The first major test of strength in Portugal since the abortive military rebellion of 25 November is likely to come this Saturday. A mass demonstration is planned in Lisbon against the Sixth Provisional Government's imposition of a wage freeze while allowing huge price increases and mass unemployment.
The demonstration has been called by a 'committee of struggle' set up by 13 trade unfons mostly dominated by the Communist Party..In a statement they denounced the capitalist offensive which is trying to rob us of the wage increase we got after months of struggle, and called for the capitalists to bear the cost of the economic crisis instead.
This response to the Government's austerity measures slows that the working class movement in Portugai is still far from being defeated. It bears out what we have said in previous issues of Red Weekly against those who spoke of an imminent return to fascism: while the vanguard suffered a severe defeat as a result of the events of 25-26 November, the effect on the working class as a whole has been much less decisive.
same way. Prior to 25 November it represented a real embryo of coordination of struggles at the level of the third biggest town in Portugal. Now it is on the verge of collapsing altogether as fewer and fewer delegates bother to turn up.
ALIVE But the workers commissions as a whole are far from being dead and a meeting took place of representatives irom more man ooo workers commissions in various factories of the giant CUF monopoly. This was probably the largest and most representative meeting of CUF workers ever held.
What explains the extraordinary difference between these develop ments? After all, most of the CUF factories are also situated in the industrial belt around Lisbon. But in contrast to Setenave and the Setubal "secretariat of struggle', where the revolutionaries tended to play the leading role, the majority of the CUF workers' commissions have always been dominated by the CP DISARRAY In other words, while the events of 25-26 November have thrown the workers' vanguard into disarray -the political defeat suffered by certain groups has inevitably rebounded on tre wore revolunonary len the CP has by contrast kept a firm hold over its base and the orgainisations which it dominates lines another point whose importthe far left in the past: that even in this "red bastion' it is possible for the Socialist Party to pick up a significant number of votes. This gives some indication of how big its audience must be among workers in the buried. On 14 December, for instance, more backward north of the country Workers preparing one of the mass mobilisations prior to 25 November. This time the movement must be built around a clearer long-term perspective beat them. of living. such actions.
The Setenave election also underance has been discounted by much of The temporary loss of influence few signs of resistance to the repression inside the barracks. A committee of struggle against the repression and for the liberation of the imprisoned soldiers has recently started to function inside the Military Police; and 15 soldiers of the Santarem Practical School of Cavalry (EPC) successfully carried out an on-thespot strike against attempts to browPOTENTIAL Such examples are naturally still few and far between; but they show the potential support that exists for organising a united campaign in defence of the democratic rights of free expression, assembly and organisation inside the barracks, as well as in defence of the soldiers' standard Such a campaign, however, will only be successful to the extent that it is able to draw on the independent mobilisations of the working class outside the barracks. The demonstration of 17 January represents a very important first step in this direction. But it is also necessary to put forward a strategy which can consolidate and point the way forward tor COMMUNISTS No such perspective is provided by the Communist Party, which still looks for a reconciliation inside the Armed Forces Movement 'so that it may continue as the military guarantee of our young democracy. It is as if Chile had never happened, Street demonstrations become on particular groups inside the miliLay ana mic revolutones art attacked for seeing bodies like the workers commissions as 'future organs of State power But nor is it sufficient to call abstractly for the building of popular power'. Moves to develop and centralise such independent organs will not find a mass response unless they have a concrete function: to draw up a plan of struggle which can resolve the crisis in accordance with the needs and aspirations of the WOTHE CHAS Such a plan is needed more than ever today. The capitalists are pushing prices through the roof, and the Government's demagogy about 'controls' will do nothing to stop them. Behind the increasingly wide spread food shortages lies the open sabotage of the big farmers and distributors CONGRESS Only by exerting its own control over all aspects of economic life can the working class beat back this cap italist offensive. Only by centralising its own organs towards a national assembly of workers' commissions, neighbourhood commissions, and agricultural labourers' organisations can it find the means to do so.
Such questions lay at the heart of the discussions at last weekend's national congress of the International ist Communist League (Portuguese sympathising organisation of the Fourth International). And they must be taken up by the whole workers vanguard if a successful offensive is to be rebuilt against the attacks of the Azevedo regime.