[ad_1]
Shortly after the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal and the long-term cancellation of some initiatives, the possibility arose that the PCP would cancel the performance of the traditional rentrée this year. It would be the second time since 1976 that the Fiesta would not take place and the option was to wait. The final ‘ok’ of the health authorities just arrived on Monday, with impositions that the PCP considered more demanding than for the other events that have been taking place, but even so the party did not accommodate the recommendations of the contingency plan. The Festival continues, in addition to the controversy, just as it has “survived” many others that have followed over the years.
In 1987, after the tenth consecutive party, a little over a month before the legislatures (which gave Cavaco Silva the first absolute majority), the communists could not guarantee space for Avante, in Alto da Ajuda, blaming “collusion ”. between “the mayor of Lisbon and the government dismissed from the PSD” who, according to what they said, did not present “valid reasons” to justify the refusal to give up land to carry out the initiative. Indeed, after this setback, it would have been that the PCP decided to proceed with the purchase of Quinta da Atalaia, in Seixal, where Avante has been held since 1990. But the option of holding the event on its own land was not enough to avoid creating controversies around the implementation of the initiative.
Communiqué of the Central Committee of the PCP in 1987.
In 2006, controversy broke out when the presence of FARC elements in the Party was reported. The news forced a series of explanations by the then Minister of Internal Administration, António Costa, of the Immigration and Borders Service and prompted a request for clarification from the Colombian Ambassador, Plínio Apuleyo Mendoza, to the Portuguese Government. The reaction of the general secretary of the PCP, Jerónimo de Sousa, already reflected the position of the party in relation to the organization. When clarifying that “naturally” he had invited “the Colombian communist party and the magazine ‘Resistência’”, Jerónimo de Sousa even admitted that “the PCP would not use” the methods used by the FARC, but expressed “great solidarity” with the FARC . This is because, said the general secretary quoted by the Public newspaper, that “the greatest violation of human rights is to prevent a people from having the right to their sovereignty, to their freedom.”
Two years later, in 2008, a similar controversy was started by the then Socialist councilor of the Seixal Chamber, José Assis, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the presence of a FARC delegation again in the Avante party. Contrary to what happened in 2006, the PCP denied, in a statement, Assis’s allegations, describing them as “indescribable invention”.
Most recently, in 2018, The Tinta da China publishing house accused the PCP of censoring Luaty Beirão’s book. The publisher made the usual selection of books to put on sale in the space dedicated to books at the Festa do Avante and Luaty Beirão’s book – a report from the prison – was, according to the publisher, the only one excluded by the communists .
Bárbara Bulhosa, editor of Tinta da China, denounced the case through her official Facebook page, harshly criticizing the PCP. “I just found out that the Luaty Beirão prison diary was removed from the list of books that we selected to be in the Festa do Avante, on the grounds that it would annoy the MPLA comrades who go to the Festa. It is sad to see that for the PCP political prisoners continue to have nationality, and those that concern only us, during the Estado Novo ”, wrote the editorial.
Editora Tinta da China accuses the PCP of censoring Luaty Beirão’s book so as not to disturb “friends of the MPLA”
Questioned at that time by the Observer, the PCP refused to assume any responsibility for this decision. In a written response, the communists explain that the sale of books at the Festa do Avante “is the responsibility of the Editora ‘Página a Página’, which assumes its own editorial criteria and options for both the invited publishers and the titles to the sale. ”. Thus, the PCP rejected any responsibility in the editorial decision not to accept that Luaty Beirão’s book was put up for sale in the rentrée communist party. “The PCP thus rejects the defamatory operations of those without credit who are moved by prejudice and the most primary anti-communism,” the communists conclude.
On the same occasion, Luaty Beirão replied in writing to the Observer that he “wished the PCP happiness” and that he hoped that the party “would convince the youth subject to a different type of oppression than those that existed 100 years ago, that the orthodoxy of that time continues to adapt to the struggles of today and that it can broaden its base of support ”.
It is perhaps the best known case, for the worst reasons, that occurred in Quinta da Atalaia. In 2015, the weekly Expresso reported that the PSP had received four criminal complaints against security guards at the “Avante!” Party. and that the Judicial Police were investigating two of the most serious cases. The alleged victims denounced acts of aggression, theft and kidnapping during the Avante Festival.
One of the victims, a Spanish left-wing activist, reportedly denounced to the authorities the attack against him by a group of “men in dark blue uniforms with the word ‘support’ written on their backs.” Manuel, 34, he was kissing a boy when he was approached by three men who said “they had to get out of there” because what they were doing was “forbidden”.
When questioning which was the law in Portugal that “prevented love”, the Spaniard was locked in a truck and received “blows and kicks.” Once outside the compound, he decided to try taking pictures of the security guards with his cell phone. But they found out and put Manuel back in the same truck. They blindfolded him and tied his neck with a rope while “they called him sissies”.
Assaults and kidnappings in the Avante Party
In response to the report published in Expresso, the Festa do Avante press office published a press release site of the PCP in which he accuses the weekly of having inserted “a provocative and defamatory piece in the edition” in which there are “criteria and operations that seek to reduce the political, cultural and convivial dimension” of the Party.
Reaffirming what has already been said in response to the questions posed by the newspaper, that is, that the situations to which it refers “do not correspond to the practice, guidelines and principles that guide the performance of Party members at the Festa do Avante ”, Highlighted the press office. that, over the years, “recurrent processes of forgery and defamation” have been repeated around the Quinta da Atalaia festival.
To date, the situation has led several LGBT organizations to ask the PCP to apologize to the victims. With the increase in media pressure, the PCP ended up acknowledging that there had been “incidents”: “The true reason for the incident that led to the departure of people from the Party’s premises originated in an act of oral sex in public space.”
One of those attacked, in an interview with newspaper I, denied the PCP’s version and accused the party of “throwing lies to stop a homophobic aggression.” The result of any of the complaints filed against activists / supporters of the party who were security in the 2015 edition is unknown.
