| Partido Comunista do Brasil Communist Party of Brazil |
|
|---|---|
| (2008-Present) | |
| Leader | Renato Rabelo |
| Founded | February 18, 1962 |
| Headquarters | Alameda Sarutaiá nº 185 Jardim Paulista São Paulo, Brazil |
| Ideology | Communism |
| International affiliation | São Paulo Forum |
| Official colours | Red |
| Website | |
| www.pcdob.org.br | |
The Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil, PC do B) is a political party in Brazil. It currently takes part on the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Worker's Party.
Contents |
History
The party originated as a splinter group from the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro - PCB), which, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, assumed a revisionist ideological line. Nearly one hundred of its members quit PCB and, on February 18, 1962, signed PC do B's heavily Maoist-influenced manifesto. Later that day, it was decided that the party would issue its own newspaper, A Classe Operária (The Working Class).
On July 27, 1963, in an open letter to Khrushchev, criticizing the path taken by the Soviet Communist Party after the 20th Congress, PC do B officially adopted its anti-revisionist agenda.
On March 31, 1964, as President João Goulart is overthrown by the military in a US-backed coup d'état which started a twenty-year-long military dictatorship, the party advocated the country's return to democracy. A few months later, when a decree issued by the new regime dissolved all political parties, suppressed most civilian rights and installed the censorship against all the media, PC do B became one of the main underground resistance movements. The small party had grown, thanks to its presence on university campuses and other leftist circles. Meanwhile, members and leaders of anti-regime groups were regularly shot by the military.
In 1972, the Army, Air Force and the Political Police raided the city of Marabá, in southern Pará, suspect of hosting Communist leaders. PC do B was among the resistance movements which formed the Araguaia Guerrilla, named after the nearby river. The government prohibited the media to publish anything on the guerrilla movement, which was defeated only in 1975, after the death of thousands.
With the rise of the post-Mao leadership in China in 1976 and the ensuring Sino-Albanian Split, the PC do B sided with the Albanian Party of Labour and its Hoxhaist stand, criticizing China as revisionist. On August 28, 1979, the military government, which had begun the democratization process, announced it was giving political pardon to the main political prisoners, including original leaders of the PC do B. In that same year, the party announced the issuing of a new newspaper, Tribuna Operária (The Working Class Tribune).
In early 1984, the left-wing leadership organized the Diretas Já campaign. In only three months, as many as eight million Brazilians protested against the government on the streets, demanding presidential elections. This, however, did not pass in the Chamber of Deputies. Even so, the military regime began to be dissolved. Later that year, PC do B created the Union of the Socialist Youth (União da Juventude Socialista - UJS).
On May 23, 1985, eight months after the Diretas Já, Tancredo Neves was elected president by the Senate, marking the end of the dictatorship. PC do B and the Brazilian Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Brasileiro - PSB) were re-legalized by the government. The party later elected five deputies for the Constitutional Assembly, which later approved the 1988 Constitution.
| Communist Parties |
 |
|
Asia
Bangladesh Burma China India (CPI · CPI (M)) Iran Japan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Korea Laos Nepal Pakistan Philippines Sri Lanka Tajikistan Vietnam
Historical parties Indonesia |
|
Europe
Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus (KPB) Belgium (Flanders · Wallonia) Belgium (PvdA/PTB) Bosnia and Herzegovina Britain (CPB · NCP) Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark (DKP · KPiD) Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Ireland (CPI · WPI) Italy (PdCI · PRC) Luxembourg Malta Moldova Netherlands Norway Portugal Russian Federation San Marino Scotland Serbia Slovakia Spain Spain (Catalonia) Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine
Historical parties Czechoslovakia Soviet Union Yugoslavia |
|
Related topics
|
In 1989, the first presidential elections in twenty-nine years took place. Worker's Party candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in a coalition with PC do B and PSB, obtained 47% of the votes. This alliance would be repeated in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 elections, when Lula was finally elected President.
In February 1992, the party's 8th Congress took place with the motto O Socialismo Vive! (Socialism Lives!). While many other Communist Parties around the world softened their agendas after the fall of the Soviet Union, sometimes even changing their names, PC do B gained prestige for not rescinding its ideals. In September of that same year, it was the first party to request the impeachment of president Fernando Collor de Mello, accused of corruption. Collor eventually resigned on December 29.
In the 1990s, PC do B became one of the main opponents of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's neoliberal agenda. At the legislative elections of October 6, 2002, the party won 12 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and no seats in the Senate. It had a similar performance at the October 1, 2006 legislative elections, winning 13 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a single seat in the Senate.
Structure
PC do B was legally recognized as a political party by the Brazilian Electoral Supreme Court on June 23, 1988. Its current President is José Renato Rabelo. It has nearly 240,000 members.
UJS is affiliated to the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
See also
External links
- (Portuguese) Communist Party of Brazil
- (Portuguese) Socialist Youth Union (UJS)
- (English) Communist party of Brazil texts in English
Sources
| Preceded by 50 - SFP (PSOL) 56 - PRNO (PRONA) - defunct |
Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties 65 - CPB (PCdoB) |
Succeeded by 70 - LPB (PTdoB) |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
