1st Congress of the Communist Party — Brazilian Sector of the Communist International (PCB)

1st Congress of the Communist Party — Brazilian Sector of the Communist International
Author	PCB
First published	1922
Source	Dinarco Reis Foundation

Statute approved at the Communist Party — Brazilian Sector of the Communist International (PC-SBIC) Foundation Congress of March 25-27, 1922, in Rio de Janeiro. The PC-SBIC was the mother of all historical communist parties in Brazil.

Party constitution

Article 1. A Civil Society is founded for an indefinite period of time in Rio de Janeiro, branching out all over Brazil, with the title - Center of the Communist Party of Brazil, but which will be called the Communist Party — Brazilian Section of the Communist International.

Article 2. The purpose of the Communist Party is to promote the international understanding and action of workers and the political organization of the proletariat into a class party for the conquest of power and consequent political and economic transformation of capitalist society into communist society.

Membership

Article 3. The Party is organized on the basis of personal memberships, and the following conditions of admission are established:

1. to be at least 18 years old;
2. to sign the entry form subscribed by three members with more than 3 months of seniority;
3. belong to the respective industry or trade union, when this exists;
4. the members of the Society are not subsidiarily liable for the social obligations.

Article 4. The members acquire the right to vote only when 3 months have passed since the date of their admission.

Article 5. The Party also admits the membership of people who, for justifiable reasons, cannot actively militate in its bodies. These members, called taxpayers, however, do not have the right to vote.

The centers

Article 6. The Party is constituted by local or district centers, as long as it contains a minimum of 9 members. In localities where there are no organized centers, isolated members are admitted, which should be constituted in propaganda groups as soon as they reach the number of three.

Article 7. No more than one center is allowed in each locality of the country, with the exception of large cities, where centers can be organized by district. In the latter case, the new centers are always initially constituted by adherents of an already existing center.

Article 8. It is obligation of each member to withdraw from its respective center, in the first quarter of each year, the official booklet of the Party, paying for it the amount of [unkown].

1. Within the same period, each center must send the list of its members with the necessary indications to the Central Executive Committee of the Party, in order to send them the corresponding booklets and seals.
2. The monthly fee of each member is 1 $000, paid to the respective center. 50% of this fee is remitted to the General Treasury of the Party in payment of the stamps provided by the Central Executive Committee.
3. Members who, in the judgment of the respective centers, are unable to satisfy them are exempt from the monthly fees.
4. Individual members or advertising groups shall pay their subscriptions in full to the General Treasury of the Party.

Article 9. Extraordinary contributions or subscriptions of a national nature are also mandatory, which can only be established by the Party congresses or by the Central Executive Committee, for specific purposes.

Article 10. In cases of emergency, the centers may resort to the Central Executive Committee to obtain the financial assistance they need.

Article 11. It is the duty of each center to organize a communist youth made up of young people under the age of 18. Those over that age may remain in the youth, with the obligation, however, to join the Party directly.

Article 12. To be recognized as such, communist youths must accept the fundamental principles of the Party, and adopt statutes in agreement with them, under the control of the Central Executive Committee and the centers. For the rest, they enjoy full autonomy, both in terms of their internal constitution and the way they develop their propaganda.

The Central Executive Committee

Article 13. The Central Executive Committee is composed of 5 full members and 5 alternates, elected by Congress.

• Until the 2nd Ordinary Congress of the Party is held, only members already affiliated to the Central Executive Committee prior to the date of the Constituent Congress may be elected.

Article 14. In accordance with the principle of democratic centralization, the Central Executive Committee:

1. Represents and directs the Party in its multiple activities and promotes the execution of resolutions of National and International Congresses;
2. Seeks to respect the program and the Party Statutes, making effective the disciplinary measures provided for in the same Statutes.
3. It maintains the most rigorous political control over all the organisms of the Party, and is responsible for the orientation of the central organs and in general controls all the publications of the Party;
4. Maintains relations with Communist Parties in other countries, with the Communist International, and with other proletarian institutions;
5. Presents at each Party Congress a general report on the march and state of the Party's component bodies.

Article 15. The resolutions of the Central Executive Committee, in order to be valid, must be approved by majority in its ordinary and extraordinary meetings.

Article 16. Each titular member of the Central Executive Committee is in charge of a special branch of activity, according to the following distribution:

1. General secretariat service, organization and propaganda;
2. International secretariat service, worldwide relations and information;
3. Press and publicity service;
4. Service of communist nuclei in the syndical organizations and cooperatives;
5. General treasury service, direction and control of finances.

Article 17. The special duties of each service officer are the following:

1. General secretariat service:

He/she is in charge of the functions inherent to the Party's General Secretariat, represents the Central Executive Committee, oversees the application of its resolutions, the organization and discipline of the centers, and organizes and controls the Party's general propaganda.

The titular member who exercises the General Secretariat is the representative of the Society actively and passively, judicially and extrajudicially.

2. International Secretariat Service:

It maintains ongoing relations with the Executive Committee of the Communist International and with Communist Parties in other countries, and organizes a methodical information service on the international communist movement.

3. Press and publicity service:

It directs the Party's central publications and controls all other communist publications in the country, whether of collective or individual initiative, in no way admitting that any publications contrary to the general political orientation of the Party may be made on the pretext of autonomy.

It is responsible, before the Central Executive Committee, for the doctrines based on the Party's central publications.

He has the acts and resolutions of the Central Executive Committee, the balance sheets of the treasury and of the various companies of the Party published in the central body of the Party, or in a special bulletin.

It publishes in the Party's central organ all the resolutions of the centers' assemblies, as well as the observations made by the affiliates on internal or general interest matters.

4. Core service:

It is in charge of organizing, directing and controlling the communist nuclei in the unions and cooperatives, maintaining direct and disciplined contact between the nuclei and the Central Executive Commission.

5. General treasury service:

The person in charge of the General Treasury, responsible for the Party's finances, is in charge of the direct administration of the Party's central treasury, directing or controlling all the other financial and administrative services of the newspapers, editions and various Party cashiers in general, such as the centers.

Article 18. Each titular member aggregates to himself, in council under his immediate direction, the adherents appointed by the Central Executive Committee with the approval of the respective centers and according to the service needs and the qualifications or positions of each one, at the discretion of the Central Executive Committee. These councils study and organize the projects, plans and works related to the respective branch of activity. However, the service manager, a full member of the Executive Central Committee, is solely responsible to the latter, upon whom the approval and adoption of said projects, plans and works ultimately depends.

Article 19. The members of the Central Executive Committee meet in ordinary session once a week. Only the meetings attended by at least 3 incumbents shall be valid, and absences shall be filled by substitutes. The latter must attend all meetings of the Central Executive Committee, but only have a vote when they act as substitute for the incumbents.

Article 20. Members of the Executive Central Committee who miss meetings of the same without the necessary justification shall be considered dismissed.

Congress

Article 21. The Party meets in ordinary congress annually, in a place and date determined at the discretion of the Central Executive Committee. Extraordinary congresses may be convened by call of the Central Executive Committee or by initiative of two thirds of the centers.

Article 22. Each center sends to the congress a delegate for 30 quota holders or fraction greater than 15, but the votes of the delegations are counted by the number of quota holders represented.

Article 23. No center that is not up to date with the Party's General Treasury, or is at least 3 months old, can run for congress.

Article 24. The agenda and the thesis to be discussed in the congress are prepared by the Executive Central Committee and sent 60 days in advance to all centers. The latter, 90 days in advance, may present to the Central Executive Committee theses or propositions on important issues of general interest to be discussed at the congress.

Article 25. Each center sends the Central Executive Committee, 30 days in advance, a general report on the status and progress of its annual movement.

Article 26. Each member of the Central Executive Committee reads before the congress a report on the movement of the service in their charge. The congress judges these reports.

Article 27. The provisional table of the congress is formed by the Central Executive Committee until the verification of powers by a commission appointed for such purpose is made.

Article 28. The congress may modify the agenda proposed by the Central Executive Committee and include new issues in it if two thirds of the delegates so resolve.

Article 29. Each delegate to the congress may not represent more than one local center.

Administration

Article 30. The Party's central cashier is constituted by the monthly contribution of the centers at the rate of 500 réis per even member; by the direct members at the rate of l$000 per even member and by the other extraordinary entries and eventual rents.

Article 31. The Party treasurer-general reports monthly to the Central Executive Committee on the general movement of the central cash office, and the balance sheets are examined by the account commission.

Article 32. The accounts committee, composed of 3 members elected by congress, is in charge of the monthly inspection of the General Treasury balance sheets, both in relation to the centers' contributions and the administration of advertising services and other extraordinary income.

Article 33. Once a center is dissolved, its assets are transferred to the Executive Central Committee.

Statutes of the Centers, Nuclei and Youth

Article 34. The statutes of the centers, nuclei, and communist youths are written under a model presented by the Central Executive Committee.

The discipline

Article 35. In defense of the program, morality and harmony of the Party, the centers may resolve, by two thirds of its members, in special assembly, the suspension, no longer than six months, and the exclusion of one of its members, with appeal before the Central Executive Committee and the Party Congress. Suspended or excluded members may rejoin the Party whenever the causes for their exclusion or suspension have disappeared.

Article 36. For the same reasons, the Central Executive Committee may, by unanimous vote, suspend or exclude a local or district center or local propaganda group, with an appeal to the Congress.

Article 37. Those adherents who miss, without justified cause, 3 consecutive assemblies of their respective centers, have their voting rights suspended during the following 3 assemblies. In case of recurrence, they are considered excluded from the Party.

Article 38. Members who fail to pay the established contributions for 2 consecutive months have their voting rights suspended during the following 3 meetings of their respective centers. In case of recurrence, they are considered excluded from the Party.

• The cases provided for in number 3 of article 8 are not subject to the conditions imposed by this article.

Article 39. Communist centers, groups, and youths cannot carry out acts in collaboration with groups outside the Party without prior approval from the Central Executive Committee.

Article 40. Only Party congresses have the capacity to reform and modify the present Statutes, once they are based on the principles and resolutions of the Communist International, as well as only a specially convened congress can resolve the extinction of society and determine the destiny of its patrimony.

Article 41. Cases not foreseen in these Statutes are solved by the Central Executive Committee.