Dear Comrades, Friends and Invitees
It is a central thesis of our Party, which life confirms: it is the struggle of the working class and the workers that pushes the wheel of history towards progress and emancipation.
As in previous periods, the workers were the main target of the right-wing offensive of the PEC and of the Pact of Aggression, carried out at the political level by the governments of the PS, PSD and CDS, in the service of big capital, with a main objective: to increase exploitation. Cuts in wages and careers, deregulation and increased schedules, widening instability, dismissals, privatizations, attacks on unions and collective bargaining - all worked to change the correlation of forces between capital and labor.
In the last four years, the struggle of the working class and the workers was truly the engine of the social struggle and, for its constancy and permanence, encouraged the struggle and resistance of other sectors and areas against right-wing politics.
Due to their size, depth and combativeness, the struggles of the years that have passed since the last Congress remain in the history of the Portuguese labor movement and in the memories of those who participated in them.
We are thinking of great convergence days, such as the celebrations of May 1st and April 25th, with particular emphasis on actions on the 40th anniversary of the Revolution; we are thinking of the general strike of June 27th 2013 or the “Abril” demonstrations in Bridges over the Douro and Tejo, in October of the same year.
But we also think about the struggles that, even without having this dimension and visibility, were equally decisive. A stream of struggles consisting of thousands of actions, which gave substance to the unity and resistance of the workers, in plenaries, petitions, distributions of documents, strikes, standstills, demonstrations, rallies, marches.
Struggles in which it is fair to highlight the participation of thousands of young people, many for the first time, many in precarious employment, in real acts of courage that reinforce the unity, organization and determination of the working class and workers in general.
A powerful and determined struggle, inseparable from its class organizations, from the Unitary Union Movement, CGTP-IN, the great union center of the Portuguese workers.
A struggle that has faced one of the closest closed-minded ideological offensives: the dictatorship of inevitabilities and “no money”. “It has to be this way” and the convenient “that of the fight does not get you anywhere”. Of the irrevocable fatality of the absolute majority of the national and foreign troikas, about which it was not even worth questioning whatsoever. And for those who still dared, the whole line of criminalization of the union and class struggle was kept.
Pressure, blackmail and fear: it was in this frame that the fight was fought, and hard, in these years. “Without the persistent and consequent struggle of the workers and the Portuguese people in defending their interests and rights, in resisting the offensive of the great capital and the political power in their service, the consequences of the offensive would have taken on an even more disastrous dimension”, as we write in our Theses.
But more: the struggle of the working class and the workers was decisive for the erosion of the social base in support of the PSD / CDS Government, for the defeat they had in last year's legislative elections, for their removal from power and for the new correlation of political forces.
The recovery of wages, rights and incomes that result from this new phase of national political life did not fall from the sky nor were it born of the good will of the Government. They result from the intervention of our Party, of course, but above all from unity, organization and struggle. The replacement of the four stolen holidays, which were four days of work to the tassel; The replacement of the 35 hours in the public administration, after almost 3 years of resistance in the work places, in particular in the municipalities; The restoration of the rights protected by the collective bargaining of workers in the State enterprise sector, or the opening of the process for the integration of workers with precarious ties in the public administration and in the State Business Sector, are clear examples of the fact that the fight, even if it is very hard and prolonged, always bears fruit.
This past year has given sufficient examples that the new correlation of forces in the Assembly of the Republic, in itself, “does not change the practices, nor the objectives of the patronage, which seeks to maintain the power conquered and prevent the path of recovery of rights”.
It shows, however, that there are more favorable conditions for the struggle and for the defense, replacement and conquest of rights. And that is why fighting is the central and priority task of our day. It shows that the demand action in companies and workplaces, by raising salaries and the national minimum wage to 600 euros next January, by reducing working hours and against their deregulation, against precariousness, in defense of the rights enshrined in collective bargaining, by revoking expiry and restoring the principle of more favorable treatment, is the right and safe way.
In this new phase of national political life, the ideological offensive also has new arguments. Those who until a year ago devalued the scale and results of the struggle, regret today that people fight less.
They are well aware that this is not so, and this is what makes them afraid. The process of struggle of these four years gives magnificent examples of how the mass struggle has results and victories. That the struggle of the working class and the workers is a decisive factor of intervention for the construction of the political alternative and for social transformation.
“It is in the reinforcement of the struggle that lays the decisive contribution to raising the social and political consciousness of the workers and to the political conquest of new advances” - we write in the Theses that we will approve. This is therefore a decisive task for the whole party collective, which we will concretize along with the ever deeper rooting of the Party among the working class and the workers.
The fight goes on!
Long live the JCP!
Long live the PCP!
