CDU- For a patriotic and left-wing policy

I

35 years of a right-wing policy at the service of big business and economic and financial groups, carried out by PS, PSD and CDS, cast the country into a very serious crisis, in itself inseparable from the course of European Union´s capitalist integration and capitalism´s crisis, which worsens in a deep and unfair way the living conditions of the workers and the people and undermines the future.

A crisis that is economic, with the stagnation and recession of the economy, the destruction of the productive apparatus, the decline of national production and the worsening of the structural deficits and the country´s dependence.

A crisis that is social, with a brutal increase in unemployment, precarious labour and work without rights, with a curtailment of the expectations of the youth, an increase in emigration, a growing inequality in the distribution of wealth, through an attack on wages and pensions and cuts and diminution in the access to social benefits, the closing of public services, while the cost of living and fiscal injustice increase and the inequalities, the accumulation of wealth by means of profits of big business continue and grow.

A crisis that is financial, with the impoverishment of the State, resulting from direct and indirect supports to big business (an example of which are the huge sums unloaded on the BPN and BPP banks), the speculative attack on the Portuguese public debt and the refusal of alternative measures to face and overcome the crisis, in an assumed surrender by the Government to foreign interference.

A crisis which impoverishes the democratic regime, the national sovereignty and independence, with a permanent violation of the Constitution, with widespread phenomena of nepotism and corruption, with an increasing submission and acceptance of transfer of decisions, namely economic, monetary, financial and political to the European Union´s directorate and an increasingly blatant subordination of the political power to the economic power.

Following its great political erosion and social isolation, inseparable from the growing protest and struggle of the workers and the people, and the nature of its policies, the Socialist Party Government submitted its resignation, artificially invoking the rejection of the Stability and Growth Pact - SGP IV - whose contents PSD and CDS approve and rejected only tactically despite the publicly staged verbal dispute – in a campaign of victimisation by José Socrates and the Socialist Party, in synchrony with the blackmail of the false dilemma between the SGP and the IMF.

II

CDU affirms itself – throughout its past and actions – as a force defending a project of rupture and change in national life, able to put an end to decades of right-wing policies and open the way to a patriotic and left-wing policy, that will face the crisis with courage and determination and respond to the challenges of the future.

CDU affirms itself as a force fighting the illegitimate intervention by the IMF, the ECB and EU, proposed and supported by PS, PSD and CDS and the President of the Republic, in defence of national sovereignty and the inalienable right of the Portuguese people to decide their own fate, rejecting the already proposed new and grievous measures against the workers and the people.

CDU responds to the policy of the country´s and people´s decline and impoverishment, carried out by successive governments, with the defence of national production, recovery of the productive apparatus and economic growth, with technological, cultural and scientific development, the only way to sustainably fight unemployment and increase national wealth, lower the debt and foreign deficit, and create the foundations to solve the public deficit.

CDU presents alternative solutions to face straight away the problem of the public debt, by means of its renegotiation – including interest rates, terms and amounts of the debt – with a concerted action in the European Union with other countries in similar situations; by diversification of sources of financing, at the international level and by encouraging domestic savings; by renegotiation or ending public-private partnership contracts.

CDU defends the core aspect of valorisation of work, workers and the rights gained, rejecting the debasement of labour rights, namely the Labour Codes drawn by PSD, CDS and PS, as well as the new attempts to ease dismissals, attacks on wages, on collective bargaining and trade union activity. CDU combats the growing labour precarity, in particular that of the youth and new generations, demanding job stability, and permanent jobs for workers who execute permanent work and fighting casual labour.

CDU defends the valorisation of salaries and pensions, an essential factor for the dignity of hundreds of thousands of Portuguese, indispensable to fight poverty and to stimulate economic activity, defends an increase in the access to social benefits by all those who need them. CDU demands access to fundamental rights, the defence of the National Health Service and public school, ensuring its public, universal and free aspect, and also the defence of a public and universal social security.

CDU strives for a fair fiscal policy that puts an end to the penalization of the workers, the pensioners and small companies, that stimulates national production and at the same time, taxes more the profits of the big economic groups and banks and combats financial speculation.

DU rejects the privatisations and the degradation of public services and counter proposes the need of a public control on the basic and strategic sectors of the economy, with public companies managed so as to promote economic development and collective interest. CDU defends the existence of modern, efficient and close to the population public services, ensuring the rights of their workers.

CDU affirms itself as the force that defends the Constitution, fundamental rights and the democratic regime, local government and regional autonomies, fighting the subordination of the political power to the economic power, clearly shown in the visible rule of the banks on the political and economic life of the country.

III

In the coming election campaign, CDU favours the mobilization and information to the workers and the population, presentation of proposals and solutions to the problems of the country. CDU launches a campaign based on direct contact with the people, valorising its candidates in their commitment to national interests, in the struggle for a rupture and change in the country´s life.

We appeal to all the Portuguese people, those who are involved in mass organisations and movements and anti-monopolist social sectors, patriots, democrats and independent personalities who want a different course for the country, through their struggle and vote on CDU, to pave the way for a patriotic and left-wing policy.

CDU, a coalition consisting of the Portuguese Communist Party, The Portuguese Green Party – Partido Ecologista “Os Verdes” – the Democratic Intervention Association and numerous democrats and patriots who do not give up fighting for a better future for their country, is the broad space of participation, intervention and convergence in the 5th June legislative elections, for the change that Portugal needs.

CDU relies on the indispensible and irreplaceable role of its activists, men, women and youth who, with their creativity and commitment, represent the strongest political tool to affirm the need for a rupture and change in national life, also necessary to face the silencing, discrimination and distortion of our proposals and project for the country.

There is every reason to support and vote CDU.

The Portuguese people being victims of the right-wing policy, CDU proposes a coherent and feasible alternative policy, the only one that is credible, indispensable and urgent to pull the country from the crisis.

Because voting CDU is fighting against the right-wing policy and at the same time, in electoral terms, giving voice to the struggle of the workers and the population.

Because the vote on CDU does not submit to injustice and inequalities and demands a fairer distribution of wealth.

Because the vote on CDU does not accept the impoverishment of the country as a fatality, but places confidence on the national potential and wealth and on the workers to ensure the development, progress and improvement of the living conditions of the Portuguese.

Because the vote on CDU, denying the ideological campaign that tries to portray that all parties are the same, does not make concessions to cronyism, corruption, abuse of power, submission of public interest to private interests, is a vote that ensures that those elected will defend the interests of the people and the country.

Because the vote on CDU does not bow to the guidelines of the IMF, or the ECB and the European Union and to the interests of the big financial capital that rules it and to which national big business is closely linked and subordinated.

Because the vote on CDU is the vote that shows the difference that lasts beyond the elections with the strength that the workers and people wish to give, not only a vote that voices protest, but a vote of confidence on trustworthy people – aligned with the interests of the workers and the people, with peace and cooperation – able to build a new course for the country, inspired by the values and ideals of the April Revolution.

IV

Increasingly more Portuguese realize that it is not with the same policy or the parties that execute it and wish to continue – PS. PSD and CDS – that the national problems will be solved. The vote on CDU expresses the demand for an alternative policy to be executed by a patriotic and left-wing government, capable of ensuring a new phase in the country´s life, marked by development, justice, social progress and safeguarding national independence.

It is on the Portuguese people, the workers, the youth, that lies the necessary strength, in the 5th June elections, with their support and vote on CDU, to defeat the right-wing policy and open the way to a patriotic and left-wing policy that materializes the values of the April Revolution.