The Portuguese Communist Party is a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. It is one of the strongest communist parties in Western Europe and the oldest Portuguese political party with uninterrupted existence. It is characterized as being between the left-wing and far-left on the political spectrum. Since 1987, it runs to any national, local and European elections in coalition with the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV), assembled in the Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU).
Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal was a Portuguese communist revolutionary and politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of the Estado Novo. He served as secretary-general of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) from 1961 to 1992. He's described as one of the biggest political and intellectual figures of Portugal in the 20th century.
Joaquim Soeiro Pereira Gomes was a Portuguese writer of realist influence and became one of the major names of Portuguese literature of the 20th century. Pereira Gomes is, along with Alves Redol, the biggest name of the Portuguese neo-realist movement. He was also a communist militant and that was always present in his work. The Portuguese Communist Party headquarters, in Lisbon, is named after him.
Tarrafal was a concentration camp located in the village of Chão Bom, in the Municipality of Tarrafal, on the island of Santiago in Cape Verde.
The Avante! Festival is an annual cultural festival held during the first weekend of September. It was started in 1976 by the Portuguese Communist Party and is named after the party's official newspaper, Avante!
Octávio Floriano Rodrigues Pato was a Portuguese communist leader.
The history of the Portuguese Communist Party, spans a period of 102–103 years, since its foundation in 1921 as the Portuguese section of the Communist International (Comintern) to the present. The Party is still an active force within Portuguese society.
Carlos Hahnemann Saavedra Aboim Inglez was a Portuguese communist intellectual, militant and leader of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), entering the party in 1946. He was the son of Maria Isabel Aboim Inglez and Carlos Aboim Inglez, both communists and anti-fascists. His wife was Maria Adelaide Aboim Inglez, who was also a communist militant who lived clandestinely with her husband.
The General Confederation of Labour was a Portuguese trade union confederation. Established in 1919, as the successor to the National Workers' Union (UON), the CGT was the only national trade union centre in Portugal throughout the early 1920s. The organisation was led largely by anarcho-syndicalists, who declared the CGT to be independent of all political parties and proclaimed its goal to be the abolition of capitalism and the state. Opposed to Bolshevism, it refused to join the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) and instead joined the International Workers' Association (IWA), which was aligned with anarcho-syndicalism. An internal schism between the syndicalist leadership and members of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) followed, as unions aligned with the latter broke off from the CGT. Following the establishment of a military dictatorship in Portugal, the CGT led a workers' uprising against it, but they were defeated, the organisation banned and many of their members exiled to Africa. After the establishment of the fascist Estado Novo regime, the CGT attempted to resist the creation of a corporatist economy and led a general strike against it, but this too was suppressed. The CGT's secretary general then attempted to assassinate the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, but was unsuccessful. The CGT was ultimately driven underground and eventually disappeared, as the fascist regime was consolidated in Portugal.
This is a table of the electoral results of the Portuguese Communist Party. Despite the Party had been founded in 1921, the party experienced little time as a legal party, being forced into clandestinity after a military coup in 1926. In the following decades, Portugal was dominated by the dictatorial regime led by António Oliveira Salazar, that kept the Party illegal. Although the regime allowed elections during some periods, the Party, given its illegal status, could never legally enter the electoral process and the heavy manipulation of the electoral results never allowed a democratic candidate to win. The regime would only end in 1974, with the Carnation Revolution, that implemented broad democratic changes in the country.
Socialism in Brazil is generally thought to trace back to the first half of the 19th century. There are documents evidencing the diffusion of socialist ideas since then, but these were individual initiatives with no ability to form groups with actual political activism.
Aida Paula (1918-1993) was a Portuguese communist who opposed the authoritarian Estado Novo government, was arrested on three occasions, and spent many years as a political prisoner.
Margarida Tengarrinha was a Portuguese teacher, writer, artist and illustrator. As a member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) she was active as an opponent of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime that governed Portugal between 1926 and 1974, playing a role in document forging and publication of the Party's magazine Avante!. She spent two years in Moscow with the future leader of the PCP, Álvaro Cunhal, and then worked in Bucharest, Romania on a radio station broadcasting to Portugal. After the overthrow of the regime, she became a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic. She later wrote memoirs, taught at a Senior University, illustrated books and exhibited works of art.
Maria Alda Nogueira (1923–1988) was a communist and feminist activist who opposed Portugal's Estado Novo regime and spent nine years as a political prisoner. After the overthrow of the Estado Novo she became a parliamentary deputy, serving in the National Assembly for a decade.
Luísa Basto is a Portuguese singer, best known for her recordings of the anthem of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), Avante Camarada, and of É Para Ti Mulher Esta Canção, anthem of the Portuguese Movimento Democrático de Mulheres
Georgette Ferreira was a member of the Central Committee of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) from 1950 to 1988 who opposed the Estado Novo regime and was the first woman to escape from an Estado Novo political prison. She was a Deputy in the Constituent Assembly of Portugal in 1975 and 1976 and a Deputy in the Assembly of the Republic from 1976 to 1988, on all occasions being elected on the Lisbon list of the PCP.
Ivone Dias Lourenço was a Portuguese communist and an opponent of the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. She spent almost seven years as a political prisoner. A report of her imprisonment in a British newspaper led to her being indirectly connected with the foundation of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
Conceição Matos is a Portuguese communist who campaigned against the authoritarian rule of the Estado Novo regime in the 1960s. She was arrested and subjected to considerable torture.
The Armed Revolutionary Action (ARA) was the militant arm of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). It was a semi-autonomous organization that was active from 1970 to 1973 under the Estado Novo dictatorship then led by Marcelo Caetano. The first meeting of the Central Committee of the PCP on the use of violence as an action of self-defense took place in December 1962, and marked the Party's position on this issue, seeking to relate it to mass actions. Violence was not excluded and could be used in the paradigm of the "national uprising", as long as it was directed by the PCP, and in a context of radicalization and intensification of the mass struggle, which could lead to a revolutionary environment.
Ruben Luís Tristão de Carvalho e Silva was a Portuguese politician, cultural organizer, historian, and journalist. He was a dissident during the Estado Novo dictatorship, a leader of the Portuguese Communist Party, a member of the Assembly of the Republic, a Lisbon municipal councillor and the creator of the largest political party event in Portugal, the Avante! Festival.
