MARXISTS SPEAK document PORTUGAL:
We are publishing below a joint declaration issued by three organizations: the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria-Euzkadi to
Askatasuna, VI (Revolutionary Communist League-Basque Nofion and Freedom, Sixth Congress), a Spanish sympathizing organization of the Fourth International; the Ligo Comunista
Internacionalista (Internationalist Communist League), Portuguese sympathizing organization of the Fourth International;
and the União Operaria Revolucionaria (Revolutionary Workers
Union), a Portuguese revolutionary-Marxist organization that is drawing near to the LCI.
The comrades of the LCI have been vigorously active in the
Portuguese events: they organized a contingent of several thousand people to march in the May Day demonstration in.
Lisbon. When the revolutionary left was denied a speaker at the main rally, the LCI militants, along with members of other organizations, led a contingent out of the Lisbon stadium and held a meeting of more than 10,000 participants, under the protection of soldiers and sailors.
On May 19, the LCI formed a united front with the Partido
Revolucionario de Proletariado (Revolutionary Proletorian partyl, Unidade Revolucionaria Marxista-Leninisto (Revolufionary Marxist-Leninist Unity), and the Comissoes de Base
Socialistas (Socialist Baso Commissions) and held a meeting in Lisbon of more than 2,500 people. The speaker was Ernest
Mandel, a leader of the Fourth International.
Mandel put the situation in Portugal in the context of the rise of the colonial revolution and the rise of workers struggles in Europe since 1968. He then sketched out the general lines of the revolutionary alterative to the policy of those who want to. "consolidate the democratic stage opened on
April 25. "
Our comrades of the LCI also organized a united meeting of the far left on Friday, May 24. More than 5,000 people participated. Further, when the government rejected the workers COMMUNIQUE The sinister Salazar-Coctano dictatorship has ceased to exist. Faced by a situation that promised soon to become intolerable, a section of the bourgeoisic acted through its army and overthrow the fascist regime that was incapable of controlling either the mass movement in Portugal or the struggles in the colonies. But the working closs and the working masses took advantage of this grave crisis of bourgeois leadership to take to the streets themselves and to destroy the fascist repressive apparatus (the secret police, the Legion, the foscist bands) by their own action. The mass demonstrations began on April 25, the very day of the coup, and continued through succeeding days -- thousands of people marching with banners, shouting militant slogans, 26 demands that the minimum wage be set at 6, 000 escudos a month (about U55192) -- the CP minister of labor announced that the minimum wage would be 3,300 escudes -- the L.CI took the initiative to press for a united demonstration of the revolutionary left. On May 25 more than 15,000 demonstrafors marched through the streets of Lisbon. The slogans "Capitalism no! Socialism yes!" and "Down with capitalist exploitation!" rang through the march. The thousands of marchers went to the government palace and then to the military haspital to demand the release of Peralta, a Cuban officer arrested by Portuguese troops in Guinea-Bissau. The demonstrators besieged the hospital for the entire night of May 25-26. The government banned on-the-spot radio and television coverage of the demonstration, and especially of the intervention by the police. This provoked a massive protest by radio and newspaper reporters, who objected to the attempt to reintroduce censorship. In face of the rise of workers struggles, the CP and the SP have been churning out shameful declarations claiming that striking workers are being manipulated by "provocateurs" or by "grouplets playing into the hands of the reactioneries." But important sections of the working class that for the first time in decades see the chance to win their demands are not prepared to accept such assertions. This opens up great possibilities for the revolutionaries, who by stimulating the broodest and most unified demonstrations around the workers demands are showing that there must be no illusions in the coalition government with the bourgeoisie or in the military junta. In this way our comrades of the LCI are insisting on the fact that the workers must rely on their own mobilization and on the creation of their own organs of struggle.
INPRECOR carrying red flags. In the course of these days thousands of voices were raised demanding "End the colonial war now!" "Immediate independence for the colonies!" "Not one more soldier for the colonies!" Concurrently, slogans were raised around social demands (minimum wage of ó, 000 escudos for all) and democratic demands (right to strike, freedom of expression and association). These demands were the ones most deeply felt by the factory workers, employees, and students. Vanguard militants (those of the Liga Comunista Internacionalista and the União Operaria Revolucionaria, as well as others) were followed by thousands of demonstrators when they carried banners affirming the independence of the working closs and its leading role in the revolutionary process that will end cap¡talist rule: "Down with capitalist exploitation!" "Power to the Workers!" "Workers, soldiers: Socialist revolution!" Throughout the country, hundreds and thousands of soldiers and sailors demonstrated, many with fists raised, carrying red banners, marching shoulder to shoulder with the workers. They
THE FALL OF THE DICTATORSHD
& THE REVOLUTONARY UDSURGE
Declaration of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International also took up the slogans, especially those calling for the unity of all the workers, whether in uniform or not, like: "Workers and soldiers, it's the same struggle!" The "Junta of National Health" headed by General Spfnola began to become concerned about these gigantic militant demonstrations and about the beginning of the organization of the workers, inside and outside the army: the antifascist actions in the factories and in the media, the influx of members into the unions, the meetings of soldiers and sailors in the barracks and on the ships, the emergence and development of political parties, and so on. This combativity and this beginning of organization showed the junta that the Portuguese workers will not let themselves be fooled so easily, that they will respond through struggle to the deterioration of their living and working conditions, that millions of Portuguese demand an immediate and to the colonial war, that ever broader sections of soldiers and sailors (workers and employees ig uniform) are not prepared to board ships for the colonies and fight ogainst their African worker comrades. The LCI and the UOR are jointly confronting their tosks of getting into the working class and mobilizing the students. They are forming anticolonialist committees to support the struggle against Portuguese imperialism; they are developing antimilitarist activity in the army and omong the student and worker youth, with the active support of the Fourth Internafional and in particular of the LCR-ETA, VI of Spain. • DOWN WITH PORTUGUESE COLONIALISM! • IMMEDIATE IINDEPENDENCE FOR THE COLONIES! * END THE COLONIAL WAR NOW! * LONG LIVE THE ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST PORTUGUESE IMPERIALISMI * LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY UNITY OF THE WORKERS AND EMPLOYEES OF PORTUGAL AND THE COLONIES! * FOR THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION IN PORTUGAL AND THE COLONIES! After the murder of the anarchist militant Salvador Puig Anrich, the Francoist dictatorship carried out preventive arrests of more than 400 militants of the workers and revolutionary organizations, among them several members of the LCRETA, VL. At the same time, the press has announced that death sentences have been asked against five more people, document The Salazarist dictatorship in Portugal has collapsed under the deadly blows of the African national liberation fighters. The background to the military coup that overthrew the decrepit and moth-eaten fascist regime of Caetano and comone anarchist and four Maoists. To defend all militants of all workers organizations against repression no matter what their political affiliation is on urgent task for all workers and revolutionaries. * SOLIDARITY WITH THE SPANISH WORKERS AND REVOLUTIONARIES AGAINST REPRESSION! * FREE ALL THE POLITICAL PRISONERS! * DOWN WITH THE FRANCOIST DICTATORSHIP! Salazar made an alliance with this bloody dictatorship. It was called the Iberian Pact, The Junta of National Health, as General Spfnola told the Spanish press, is disinclined to break this pact, or even to "transform" it. The Portuguese workers who overthrew fascism must demand the breaking of the Iberian Pact and all other alliances with Franco's murderous dictatorship. * NO PACT, NO ALLIANCE WITH THE FRANCOIST DICTATORSHIP! * PORTUGAL MUST BE A BASE OF SUPPORT FOR SPANISH REVOLUTIONARIES! LCI demonstration against departure of troops to Africa. PARES GOLONE I АКЛ pany was the crisis within the bourgeoisie created by the development of a sector of finance capital that favors a neocolonialist solution in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Angola, a move toward the European Common Market, and a modemization of the country's economic and social struc-
27
tures. This sector is represented, for example, by the Portuguese banker António Champalinaud and by the Companhia Vinco Fabrol trust. Unlike the Spanish bourgeoisie, which fears even the slightest liberalization becouse of the degree of mobilization, organization, and combativity of the working class, important sections of the Portuguese big bourgeoisie considered if possible to open a bourgeois-democratic interlude "in order and discipline" without running the risk of revolution in the short term because of the (relative) political and organizational backwardness of the working class in Portugal. For the moment, there is no doubt that the April 25 military coup has opened the way for a rapid and surprising mass upsurge that is threatening to transcend the limits set down by Spinola and the bourgeoisie. The lifting of the lead weight of fascism has released enormous quantities of energy that had been held back by half a century of dictatorship. The bourgeoisie was caught unawares. In the absence of any alternative political apparatus, it was obliged temporarily to cede the foreground of the political scene to the Communist and Socialist parties. Its reasoning is nearly the same as that of the Italian and French bourgeoisies after the fall of fascism in 1944. The intent is to neutralize and contain the moss movement by integrating the CP into coalition governments with the "democratic" bourgeoisie. What role are the reformists playing in this situation? The Social Democrats, led by Mario Soares, are unconditionally supporting the govemment of "national union, " which extends from the CP to the bourgeois liberals. The Portuguese CP, which because of its prestige in the antifascist resistance has hegemony within the working class, is also prepared to sacrifice everything on the altar of national unity and is avoiding any action that contradicts the junta's orientation. In its May 5 demonstration, for example, the CP did not say one word about independence for the colonies. Instead, it denounced "adventurism, "going so far as to oppose the "illegal" overthrow of the fascist municipal governments that are still functioning (which is beginning to happen nearly everywhere in spite of the CP). Both the SP and the CP are basing their whole policy on unity between the "people" (including the bourgeoisie) and the "armed forces" (as a One of the most important aspects of the Portuguese explosion has been the politicization and radicalization within the army. Several tendencies can be discerned within the officer corps: 1. The top hierarchy, fascist in the past, which is trying to quickly establish "order and discipline" while at the same time purging its most compromised clements. (A few days ago, dozens of generals and admirals were kicked out.) As the leading force in the Junta of National Health, the top hierarchy is issuing many warnings, appeals for order, -and veiled threats, while at the same time it is giving ground in Face of pressure from the young officers and the mass upsurge. 2. The career captains, advance guard of the April 25 movement, petty-bourgeois democrats who could move sharply to the right when confronted by a red danger." 3. The "militia" captains (nonprofessionals), the numerical majority in the army, strongly influenced by the SP and the
CP and even by far-left currents.
As for the soldiers and sailors, they were seen in the streets on May 1 marching arm in arm with the workers and students,
26 with red banners bearing the hammer and sickle flying from their trucks. The radicalization was especially intense in the navy, where in 1936 there had been a red rebellion in favor of the Spanish republic. Attempts at self-organization are beginning in the barracks and on the ships. The most pressing task and the most difficult one for the provisional government is ending the colonial war. The revolt agoinst the continuation of the war is proctically unanimous among both the civilian population and the soldiers and sailors. That was the immediate cause of the fall of the Coetane regime. Now, soldiers are refusing to board ships heoded for the colonies. Antiwar discontent is appearing among many young officers as well. Militants opposed to the war are no longer deserting but are instead organizing opposition in the barracks; and they are getting a good response. The time has come for a revolutionary effort aimed at accelerating the disintegration of the bourgeois military apparatus. The continuation of the colonial war can create the conditions for a massive penetration of the army by revolutionaries calling for the formation of soldiers and sailors councils opposed to the war. The bourgeoisie and the provisional govemment are fully conscious of the situation. What they fear above all is the total decomposition of the army, which would deprive them of their only political weapon of any effectiveness under the present circumstances. But they also know that granting immediate formal independence to the colonies could precipitate a revolt against this "policy of abandonment" by a section of the professional overseas army, supported by the colors of Mozambique and the racist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia, and even by Franco. Furthermore, It is not at all certain that all the nationalist forces in the colonies would accept the neocolonialist solution that the sectors of the bourgeoisie backing Spinola are trying to bring about. That is why the provisional government is above all trying to gain time by proposing to the liberation forces fighting in the colonies a cease-fire followed by long negotiations. The bourgeoisie's aim is to obtain a broad consensus in favor of the neocolonial solution among the army and the Portuguese colons, as well as among the African fighters. The other major difficulty confronting the provisional government is the aggravation of the economic situation, which is characterized by greater and greater inflation and by the reFusal of the toiling messes to tolerate the conditions of superTrade-union meeting in Lisbon. Releasing the energies held back by decodes of fascist rule.
exploitation that existed under fascism, the only conditions under which accumulation of capital could have been carried out in Portugal during the past decade. The powerful explosion of strikes in spite of the frantic efforts of the CP to divert the masses toward class collaboration aimed at "national reconstruction" places on the agenda the tasks of winning the vitally needed minimum wage of 6,000 escudos a month, the forty-hour workweek, four-week vacations at full pay, and the establishment of the principle of equal pay for equal work for women and young workers. The unity of the workers front and the establishment of a trade-union movement atrongly rooted in the factories and enjoy ing a solid foundation of workers democracy will be forged through direct action for these unifying objectives. The Portuguese revolutionary Marxists of the Liga Comunista Interacionalisto (Internationalist Communist League), who have already played a role in raising and popularizing these demands will Fight resolutely to win them by means of larger and larger class actions culminating in generalized strikes and, if necessary, a general strike. Clearly, the tasks of the hour are not limited to defending the immediate material interests of the toiling masses, however important that may be. For revolutionary Marxists, it is a matter af counterposing a total political orientation to the refonist projects of class collaboration and partial and timid reforms ond to the shilly-shallying and vacillations of the CP and SP leaderships. Against the provisional government's stalling maneuvers on the colonial question, revolutionary Marxists will fight to support the armed struggle of the liberation movements and for immediate, total, and unconditional independence for the colonies. Not one ship must sail for Africa! Not one soldier, not one penny, not one drop of blood for continuing the dirty colonial war! Immediate withdrawal of Portuguese troops from Africa! Against attempts to postpone general elections and to keep power in the hands of the military junta, for which the provisional govemment is only a facode, the revolutionary Marxists will mobilize the mosses especially around these slogons: * Immediate liquidation of all fascist institutions and their replacement by democratically elected bodies. * Punishment of all the executioners and fascist agents of the PIDE (secret police) and the other repressive bodies by popular courts elected by and responsible to the masses. * Extrodition of Coetario and Admiral Tomas so they may be tried by the Portuguese toiling masses for the crimes they have committed against the people. * Immediate repeal of the penal code and of all repressive legislation posed during the reign of the Salazar and Caetano regimes. * Immediate and unconditional amnesty for all deserters, without their incorporation into the armed forces. * Immediate and definitive repeal of all censorship of the press, radio, and television; unlimited right to strike for all wage-earners with no legal restriction or arbitration; complete freedom of association, freedom to demonstrate, and freedom of the press. * Immediate election -- by universal suffrage of all men and women over eighteen living in Portugal -- of a sovereign Constituent Assembly and the right of all organizations without restriction to participate in those elections. Revolutionary Marxists call on the CP and SP ministers to leave the government of "national union" and to struggle to replace the junta with what comes out of this Constituent Assembly -* Creation of trade unions of all wage-earners based on rank-and-file democratic assemblies in the factories and offices, and the federation of those unions in order to assure broad possibility of control and final decision-making by the rank-and-file organizations. * Election of workers-control committees in the factories, workshops, banks, insurance companies, large-scale commercial institutions, and the transport system. * Election of committees of soldiers and sailors who must immediately enjoy all democratic political rights. * Application of a radical program of agrarian reform in order to cement the worker-peasant alliance. In the contemporary epoch, there is no place whatever for a process of "democratic revolution" or for a "democratic stage" of the revolutionary process in Portugal. The urgent resolufion of democratic tasks that are posed by the incomplete character of the old bourgeois revolution in the country and by the necessity of liquidating the remnants of Fascism must be combined from the very beginning of the revolutionary process with the exacerbation of the class struggle and the pressing necessity of organizing the industrial and agricultural proletariat completely independently from the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois state in order to make it possible for the proletariat to fight to the and in defense of its immediate and historic interests. Spinola (wearing monocle) casts wary eye on developing organization of workers in Portugal. What can unfold in Portugal is not a utopian "democratic revolution" but a process of permanent revolution; that is, a process that begins from the struggle for the immediate aspirations of the masses (as described above) and leads to a generalized test of strength, at the conclusion of which the proletariat, organized in its democratically elected councils and armed against the bourgeoisie's increasingly intense attempts at repression, destrays the bourgeois state apparatus and takes power. The outcome of this process will be determined by the growing intervention of the revolutionary vanguard, the modification of the relationship of forces between that vanguard and the reformist leadership that today still commands the allegiance of the majority of the workers, and the establishment of a powerful revolutionary party as the section of the Fourth International. If this revolutionary process is not followed through to its
THE JID EXPERIENCE ultimate conclusion, the danger of a right-wing counteroffensive will become increasingly real. Basing itself on the career officers in the army, who are already becoming ever more frightened by the mass upsurge, such a counteroffensive could take an especially violent and bloody form, since the bourgeoisie is concerned about preserving its power and privilege. The revolutionary Marxists, stressing the still-fresh lessons of Chile, must solemnly warn the toiling masses against any illusion that "tolerance" or "good will" can be purchased from capitalist reaction at the price of pursuing a conciliatory course and of pushing aside the socialist objectives of their struggles. The danger of a forcible return to fascism will not be eliminated until all political and economic power has been seized from the hands of big capital. The precipitous rise of the moss struggle in Portugal is being accompanied by a clearer and clearer polarization of class forces in several countries of capitalist Europe, notably France, Italy, and Great Britain. It is also being accompanied by a growing instability of the senile Froncoist regime, whose fall it can accelerate. The Portuguese upsurge