By Carlos Lopes Pereira
November 13, 2025

The author is a former member of the Secretariat of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), who writes about African events for Avante! – the newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party. Translation: John Catalinotto.

“Overcoming the resistance of reactionary and conservative forces in Portugal that seek to prevent the continuation of our revolution and are hostile to the People’s Republic of Angola, we have fought and will continue to fight for the establishment of friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries,” highlights a message sent by the Central Committee of the PCP congratulating President Agostinho Neto of the People’s Republic of Angola on Angolan Independence Day, Nov. 11, 1975.

“The people of Angola and the MPLA [People’s Movement for the Independence of Angola] can always count on the active and fraternal solidarity of the PCP in the struggle against imperialist aggression, for the complete liberation of their homeland, for the construction of a free, democratic, and progressive Angola,” emphasized the text, published on the front page of the newspaper Avante! on Nov. 13.

In another message to the president of the MPLA, the then Secretary-General of the PCP, Álvaro Cunhal, “ardently” welcomed Angola’s independence, which “crowns the heroic struggle of the Angolan people led by the MPLA.”

In the same vein, the editorial of the PCP’s central organ explains that “for Portuguese communists, the fraternity and profound solidarity of the common struggle of the peoples of Portugal and the countries until recently subjected to Portuguese colonialism have always been a constant in revolutionary theory and practice.” It emphasized that “it is this consistent position that determines the PCP’s stance on the struggle of the Angolan people and their revolutionary vanguard, the MPLA.”

At the time of Angola’s independence, the newspaper reports, Portuguese communists were in Luanda as the only representatives of the Portuguese people and, in that capacity, were honored by the immense ovation of the Angolans.

For Avante!, “in the difficult days that the patriots of Angola will go through, the government, superbly led by Comrade Agostinho Neto, will know how to find in the energies of its people, in the revolutionary élan of the heroic combatants of the MPLA, and in the solidarity of all peoples who love freedom and peace — including our own people — the strength necessary to defeat the enemies of the Angolan people, who are the same as those of the Portuguese people,“ stating that ”the unwavering confidence of the Portuguese communists goes entirely to the Angolan fighters and patriots under the experienced leadership of the MPLA.”

As the Angolan people celebrate the 50th anniversary of their independence, the active solidarity of the PCP has just been recognized by the government of the Republic of Angola, in comrades Álvaro Cunhal and Sérgio Vilarigues, with the award of the “Peace and Development Class” Medal, at an awards ceremony held on Sept. 29 in Luanda, attended by the President of the Republic of Angola, João Lourenço. The awards were received on behalf of the PCP by José Augusto Esteves, member of the Central Control Commission.