Maoism in the Developed World

Until April 25, 1974 Portugal was governed by one of the world’s last fascist regimes. Established by Antonio Salazar in the late 1920s, the Portuguese corporative state was led by Salazar’s successor Marcelo Caetano until it was finally overthrown in April 1974 by a military coup, led by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), composed principally of young officers.

Between April 1974 and November 1975 the politics of Portugal were dominated by the MFA, and consisted in large part of struggles between officers friendly to the pro-Moscow Communist Party, led by the old Stalinist Alvaro Cunhal, and those opposed to the Communists. The civilian anti-Communist forces centered particularly on the Socialist Party, led by Manoel Soares. Only with the defeat of a badly coordinated attempt by the Communists and their military allies to seize full power in November 1975 was the die finally cast against Cunhal and his party.

It is against this background that Maoism emerged in Portugal. For several years, Maoist groups played a role, albeit a secondary one, in Portuguese politics.

Early Maoism

During the Salazar-Caetano regime, no opposition party could function openly. Even underground activity was severely restricted, at least until the final months of the Caetano dictatorship. However, during the last decade of the corporative state regime, two groups that professed to be supporters of the Chinese Communists appeared among the underground groups. These were the Popular Action Front (FAP), which was established in 1964 but was decimated by numerous arrests in 1965,[343] and the United League of Revolutionary Action (LUAR), founded in 1966. However, as late as 1973, neither of these groups engaged in activities that drew public notice.[344]

With the overthrow of the Caetano regime, several Maoist parties made their appearance. Gerry Foley, writing in the U.S. Trotskyist periodical Intercontinental Press in October 1974, noted that “In the period after April 25 the street hawkers began to sell from half a dozen to a dozen different Maoist papers. The gamut ran from populist to workerist, from neoreformist to the most extreme ultraleft. But all were more or less abstract and fanatical.”[345]

The one-time U.S. Maoist newspaper Challenge also noted in this same period that “There are many groups in Portugal claiming to be Marxist-Leninist and anti-revisionist. … These groups have organized two demonstrations against the advancement of fascism. Thousands of workers and students have taken part in these demonstrations despite the hysterical campaign of the revisionists, calling these demos provocations against the govt. [sic] and the ‘Democratic Armed Forces’”[346]

In this early period, the most important of the Maoist groups was the Movement for the Reorganization of the Party of the Proletariat (MRPP). Another was the Popular Democratic Union (UDP), which, according to the New York Workers World, “refers to itself as Marxist-Leninist and … has large posters of Mao and Albanian leader Hoxha in its offices.”[347] It was the only Maoist party to participate in April 1975 election for a constituent assembly, in which it elected one deputy.[348] In the 1976 presidential election, it supported Major Saraiva de Carvalho, candidate of a grouping of far Left parties, the Frente de Unidade Revolucionaria.[349] The UDP competed once again in the 1980 elections, having candidates in a substantial number of constituencies. By then, it was reported to have aligned itself with Albania in the Sino-Albania split.[350]

Other early Maoist groups were the Communist Organization of Portugal (Marxist-Leninist) (OCPML), which according to Workers World was in late 1975 “the only Portuguese political group recognized by the Chinese leadership.”[351]

Still another early Maoist group was the Electoral Front of Communists (Marxist-Leninists) (PEC-ML). Finally, there was the Portuguese Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (PCP-ML), which was finally to emerge as the principal pro-Chinese Maoist party in Portugal.

The Movement For The Reorganization Of The Party Of The Proletariat

In the period following the overthrow of the Caetano dictatorship, the Movement for the Reorganization of the Party of the Proletariat (MRPP) was clearly the largest and most active of the parties adhering to Maoism. Gerry Foley commented in October 1974 that the MRPP “is the largest and best established of the groups to the left of the Communist and Socialist parties, and in the eyes of the masses it has come to represent the whole spectrum of the left opposition to the government. Of all the groups opposing the government from the Left, its demonstrations and rallies have been the largest.”