Portuguese Communist Party leader speaks about upcoming election while in Paris

Crowd participating in the June 6th mobilization of the
Communist Party to launch the ongoing election campaign

 Adrien Welsh

“Eles comem tudo e não deixam nada/ They eat everything and leave nothing” says the song by Zeca Afonso. The singer-songwriter also wrote “Grândola Vila Morena”, which became an anthem during the Portuguese April Revolution. These words are probably the best description of the situation the people of Portugal are currently living in. The title of this song is “Os Vampiros/ The Vampires”, referring at the time it was written to the capitalists who kept Portugal under the rule of a fascist dictatorship until 1974.

Although the country was able to overthrow the Estado Novo regime and adopt one of the most progressive constitutions in Europe (thanks largely to the Communists), Portugal, along with Greece, is one of the European countries most affected by austerity programs imposed by the Troika. The European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are the new vampires who “eat everything but don’t leave anything” for the people.

More than 128,000 people from Portugal chose to leave their country in 2013, and their number keeps increasing year after year. More than 1.5 million Portuguese have decided to live in France. That is about 15% of the total population currently living inside Portugal.

We can not have another World War.

Contribution to the Lisbon meeting of the World Federation of Democratic Youth's Commission of Europe and North America by the Young Communist League of Canada.

Dear comrades,

We would like to thank the World Federation of Democratic Youth and our hosts, the Juventude Comunista Portuguesa, for organizing this important meeting. We meet on the eve of the JCP's 10th Congress to which we send warm fraternal greetings. We are confident our work today will strengthen the efforts of the WFDY in the European and North American region.

This year, 2014, marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of a social nightmare -- the First World War.

The Canadian government is launching a campaign to re-write history. To use this anniversary to celebrate militarism.

This is a horrible lie. The First World War saw close to 40 million civilian and military casualties.

Those who survived said: No! Never again!

The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia helped end that war. The Soviet Union began to build a socialist society, based on peaceful cooperation.

Such history may seem dusty and old to some in our generation. But 100 years later it still frames our struggle, as the progressive youth grow more determined in our fight for the future, and we in WFDY advance the slogan of revolutionary social transformation.