80 years after the victory over fascism: No to militarism and war! For peace and co-operation! - PCP

Soviet War Memorial in Berlin -- Drrcs15, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Statement of the Portuguese Communist Party released in English May 12, 2025:

PCP salutes the 80th. anniversary of the Victory over Nazi-fascism.

No to militarism and war! For peace and co-operation!

May 9th, marks the 80th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Fascism. Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in Berlin, millions of people took to the streets on May 9, 1945, to celebrate the end, in Europe, of the deadliest war in the history of Humanity. Unleashed by the fascist powers - Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and militarist Japan - World War II would end months later with Japan's capitulation on September 2.

Without forgetting the important contribution of various countries, it is an indisputable historical fact that the decisive role for the Victory fell to the Soviet Union, the Soviet people and their Red Army. It was on the Eastern Front that Nazi Germany concentrated the bulk of its military forces, and it was there that the decisive battles that determined the defeat of Nazi-fascism were fought - Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk and many others. Bearing the sacrifice of more than 20 million men and women, the USSR was decisive in the liberation of Humanity from Nazi-fascist barbarism and its monstrous crimes, including the Nazi concentration and extermination camps, where millions of people were murdered - communists and other anti-fascists, Slavs, Jews, prisoners of war, among many others. Liberation was also achieved with the contribution of powerful resistance movements, in which the communists played a decisive role.

Fascism was capitalism's response to its deep crisis in the first half of the 20th. century. Fascism was the most violent expression of the dominance of the big industrialists, big financiers and big landowners, and was an instrument against the labour movement. Its class imprint was present from the very first moment. Fascism persecuted all those who opposed its regime of terror, with communists and the labour and trade union movement being its first victims. The path that led to World War II showed that fascism and war go hand in hand.

The global correlation of forces that resulted from the defeat of Nazi-fascism, with the enormous prestige achieved by the socialist Soviet Union and the communist parties, gave way to a period of great achievements and social progress. The peoples of many countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America chose to build socialist societies. The struggle for national independence became widespread, culminating in the end of the colonial empires. In the capitalist countries, workers and peoples conquered important advances, such as universal public healthcare, education and social security systems, political and trade union freedoms and rights, the nationalisation of sectors of the economy, peace.

However, after the end of World War II, the United States of America, the new great imperialist power, promoted a violent onslaught to contain and push back the forces of peace and social progress. Under anti-communism, the anti-fascist alliance that had marked the end of the war was destroyed and replaced by the escalation of confrontation promoted by imperialism. In order to crush the peoples' national liberation struggle, the US and its allies launched numerous military interventions, such as in Korea or Vietnam. The so-called “Cold War” also dictated the survival of Salazar's fascism in Portugal, thanks to the support of the US and NATO. Liberation would be achieved as a result of a long and heroic struggle of anti-fascist resistance, and almost three decades later by the action of the Armed Forces Movement and the Portuguese people, on April 25, 1974.

Victory over Nazi-fascism is particularly relevant today, given the new onslaught of imperialism, which is stepping up its policy of confrontation and war.

As a result of their neoliberal policies of intensifying exploitation and attacking democratic rights, worsening injustices and inequalities and promoting the obscene enrichment of a few, the major capitalist powers are now faced with their relative decline, which is evident in the crisis which permeates the US and the other G7 countries. Refusing to accept international relations based on the principles of the UN Charter, such as the sovereign equality of States, imperialism, particularly US imperialism, is seeking to maintain its world hegemony through force. Once again, the ruling classes of a capitalism in deep crisis are opting for violence, militarism and war – which involves the warmongering escalation promoted by the US, NATO and the EU and the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Saluting the 80th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi-fascism and paying tribute to its victims and all those who resisted, fought and overcame it, the PCP calls on democrats, workers, youth and the Portuguese people to reject the rewriting and falsification of History, which whitewashes fascism, its heinous crimes and the class interests it serves, and to fight against the promotion of reactionary and fascist conceptions and projects that seek to undermine democratic freedoms and rights.

Alerting to the danger posed by the encouragement of militarism and war, which trivialises the tragic consequences of a major confrontation - which today runs the serious risk of becoming a nuclear confrontation, threatening the very existence of Humanity - the PCP calls on democrats, workers, youth and the Portuguese people to mobilise in favour of peace, rejecting militarism, arms escalation and war.

Today, as 80 years ago, we need determined action and a broad convergence in favour of peace, freedom, democracy, social progress, co-operation and friendship among peoples.