Maoism in the Developed World

The PCPML was clearly the Portuguese group most closely associated with China. After a visit to China in May 1977, a delegation of the PCPML Central Committee announced that “this would be the start of regular contacts with the Chinese Communist Party.”[362]

In the following year, several delegations from the PCPML visited China, “and numerous messages were sent to the Communist Party extolling its progress and activities.” The PCPML also announced the publication of volume 5 of Mao’s Selected Works, which it proclaimed to be “an event of major importance.” The Portuguese party also announced its “full support for Chairman Mao’s scientific theory of the differentiation of the three worlds.”[363]

In 1979, the PCPML denounced the Soviet-Vietnamese friendship and cooperation treaty, which had been signed in November 1978. They also denounced the Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea. All three of its publications, Unidade Popular, O Communista, and Em Luta denounced Vietnam as “the Cuba of Asia,” and as a “faithful lackey of Russian social imperialism.”[364]

The PCPML participated in the 1976 presidential elections as part of the Frente de Unidade Revolucionaria, a grouping of a variety of far-left parties, which supported the candidacy of Major Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, one-time commander of the Lisbon garrison, who came in second to General Ramalho Eanes, favored by the Socialists and centrist elements, and ahead of Octavio Pato, the nominee of the pro-Soviet Communist Party.[365] They also ran some parliamentary candidates who received about 0.3 percent of the total vote.[366]

The PCPML likewise participated in the 1980 parliamentary election. However, for that purpose it established a front group, the Partido Trabalhista,[367] perhaps because the electoral law did not permit two groups calling themselves Partido Comunista to appear on the ballot.

Other Maoist Groups

In addition to these principal Maoist groups which we have discussed, the East German Communists noted the existence of several other Maoist organizations in the 1970s. One of these was the Partido de Uniao Popular, with a central organ A Verdade, formed by a split in the PCPML in 1975, from which still another group, the Comite Marxista-Leninist a split in turn, and ultimately joined in establishing the Partido Comunista de Portugal Reconstruido.[368] Still another splinter of the PCPML, the Partido Comunista (Marxista-Leninista) Portugues, was established in 1978.

Another Maoist party was the Partido Comunista dos Trabal-hadores Portugues, which was the first established by exiles in the mid-1960s. The party’s Secretary was Arnaldo de Matos, and its small following in organized labor joined the Socialist-controlled Uniao Geral do Trabalho when it was founded in 1979.[369]

Conclusion

Although Maoist parties proliferated in Portugal after the overthrow of the Caetano dictatorship in 1974, two emerged as the principal parties of that kind. These were the Movement for the Reconstruction of the Proletararian Party, which became the Communist Party of Portugal Reconstructed, and the Communist Party of Portugal (Marxist-Leninist). After the revolutionary euphoria of 1974-1976, neither of these became a major factor in Portuguese left-wing politics. With the split between the Chinese and the Albanians, the “Reconstructed’” party joined the Albanian schism in International Maoism, while the PCPML remained loyal to China.

Maoism in San Marino

In the tiny Republic of San Marino, nestled in the Appenines in Central Italy, the pro-Soviet Communist Party was a significant factor in national politics after World War II, from time to time even serving in the government. Also, as in Italy, there was a small Maoist party.

Maoism in San Marino was represented by the San Marino Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), which was established in 1968 by the Movimento Marxista-Leninisti di San Marino, which had been organized a few years previously.[370] It was reported as sending condolences to the Chinese Party on the occasion of the death of Mao Tse-tung.[371] We have no further information on the San Marino Maoists.

Maoism in Scandinavia

Although never becoming a major factor even in the far Left politics of Scandinavia, the Maoists did surprisingly well for a few years in the late 1960s and 1970s in those countries. Generally, the traditional Communist parties of the region suffered considerable internal conflict in the years following Nikita Khrushchev’s speech to the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU. Although there was a general tendency among those parties to move in a “Euro-communist” direction rather than toward the ideas of Mao Tse-tung and alliance with the Chinese party, in each case a minor group did move in that direction. The situation differed substantially in the various countries.

The Background Of Danish Maoism