Statement issued by the Workers’ Party of Ireland and Workers’
Party Youth on the 40th Anniversary of the April Revolution
Today, 25 April 2014,
the workers and people of Portugal celebrate 40 years of the April Revolution, an historic
event in Portuguese history. On 25 April 1974 Portugal’s
fascist regime was overthrown. The uprising commenced by the Armed Forces' Movement (MFA) and the subsequent peoples’
uprising set the basis for establishing democracy, the liberation of Portugal’s African colonies and a movement for
social and economic change which echoed throughout Portugal, Europe and the world. The values established during the April
Revolution became woven into the fabric of Portuguese society and the advances and achievements were later enshrined in the
Constitution of the Republic adopted on 2 April 1976.
Avante, the newspaper
of the Portuguese Communist Party, which had been produced secretly before the dictatorship of Salazar and Caetano was overthrown,
immediately began open publication. Red carnations, the symbol of the MFA, flooded the streets. Political prisoners were released.
Six days later the PCP and its General Secretary, Álvaro Cunhal, led the jubilant May Day celebrations, the first free May
Day celebrations that many of its participants had seen in Portugal.
The PCP, fired by
decades of struggle including many years of underground activity, was a powerful and leading force in the movement for change.
The PCP has since led the unceasing resistance to the measures and policies of the bourgeois/social democratic parties designed
to undermine and destroy the gains and achievements of the April Revolution.
At present, in the
course of the current world-wide capitalist crisis, and further manifested in the pact of aggression, Portugal is again confronted with an open attack on the rights and freedoms of
Portuguese workers. Just as the Irish bourgeoisie attempts to distort the significance
of the historical events of Easter 1916 and to subvert the project which it represented, so too the Portuguese bourgeoisie
is attempting to re-write history and to distort and subvert the significance of April 1974. It is fitting that the April
Revolution is celebrated by the Portuguese workers and people by highlighting and defending its political, economic, social
and cultural achievements.
The Workers’
Party of Ireland and Workers’ Party Youth send warm comradely greetings to the Portuguese Communist Party and the Portuguese
Communist Youth (JCP) and note that within the framework of the Democratic Unitarian Coalition (CDU) the PCP is carrying out important actions under the slogan “The values of April in the Future of
Portugal” as part of the initiatives marking the 40th Anniversary of the April Revolution and in tribute to the heroic anti-fascist struggle and resistance together with the launching of the fifth
volume of Álvaro Cunhal's Selected Works.
We recognise that
the Portuguese Communist Party is steadfast in its defence of the gains and achievements of April 1974 and in its commitment
to the struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism.
Long Live the April
Revolution!
Long Live the Portuguese
Communist Party!
Issued 25 April 2014
Central Executive Committee
Workers’ Party of Ireland
Executive Committee
Workers’ Party Youth
25 April 2014
