on the working class. hot summer and autumn. International, in particular. The Portuguese elections gave a majority of votes to the parties of the working class. The Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the far left class did not suffer a decisive defeat on 25 November.
The results are a setback not only for the ruling class, but also for its parties - the Centre Democrats (CDS) and the Popular Democrats (PPD). The CDS, led by Freitas do Amaral, doubled its vote, but the bourgeoisie needed a CDS-PPD government in order to launch a thoroughgoing attack Soares knows that the SP vote represents a vote against any coalitions with the right. Moreover, any move to the right would increase the tensions tunity to make further inroads into the SP's base in the working class.
failed to consolidate its own parties in government, but its hope of obtaining a strong military president, supported by all the major parties and the various factions of the Armed Forces Movement, looks more distant now. With the determination and militancy of the workers and peasants largely intact, and major struggles on the agenda, Portugal looks set for a left. Within this vanguard we can see that the influence of our comrades in the Internationalist Communist League (LCI) and Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) is growing. Below we look at the election performance of the extreme left; and at that of the LCI, Portuguese section of the Fourth Wing for Otelo de Carvalho or another figure from Copcon to stand in the presidential elections in late June or early July not to concentrate on the social fascist' CP, made important gains.
As in the Constituent Assembly elections, it secured the election of one deputy as a result of the 31,330 votes it won in Lisbon, while in Setubal it took 7.81 percent of the together won 53 per cent. This result shows more than ever that the working The capitalist press is now raising the cry for a PPD-SP government. But within his already divided party, and also offer the CP and far left an opporIt is clear that the crisis can only deepen. Not only has the ruling class The elections also show that a vanguard still exists, outside the grip of the reformist misleaders of the SP and CP, under the influence of the extreme The UDP, the only Maoist group It is estimated that the UDP held gress of the trade unions and workers commissions and breaking with the presidential pact. Today, as both the SP and CP ignore the wishes of the workers and peasants by refusing to form a new government, the LCI has intensified this call.
When the masses voted for the SP and CP, they did so in order to defend the gains of the revolution -the gains that have been won through the action of the masses. It was only after the workers took to the streets against the Spinola coup of 11 March 1975 that the bulk of the nationalisations occurred; and the Government only conceded the wage demands of the building workers last November when they found themselves locked in the Constituent Assembly for two days The LCI demands that Soares and Cunhal carry out the wishes of the workers and peasants by immediately forming a government - based not on the bourgeois state and the presi dential pact, but on the mobilisations of the masses and a democratic congress of all trade unions and workers commissions including those led by the Socialist Party. Such a national congress could really work out a plan of action to defend the gains of the Portuguese revolution.
Ric Sissons
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PRP-BR LCI