On behalf of the Portuguese Communist Party, I would like to greet all those present here and express special thanks to the artists and all those involved in the cultural event that we had the privilege of attending at this memorial session, at a time when tomorrow, September 12, marks 100 years since the birth of Amílcar Cabral.
A greeting to the diplomatic representatives of the Angolan, Cape Verdean, Chinese, Cuban, Mozambican and East Timorese states, who honoured us with their presence.
Allow me to express my special thanks to the representatives of the PAIGC and PAICV, as well as of the MPLA and Frelimo.
I would like to take advantage of your presence to emphasise the PCP's commitment to develop fraternal relations of solidarity and cooperation between our parties and to deepen the historic relations that unite us and to which, in particular with the PAIGC and PAICV, Amílcar Cabral made an invaluable contribution, and which have been, and we want them to continue to be, a strong expression of friendship between our peoples and countries.
Today we pay tribute to this remarkable man who was one of the most outstanding African revolutionaries of the 20th. century, founder and General Secretary of the PAIGC, his heroic party that defeated the fascist war machine and led the peoples of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde to independence.
A tribute to Amílcar Cabral, which does not end today. It also took place at the Avante! Festival, with debates, exhibitions and the initiative of the collection “Textos da Luta” (Texts of the Struggle), published by Edições Avante! This tribute will rightly continue with various expressions and initiatives, starting with the Guinean and Cape Verdean communities in various places.
We pay tribute to this man of firm convictions, character and enormous courage who, as Álvaro Cunhal, with whom he met many times, said, “was not only a great fighter and leader of the liberation struggle of his people”, but “a great revolutionary thinker and leader of the emancipatory struggle of the African continent”.
Born in Guinea-Bissau to Cape Verdean parents, he began his school life in the land of his parents and went on to complete his studies in Portugal, graduating as an agronomist from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, School of Agriculture.
It was in Lisbon that he came into direct contact with the struggle of the Portuguese people.
It was here that, in an atmosphere of vigorous activity of the democratic opposition movement, young Amílcar Cabral not only took part in the activities of the MUD and other fronts of the anti-fascist struggle, but also developed an intense cultural and political activity.
An intense activity with other students from the colonies, some of whom, like him, would take on major responsibilities in the creation and leadership of national liberation movements in their lands and with their peoples.
Amílcar Cabral said – “I learnt to fight for freedom in Portugal”.
It was in the struggle and intervention for the liberation of all peoples, the peoples of the colonies and the Portuguese people, that bonds of friendship and solidarity were forged between the PCP and the PAIGC and later also with the PAICV.
Relationships of which the Portuguese communists are very proud, and which are inseparable from the PCP's firm position of principle on the colonial issue.
The PCP was the only party that, since its foundation and as early as the First Congress, adopted the goal of “liberating the colonies dominated by Portugal”. This position was strengthened and developed at the Fifth Congress in 1957, where it was stated that “the necessary conditions are now in place for the peoples of the African colonies dominated by Portugal to achieve their freedom and independence’.
The PCP was the only one that always and by all means fought against the criminal colonial wars and for the complete and immediate independence of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe.
The only one that denounced the crimes of colonialism and fought the colonial and neo-colonial theories of the liberal and social-democratic opposition of decades ago.
The vast and remarkable richness and teachings of Amílcar Cabral's life and work cannot be covered here, but we cannot fail to highlight some of the outstanding features of his revolutionary thought and action.
“I swore to myself that I must give all my life, all my energy, all my courage, all the capacity I can have as a man, until the day I die, to the service of my people, in Guinea and Cape Verde. To the service of the cause of humanity, to make my contribution, as much as possible, to make life better for people in the world. This is my job.”
Amílcar Cabral's words express his humanism and commitment to the struggle of the peoples. But they also reveal his patriotism, his close identification with the suffering and aspirations of his people and his profound knowledge of the complex economic and sociological reality of Guinea and Cape Verde.
His mastery of politics as a science and his art of leading the struggle was what enabled him to develop a revolutionary line which, inspired by other experiences of the national liberation struggle, started from the concrete reality of Guinea with its original and creative characteristics. This line is reflected in his landmark text “The Weapon of Theory”, in which Amílcar Cabral states that “there can be no victorious revolution without revolutionary theory”, and which expresses a structured way of thinking, applying Marxism to the concrete African reality.
A thinking in which national liberation and social revolution are not commodities for export - it is the historical and concrete reality of each people that is the determining factor, and this is a rich teaching that remains topical and relevant.
A personality of rare intelligence, Amílcar Cabral was a statesman of recognised merit, authority and prestige, as was expressed at the Conference of Heads of State and Government in Rabat, where the PAIGC was chosen as the spokesperson for the entire national liberation movement in Africa.
A true patriot, Amílcar Cabral was at the same time a convinced and consistent internationalist, who worked closely with the other liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies - the MPLA, Frelimo and the MLSTP.
His action to take and affirm the anti-colonial cause to the international stage and against the mystifications of Portuguese colonialism tore the wall of silence that existed with the connivance of imperialism and laid bare the falsehood of the so-called “civilising mission” of Portuguese colonialism and an acclaimed “Portuguese tropicalism”.
As Cabral said: “We are in the process of proving that peoples such as ours, economically backward, living sometimes almost naked in the bush (...), are capable, by means of their sacrifices and efforts, of beating an enemy who is not only more advanced from a technological point of view but also supported by the powerful forces of world imperialism.”
The liberating struggle is an act that transforms not only reality and the common life of the people as a whole, but of man himself. It is an act and factor of culture.
A struggle that was simultaneously an act of solidarity with all the anti-imperialist forces, reciprocal solidarity that was felt between fighters from Africa and the rest of the world, particularly from the USSR and other socialist countries, like Cuba.
This struggle that refuses to be transformed into narrow, racial nationalism.
At the Second Conference of the Nationalist Organisations of the Portuguese Colonies in 1965, Amílcar Cabral said: “We of the CONCP want (...) that our peoples may never more be exploited, not only by the imperialists, not only by Europeans, not only by people with white skins, because we do not confuse exploitation or the factors of exploitation with the colour of men's skin; we do not want any exploitation in our countries, not even by black people.”
At a time when hypocritical attempts are being made to heighten rifts and divisions on the basis of skin colour or other grounds, while the instrumentalization of racism and xenophobia continues in order to deepen exploitation, it is right and important to stress that the anti-fascist struggle in Portugal was fundamental in supporting and boosting the anti-colonial struggle in Africa, just as the anti-colonial struggle also made an extremely important contribution to the development of the struggle against the fascist regime, struggles that would converge in the April Revolution.
It is fair and important to emphasise the common struggle of the peoples of Portugal and of the former colonies, which Amílcar Cabral summed up in the statement that “we are not fighting against the Portuguese, but against Portuguese colonialism”. Their struggle was not, therefore, against different skin colours or ethnicities, but against the coloniser, the dominant and exploitative, whatever the colour of their skin or ethnicity.
When today people want to counter this struggle and distort the common aims that united them, let's remember Amílcar Cabral, and I quote: “we consider the struggle of the Portuguese people to be our own struggle”.
Amílcar Cabral was assassinated on January 20, 1973, by agents of the Portuguese fascist dictatorship - a tragic event that we rightly marked a year ago, but the ideals he embraced in life are not dead.
On September 24, 1973, the state of Guinea-Bissau was unilaterally proclaimed and a year later, following the April Revolution, Portugal finally recognised its independence, albeit against the wishes of some. A few months later, on July 5, 1975, Cape Verde became independent.
By celebrating Amílcar Cabral's centenary we are fulfilling a duty of remembrance, but above all we are looking to the present and the future.
We draw from the past experiences and lessons for this ongoing struggle for the supreme goal of liberation from all forms of exploitation and oppression. Experiences and lessons and also reasons for confidence that, in a time marked by great uncertainties and dangers, will help to combat the powerful ideological offensive of the ruling classes of the so-called “Western world” and counter the idea that an alternative to the domination of colonialism and imperialism is not possible.
What historical experience shows us is that those who presented themselves and seemed like eternal dominators ended up defeated. This was the case with the defeat of fascism and the great achievements of April, conquered by the force of a powerful popular uprising. This was the case in Guinea and Cape Verde (and other Portuguese colonies in Africa) with the liquidation of colonialism and the conquest of their independence. It was and will be like that.
The work and thought of Amílcar Cabral are flagrantly topical or, as Pedro Pires, former President of Cape Verde, recently told us, “the important legacy of Amílcar Cabral is directed at the peoples in struggle”. A legacy that projects and carries the paths of true independence, sovereign development in favour of the peoples and in defence of their resources and wealth, social justice and peace.
A legacy that is alive and kicking, despite the fact that many of the hurdles and weaknesses that Amílcar Cabral had warned about remain, both in terms of the huge tasks of consolidating independence and the danger of moving away from generous revolutionary ideals.
But while it is true that the colonialist and imperialist powers are seeking to regain their positions and continue their domination and exploitation of the huge wealth of the African continent, starting with the system of unequal trade, IMF impositions, debt garrotting, military bases and other forms of external interference, it is no less true that in the diversity of their realities and conditions and through different paths and ways towards these goals, the African peoples dare to affirm and continue their sovereign path. Signs of hope that embody the liberating ideals of sovereignty, progress and social justice for which Amílcar Cabral gave his life.
That fight, with that hope and confidence, which we are also waging here in Portugal, for a patriotic and sovereign policy, for a left-wing policy with labour and the workers at the centre of our action.
A struggle in which we are committed and which we understand, like Amílcar Cabral, not as a “high-speed race, but as a long-distance race”, where the perseverance, determination and courage of the people fighting for the right to plan and build their future is present.
Today, as in the past, the PCP stands in solidarity with the African peoples on their hard road to liberation.
Cabral lives on, in every fight against injustice, in every fight against inequality, in every fight for the rights and aspirations of the peoples, Cabral lives on and continues to open the doors to a more promising future for the peoples.
