its connection with right-wing policies.

II
Patriotic and Left-wing Policy

1. In the light of recent developments, it is important to reaffirm that there may be periods of economic growth, as has already occurred in the past, without this meaning a consistent, sustained path and of overcoming the country's structural deficits. Only with the liberation of the Country from the existing constraints is it possible to ensure development and improvement of the living conditions to which the Portuguese people are entitled. This is the meaning of the patriotic and left-wing policy that the PCP defends and underlines.

The liberation of the country from submission to the Euro and from the impositions and constraints of the European Union which, with other expressions of a sovereign foreign policy, of peace and cooperation, affirms a free and sovereign Portugal; the renegotiation of public debt in its terms, interest and amounts, ensuring a debt service compatible with the needs of public investment, development and creation of employment; ensure public control of banking, restore the strategic core sectors of the economy to the public sector, affirm a strong and dynamic State Enterprise Sector, support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the cooperative sector; defence and promotion of national production and productive sectors, planning of economic activity and the development of a policy to defend manufacturing and mining industries, agriculture and fisheries, which places national resources at the service of the people and the country and reduces structural deficits; valorisation of labour and workers, as object and condition for development, with the enlargement of the internal market, full employment, higher wages, including the national minimum wage, respect for working hours and their reduction to 35 hours weekly, combat precariousness, respect for labour rights, repeal of grievous labour legislation rules, in particular the elimination of the expiry of collective bargaining and the reintroduction of the principle of more favourable treatment of workers; valorisation of pensions and social benefits, diversification of sources of Social Security funding, including the contribution of enterprises on the basis of net added value; guarantee of an administration and public services at the service of the people and the Country, valorising the National Health Service as a universal and free public service; a free and quality Public Education; a system of Public and Universal Social Security; a public service of culture; defence of a fiscal justice policy that relieves the tax burden on the incomes of the workers and the people, that fights the tax havens and ends the scandalous favouring of big business; the defence of the democratic regime and compliance with the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the deepening of rights, freedoms and guarantees, the fight against corruption and the implementation of an independent and accessible justice for all.

2. The patriotic and left-wing policy needed for the country demands the definition of guidelines and the adoption of measures that promote national production, the use of existing resources and economic development based on:

The definition of a different priority for public investment, a policy of replacing imports by domestic production, coupled with the promotion of exports; valorisation of existing resources adequately, in a conception of the use of the productive chain in accordance with national interests and with the necessary environmental protection; adopting a program aimed at food sovereignty by responding to essential aspects of national needs and considering agriculture, livestock, forestry and fisheries as strategic productions; in terms of forests, the financial and human resources necessary for planning, valorising the price of wood, preventing and effective intervention in the event of fires; reindustrialization of the Country, with the development of so-called traditional sectors and new sectors, within a framework of an accelerated change of needs and productive processes; developing a strategy pursuing the goal of energy sovereignty, in particular by harnessing the existing potential of renewable energies, public control and enhancement of energy efficiency solutions; consideration and use of service sectors, including tourism, but without dependencies; valorisation of education, culture, scientific and technological development, with the increase of the productive profile and the progression of value chains and increase of added value, and not as a pretext for new attacks on labour rights and on Social Security.

3. The patriotic and left-wing policy needed for the country demands the continuation and full implementation of a policy to combat precarious work, with the adoption of a National Programme to Combat Precariousness and Illegal Work, ensuring in particular:
Legislative changes to eliminate existing rules facilitating fixed-term employment, temporary work, false “green receipts”, false scholarships and internships, hiring services to core business activities; declaration of the executive effectiveness of the Authority [overseeing]Working Conditions decisions, provide guidelines on the effective application of rights, and the hiring of additional inspectors, technicians and other professionals; that the programme defined in the Public Administration and in the State Business Sector be effective, full-time integrating of all the workers who carry out permanent functions, regardless of the form of the current precarious ties, with the services considering and solving the existing situations without bureaucracies , hurdles or postponements; adoption of programmes to ensure answering all Public Administration workers, including scientists, researchers and technicians and teachers, assuming that, in the same general deadline of 31 October, these precarious situations are solved so that they are effectively integrated during the year 2018; assumption by local government, within their autonomy, the resolution of situations of precariousness and the elimination of existing legal mechanisms that enable situations of precariousness and prevent or limit their resolution.

4. The Central Committee of the PCP also stresses that the continuation and deepening of the defence, restoration and achievement of rights needs the adoption of urgent measures of social importance to stimulate economic development, continuing the path of measures implemented since the beginning of the legislature, which responded to the improvement of living conditions and contributed to economic growth.

5. The PCP points out that the PS government's discourse, that it is not possible to solve everything at once, aims to justify its choices and submission to the European Union, keeps postponing measures that the scale of the problems require and signifies resistance to new advances indispensable to respond to the aspirations and interests of the workers and the people. As the PCP has underlined, the course needed is not a commitment to monopoly capital or the European Union, the postponement of the necessary responses and disappointing expectations, but the effective response to national problems, raising the living conditions of the people, the creation of conditions for the development of the Country.

III
Developments in the international situation

1. The international situation continues to be marked by the consequences of the deepening of capitalism’s structural crisis which, despite discourses on an alleged economic recovery, continues to worsen in various fields.

2. The situation of international insecurity and instability, expressed in the proliferation of conflicts, in the intensification of interference and provocation against sovereign states and in the continuing acts of terrorism, is inseparable from the answer by force to the deepening of capitalism’s structural crisis by the main imperialist powers.

The proliferation of terrorist attacks or the growth of extreme right-wing forces is a direct consequence of the exploitative and aggressive policy of the main imperialist powers, NATO and the European Union. The imperialist aggressions in the Middle East and the African Continent, namely in Syria; financing states that are clearly directly involved in supporting and funding terrorist organisations and groups - such as the 100 thousand million dollar sale of arms to Saudi Arabia; the escalation of tension and provocation against sovereign states, notably in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Far East; the new arms race and the militarist leap in the United States and the European Union are, along with the tragic social consequences of the imperialist offensive, the main causes of terrorism and of the growth of xenophobic and racist forces.

3.   The Central Committee draws attention to the operations which, in the context of a continuing and deep crisis of the process of European capitalist integration, are underway in the European Union on the so-called "Future of Europe". In view of popular opposition to the European Union - expressed in electoral processes - in view of contradictions that continue and deepen, big business and institutions of the European Union try to present as best the paths that have proven not able to solve none of the problems of the European Continent.

As was quite clear in the European Council of June 22 and 23, what is really at stake under the pseudo-debate on the “Future of Europe” is an attempt to revive and strengthen the Franco-German axis and a deepening of the three pillars of the European Union - federalism, militarism and neoliberalism. Attempts at an understanding between Germany and France to conduct the ongoing militarist leap forward and in strengthening the European Union as a European pillar of NATO (of which the decision to increase military expenditure and the establishment of the permanent structure of military cooperation are particularly serious recent examples); the recent proposals by the European Commission to enhance Economic and Monetary Union and the way in which the European Union is leading Britain’s exit are core features of a strategy for strengthening the main instruments of European Union, especially the common market and the Euro.

The Central Committee of the PCP rejects the view expressed in the recent proposals by the European Commission which, in line with the old and never-achieved goal of "own budgetary capacity" or with a never materialized diffused "mutualisation" of debt, goes ahead in enhancing the instruments of interference and external conditioning, whether with the creation of the post of Minister of Finance with veto power over national budgets, strengthening of the already draconian rules of the Stability Pact and its Economic Governance, or the conclusion of the Banking Union or the institution of the Single Capital Market.

The Central Committee of the PCP stresses that the deep crisis in and of the European Union brings the need not of a false debate on maintaining and reinforcing the European Union's instruments of domination but on the need for ruptures to open the way for another Europe, of the workers and the people.

4. The Central Committee of the PCP denounces the goals of NATO`s high level meeting held last 25th May in Brussels. Notwithstanding  the contradictions emerging from the intensification of the inter imperialistic rivalries around the financing and control of the most import forum for imperialist consultation, NATO reaffirms and reinforces its increasing line of involvement in wars of aggression, starring in a new arming and militarist resurgent, carried out by the USA and the European Union under cover of the “struggle against terrorism” and reinforces a set of operations, aiming to raise to a level of unforeseeable consequences, the confrontation with the Russian Federation.

The Central Committee of the PCP reaffirms that the main danger for world peace is the aggressive strategy of the USA, NATO and the EU, which is being proven not only by direct military aggression, black and interference promoted by imperialism all over the world, but also the support provided by the imperialist powers to the fascist options of the Ukrainian regime, Israel´s Zionist government and its policy of State terrorism against the Palestinian people, or to several States of the Gulf Cooperation Council, namely Saudi Arabia, as it became clear during Donald Trump´s recent trip to the Middle East.

The Central Committee of the PCP warns for series of extremely serious events in the Middle East, involving military confrontation of the USA and its allies against Syria, Russia and Iran, which can degenerate into a conflict of unpredicted consequences.

The Central Committee of PCP draws the attention to the death of a Portuguese serviceman in Mali and reaffirms its position, that on the contrary of the repeated government statements, Portugal must not get involved in military operations abroad at the service of the imperialistic interests.
The Central Committee of the PCP insists that as respect to the Constitution of Republic, Portugal has to challenge the USA; NATO and the EU´s aggressive strategy making heard its independent voice in defence of Peace.

5. The Central Committee of the PCP, in the 50th anniversary of the war unleashed by Israel in June 167, which has resulted in a the occupation of the whole historical Palestine as well as of territories of Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, expresses its solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people for its inalienable national rights and welcomes the victory of the 1500 Palestinian political prisoners in their struggle against violent repression and for basic conditions of detention.

The Central Committee of the PCP reaffirms that the fair and long-lasting peace in the Middle East will only be possible with the achievement of the national rights of the Palestinian people, namely the creation of a Palestinian State sovereign and viable, with the pre-1967 borders and capital in East Jerusalem and the right to the return of the refugees.

6. The Central Committee of the PCP expresses its solidarity with the people of Latin America who resist and fight against the offensive of the big capital, the reactionary forces and the imperialism. In particular the people, the government and the progressive and revolutionary Venezuelan forces, which are the object of an international campaign of destabilization and interference, aiming, by means of violence, economic boycott and shameless external interference to overthrow the legitimate Bolivarian government. It also expresses it solidarity with the workers and the Brazilian people in their struggle against Michel Temer´s corrupt and coup based government and for direct elections.

IV
The mass struggle

1. The Central Committee of the PCP stresses the important dynamic class struggle which has taken place over the past few months, involving hundreds of thousands of workers in actions, from businesses and the workplaces, for concrete or converging objectives in a wide process demanding better living and working conditions and for a change of policy.

Men, women and young workers, who in a fighting spirit mobilised, namely: the great national demonstration of Young Workers on the 28th March on the Precariousness Route; the canteen workers; Visabeira´s hotel units; Spiana; Lousas de Valongo;   CTT; Petrogal; Cabelte Group; EMEF; Tegopi; Bakery Donuts; Matutano; Funchal´s Portway; SATA´s crew cabin staff; Rulen´s cleaning staff, Iberlin, Safira, ISS, Euromex; Prossegur and Securitas´ airport security staff, security staff for transport of valuable goods, “Estática”; transport and communication; Nowo; Soflusa and Transtejo; AveiroBus; Carris Bus; Transportes Martinez; Prestibel; Seia Contact Centres; Herdade de Rio Frio; Amarsul and Valorsul; Manpower and Randstad form EDP in Lisbon, Pinto e Bentes; General Cable Celcat; Thyssenkrup; Tesco; EDP; EPAL; INCM; Tréves Textile, Clothing and Shoemaker’s sector; Navigator Company; Secil Outão; Esip; Parmalat; the museums; Local Administration; National Pensions Centre;INEM; Barreiro´s Hospital cleaning staff; Auchan Group; Lidl; Logística Sonae; Dia/Minipreço; IPSS (Private Social Solidarity Institutions) and Misericórdias; SAMS (Social-Medical Assistance Service); the cleaning staff S. Bernardo´s Hospital;   Oeste-Caldas da Rainha Hospital; Red Cross Hospital; Viana do Castelo shipyard former workers; nurses; school´s non-teaching staff; teachers; doctors; GNR (National Republican Guard), PSP (Public Safety Police), SEF (Immigration) and Gaia´s City Police; the Public Administration Workers strike on the 26th May; the local government workers demonstration on the 21st April among others.

Struggles which have in many cases achieved victories of great meaning, be it with the increase in salaries, assurances of workers indefinite contracts be it the realization of many other rights.

Struggles which must continue for salary increases and for the increase of the minimum national wage; against the deregulation of the working time and reduction to a 35h week for all; for the fight of precariousness, ensuring that to each permanent position corresponds a full time permanent job; for improvements in working conditions; for career progression and the reposition of the rights in the Public Administration sector; for the reinforcement of personnel in public service; for the rights and the valorisation of work and of the workers; for the revocation labour law ´s most grievous measures, namely the cessation of collective agreements and the implementation of the principle of the most favourable treatment; in defence of the State´s social functions and of public services, among many and many demands.

2. The Central Committee of the PCP highlights the dimension of the people’s celebrations of the 25th April, in defence of the Values of April, of the 1st of May Journey, convened by CGTP-IN in about 40 locations, expressing the workers ´demanding actions from the workplace, businesses and sectors in a great sign of converging struggle of all workers, and also of the demonstrations held in Lisbon and Oporto on the 3rd June by CGTP-IN, which, under the motto “ United to Value Work and the Workers”, gathered dozens of thousands of workers.

3. The Central Committee of the PCP values also the struggle actions carried out by Secondary and University Students, in defence of a State Education Free and of Quality, on and around the 24th March, Students Day; the actions in several locations for the Caixa Geral de Depósito´s branches, as well as the actions for the defence of the National Health Service or for improvements in school building’s conditions, and in particular the great national demonstration of women promoted by MDM (Democratic Women Movement),  held in Lisbon on the 11th March, which gathered over twenty thousand people in defence of equality in life and in the workplace.

4. The Central Committee of the PCP welcomes the success of InterReformados National Conference and the National Conference for Equality promoted by CGTP-IN, on the 10th February and 2nd June, respectively, as well as the 20th National Meeting of Workers Commissions, on the 2nd June, which confirmed it as a movement with future.

5. The Central Committee of the PCP highlights the actions in defence of peace and for the dissolution of NATO, held in Lisbon on the 24th and in Oporto on the 25th May, which are increasingly important as the violence and aggressiveness of this warmongering force at the service of the imperialism escalate.

6. The Central Committee of the PCP saluting all who along the time kept on the fighting for their legitimate interests and rights, contributing with their determination to the defeat and the removal of the PSD and CDS, reaffirms that in this new stage of national political life , the development of the organised struggle, rejecting apathy and provocative and divisive options, is essential in order to take further the defence, reposition and achievement of rights, realize the rupture with right wing policies and build the patriotic, left wing policy that the country, the workers and the people need.

V
Local Government Elections

Reaffirm CDU and its project of work, honesty and competence
1. The Central Committee values the work in progress for the creation of the CDU candidate list, aiming at the goals of participation defined, measures to its confirmation and national action, which allowed for accountability and affirmation of the defined project, which state CDU´s difference in opposition to other political forces, be it PSD and CDS or PS and BE. The independence of opinion and political actions which the PCP preserved and assumes in its national political life, extends to and expresses itself in project and the proposals which set CDU´s political intervention in the next local government elections.

CDU - Coligação Democrática Unitária, PCP-PEV (CDU – Unitary Democratic Colligation), presents its project, reaffirming its logo and its own symbol, confirming itself as the space for unitarian intervention and civil participation of thousands of men, women and young people without any political membership, who recognised in CDU their work efforts, honesty and competence and identify it as a privileged space for intervention and contribution towards local progress and development.

2.  Reaffirming its actions for a dignified Local Government and its reinforcement as means for the responsibilities and competences at the service of the populations and the responsiveness to their problems, the Central Committee of the PCP denounces the attempts to under a false decentralisation, to burden the local authorities, withdrawing the State from responsibilities which belong from the Sate under the constitution, contributing not to improve the efficient of solving the problems of the populations, but, on the contrary, putting in risk the competences which in future could be transferred to local authorities which already work without the necessary means to fully address those needs. What a serious decentralisation process requires is not to be carried out in a rush and in disregard of the Parliament, the local authorities and the population but the elimination of a range of constraints that local authorities are still facing, the reinforcement of financial capacity which mitigates the over 3.2 billion they lost over the past decade through the non-compliance of the Local Finances Law, the reposition of boroughs extinguished by the PSD/CDS government and establishment of administrative regions.

At a moment when under the pretext of “academic studies” the solutions presented are again determined by a gratuitous attack on Local Government and the elected members, to defend cuts in political guarantees and rights (such as term limit requirements) or to encourage populist dynamic which hide behind so-called independents, CDU projects the values and the democratic dimension of the Local Government, contributing with its actions in local councils and its more wide policies in order to defend it and value it.

VI
Reinforce the organisation of the Party, intensify its action and political intervention

1. The Central Committee of the PCP highlights the political initiative carried out by the organisations of the Party, which, around different issues and forefronts, have affirmed the Party and raised its prestige with the workers and the population. We should stress the contact actions with the workers and the populations around Child Benefit, bottled gas, long contributory careers, school manuals and the specific problems in business and workplaces which affect the workers.

Within this framework, also stresses the institutional intervention to several levels of the defence of the rights and interests of the workers and the people, highlighting the intense work developed in Parliament and the European Parliament, which supported by the Party´s daily actions contributes for its assertion.

Within the Party´s action we stress the campaign “Production, jobs, sovereignty. Free Portugal from the submission to the euro”, the campaign “More rights, more future. No to Precariousness” and ” highlighting in the current situation the importance of concrete steps to allow Local Administration workers in precarious situation to have effective jobs.

2. The Central Committee of the PCP welcomes the Portuguese communist Youth for the success of its 11º Congress, held in Setubal on the 2nd and 3rd April under the motto “Conquer the Present. Build the future. It is with struggle that we will prevail”. The dimension of preliminary work and the approach to the problems and aspirations of the young people, the cohesion and unity demonstrated in the voting, the presence of almost three dozen foreign delegations, the joy, and determination and fighting spirit of the works, confirm the potentiality of affirming the communist ideal with the youth.

3. The Central Committee of the PCP calls on the commitment of the organisations and militants for the preparation of the Avante! Festival, which is taking place on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd September, having as essential tasks of all party collective the promotion of the Festival and its programme; the early sale of the Permanent Entry (EP) an the widening of the militant network for its sale, the construction with participation in a day´s work, which started last 15th June and the mobilisation for the diverse operative tasks.

4. Valuing the set of initiatives already carried out in the context of the Centenary of the October Revolution, namely the Seminar in the 17th June at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon, the Central Committee of the PCP highlights the contribute of these commemorations in the current ideological struggle, for the assertion of Socialism as a requirement for the present and the future.

5. The Central Committee of the PCP emphasises the decisive importance of the Party´s organisation, whose reinforcement entails attention, guidelines and measures. In this framework, it is necessary:

To detail the objectives of the organic strengthening, deepening its timeframe and ensure measures for control and execution which are indispensable to its realisation; channel the militant availability which reveals itself in the mass struggles and electoral battles, for the accountability of cadres and the reinforcement of the directorate; ensure that the work with the working class and all workers, the struggle for the defence of their claims, the Party action, is converted in the intensification of the organisation is companies and the workplace, namely with the creation of new cells; take advantage of the involvement of thousands and thousands of non-affiliated people in the lists and their support to the CDU, to strengthen and boost root organisations; stimulate the recruitment of new militants and their integration, defining an organism and a task; promote political and ideological training initiatives, integrated namely in the commemorations of Centenary of the October Revolution; develop, in the follow up of the diversified sectorial actions the structuring of work with specific segments and social sectors; continue promoting the dissemination of the “Avante!”, carrying on with the work of the national campaign for that goal, which allowed, although with regional differences, noted and valued advances ; reinforce the propaganda structure , ensuring a direct link with the workers and the popular masses; give particular attention to the fundraising for essential means for the Party´s financial independence, such as the regular payment of contributions, the availability of comrades responsible for collecting the contribution of all militants and an increase in its value, the undertaking of campaigns and initiatives of fundraising and the implementation of the principles of the elected not being benefited nor prejudiced and the polling stations.

***
The Central Committee of the PCP, aware of the demands which the Party faces, highlights the extraordinary response that the party collective is providing and appeals for that effort to be continuous and strengthened in the framework of the concretization of the guidelines decided by the XX Congress, ensuring a stronger PCP, more interventional in the struggle, with the workers and the people, for a patriotic, left wing policy, advanced democracy with the values of April in the future of Portugal, for socialism and communism.