Brazilian Communist Party (1922)

The Brazilian Communist Party (Portuguese: Partido Comunista Brasileiro, originally founded under the name Communist Party of Brazil — historical acronym PCB) was a Brazilian political party of Marxist orientation. With national expression throughout the 20th century, it consolidated strong penetration among workers, intellectuals, and students, operating under the official doctrine of Marxism-Leninism.

Founded between March 25 and 27, 1922, in the city of Niterói, it was the first structured political party openly to the left of the republican political spectrum in the country. From its genesis, the group sought to fulfill the so-called "21 Conditions" demanded by Lenin, and the organization was formally admitted to the Communist International (Comintern) during its 5th Congress, held in Moscow in 1924. Thus, the organization obtained official recognition as the "Brazilian Section of the Communist International" (formally adopting the name Communist Party - Brazilian Section of the Communist International, or PC–SBIC). Its classic symbol was the crossed hammer and sickle, in yellow on a red background, representing the political alliance between the peasantry and the urban proletariat.

Popularly nicknamed the "Partidão" (Big Party), the PCB faced successive periods of proscription and clandestinity dictated by the Brazilian state. At its institutional peak, during the redemocratization process between 1945 and 1947, it reached an estimated 180,000 members and won 10% of the votes in the 1945 presidential elections with the independent bid of Yedo Fiúza. Since 1927, its youth cadre base was organized in the Federation of Communist Youth (later União da Juventude Comunista – UJC). In August 1961, to circumvent legal restrictions and distance itself from the internationalist stigma, the association changed its official name to Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro), a change that triggered the historical split of the PCdoB the following year. The PCB functioned as the organic matrix from which emerged the main revolutionary currents and left-wing associations in Brazil, including armed struggle organizations during the military dictatorship, such as the October 8th Revolutionary Movement (MR-8) and the National Liberating Action (ALN). Its complex trajectory resulted in a severe dispute over its historical and legal continuity, culminating in the crisis of the 10th Congress in 1992.

Currently, the legacy of the historical PCB is disputed in two distinct spheres: the legal-institutional order and the political-ideological claim. In the legal sphere, before the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the association was officially succeeded in 1992 by the current Cidadania (formerly the Popular Socialist Party – PPS), led by the faction of Roberto Freire, which inherited the party registration No. 23, the assets, and promoted the abandonment of Marxist theory in favor of a program aligned with social democracy. On the other hand, from the perspective of the Marxist theory of political organization, the historical continuity of the vanguard and class is claimed by two other parties: the current Brazilian Communist Party (registration No. 21), rebuilt by the 1992 minority faction that denounced the dissolution promoted by Freire as a liquidationist maneuver; and the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB, registration No. 65), which has operated since the 1962 split, originating from a rupture with the PCB leadership that had adopted the reformist theses of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Both historically coexisted with the "Partidão" until its legal dissolution.