Portugal: the Price of

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Porturuese workers celebrate the anniversary of the 1974 coun Mass mobilisation after the fall of Caetano "A dark prospect for the Portuguese people".

That judgement on last Sunday's right wing victory in the Portuguese general election came from the party which relatively made the biggest electoral gainsthe Communist Party led by Alvaro Cunhal.

The Democratic Alliance (AD), composed of three capitalist parties (the Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and Monarchists) got 45% of the votes.

With 129 seats it will now have a majority of eight over all other parties in this parliament, which will last only eight months until the next normally scheduled elections.

Reactionary

But despite this short time and the small majority the AD look set to redouble the existing attacks on the wages and conditions of workers and to undo more of the gains made by workers and pesants after the overthrow of the Caetano dictatorship in 1974.

The new Prime Minister, Social Democrat leader Francisco Sa Carneiro, is an accomplished political opportunist and experienced reactionary.

He was a "democratic" oppositionist in Caetano's fake parliament, and then became a minister in General Spinola's government in April 1974.

But he cleverly distanced himself from Spinola's right wing coup attempts, and went into opposition to build his political party which he rechristened the Social Democrats in 1976 in an effort to displace Mario Soares and the Socialist Party as the recognised Portuguese section of the so-called Socialist International.

Best equipped

When Callaghan • and Brandt made it clear that they thought Soares was best-equipped to betray the Portuguese working class, Sa Carneiro moved rapidly into the far right-wing alliance which he now heads.

Soares In the run-up to the election Carneiro has set out his policies clearly.

In the economic field they will be modelled on those of Thatcher in Britain -public spending cuts, redundancies (unemployment is already 13%), support for the capitalists and measures to cut real wages (which have already fallen by 10% in the last 3 years).

And, just as in Britain Thatcher's economic measures were foreshadowed by those of Callaghan and Healey, so in Portugal Sa Carneiro's policies are only an extension of the ones initated by Mario Soares minority Socialist Party government between 1976 and 1978.

his Party's 1055 of 8% in OI 0o in the popular vote (27% compared with 35% in 1976), in effect acknowledged the affinities of his policies with those of Sa Carneiro by publicly acknowledging that the election result gave the AD a "legitimate right" to govern.

DE But they aid not, he added, give the AD a legitimate right to change the constutition.

So Carneiro has said he will use his majority to change the "socialist" clauses in the Portuguese constitution which talk of the "transition to socialism" and the "building of a classless society"

It is now only through formally clinging to these formulae that Soares, who had so much to do with the 1976 constitution, can try to perpetuate his links with "socialism"

And, ironically, Soarez now blames the part of that Constitution which establishes the voting system (which he and his party any pressure on them (when together with the SP they controlled a parliamentary majority) to form a government without capitalist parties.

When •the combined votes of the CP and SP defeated the Mota Pinto government last summer, both parties studiously avoided any reference to the obvious conclusion that they should form a joint "Opposition"

Instead they meekly accepted another government (that of Pintassilgo) apppointed by military President Eanes.

So, though the Cl has gained a lot of votes from its "opposition" stance, its Stalinist leaders share responsibility with the