The Report of the Drafting Committee that will be distributed contains information on the changes introduced in the Theses/Draft Political Resolution.

The Draft Resolution that is submitted to the Congress today is the result of an intense process of collective debate that, from the first phase - with the discussion of the topics and themes that would shape the theses project – till the discussion in this third phase, called on the Party collective to contribute to its construction.

A debate held and filled by the free contribution of Party members.

A debate that is in itself an act of affirmation of political and ideological independence, built on the basis of our own assessment of the country and the world, our objectives, our programme and project.

A debate determined by our own judgment, by our class criteria in assessing political, economic and social developments.

A debate that does not ignore or closes to life and to the world that surrounds it, but which refused to be conditioned by intrigue, false advice, messages about what would best serve the Party.

There was no lack of pressures on the PCP, accusations of alleged incoherence with positions in the past, abandonment of its project, yielding to the conjuncture, sentencing of invented ideological deviations, basest anti-communism and irrepressible prejudice.

The PCP, as its history testifies, will not be determined by external judgments, nor will it surrender to pressures.

The Party will know how to conduct and decide with complete independence, faithful to its commitment to the workers and the people, with confidence in itself and in its experience, materializing its Programme, with a focus on the struggle for social transformation and the construction of a new society.

And being here today, and at the Congress, we can say that we did so by thinking with our own heads, guided by our principles, by our methods of analyzing political and social phenomena, without claiming to be the holders of "certain certainties”, but with the deep conviction on what we decide, on who we are and where we go.

The debate is the result of a process oriented to stimulate the reflection and contribution of the members of the party, a condition of correct decisions and an indispensable condition for their unity and cohesion.

A debate in which all opinions count framed within elementary rules of respect for the opinion of every one, of the evaluation of the value of each of these opinions by the merit they have and not on who produces them, and its final determination of the expressed will of the party collective.

The theses analyse the international situation, confirm the essential elements inherent to the nature of capitalism and which are at the root of the deepening of its structural crisis.

They record and analyse the developments associated with the brutal onslaught of imperialism, aggravated by its violent response to the crisis of capitalism, the dangers it entails, and simultaneously, the intensification of the struggle of workers and peoples, and the role that the struggle and the creative role of the working masses play, interconnected with the strengthening of the communist and revolutionary movement, in its relation with the imperialist front and its strengthening.

The debate enabled a clearer and more rigorous perception of the necessary distinction between the capitalist mode of production and strategies of imposition of imperialist domination which, if not made, would lead to the denial of fundamental aspects of the rearrangement of international forces, would lead to the annulment of non-imperialist forces, and reduce in practice the field of forces with anti-imperialist character and position.

The validity of an international relationship of the PCP, not dictated by the strict criterion of ideological affinity, was confirmed by the simultaneous aim of contributing to the strengthening of the international revolutionary communist movement and expanding the necessary relationship with other patriotic, progressive and revolutionary forces.

The preparation of the Congress also enabled an understanding of the ideological campaigns promoted by imperialism which, under various pretexts, always preceded its actions of interference, invasion or destabilization of sovereign countries - be it Libya or Iraq, Syria or Angola - reanimating the need to face them and look at them from the class angle rather than that of the dominant ideas and concepts.

The Chapter on the national situation analyses the economic and social consequences of four decades of right-wing policies and their impact on the social functions of the State and on the democratic regime itself.

It identifies and denounces the developments of the process of capitalist integration in the European Union and its expression in the conditioning and limitation on national sovereignty. We point out the fundamental directions of intervention and struggle to liberate the Country from the garrotte of debt, of submission to the Euro and other instruments of foreign domination.

The Theses also evaluate in detail the political developments that have taken place, taking stock of the period marked by the implementation of the Pact of Aggression signed by PS, PSD and CDS with the foreign Troika and by the destructive action of the PSD/CDS government.

And they also clearly analyse the new phase of national political life resulting from the elections of October 4, 2015, the defeat of PSD and CDS and their dismissal from government, and the formation and coming into office of the PS minority government.

The debate enabled the understanding of the characteristics and nature of the new phase of national political life and of the political framework with a nature which we never tire to repeat, and meant not the formation of a left-wing government, but the formation and coming into office of a minority PS government with its own programme; not the existence of a majority of the left in the Assembly of the Republic, but, yes, the existence of a correlation of forces where PSD and CDS-PP are in minority, and where, at the same time, PCP’s and PEV’s parliamentary groups condition decisions and are determining and indispensible to restore and achieve rights and incomes; not in a situation where the PCP is a supporting force or support of the government with some parliamentary agreement, but a situation where, having contributed for the government to come into office and carry out its action, the PCP keeps full freedom and political independence, guiding its analysis and decisions at all times according to what serves the interests of the workers and the country.

The debate enabled a better understanding of the contradictions and possibility present in the current political situation, enabled to portray the non-antagonistic nature between the objectives of struggle for improvements and partial achievements and the struggle for social change.

It enabled to understand better the complexity of the present situation, the elements of the "new" that it incorporates, the contradictory dynamics that it presents.

And above all, that complex and contradictory situations require, not precipitated lessons or their observation in a static and momentary perspective, but rather anticipating possible developments, without ignoring the role of subjective factors that intervene to influence and empower them.

In Chapter 3 there is a stress and reaffirmation of the importance and role of the struggle, in particular of the struggle of the working class and of the workers, its driving role in the stimulus to the struggle of other classes and antimonopoly strata, the intervention of mass organisations and movements, especially the intervention of the broad-united trade union movement and of CGTP-IN, the trade union central of the Portuguese workers.

A struggle that had and has a decisive role in determining the course of events, both as a factor of resistance, and of the advance and achievement, is part of this whole struggle for social transformation. It is in this in chapter also that the struggle for a political alternative, the role of the mass struggle, the convergence of democrats and patriots and the strengthening of the PCP emerge as essential conditions for its materialization.

In the last, but the most decisive chapter, are developed the elements of the fundamental lines of work to strengthen the Party, its organisation, its action and political initiative.

Affirmed are the essential characteristics of the identity of a communist party, identified the central aspects of party life, the role of the cadres, the issues of leadership, recruitment, organisation in the companies and workplaces, the necessary means for its intervention, the internationalist tasks of the Party.

We stress the special interest that the various issues of the chapter raised in an approach linked to the concrete experience lived by every militant in their organisations.

Comrades

The preparation of the Congress enabled launching in the Party collective a set of ideas that should now be widely spread:

- The affirmation of the topicality of socialism, strengthened in the aftermath of the deep crisis that capitalism faces and its consequences for mankind;

- the affirmation of a patriotic and left-wing policy as essential factor to answer the problems and aspirations of the workers and people and the development of the Country;

- the affirmation of an urgent rupture with the foreign constraints and impositions which, from the debt to the euro, jeopardize the future of the Country, as well as the decisive option of rupture with the interests of monopoly capital;

- the affirmation of the mass struggle, and particularly of the workers and of the working class, as a decisive element to defend, restore and conquer rights and impose a political alternative;

- the affirmation of the PCP and the strengthening of its influence as a crucial element in the struggle for an alternative policy and for a political alternative.

The valorisation of the activity carried out cannot conceal, as the Theses refer, shortcomings and difficulties.

We shall try that from this Congress and the guidelines that we adopt will result in a contribution to beat and overcome them.

With the profound revolutionary determination of a party collective that, faced with the natural doubts about whether the objectives it fights for are possible or easy, will be answered in the firm conviction of the correctness of its causes and the imperative need for the workers and the country of a new course in national politics, for an advanced democracy with the values of April in the future of Portugal, for socialism and communism.