19th PCP Congress Closing Speech by Jerónimo de Sousa; General Secretary of PCP - Sunday, December 2, 2012

Comrade delegates
esteemed guests

Here we are on the verge of closing the 19th Congress.

To arrive here, since February we had to follow a process that involved thousands of militants and friends of the Party, mobilized all the party organisations from North to South of the Mainland, the autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira and in Emigration, totalling 1257 meetings, debates and electoral assemblies, with the participation of more than 18000 militants, counting the individual contributions of comrades who resorted to the open forum of the Avante and electronic means, from which resulted 1900 proposals, suggestions and reflections for the Project of the Political Resolution and more than 600 regarding the Party Programme, many of which were accepted in the respective projects. With the discussion done, after voting the Political Resolution, the changes to the Programme and the Constitution, and the election of the Leadership and the jurisdiction body, this Congress created and tuned the tools, has its labourers – the militants, the organisations and the Party leadership.

And now we have to continue to raise the structure: strengthen the Party, broaden and intensify the struggle, affirm the need and the possibility of the patriotic and left-wing political alternative, cement and build an alternative policy able to materialize it. Here we have updated and reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to the workers and the Portuguese people, to fight with them for Portugal with a future, democratic and with progress, for a free and sovereign country.

Here we declare and set down that, in the struggle for an advanced democracy, the values of April in terms of achievements, freedom, transformation, creation, participation and revolution, even if they come to be destroyed (and we will work to avoid it), will always be part and parcel of our communist ideal and of our project of building socialism.

Allow me two observations regarding the functioning and contents of our Congress:

The delegates to the 19th Congress and their continuous presence dignified and assumed fully the mandate they were given. And this was not an act of discipline. This was a responsible act of free will, of respect for those who elected them. Equally important was the presence of the guests.

This Congress, its functioning and participation also proved that all parties are not equal.

On the matter of speeches, we did not witness a parade of words with the mind set on a short-lived glory of appearing on television. We did not have a proposal presented by the chief, the candidate for chief, the candidate for candidate of something, because there is no chief and the proposal and resolution are of the Party and result from the collective opinion and contribution. Speeches connected to the life, knowing the reality in the companies and workplaces, in the sectors, that spoke about the problems and aspirations of the workers, farmers and small businessmen, the youth, intellectuals, the retired and pensioners, about the fighters who came to speak about the struggle, the specialists, men and women of knowledge, their personal experience, who came to speak about the economic, health, education, social security policies, about public water supply, the value of labour, culture and national production. With the country in mind, having as a guiding line the strengthening of the Party, its organisation, its social, political and electoral influence.

Yes, it is true that there will be no echo in the mainstream media. But I can assure you that the wealth of the analysis, the creative experiences of strengthening the Party, the proposals, apart from their translation and expression in the documents, will be a part of our heritage of ideas, analyses and proposals of the Party, and elements to correct the guideline, action and initiative.
We spoke about us, our party life, but even here we did not establish any boundaries with the problems of the workers and the people and society. A congress facing outwards.

Here we affirmed our more immediate and pressing combat against this policy of national disaster and its executor, the PSD/CDS-PP government.

Based on the national reality, the growth of the exploitation of workers, poverty, injustice, unemployment, ruin of small farmers, merchants and industrialists, the deficit, the unbearable destruction of the State’s social functions, the alienation of our national sovereignty, holding responsible the right-wing policy. We considered that the so-called memorandum of the troikas (which we characterise and well as a veritable Pact of Aggression) should be rejected, that it is necessary to have a rupture and a change of policy.

But we did not just criticize, or fight against. We have an alternative political proposal that in a very short synthesis proposes:

1º Rescue Portugal from the web of submission and dependence.

2º Give back to the country what belongs to the country: its resources, its strategic sectors and companies, its right to an economic growth and development and creation of jobs.

3º Hand back to the workers and people their wages, income and social rights, in order to have a dignified life.

People with the right to healthcare. People with the right to education. People with social protection.

It is necessary and urgent to have a different policy and another government. This is the first call of this Congress.

To all the workers, to all anti-monopolist classes and strata, to all political, patriotic and left-wing forces, to all democrats, to all restless and angry citizens with this path of national disaster to converge on the goal to put an end to this policy.

This government no longer has the social support it had a year and a half ago. It may have the legality but no longer has the legitimacy to carry on its destructive job because it lied, broke its pledge with many of its voters, because it is turning into hell the life of millions of unemployed, impoverished, ruined Portuguese, because its option is to serve only the powerful, financial capital and the big economic groups, whatever the cost.

This government is already a thing of the past. Whatever time it lasts, it has no future and will be defeated. The quicker it is dismissed, the higher the hope that we still have time to stop and reverse this path.

And then the crucial issue which is the building of a real alternative and how it materialises.

Our Political Resolution defines guidelines and sets a course, the need to strengthen the PCP and a change in the balance of forces in the political field, the development, the intensification and broadening of the struggle.

Since it is a patriotic and left-wing alternative to be found at the institutional level, we have first to deal with an unavoidable issue. That is to know if a political force like the PCP, which in a coherent and consistent way defends values, causes and a left-wing project should renounce them, and if the PS, implicated in a right-wing policy with the interests of capital, implicated and co-signer of the Pact of Aggression, should remain as it is. The PS does not answer the fundamental contradiction of knowing if a truly left-wing alternative is possible, while remaining committed and identified with the right-wing policy on structural matters.

We have said and say that we do not renounce convergence, dialogue with democratic forces and sectors on everything that is good for the workers, the people and the country. But do not ask or demand that the PCP cease to be what it is, that it should stop speaking the truth, stop the struggle for a different policy that breaks away from this worn out alternance. This Party was founded and exists, fought and fights to serve the workers and the Portuguese people, their interests and aspirations. It will be through their will and support that we shall be in an alternative solution. And not through power deals that demand that we stop being what we are, stop defending what we defend.

The Portuguese are fed up with being misled and double-crossed.

In our appeal to join us in the struggle, we also guarantee their vote. This support, this struggle, these votes will not be betrayed. They will always be respected.

Here we are ready for the tasks and battles that are here and yet to come.

Armed with our proposals. Assuming that the communists will be at the forefront of the struggle in defence of the rights of the workers, the youth, the women, the retired and pensioners, all anti-monopolist classes and strata.

Here we stand without any truces with these policies and this government which in a forward rush is preparing to deal a new and rude blow on the social functions of the State, on democracy and on the Constitution.

From here we set forth with better conditions to wage any electoral battle and particularly the local elections which require a strong commitment from all the Party organisations, side by side with our coalition partners, the Ecological Green Party and the Democratic Intervention, side by side with thousands of independent citizens and democrats, to state CDU and the PCP as a great local government force with great weight and influence matching the value of its work and its prestige achieved with work, honesty and competence.

From here we leave with the confident assertion that the people and the country are not doomed to any cataclysm, natural plague, bad luck or fatality. Plague is the right-wing policy and this can be eradicated with the force of the struggle of the workers and people.

Comrades

We reaffirmed our patriotic and internationalist nature. Our focus on the struggle at the national level is not due to any isolationist concept or because we do not understand the need for broader and more global answers to a process of capitalist globalisation.

We believe that the best contribution to develop internationalist solidarity and cooperation, the best and most effective way to face the imperialist onslaught, is to fight in our country. This fact does not underestimate or mean less commitment to the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. Naturally we prioritize our efforts to strengthen the international communist movement. With the sharpening of the class struggle the communist parties are more than ever necessary, since this class struggle is the big issue of our present times.

But here we reaffirmed our admiration and solidary dimension to the peoples and struggle of the workers, the heroic affirmations of the struggle of the peoples against imperialism in defence of their sovereignty, and with this inalienable right to be able to design and build their collective future.

Here we reaffirm our solidarity with the Cuban people and revolution, the martyred people of Palestine, the liberation parties and movements, with the millions of human beings who all around the planet show an unwavering desire for a fairer, safer and more democratic world and the deep conviction that capitalism will not be the end of human history, that there exists an alternative: socialism.

To all international delegations and representatives a solidary greeting from the Portuguese communists to your parties and organisations, your peoples and tell them that in the good times and the bad times, in the victories and the setbacks, here in Portugal you can rely on this solidary force, this Portuguese Communist Party.

Comrades

We have guidelines, we took deliberations, we affirmed a Party of struggle, proposal, project.

We approved changes to the Party Programme. Changes and updates that do not change the matrix of our programme of an advanced democracy as a stage without losing sight of the ultimate goal of socialism and communism.

This Congress confirms our decision to hold in 2013 the centennial celebrations of Álvaro Cunhal’s birth, a tribute to the man, the communist, the intellectual, the artist who, with his political thinking and action, his personal history of struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism is an irreplaceable reference to the communists but also to all those who are concerned with the problems of society, with the social and civilizational regression.

We treasure and honour our history. But in these commemorations we promote his teachings, his work, his example with the mind on the future.

Comrades

Here we witnessed confidence.

In a situation tough as fists, when the workers and the Portuguese people endure the destructive and devastating windstorm of right-wing politics by this government, we affirm:

Nothing is lost forever.

When the workers and the populations intensified and broadened their struggle, the government wavered. If this struggle grows, the government will be defeated. And rely on this Party which, with or without elections, in the hard times, will be, as always a combative force, as a force that carries hope and alternative, with the conviction that, yes a better life in Portugal with a future is possible.

Long live the workers and peoples!
Long live internationalist solidarity!
Long live the youth and JCP!
Long live the 19th Congress!
Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!