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Brazilian Communist Party
Brazilian Communist Party
In 1993 the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro--PCB),
in a stormy national convention led by its president, Deputy Roberto
Freire, removed Marxist-Leninist doctrine from the party statutes
and the hammer and sickle from its flag, and changed its name to
the PPS (Popular Socialist Party). The original PCB had been organized
in 1922. At Moscow's initiative, Luis Carlos Prestes took over the
PCB's leadership in the mid-1930s. Prestes presided over the party
until the early 1980s, when he was ousted by a renovated Euro-communist
faction that had tired of his Stalinist line. During its illegal
period (1948-85), the PCB was able to elect a few of its members
under other party labels. The PCB regained legal registry in 1985,
elected three representatives to the ANC in 1986, and again in 1990,
always in coalitions. Deputy Freire carried the PCB banner as candidate
for president in 1989, and became floor leader of the Franco government
in 1992. In 1994 the PPS joined the FBP in support of Lula and elected
one senator (Freire) and only two federal deputies.
Communist Party of Brazil
The Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil--PC do
B) was created as an underground splinter from the PCB in 1958,
following Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's denunciations of Stalinist
atrocities. The PC do B repudiated the new Moscow line and aligned
itself with Maoism. When the People's Republic of China began making
economic reforms in 1979, the PC do B aligned itself with Albania.
When Albania held its first free elections in 1992, the PC do B
became nonaligned. After the PC do B was legalized in 1985, under
the leadership of former deputy and former guerrilla João
Amazonas, it elected more deputies in 1986 and 1990 than its arch
rival, the PCB. The PC do B joined the FBP in support of Lula in
1989 and 1994. The PC do B doubled its delegation from five to ten
federal deputies, representing nine states, in 1994. This feat resulted
from PC do B domination of student organizations in most states
and astute use of coalitions.
Data as of April 1997
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