Comrades
The activity and the international relations of the party, during the past four years, were inseparable from the unfolding of the international situation marked by a violent attack by imperialism and the deepening of the crisis of the capitalist system, whose serious effects on the workers and the peoples require the strengthening of the communist parties in each country and, at the same time, the strengthening of the cooperation and internationalist solidarity among them, as well as with all the forces of social progress and national liberation.
We are living in times of great instability and uncertainty, where the dangers to world security and peace loom, where attacks against the sovereignty of the States and the historic rights of the workers grow, with millions and millions of human beings being removed from the productive system, socially marginalized, pushed into a situation of extreme poverty, pointing the finger to a profoundly unfair and inhumane system, revealing, as the PCP has long been affirming, its historic limits.
It is with this strong conviction, not only based upon the difficulties and contradictions of capitalism itself, but mainly because all around us the struggle of the workers and the peoples continues we see real possibilities and potential for the advancement of the liberalizing struggle. Furthermore, as the draft of the Theses refers, we live a phase of acuteness of class struggle, which encourages us to pursue with determination the struggle in defence of the vital interests of the workers, for social progress, for peace and for socialism.
It is in this background that we intervene and act. A background which requires profound revolutionary changes, ensuring a new democratic, fair and equitable order. That is why we view as imperative a very wide unity among all forces fighting neo-liberalism, today discredited, while at the same holding social democracy responsible for the offensive of big capital, searching the aspects that bring about common or converging action and efficacy in the short term struggle, while simultaneously looking ahead towards the prospect of the alternative of socialism.
The international relations of our party remain very wide and diversified. Guided by proletarian internationalism, internationalist solidarity and the defence of peace, this includes, in the first place, the relationship with the communist parties, aiming the strengthening of the international communist movement, still in a phase of recovery and great ideological dispersion, but whose cooperation cannot be diluted in the wider context of the anti-imperialist front. In the fight for the strengthening of the international communist movement, we have given a positive contribution to the convergence and common action in all the multilateral areas in which we intervene. This is the case in the process of the International Meetings of the communist and workers’ parties, whose 10th- Meeting has just been held in São Paulo, this is why we valorise the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament, that is why we participate in NELF and the São Paulo Forum, as well as in several International Meetings, Conferences and Seminars, where PCP’s voice is heard with regard.
The diversity of the multilateral areas and initiatives reflects the very processes of integration and internationalisation and strengthens the requirement for cooperation among the communists and other forces of social progress. The PCP does not set aside the need to work towards more stable ways of cooperation, but rejects "solutions" of centralised structuring and organisation and attempts of programmatic uniformisation that do not take into account the history of the people and the situation in each country. To the PCP, the national mark is the irreplaceable and decisive field of class struggle and, the indispensable cooperation and solidarity should be based upon principles of equality, sovereignty and non-interference. Reasons that, among others, justify our disagreement regarding the "European Left Party", which does not hinder our bilateral relations with parties that constitute it, as confirmed by their presence in our Congress.
Comrades
Our draft Theses, in 4.12, sums the international activity of the Party. However, it does not fully portray its wealth and intensity. I would like to stress that besides the priority we give to the relations in Europe, our concerns regarding Africa – a continent exploited, plundered and ravaged by the greed of multinational corporations and their re-colonisation process – with the holding of an International Seminar in Lisbon; visits to countries that define as guidance and goal the construction of a socialist society, namely to China, Cuba and Vietnam, in order to get better acquainted with their experiences, difficulties and contradictions; visits to countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, together with several initiatives in defence of peace and of solidarity with countries and peoples subject to imperialist blockades and aggressions.
Our analysis of the international situation and the dangers it holds shows the need to retrieve the role of the communists, fighting anarchising, leftist and reformist conceptions and concepts tied to a "new internationalism". This is the time to re-launch the ideals of socialism that in each country will have the creative action of the masses.
In Portugal, this path is expressed in the lemma of our Congress "For April, for socialism, for a stronger party!"
Comrades
Our draft Theses, in 4.12, sums the international activity of the Party. However, it does not fully portray its wealth and intensity. I would like to stress that besides the priority we give to the relations in Europe, our concerns regarding Africa – a continent exploited, plundered and ravaged by the greed of multinational corporations and their re-colonisation process – with the holding of an International Seminar in Lisbon; visits to countries that define as guidance and goal the construction of a socialist society, namely to China, Cuba and Vietnam, in order to get better acquainted with their experiences, difficulties and contradictions; visits to countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, together with several initiatives in defence of peace and of solidarity with countries and peoples subject to imperialist blockades and aggressions.
Comrades
Our analysis of the international situation and the dangers it holds shows the need to retrieve the role of the communists, fighting anarchising, leftist and reformist conceptions and concepts tied to a "new internationalism". This is the time to re-launch the ideals of socialism that in each country will have the creative action of the masses.
In Portugal, this path is expressed in the lemma of our Congress "For April, for socialism, for a stronger party!"
