The Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) marked the 40th anniversary since it legal constitution, formalized in April 1976, with a number of initiatives, including the publication of a book from which we reproduce excerpts from its preface and introduction.
Preface
The present relevance of the struggle for peace

The Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) strongly condemns the recent decisions buy the US president to strengthen the blockade against Cuba, namely by reverting some measures, that although insuficient, had been put forward by the previous US Administration. Now it will again become harder for US citizens to travel to Cuba and new restrictions on comercial trade with the island have emerged.

The Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) organized an action in solidarity with the people of Venezuela on July 5th, day of the 206th anniversary of the Venezuelan Independence.

On the day that ​mark the 50th anniversary of the Israeli military occupation, in 1967, of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and West Jerusalem, and also in the Syrian Golan Heights, as part of the Egyptian Sinai and Lebanese Shebaa Farms, the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) reaffirms its solidarity and determination in pursuing its historic intervention for the just cause of the Palestinian people.

Given the announced continuation, in Rabat, Morocco, on June 5th, of the trial of a group of Sahrawi prisoners in Moroccan prisons — known as the Gdeim Izik group —, the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) reaffirms its repudiation for this political trial, the demand for the release of these activists and its solidarity with the Sahrawi people.

On International Children's Day​, marked today, the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation reaffirms its commitment to the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Rights of the Child, approved by the United Nations in 1959, which attributed them the right to equality, food, housing, health, free education, rest, social protection and priority care in case of catastrophe, special protection aimed at the physical, mental and social development, against abandonment and child labor, and to grow in a «a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples».

The Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation, continuing the long standing campaign against NATO in Portugal, carried out a number of initiatives alongside other Portuguese organizations, giving these year focus on the holding of NATO’s summit in Brussels and its objectives.

Saluting the victory of the "Freedom and Dignity" protest, and the end of the hunger strike last, Saturday May 27th, held by the Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, following negotiations and the commitment by Israeli authorities to meet several of the protesters demands, we divulge a text cosigned by 25 Portuguese organizations made public on May 25th:

On 17 April, about 1500 Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons for resisting occupation and repression launched a hunger strike, the «strike for freedom and dignity».

Today marks one month since around 1500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails started a hunger strike, protesting the denial by Israeli authorities to respect basic rights, enshrined in international law, like access to medical care, against the torture and other forms of violence they endure and for the right to receive family visits, amongst other demands.

The Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation and other Portuguese organizations are developing a number of initiatives denouncing NATO's and its Brussels summit, throughout Portugal, that will culminate in street initiatives in Lisbon and Oporto on the 24th and 25th of May respectively.