PCdoB originated as an secession from the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro - PCB), which, by the late 1950ies and early 1960ies, was assuming a revisionist line. Nearly one hundred of its members quited PCB and, on February 18 1962, PCdoB's heavily Maoist- and Hoxhist-influenced manifesto was approved, becoming the first non-government communist party to oppenly opose Khrushchev. Later that day, it was decided that the party would issue its own newspaper, A Classe Operária (The Working Class).
In July 27 1963, in an open letter to Khrushchev, criticizing the post-20th Congress Soviet Communist Party, PCdoB officially adopted its anti-revisionist agenda.
In March 31 1964, as Brazilian president João Goulart was overthrown by the military on the US-backed coup d'état which started the twenty-year-long military dictatorship, the party advocated the country's redemocratization. A few monts later, when a decree dissolved all political parties, supressed most civilian rights and installed the censorship against all the media, PCdoB became one of the main undreground resistance movements. The small party had grown, thanks to its presence on university campuses and other leftist circles. Meanwhile, members and leaders of anti-government groups were regularly shot by the military.
In 1972, the Army, Air Force and the Police raided the city of Marabá, in southern Pará, suspect of hosting some communist leaders. PCdoB was among the resistance movements which formed the Araguaia Guerrilla, named after the nearby river. The government prohibited the media to publish anything on the guerrilla, which was only defeated in 1975.
In August 28 1979, the military government, which was begining its redemocratization process, announced the amnesty of the main political prisioners, including the original leaders of the PCdoB. On that same year, the party announced the issuing of its newspaper Tribuna Operária (The Working Class Tribune).
In early 1984, the leftist leaderships organized the Diretas Já campaign. In only three months, as many as eight million Brazilians protested against the government on the streets, demanding presidential elections. This was not approved by the Senate, however. Even so, the military regime began to be dissolved. Later that year, PCdoB created the Union of the Socialist Youth (União da Juventude Socialista).
In May 23 1985, only eight months after the Diretas Já, Tancredo Neves was elected president by the Senate, marking the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship. The PCdoB and the other leftist parties are re-legalized by the government. The party later elected five deputies for the Constitutional Assembly, which later approved the 1988 Constitution.
In 1989, the first presidential elections in twenty-nine years took place. PT's Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, supported by the PCdoB, obtained 47% of the votes. This PT-PCdoB alliance would be repeated in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 elections.
In February 1992, the party's 8th Congress took place under the motto O Socialismo Vive! (Socialism Lives!). While many other communist parties arround the world softened their agendas after the fall of the Soviet Union, sometimes even changing their names, PCdoB gained prestige for not denying its ideals. In September of the same year, it was the first party to ask for the impeachment of president Fernando Collor de Mello, acused of corruption. Collor eventually resigned on December 29.
In the 1990ies, PCdoB became one of the main opositors to Fernando Henrique Cardoso's neoliberal policies. Nowadays, the party is one of the members of Lula's coalition government.
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Related Articles
List of political parties in Brazil
List of Communist Parties
Politics of Brazil
External Link
Communist Party of Brazil (in Portuguese)
Sources
http://www.vermelho.org.br/pcdob/80anos/trajetoria.asp
http://www.pcbsaocarlos.hpg.ig.com.br/historia_pcb.htm