Portugal - new times, new left A CROWD of nearly 1,000 gathered in the main amphitheatre of the University of Lisbon on January 29-30, 2000, to "listen, discuss, converge" and set up a new political formation - the Bloco de Esquerda, or Left Bloc. The Bloc's founding assembly proved a resounding success, adopting statutes, approving a programme and electing a leadership. Still very much a minority, the Bloc has broken the political monopoly that the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) has exercised for half a century over the non-social democratic left.
Portugal * for human rights. Socialism is the name given to social transformation based on these principles".
The other key debate concerned the nature of the new movement. The minority within Politics XXI proposed the suppression of a certain number of articles in the statutes in particular the section of Article 4 which speaks of the "responsibilities of members" and obliges them to "promote [defend] the political objectives of the movement and act in a consequent fashion". The minority also opposed the very principle of the formation of "nuclei" (article 6), as well as their concrete tasks. The debate on these questions was heated and lively. The objections centred mainly on the dangers of "democratic centralism" and "manipulation" in the relations manipulation in the relations between Party and social movement. A whole series of other statutory rules were adopted by general agreement.
Programme for whole left
The Bloc's programme merits being translated and read by the whole of the militant left in Europe (and elsewhere). The innovation of language and style is striking. A few chapter headings sum it up: starting from "A new political reality", the Bloc identifies itself as "a universalist left based on solidarity". Its radical opposition to globalisation is summed up in the denunciation of a "civilisation of injustice" . The third chapter "Left Europeanism: a new contract" , which rejects the Europe of the market, is framed by a strategy of the "refoundation of Europe" essentially based on employment and the Convention on Human Rights. There follows "The road to a new left", and "A Bloc in the form of a movement".
A proposed first leadership of the Bloc was approved by 85% of voters. This first national leadership (the "Mesa") creates a unitary functional framework which should allow the expression of all opinions, with 40% women and a representative geographic spread
It should be stressed that political-institutional conditions are relatively favourable in Portugal (notably in terms of parliamentary functioning and the degree of proportionality, compared to most other European countries. But it is also true that the leading cadre of the Bloc have exploited these conditions very well. This reflects the experience of the Portuguese revolution (1974-75), where the PSR and International Viewpoint #320 April 2000 27
Francois Vercammen*
LTHOUGH the convergence between the three political parties involved in the Bloc (UDP - the Union for Popular Democracy, PSR -Revolutionary Socialist Party and Politics XXI) has been underway since 1991, only in the past year has unity become a reality, in the context of success in the European and national parliamentary elections.
### Parties not dissolved
Membership of the bloc is individual, but the parties have not dissolved - they maintain their press, meetings and programme, but have no special rights in the new organisation. Public activity is carried out by the Bloc and the elected deputies are identified with the Bloc, whether or not they are members of a party. Inside the Bloc the "Mesa" (the national "Table" or central organ) is made up on a parity basis - the independents on the one hand, the party members on the other. But all the members of the Mesa are elected by the Congress - the parties make proposals, but the members have the final decision. If the structure appears complicated, it flows from political conviction and a unitary internal dynamic generated by the Bloc's initial success.
Until now, there has been political agreement between the parties allowing the development of analyses, points of view and propositions, as well as 2 electoral programmes - but there had been no agreement yet on fundamental programme. According to provisional estimates, the Bloc already has around 1,600 members in 15 of the 20 regions of the country (and this before any systematic effort at recruitment!). The preparatory Commission proposed that a national assembly be directly convened at which those who have joined the Bloc at least a week before the congress, would have the right to speak, vote, elect the leadership and be elected - those who merely attended the congress would only have the right to speak.
Following the opening of the congress, there were four reports followed by debates - activity in the first year, statutes, a political resolution, and the election of leadership bodies.
### Reformist minority
The definition of the goals and nature of the Party dominated the debate on the statutes. A reformist minority current within Politics XXI presented a series of amendments to the main texts. Article 1, as proposed by the Commission and adopted by the Congress, states "the movement defends ... the perspective of socialism as expression of the emancipatory struggle of humanity against exploitation and oppression" . The reformist current within Politics XXI proposed instead: the Bloc "considers socialism as the main historic factor in the democratisation and civilisation of capitalism" , and "recognises the importance of the market, without attributing to its unconditional liberty some kind of intrinsic value... Without its subordination to the values defined by the community, democracy is impossible". The Bloc "defends and promotes a civic culture of participation and democratic political action in the framework of the state of law and respect
* Portugal UDP were real actors in the process, but also the experience of its defeat which dealt a harsh blow to a whole generation of militants. Those who did not abandon the struggle had to confront Portuguese society a second time over, this time through universal suffrage and the elected institutions (municipal and parliamentary).
This trajectory, as well as the political changes undergone by the three components of the Bloc in the last decade, explains their capacity to create this space for convergence and their genuine social implantation.
The draft law proposed by the Bloc on "religious liberty and the secularisation of the state" is exemplary from this point of view, insisting on individual freedom of conscience and the democratic rights of the church as a private organisation, but also a radical break with the hold the church exercises on public institutions. It has led to widespread public debate and has split the PS. The same goes for the decriminalisation of abortion (torpedoed by the PS) and the outlawing of "private" violence against women. The Bloc has also reimposed the democratic rule that the programme of the government is voted on by the parliamentary assembly, which had fallen into disuse for some years.
### Recomposition of left
In a series of resolutions the Bloc proposes to take parliamentary and extra-parliamentary initiatives aimed at the recomposition of the left, in Portugal and in Europe. At the international level, the Bloc favours "meetings with the currents and formations of the new left, left socialists, communists, ecologists and democratic movements of national affirmation" (resolution 1), notably in the form "of an international seminar on this subject [fundamental rights in the European Union] to be organised in our country, through a decision of the broad leadership ["Mesa"] to be held on the most appropriate date in 2001" (resolution 2).
In the presidential elections, the Bloc will fight against all the limits of the existing democracy and "will launch a great struggle among public opinion for a profound reform of the Portuguese political system". . It will also organise a "national conference on the quality of democracy" in Porto (resolution 3). In parallel, the Bloc will develop "a process of Round Tables to discuss with the societal left on an alterna28 International Viewpoint #320 April 2000 tive, capable of converging on the political level without endangering the autonomy of its specific terrains of intervention" (resolution 4). The Bloc also committed itself to considering the objective of a big meeting of an electoral character, without fixing date, agenda, conditions or objectives (resolution 4). The Bloc announced a series of big campaigns, notably against tax avoidance and banking secrecy (resolution 6), for the decriminalisation of abortion and on sexual rights (resolution 8).
Intervention and autonomy
The 10th and final resolution is on "the intervention and autonomy of the social movements". The Bloc does not plan to launch a youth organisation immediately, but favours a conference on this subject. On trade unions the Bloc takes a favourable view of work "towards a new trade union tendency". It also favours "meetings and conferences... which would assist the renewal of the ideals and practices of Portuguese trade unionism". "Listen, discuss, converge" was the slogan
The road to the Left Bloc
1973: PSR founded in clandestinity.
1974: The revolution; the PSR plays an
• Convenção Nacional
Novos tempos
Novos caminhos souerda of the first convention of the Left Bloc - it was a valuable step towards the renewal of the left. *
*François Vercammen is a member of the United
Secretariat of the Fourth International.
important role in the soldiers' movement;
the UDP is founded from the fusion of various Maoist (then pro-Albanian, finally "Marxist-Leninist") groups and becomes the most influential revolutionary organization (up to 20,000 members; 1 deputy until 1979). 1975: Defeat of the revolution, a period of decline begins for the left. 1989: Municipal elections. Unitary list of the entire left, headed by Sampaio (left socialist). The PSR participates in this. 1991: Parliamentary elections. One UDP deputy elected in the framework of a coalition with the PCP. The PSR makes spectacular progress but misses having a deputy elected by 200 votes. 1993: Birth of Politics XXI, emerging from the convergence between ex-PCP militants and the MDP-CDE, former electoral partner of the Communists. 1993: Electoral agreement for the municipal elections: PS-PC-PSR-UDP-Greens. 1994: Politics XXI participates alone in the European elections. 1996: PSR breaks with the municipal coalition in Lisbon, after the turn to the right by the PS. December 1997: Municipal elections: a PS-PC-Greens-UDP coalition and, in Lisbon and Porto, a "United Left" coalition between the PSR and Politics XXI; breakthrough of the first regroupment which will lead to the Bloc; the United Left obtains 3% and 1 municipal deputy in Lisbon. January 1992: First agreement of the Bloc, concluding positively the discussions undertaken by the UDP, Politics XXI, the PSR and independents since summer 1998. June 1999: The UDP breaks with the PS-PCP majority in Lisbon. The Bloc participates in the European elections. October 1999: Parliamentary elections. The Bloc's list has two deputies elected in Lisbon. January 2000; The Bloc's Ist national convention approves statutes and programme and elects a leadership. *
Austria *