People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 43
October 27, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 43 October 27, 2013 |
Álvaro
Cunhal's
Life:
An Example That Shines Into
The Present
and the Future
Below we reproduce
the PCP Central Committee’s
Resolution on Álvaro Cunhal's birth centenary
2013
MARKS the 100th
anniversary of Álvaro Cunhal's birth. Commemorating his
centennial is a
necessary homage, to be paid by the Portuguese Communist
Party (PCP), by
democrats, patriots, the working class, working people,
the youth,
intellectuals, men and women of science, the arts and
culture, the people of
Álvaro
Cunhal was, in the
20th century and the transition into the 21st,
Álvaro
Cunhal was a
member, leader and general secretary of the PCP. His life
was entirely
dedicated to the struggle for freedom, democracy and
socialism.
Early in
life, he took
sides in terms of class: he stood for the rights and
liberation of working
people. He exhibited a rare dose of tenacity, dedication
and courage. He
rejected benefits or privileges for himself, and dedicated
his life to the
interests of the exploited and the oppressed. He withstood
horrendous trials,
lived and worked underground, underwent long years in
jail, suffering brutal
torture and solitary confinement.
His work
was undeniably
decisive in conceiving, building and consolidating the
Portuguese Communist
Party as a revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist party.
Towards this process, he
made highly valuable contributions, such as the concept of
the great party
collective, and the definition and systematisation of the
basic features that
define the identity of a communist party.
His role
in drawing up
the Party's strategy and tactics was considerable and is
widely acknowledged.
One example is the definition of the (1965) Programme for
the “National and
Democratic Revolution” whose correctness was fully
confirmed by the April
(1974) Revolution and its far-reaching revolutionary
changes. Also worthy of
note are his contributions in analysing and establishing
the line of conduct
and participation throughout the whole revolutionary
process, and in defence of
the April gains, and also in drawing up the (1988)
Programme for “
He made
a wide range of
contributions towards strengthening the international
communist movement, the
struggle against imperialism, and to further the workers'
and peoples' liberation
process, particularly in the former Portuguese colonies,
as well as in
developing the struggle for peace.
As part
and parcel of
his direct participation in the PCP's leadership,
organisation and work, he
made a valuable and decisive contribution to theory,
through thousands of
political contributions, speeches, and through
far-reaching and highly
significant written works, whose political and ideological
impact was
considerable, and whose understanding and study continues
to be highly topical
to this day.
Side by
side with his
revolutionary political work, Álvaro Cunhal also had a
keen interest in all
spheres of life. Particularly prominent were his artistic
creations, including
works of literature – novel and short stories –, fine arts
– drawings and paintings
–, as well as his theoretical works on aesthetics and
cultural creation,
involving art, artists and society.
Álvaro
Cunhal was born
in
He began
his
revolutionary work as a student in Lisbon University
School of Law, where he
participated in the student union movement, and in 1934
was elected as the
students' representative in the University Senate. He was
an active member of
the Portuguese Communist Youth Federation (FJCP), and was
elected as its general
secretary in 1935. He was a member of the Portuguese
Communist Party since
1931, having entered the Party's underground structure in
1935. During this
period, he was arrested twice, in 1937 and 1940.
He
participated in the
1940-41 PCP reorganisation, and was a member of the
Secretariat from 1942 to
1949. During this period he made a decisive contribution
to the PCP's work and
in defining the Party's identity as a party with deep
roots in the working
class and among the working people, with a strong
influence among intellectuals
and the youth – as a major national party with a leading
role in the
anti-fascist struggle.
He was
again arrested in
1949, and spent the whole of the 1950s in fascist jails.
When he was taken to
trial, he used the fascist courtroom to deliver a
hard-hitting indictment of
the fascist dictatorship and defence of the Party's
policies. He was sentenced,
and spent 11 consecutive years in fascist jails, of which
8 in completely
solitary confinement. After being transferred from Lisbon
Penitentiary to the
fortress-prison at Peniche, he escaped from there on January 3, 1960,
together with a group of
other prominent Communist Party members.
From the
beginning of
the 1960s until the April 1974 Revolution, it was an
extremely intense period
in his life. He returned as a member to the Central
Committee Secretariat and
in March 1961 was elected PCP general secretary. He
contributed decisively
towards correcting a right-wing deviation and opposing
right-wing opportunism
as well as bourgeois radicalist sectarian ultra-left
tendencies. He made a
decisive contribution towards analysing
The
period following the
fascist dictatorship's overthrow on
April 25, 1974 was the first time, after over forty
years of underground
struggle and jail confinement, that he was able to
undertake political work in
the freedom made possible by the April Revolution. He was
a minister without
portfolio in the first four provisional governments, was
elected to the
Constituent Assembly in 1975, and to the Assembly of the
Republic (parliament) in
all elections between 1975 and 1987. He was a member of
the Council of State
from 1982 to 1992. The hallmarks of his contribution
during the revolutionary
process's development, and later to defend the
revolutionary gains from the
counter-revolutionary onslaught, were in assessing and
fostering the role of
struggles: struggles of the working class, the working
people and the masses of
the people.
At the
PCP's 14th
Congress in 1992 – as part of a renovation and a new
leadership structure – he
left the post of general secretary and was elected by the
Central Committee as president
of the PCP National Council. In December 1996 the 15th PCP
Congress abolished
the National Council and its presidency, and he remained
as a PCP Central
Committee member.
Until
the end of his
life, he continued to be actively involved in political
work, in culture and
the arts, and in confidently asserting communist goals.
He died
at the age of 92
on June 13, 2005. His funeral on June 15 was attended by
hundreds of thousands
of people. It constituted an extraordinary tribute from
the communists,
democrats, patriots, workers and the people, to whom
Álvaro Cunhal dedicated
his whole life. His funeral was itself a demonstration,
asserting
determination, engagement and confidence in continuity of
the struggle for the
cause that he embraced.
Álvaro
Cunhal's life,
thinking and struggle justify and necessitate a
significant tribute. In
celebrating Álvaro Cunhal's birth centennial, we are
highlighting the valuable
legacy of his thinking – a set of analyses and actions
whose contents have been
and are being borne out by events, and becoming
increasingly topical in the
present and for the future.
In
celebrating this
centennial, we don't just highlight how valuable Álvaro
Cunhal's legacy of work
and contributions are. We also seek to better understand
and grasp his methods,
and the criteria used in his analyses, which exhibit a
remarkable understanding
of communists' theoretical and ideological foundations –
Marxism-Leninism, its
development, and its creative application to the actual
conditions of society
in
In
celebrating Álvaro
Cunhal's centennial, we highlight the significance of his
life as a man and as
a revolutionary, and its meaning, not just as an example
worthy of highlighting
but also in terms of the attitude, the stance and the
political goals for the
future that
The
Portuguese Communist
Party Central Committee decided that the Álvaro Cunhal
Centennial
commemorations will bear the slogan 'Life, thinking
and struggle: an
example that shines into the present and the future'.
These
commemorations will extend throughout the whole of 2013,
particularly on and
around November 10, his birthday centennial.
The
Central Committee
has decided that the Centennial commemorations shall be
based on Álvaro
Cunhal's identification with the Party and its goals,
toward whose definition
and implementation he made a decisive contribution –
upholding the interests of
the working class, the working people, the people and the
nation, upholding the
communist ideal and goals. They shall highlight the course
of his life, his
works, activity and example, as part and parcel of the
cause for which he
fought. They shall address Álvaro Cunhal's thinking and
legacy as an element of
prime importance for the present time. In the Álvaro
Cunhal Centennial
commemorations, the man, the communist, the intellectual
and the artist are all
one.
A major
exhibition was
organised in
