Extracts from the speech of Marcolino Abrantes, Vice-President of the Portuguese Textile Uni The situation in Portugal is characterised by an open struggle against the various aspects of capitalism. Against the power that capital holds over the means of production, against its ideology which through schools, the mass media and even the political parties imposes forms of thinking and living which are alien to the working class. In these fields, important victories have already been won, which were by no means an automatic outcome of 25 April 1974. They were won through struggle, and have led, for example, to nationalisations, the beginnings of agrarian reform, and freedom from manipuls ation through schools and above-all through the press and radio.
The struggle of the workers of the newspaper Republica is a clear example of this. fact that a party which has clearly not been defending the interests of the workers wanted to control the paper to express exclusively its own positions shows the importance of the struggle in this tield. The fact that workers were not prepared to give in, but on the contrary were prepared to fight against reactionary manoeuvres, was clearly demonstrated again by the workers of the Catholic-owned radio station Radio Renascenca who, with the support of the organised working class, fought off all attempts by the Church to impose its control.
Decisive moments
We are now in my country living through decisive moments for the future of the revolutionary process. We are living through a time when, on the surface, there is a certain disorientation. The Government is the first to recognise its inability to govern. The Constituent Assembly has become the place where the forces of tascism (CDS) and the social democracy (PPD and PS) publicise their intentions of stopping the revolutionary process. The inter-party struggle has become heightened. There exist in Portugal revolutionary parties, counter-revolutionary parties, and parties which hesitate between the two.
The only organs which in this situation have shown the capacity of uniting and advancing the progressive forces are the organisations which the workers themselves have built up through all these months of struggle: they are the workers committees the neighbourhood committees, and the village councils. This is why popular power must be strengthened, in order to be able to give a political response to the economic crisis which the country is now going through, in order to put the economy at the service of the working people.
The struggle for power has been most advanced at the point of production. The working class have gained victories at this level which have forced the bosses to retreat. Workers' committees have taken the lead in these struggles. More recently they have begun to take up issues like control over production in cases such as the nationalisation of banks, insurance companies, shipping and airlines, railwavs. power stations, oil retineries, steel industries, the CUF monopoly, petrochemicals, metal industry and the partial taking over of big agricultural estates. Working class pressure forced the Sup reme Council of the Revolution to nationalise these sectors, raising the issue of workers con+ trol as a decisive step towards the advance of socialism.
Only the establishment, within a global perspective, of workers' power in every place of work can turn the nationalisations into an attack on profit, on the capitalised division of labour, on the reactionary discipline of the bosses on the one hand, and into a process of transformation of the Portuguese economy on the other, so that it will satisfy the fundamental needs of the workers.
MARCOLINO ABRANTES Workers' control over production in the nationalised and private companies goes beyond the purely economic struggle. It poses clearly the question of power, not only in the factory, but within the general economic context. It means to veto and to control management decisions and policies which oppose the interests of the workers, and of the revolutionary process, and to impose decisions and policies which will help them to go forward when faced with a management and a state economic policy which continues to be essentially capitall Workers' control is the springboard for workers' and people's power. It points the way towards a working class offensive which is the only way of making the capitalists pay for a crisis that they themselves have created.
Power of capital
Workers' control has to be based on bodies which challenge the power of capital, and these bodies have to be strengthened and extended to all factories and branches of industry. Such bodies of working class struggle and power are provided by the Workers' Committees. They are the basis of workers' control. Born out of the needs of the economic struggle, and deriving many characteristics from trade union organisation, many workers committees have gone
rth of ‹ers' cracy it of portugal dossier - 1 Two Sundays ago - on 13 July - saw an historic occasion for the Portuguese working class in the town of Pontinha. For on this day the recently-formed Popular Assembly of Pontinha be-
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(Report DREW WIARD