Rtuga E Down with Military

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With two opposed class forces v contral the dastiny of Portugal, t ing cliss leadership places the rev developments, in great danger.

On the one hand is the crumbling, faction-ridden Armed Forces Movement with their Sixth Provisional Government of the bourgeois PPD and the traitorous Socialist Party leaders (Soares nov threatening to fight on the streets with arms against revolution) trying to shore up the vestiges of Portuguese capitalism with the backing of the discredited right wing movements, the reactionary armies over the border and the dregs of the old fascist regime.

Standing against these reaction ary groupings is the organised working class, the agricultural labourers, and the rank and file soldiers who are showing their strength, expressing their independence, and reaching for state power - which alone can guarantee the future of the revolution.

The crumbling authority of the Sixth government was finally shattered two weeks ago when thousands of building workers, ying with increasing ferocity to he crisis of revolutionary workolution, des wearing safety helmets, surged around the house of Premier Azevedo forcing him to concede to the trade unions massive 44% wage demand.

After refusing for more than 24 hours to enter into an agreement under duress, Azevedo backed down just before dawn, when faced with the impossibilit of mobilising any soldiers in his defence.

TRANSMITTER

Previously a group of parachutists had tried to settle the struggl for power by blowing up the transmitter of Radio Renascenca in order to prevent it remaining under the control of the left wing. Having performed this task, they voted never to do such a thing again.

By now virtually no section of the military could be relied upon to support the government of carry out its orders. As theunstable centrist Otelo de Carvahlo put it to a (Le Monde) reporter, "There is not, at the - moment, in the entire Portugues army, a single omeer who brabie to give an order and be sure that it will be carried out". Even the superior officers themselves have revolted over the efforts to replace Carvahlo as commander of the Lisbon military region.

WEAKNESS

The continuing weakness of the forces supporting the Sixth government was shown on the demonstration on November 9th in Lisbon sponsored by the right wing PPD and the Socialist Party in defence of the government.

About 40,000 turned out to g greet premier Azevedo, but they broke up in confusion when gas grenades were thrown into the crowd. Since that time the Socialist Party has been compelled to show its distance from the bourgeois PPD, though a long televised debate between SP leader Soares and Stalinist leader Cunhal did not discuss the obvious question of unity between the two workers parties. Building workers besieging Azevedo's Within the next few days officers in the Oporto military region had to announce their agreement to the demands of rank and file soldiers. The pace of farm occupations in the centri and southern areas of the coutry is said to have been stepped up.

Then on the 16th of November there took place in Lisbon the largest dementation the city had seen since the famous mobilisation of 1st May 1974 shortly after the overthrow of fascism.

This demonstration was said by (Le Monde) reporter to have been over 100,000 strong. It was called by numerous workers' comi ittees, the Communist Party and many centrist and left organisations. It included rows of building workers, shipbuilders, dockers, peasants, fishermen, and every section of the armed forces. It even included the parachutists, once considered irredeemably righ wing.

AZEVEDO

The political slogans of this demonstration were distinctly left of those which preceded the settingup of the Sixth Government.

During the following days, the right-wing were in diaarray. The PPD wanted to move the Constituent Assembly to the north on the grounds that mob rule had taken over in Lisbon. The government decided that they too would go on strike. Demanding that its authority should be recognised. An enormous dispute broke out about the leadership of the arme forces, concentrating in particul on the position of Otelo de Carvalho.

MANOEUVRE

In a situation where the working class is moving rapidly the left, it is inevitable that the Social Democrats and the Stalinists will manoeuvre. The moves of Soares to dissociate himself from his bourgeois allies of the PPD are an obvious example of this. So also is the participation of the Stalinist: in all the recent strikes and demon strations, actions which they certainly would have condemned before the summer. Another one of these actions is the one-day General Strike called in Lisbon by the CP-dominated trade union con federation, attempting to pressurisi the revolutionary council of the AFM into accepting a CP majority.

This reflects not in any way a break from support for the AFM but a political manoeuvre to secure Stalinist political influence.

The question now for the Portuguese working class is the need to break from these treacherous and counter-revolutionary leaderships. The SP has been cooperating with continued on back page

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Azevedo was a "clown" ', a "reac- tionary, who should "get out"