Taking initiative with the youth. This is the task at hand, to which JCP is committed every day, in thousands of conversations, in the contacts collected, in organizing the day and hour of struggles, in the unionization of every young worker, when we invite a friend to participate in the construction of Festa do Avante!, or when we propose they join JCP and take action, in the party of the future and of the youth: the Portuguese Communist Party!
Against the right-wing policies, united for the values and achievements of April, we appeal to our country’s young people to take the initiative.
Students face numerous attacks on their rights of association and assembly, they struggle for the valorization of public schools and conquer the restoration of their school’s facilities; in the vocational schools, they conquer the payment of late subsidies and advance in the creation of their student unions.
It was the initiative of higher education students that, early this year, defeated the PSD/CDS government’s goal of increasing tuition fees. And from our Congress we say for everyone to hear: it will be with the struggle and initiative of students that we will put an end to tuition fees, and we will conquer the School and Higher Education of April.
It is with their initiative that young workers reject a life of instability and uncertainty, and conquer rights, effective labor contracts, and wage increases.
The youth take the initiative in the struggle against war, for peace and disarmament, with creativity, comprehension and joy. A struggle that JCP expresses in the affirmation of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, a decisive space of unity and internationalist solidarity.
While some try to isolate and immobilize us, we stand with heads held high, and with creativity, understanding and joy, we go to the streets, to the schools and workplaces, we go toward the fray, we deconstruct prejudices, we demonstrate what it means to be a young communist.
Thereby way raise consciousness that – despite the attacks against the values of April, the lies and misrepresentation, the promotion of anticommunism, individualism, division and fear – in the face of growing inequalities and injustice and in the intervention of JCP and PCP, there are persistent values of solidarity and desire for change, and great potentialities for unity and struggle.
Capital is investing in a growing offensive, particularly among the youth. It does so because it is afraid there will be many more thousands of students that celebrate, year after year, the National Student Day, and the National Youth Day. They are afraid of the strength that filled the streets of our country during the popular celebrations of the Revolution of April, because they know what the youth is capable of when it is united and conscious. They are afraid, because thousands of students demand wage increases, the end to precariousness, and time to live. They demand greater investment in public schools, an end to national exams, to tuition fees and all the other barriers in the access to higher education, such as public housing for all dislocated students. They demand a different education, one that promotes critical thinking and the integral formation of the individual. They demand housing for everyone, the right to sports, to culture and to accessible public transportation, the right to be happy in their country, a sovereign and developed country. They are afraid when young people rise against discrimination and prejudice, or when they affirm that capitalism isn’t green and that, in capitalism, we will never be truly free. They are afraid because the youth fight united, independently of their skin color, identity and sexual orientation, or country of origin.
Assured that with a stronger JCP the youth struggle will strengthen, it is with pride thar we announce: the 13º Congress of the JCP will occur on May 17th and 18th of 2025, in Oeiras, under the motto “The new world is in our hands! Organize. Unite. Fight.”. A Congress whose goal is to strengthen JCP. A Congress already being construct in the schools and workplaces, with the aim of reaching 350 new militants and 50 new collectives before the Congress, thereby reinforcing JCP’s character of masses, connection to the youth movement, and capacity of action and initiative.
We live in a time of uncertainty and we know that the path will not be easy, but we are the revolutionary organization of the youth, heir to a heritage of 100 years of resistance, present in each struggle, from the revolt to achievement, that stands up to conformism and competition, through unity, collective work and confidence in a better life, where each young person becomes stronger, able to transform the world. We organize, unite and fight for an alternative, for the values of April in the future of Portugal. As an expression of the youth’s real aspirations, we affirm the communist ideal and project, the revolutionary overcoming of capitalism, an Advanced Democracy, Socialism and Communism.
Long live the youth’s struggle!
Long live the Portuguese Communist Youth!
Long live the Portuguese Communist Party!
