A special report from DAVE WIMHURST in Oporto On 27 June the Portuguese people will go to the pous again to vote for one of the four candidates contesting the presidency. These elections, like those for the legislative assembly in April, will be a test of strength between the bourgeoisie and the workers movement.
For the ruling class, it is essential that the future government is able to regulate and control the simmering social conflicts that are at present taking place on a whole series of issues - housing, unemployment, inflation, workers control, education, etc. From their point of view, the best result in the coming election would be a victory for General Ramalho Eanes, the bourgeoisie's favourite, in the first round - that is, with a vote of at least 51 per cent.
With such a result the Portuguese capitalists and their allies would be Better placed to launch an offensive against the working class, attacking workers control, the agrarian retorm nationalisations, trade union and pouncal reedom and the coonomic gains made by the workers, instead of having to rely on unemployment and inflation as an indirect means of dividing the workers. In order to prevent such an offensive, the main battle around the presidential elections at the moment is to prevent Eanes from winning in the first round and to assist the development or a united workers opposinon to this project.
PROGRAMME When the Internationalist Communist League (LCI), Portuguese sympathising organisation of the Fourth International, presented its candidate with the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), it cle so on me oasis or a programme that would be able to unite the workers movement against me bourgeoisie, tel generals and their offensive.
the main points or us programme were - and still are - for the drawing up of a workers plan of struggle, against inflation and unemployment, through a democratic congress of the trade unions: for the development of the agrarian reform and workers control, for the formation of a Communist Party/Socialist Party government and for the breaking of the pact that these parties signed with the parties of the ruLe Class With the failure of the revolutionary candidate of the LOl and the PRI (see last issue of Red Weekly for reasons), there remain two candidates presented by the left: Octavio Pato, from the CP, and Major Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, supported by various far left groups - the Popular Democratic Union (UDP), the Left Socialist Movement (MES), and the Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat (PRP). Neither of these candidates can provide the political independence and unity needed by the working class.
The main points in the programme of Octavio Pato are defence of the pact and the constitution, respect for the authority of the president, unity of the armed forces, support for the institutions of bourgeois democracy, and the subordination of the independence of the working masses to the politics of compromise and class collaboration.
Meanwhile the positions and campaign or Carvarno express une weaknes and fragility of the workers movement over the past two years. Presenting himself as a 'candidate of popular power, nothing in his programme helps to strengthen in practice the existing workers and neighbourhood commissions. Not a mention is made of the necessity to organise a democratic trade union congress, to strengthen workers control, to build independent soldiers On the contrary, Carvalho calls for *a disciplined and united armed forces and for unity of the people and the Armed Forces Movement'. Pato too calls tor an alance win the armed forces'. Clearly the LCI cannot support the programme of either candidate.
However, while neither candidate genuinely represents the independent interests of the Portuguese workers and peasants, it is nonetheless crucial to vote against Eanes, Azevedo and the bourgeoisie. And tere is one importan difference between Pato and Carvalho. The former has direct links with the workers movement, while the candidature of Carvalho can only reinforce the illusions of his supporters in sections of the military. One can make a comparison with the eftect on its supporters if the CP had stood Vasco Goncalves as is candidate The LCT is therefore calling for a workers vote against the bourgeoisie, for Octavio Pato, while denouncing his programme and putting forward its own demands in defence of the independent interests of the working class. Jubilant Palestinians celebrate capture of a Syrian tank on the outskirts of Beirut last week