Portuguese Communist Party

The Portuguese Communist Party is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party is characterized as being between the left-wing and far-left on the political spectrum.
The Party was founded in 1921, establishing contacts with the Comintern in 1922. PCP was made illegal after a fascist coup in the late 1920s, the PCP played a major role in the opposition to the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. During the five-decades-long dictatorship, the party was constantly suppressed by the political police, which forced its members to live in clandestine status under the threat of arrest, torture, and murder. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which overthrew the 48-year regime, the 36 members of party's Central Committee had, in the aggregate, experienced more than 300 years in jail.
After the end of the dictatorship, the party became a major political force of the new democratic regime. One of its goals, according to the party is to maintain its "vanguard role in the service of the class interests of the workers". The PCP is the fourth largest in the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic, where it holds 10 of the 230 assembly seats.
The Party publishes the weekly "Avante!", founded in 1931. Its youth organization is the Portuguese Communist Youth, a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.