In the last month, a crisis has erupted in the Brazilian Communist Party, the PCB.1 Here is a translated political note by the National Coordination of its youth wing on the causes and possible solutions to this problem. However, before that, I feel like some international as well as specific Brazilian context is needed, as nothing appears out of nowhere. I hope this can shed some light on what is happening with the PCB, and consequently some key factors determining the international situation of the communist movement.
The Communist movement across the world, while still scattered and unable to truly act as a world-changing force against the capitalist crisis and inter-imperialist conflict raging on today, is slowly climbing out of its irrelevancy. In moments like these, those who refuse to theorize, to question what is to be done, and even more so those who refuse to position themselves against imperialism, are betraying the international movement, cutting its roots before it can blossom.
More specifically, the divisions in the official communist movement, represented by the IMCWP, are becoming clearer. In the right-wing of this movement, many communist sects are adhering to the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, a grouping founded by the PSUV and including nationalist organizations with Fascist leanings like the Vanguardia Espanõla.2 Positioning themselves in favor of Russia in the current conflict in Ukraine, they completely deny in any way that this is an inter-imperialist conflict. Against this, the IMCWP left-wing, formed by parties like the KKE, TKP, PCM, PCTE, PCV, etc., is taking the practical and theoretical position of Revolutionary Defeatism, refusing to back neither NATO nor Russia, (while still being plagued by an almost inescapable popular-frontism in other questions).
In this international conjecture, the PCB, like many other parties, is vacillating between either side, while having far more connections with the IMCWP left-wing (this is mainly due to the limitations of the 16th Congress, where the stances taken were in general of a vacillating character between its left and its right). Against the positions democratically deliberated in its 16th congress, the PCB sent their General Secretary to the 3rd WAP meeting.
This question, and many more like it, were avoided until they became unsustainable. The real explosive moment of the crisis happened this August, when the Central Committee expelled half of its members, including Jones Manoel, the party candidate for Pernambuco and a party educator and organizer. His expulsion was particularly controversial, since he made public the disciplinary process against him, exposing its untransparent and arbitrary nature.3 Half of the National Coordination of the UJC, the PCB youth wing elected in its last specific congress, was also expelled.
One thing the Central Committee of the party, in its undemocratic measures, underestimated, was the culture of debate and discussion in the PCB. This party culture, forged in 1992 where, following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the party was almost dissolved by its leadership only to be saved by the convening of an Extraordinary Congress by its mass base4, can be seen by the constant polemics by party members in its publications, and the relative autonomy of its collectives.
Inspired by the experience of 1992, a tendency has emerged in the party that demands the convening of a 17th, extraordinary congress, to clarify where the party stands and to open it up to democratic participation. Sadly, the leadership closed this option down, by expelling members, like Ivan Pinheiro, the previous party General Secretary, who critiqued the current leadership and the party participation in the WAP5 for further moving away the PCB from the IMCWP left, accused of “Fractionalism”. This was the catalyst for the creation of the PCB-RR, a faction that, while remaining in the party, is resisting these efforts by the CC. Many regional sections of the party have already adhered to its platform, and, recently, the National Coordination of the UJC has taken a stand in its favor with the publication of the political note I have translated. Enough context, here it is:
-Ari
AGAINST CENTRAL COMMITTEE INTERVENTION IN THE YOUTH WING!
IN DEFENSE OF A 17th (EXTRAORDINARY) CONGRESS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BRAZILIAN COMMUNIST PARTY!
The Brazilian Communist Party is currently facing its deepest crisis since the last three decades. This crisis doesn’t merely impact the party itself, directly, but also its collectives, its youth and union wings. Here, the National Coordination of the Union of Communist Youth publicly expresses its position on the current situation.
Between the night of the 11th and the morning of the 12th of August, 2023, during an extraordinary meeting of the UJC National Coordination, we were surprised with several proofless, summary expulsions of the militants elected in the National Youth Congress of 2022. Many party officials in the states of Pernambuco, São Paulo, and the Federal District were expelled, with attempts to do so happening in other states. The National Executive Commission, composed of members elected in the 9th UJC Congress and put to referendum by the Central Committee at the time, had 4 of its 8 members expelled. In the face of this arbitrary and controlling intervention: WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE EXPULSIONS CARRIED OUT BY THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BRAZILIAN COMMUNIST PARTY!
The National Youth Commission, by means of the National Youth Secretary of the PCB Central Committee, after the processes of needless expulsions, staying and commenting during the CNUJC meeting, sent this statement during the moment of referrals:
Comrades, as the National Secretary of the PCB youth wing, I communicate with this statement that we won’t recognize any deliberation made in this space by members who used undue spaces to infiltrate fraction into our organization.We recognize a whole of militants elected in congress, backed by the party base in its relative autonomy, that only came to be the National Coordination of the UJC because of the approval of its composition by the whole of the Central Committee. Having exposed this, the National Youth Commission will send a meeting link at 14h30, so that legitimate UJC militants can organize and express their critiques and solutions for the overcoming of our contradictions.
After the Youth Secretary left the meeting, about 10% of members opted to leave the instance, while the CNUJC stayed, in its majority, present during the rest of the moment of referrals, where it was deliberated by ample majority (30 votes in favor and 5 votes against) that this note be published. Moreover, we approve by consensus the opening of debate among our militancy, without any restrictions to critique, and the overriding of the Central Committee’s discussion veto, as well as the reversal of the expulsions!
Comrades, it wasn’t the Central Committee that elected us in the Youth Congress and they will not be the ones to dismiss us. The CNUJC maintains itself firmly in its task of national coordination and won’t recognize any coup-like attempt of dismissal without the right to defend itself and without proof! The UJC base that has elected us will decide what path we follow, not a clique in the Central Committee that acts against our party statutes and Congress resolutions!
In the last week, several party nuclei and hundreds of militants have already positioned themselves beside their Regional Coordinations. Notably, the youth of thirteen states (Pernambuco, Rondônia, Rio Grande do Norte, São Paulo, Pará, Amazonas, Acre, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Goiás, Amapá and Minas Gerais) have shared their evaluations, having all manifested themselves in favor of a 17th Extraordinary Congress and the Revolutionary Reconstruction of our Party (except for the comrades in Goiás). In the face of this conjecture, the CNUJC couldn’t remain silent.
Inside the national leadership organism of the UJC, an Extraordinary Plenum was proposed for the 12th of August. This proposal was approved by a majority of the organism members, resulting in the adoption of the position we now make public. From the beginning, our efforts have been to ensure the position of the UJC is not merely the result of the opinions of its leaders, but of a process of national synthesis. However, as mentioned above, we were taken by surprise by the coup-like expulsions before and during our meeting, which had as its goal precisely the construction of a national synthesis of the crisis we are being confronted with in the Brazilian communist movement today.
To bring to the public the critiques and evaluations we make here doesn’t mean we consider ourselves perfect. We can still deepen our internal democracy far more, in our mass work and our steering efforts. If, on one hand, the last two UJC congresses solidified our revolutionary line in all aspects, on the other hand there is still a lot to improve. However, we understand that, to make these necessary corrections possible, the moment demands from us a firm position, such as the one we hope to present here.
The crisis we are facing didn’t start this year. It’s the fruit of contradictions and an ideological struggle that has been accumulating in a disorganized manner ever since, at least, the 16th PCB Congress, now exploding in the form of a split. If the differences in politics had remained within the framework of the ideological struggle, that process would have contributed in making the party stronger, unifying it and making it more prepared. Sadly, this didn’t occur.
This crisis has been deepened far more with comrade Ivan Pinheiro’s publication of his text “Still on the World Anti-Imperialist Platform”, critiquing our actions with the WAP, the internal situation of the Central Committee that led to it, and the response given by the CC. The Central Committee majority, instead of using this mistake to explore its causes and begin a necessary process of self-critiquing our political mistakes, that aren’t limited to the international question, chose to aggravate the crisis further.
Initially, it forbade the youth wing and the collectives from participating in the debate. Members of the Central Committee majority publicly said that these party organisms weren’t composed of militants, and thus couldn’t involve themselves in party matters. The internal and external notes of the Central Committee and its members didn’t approach the central questions, limiting themselves to defaming and persecuting those who they identified as internal enemies. Already in the Plenum of the CC from the 8th to the 9th of July, comrade Jones Manuel was expelled from the leadership duties he carried out. This persecution culminated with the expulsions of Gabriel Landi, Gabriel Lazzari, Ana Karen, Jones Manoel and Ivan Pinheiro from the ranks of the Brazilian Communist Party, on the 30th of July.
This deviation on the international question, as well as the political persecutions however, didn’t come from nowhere. The heart of the matter in this dispute is the Revolutionary Reconstruction of the PCB itself. From our almost automatic alignment with the PSOL in the bourgeois elections of the last five years to the closing of internal spaces of debate, we see the principles that allowed us to save the Party in its struggle against liquidationism in 1992 being put at risk.
In the midst of this crisis, there appeared a spontaneous watchword: the defense of a 17th (Extraordinary) PCB Congress, with the participation of the whole party structure (collectives, the youth and union wings). This was the greatest demonstration that a struggle for unity was still possible. Despite this, the Central Committee decided to shut down this possibility. Today, we have arrived at a point where even internal agitation for a 17th Congress is considered to be an adherence to fractionalism, subject to immediate expulsion, which has been producing dozens of shutdowns in states and cities. This replication of the persecution by the Regional Committees had been guaranteed and, sadly, it’s being carried out.
In this scenario, we have no other alternative. If the Central Committee wants to make impossible the unity between communists in Brazil, a necessary step for the construction of a revolutionary party of the proletariat in our country, we must make it inevitable. The National Coordination of the Union of Communist Youth declares without hesitation: we are in favor of the construction of a 17th Extraordinary PCB Congress and we shall direct all our efforts to defend the Revolutionary Reconstruction of our party.
This position was formed after weeks of reflection and internal debate, involving the base and the leadership. With it, we respond to the call by the comrades from the Regional Coordinations and from the nuclei, who legitimately demanded a position from us. Our silence up to this point had the intention of guaranteeing internal debate and collective formulation to the highest possible level.
The National Coordination of the UJC will not recognize the interventions and expulsions in the states and nuclei that manifest their positions, be it publicly or internally. We trust the Union of Communist Youth in the whole country to adopt the same stance, ensuring due support to those who understand the necessity of fighting for the defense of our party.
Comrades, the struggle we face is not simple. However, we have conviction that the Brazilian communists will get through this process and will come out of it stronger, unified on the basis of the principles of marxism-leninism, with a renewed and expanded capacity to work among the masses. The construction of a revolutionary party is the fundamental condition for steering the revolution, and, in this moment, we hope to do our part.
FOR THE NON-RECOGNITION OF THE EXPULSION OF UJC MILITANTS
IN DEFENSE OF A 17th (EXTRAORDINARY) PCB CONGRESS
IN DEFENSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PCB
IN DEFENSE OF THE 9th UJC NATIONAL CONGRESS
- Not to be confused with the PCdoB, or Communist Party of Brazil, a maoist-turned borderline social-democratic developmentalist party, coincidentally a founding member of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform and in the current ruling coalition with Lula’s PT.
- https://wap21.org/?p=155, the Vanguardia Espanõla’s main philosophical inspiration is Gustavo Bueno, a syncretic philosopher who was in the FET y de las JONS, the main Falangist organization in Spain, through the 1950’s. https://ctxt.es/es/20230101/Firmas/41892/ https://www.vanguardiaespañola.com/puntos-programaticos
- Here is a Google Drive folder by Jones Manoel detailing the process, with clear proof: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lvEEhepKC526KjF5-MgkU49ITEDWgvoK
- Sadly, I cannot find an English source on this, but here is an article on it: https://pcb.org.br/portal2/28341
- This is the specific article that was published just before Ivan Pinheiro’s expulsion: https://revistaopera.com.br/2023/06/03/ainda-sobre-a-chamada-plataforma-mundial-antiimperialista/