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The history of the Portuguese Communist Party ((ポルトガル語:Partido Comunista Português), , or PCP), spans a period of more than 92 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. After its foundation, the party experienced little time as a legal party before it was forced underground after a military coup in 1926. After some years of internal reorganization, that adapted the PCP to its new clandestine condition and enlarged its base of support, the party became a force in the opposition to the dictatorial regime〔Cunhal, Álvaro (1997). ''O caminho para o derrubamento do fascismo''. Edições Avante!. ISBN 972-550-262-0.〕 led by António de Oliveira Salazar, despite being brutally suppressed several times during the 48 years of resistance and having spent several years with little connection with the Comintern and the World Communist Movement.〔Rosas, Fernando (dir.) (1997). ''Revista História'' (History Magazine) - Number 28 (New Series).〕 After the end of the dictatorship, with the Carnation Revolution in 1974, the party became a major political force within the new democratic regime, mainly among the working class. Despite being less influential since the fall of the Socialist bloc in eastern Europe, it still enjoys popularity in vast sectors of Portuguese society, particularly in the rural areas of the Alentejo and Ribatejo, and also in the heavily industrialized areas around Lisbon and Setúbal, where it holds the leadership of several municipalities.〔(Câmaras Municipais de Presidência CDU ), Portuguese Communist Party, URL accessed 20 June 2006〕 ==Origins and foundation== At the end of World War I, in 1918, Portugal fell into a serious economic crisis, in part due to the Portuguese military intervention in the war. The military involvement led to an abrupt rise in inflation and unemployment. The Portuguese working classes responded to the deterioration in their living standards with a vast wave of strikes. Supported by an emerging labour movement, the workers achieved some of their objectives, such as the historic victory of an eight-hour working day.〔(''Como nasceu o Partido Comunista Português'' ), Portuguese Communist Party, URL accessed 20 June 2006〕 In September 1919, the working class movement founded the first Portuguese Labour Union Confederation, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) that saw a steady increase to 100,000 members in few months. But the feeling of political powerlessness, due to the lack of a coherent political strategy among the Portuguese working class, plus the growing popularity of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, led to the foundation of the Portuguese Maximalist Federation (FMP) in 1919. The goal of FMP was to promote socialist and revolutionary ideas and to organize and develop the worker movement. The FMP started publishing the weekly ''Bandeira Vermelha'' (Red Flag) which became a popular newspaper among the Portuguese working classes.〔 After some time, members of the FMP started to feel the need for a "revolutionary vanguard" among Portuguese workers. After several meetings at various Labor Union offices, and with the aid of the Comintern, this desire culminated in the foundation of the Portuguese Communist Party as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International (Comintern), in 6 March 1921. Soon after, the party's first youth organization, the Communist Youths (Portuguese: ''Juventudes Comunistas'') was created. Unlike virtually all other European Communist Parties, the PCP was not formed after a split of a Social Democratic or Socialist Party, but from the ranks of Anarcho-Syndicalism and revolutionary syndicalism. Both of these groups, at the time, were the most active factions of the Portuguese labor movement.〔 The Party opened its first headquarters in the Arco do Marquês do Alegrete Street in Lisbon. In the same year, 1921, it also opened the Communist Centers of Porto, Évora and Beja. Seven months after its creation, the first issue of ''O Comunista'' (The Communist), the first newspaper of the party, was published.〔 The first congress of the party took place in Lisbon in November 1923, with Carlos Rates leading the party. The theses of the congress had previously been published in ''O Comunista'' and discussed by all the local organizations. The congress was attended by about a hundred members of the party and asserted its solidarity with Socialism in the Soviet Union and the need for a strong struggle for similar policies in Portugal; it also stated that a Fascist uprising in Portugal was a serious threat to the party and to the country.〔Vasconcelos, José Carlos de (dir.). (1982) ''Revista História'' (History Magazine) - Number 47〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Portuguese Communist Party」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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