The Portuguese left must stop being fearful of its own ideology and recover its theoretical basis. We must talk about Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara. We must talk about China without fear and without beating about the bush, we must talk about the Soviet Union without being defensive. We must talk about Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and Venezuela without allowing ourselves to be intimidated by the provocations of the centre and the right. They’ve already lost their fear of talking about their ghosts, or haven’t we noticed yet? Let’s see.

José Luís Carneiro‘s PS only talks about moderation and has therefore handed victory to the right by reinforcing its commitment to neoliberalism; Iniciativa Liberal has radicalised itself and asks that we talk without ideological prejudice about Javier Milei‘s libertarianism, the embodiment of the ultimate anarcho-capitalist; and PSD has allowed itself to be devoured by Chega and is merely a mouthpiece for André Ventura‘s neo-fascist ideology and the national oligarchy.

How did we get here? It is important to understand that the political spectrum is not static. The Overton window is constantly shifting, but right now it is solidly on the right. The three parties on the left are being so defensive that they no longer even talk about social democracy, only social liberalism. BE, Livre and PCP have clung tooth and nail to the 1976 Constitution, but always resorting to Keynesianism.

In other words, the irony of all ironies: the Overton window is so skewed to the right that we have three left-wing parties defending liberal democracy, its state and its institutions so that, at least, António Costa‘s welfare state can be saved, when what we should want is the emancipation of the people. That is our revolutionary basis.

Therefore, let us finally embrace this revolutionary vision. As I said, our opponents have lost their ideological fear and, on top of that, they have a mountain of financial and media resources on their side. When the enemy has greater offensive power, defence is not the solution. The solution is a greater offensive, with more determination, joy, optimism and belief in our values and our ideas.

Let us stop being afraid. Yanis Varoufakis showed us the dangers of technofeudalism, a monopolistic capitalism that has completely taken over our digital networks and now controls us through algorithms that alter our behaviour, but above all our critical judgement, by intensifying the conviction of the extreme centre and the far-right. By doing so, they amplify the power of the global oligarchy. Do we really want to leave Portugal in their hands?

No? Then let us do as Jones Manoel, a member of the Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party, did when he went on the offensive, participating in right-wing podcasts and programmes, and is now one of the most influential figures on the Brazilian left, having recently reached a million followers. Mark Zuckerberg even tried to silence him, but failed. When one hears the Brazilian left debating, you can feel the passion in their voices, whether on the radical or reformist wing.

Their theoretical knowledge is miles ahead of what is presented in the Portuguese political debate. They have not forgotten that the goal of the left is not to defend the state. On the contrary, it is the emancipation of the people through the appropriation of the state towards the greatest of utopias: the withering away of the state and a classless society. Is this utopian? Yes, it is, but as Oscar Wilde reminds us: ‘A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth looking at because it leaves out the only country where humanity is always landing. And when humanity lands there, it looks out and, seeing a better country, sets off again in search of Utopia. Progress is the realisation of utopia.”

Therefore, we must challenge the maxim of individual freedom because, without collective emancipation, that is, collective freedom, individual freedom is merely a recipe for the social and political barbarism we experience today throughout the world. We must talk about interdependence and the need to create a citizenship with a communal spirit, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon did in his most recent book, Now, the People! Revolution in the 21st Century.

We must also challenge the hegemony of the free market and show that it is nothing more than a liberal illusion precisely because it is chained to the capitalist system. China outperforms the US in terms of market efficiency and competition precisely because it regulates and intervenes in the market, which prevents the monopolistic and imperialist drive of capitalism.

If, even so, we want to choose the more moderate route, the route of reform, we have to think about alternatives. We can think of a system like that of the Futuro Democrático party, which proposes a system of governance based on citizens’ assemblies at the parish, municipal and district levels, in which citizens would participate in political life through participatory democracy, which would allow them to gain class consciousness.

There are also those who propose an anarcho-syndicalist model, which could easily take root in Portugal given the number of cooperatives we have. And then there’s our own DiEM25’ proposals to democratise Europe through a Green New Deal, which are strongly committed to degrowth. In other words, the transfer of investment from areas that do not meet the real needs of the population to those that do. So, as always, there is no shortage of ideas on the left. We just have to bring them to the table with courage and conviction.

But let’s not fool ourselves, we need a truly radical and revolutionary left wing. We need a radical flank that will pull the Overton window back to our side once again, but we won’t achieve this if we don’t put on our gloves and join the fight. The post-political period is over. It is time to fight the alliance of the extreme centre with the far-right. Centrism has already been defeated and we’re long overdue in the political arena.

Do you want to be informed of DiEM25's actions? Sign up here