Sofia Manzano: “Communism is the most generous proposal humanity has ever produced”

Taken from: In Defense of Communism

“Communism is the most generous proposal humanity has ever produced”, said Sofia Manzano, the  candidate of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) for October’s presidential election, during an interview with “Brasil de Fato” newspaper earlier this month.

Talking about the centenary of the PCB, which was celebrated on March 25th, and the current struggle of Brazil’s communists, Manzano pointed out that the Communist Party emerged as a need of the working class to organize herself along the lines of the example that the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution presented.

The Communist Party “has a history of struggle in the most diverse areas of Brazilian society,  an institutional and electoral struggle, but also a struggle for land, trade unionism, women and the fight against racism”, Sofia Manzano stressed out.

“In this crucial moment for our country, being in confrontation with the extreme right and a government with a fascist cut, when we need to present to the Brazilian society a project that can lead to the emancipation of the working class, rescuing the history of the PCB is very important”, the Communist presidential candidate underlined.

Sofia Manzano, an economist professor at the University of Southwest Bahia (UESB), talked about the need to put the agenda of the communists on the table and to fight anti-communism:

“The history of communists in Brazil is a very rich history that has generated several other currents, including the Brazilian left that remains in the struggle for social transformation to this day. So, rescuing this history is very important. Above all, fighting the demonization of communism is very important. Because communism is the most generous proposal humanity has ever produced […] Society has little knowledge of what the communist proposal is, what the construction of communism is. So it is very important at this moment to rescue this story, to put on the agenda an honest debate about what communists think, what they want, what this generous proposal is”.

Concerning her candidacy for October’s presidential election, Manzano underlined that the Communist Party decides in a very collective way and, following the PCB’s 16th Congress, it was evaluated that it is important for the Party to have a pre-candidacy for the presidency. “Personally, it is an honor to be in this position, mainly in the centenary of the PCB, but is also a very arduous task, even because of the material conditions that are very exiguous for us, communists”, she pointed out.

Sofia Manzano gave the interview on the sidelines of her participation in the 40th Congress of the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education Institutions (ANDES-SN) in Porto Alegre.

 

Source: In Defense of Communism