Popular Action Front

A Portuguese Marxist-Leninist organization that was founded in January 1964 in Paris, following the rupture and expulsion of several members of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), the foundation of the FAP marked the beginning of Maoist and Marxist-Leninist organizations in Portugal.

Dissent from the PCP created in January 1964 by Francisco Martins Rodrigues, after differences at the central committee meeting in August 1963.

João Pulido Valente and Rui d’Espinay accompany him. They accused the PCP of mere electoralism. In April 1964, the Portuguese Marxist–Leninist Committee (CMLP) emerged from this group, publishing the periodical Popular Revolution.

Upon returning to Portugal, elements of the FAP are denounced in Avante!.

In 1966, after the denunciation of an infiltrator, with the arrest of practically all elements, only one Foreign Committee remained and organized a 1st Conference in 1967.

But the fragmentation of these movements became inevitable, even due to the absence of Francisco Martins Rodrigues' theoretical guidance, the FAP is dissolved and the CMLP goes through a phase of “purification” from an ideological point of view.

Founders: Francisco Martins Rodrigues João Pulido Valente José Manuel Lopes Cordeiro Rui d'Espiney