Dares backs a Genera

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"Vote Communist - for a Christian Democratic government" . That was in effect the message of Italian CP general secretary Berlinguer's opening statement of the campaign for the parliamentary elections on June 20th.

If it emerges as the largest party (as the opinion polls predict), the CP will insist, Berlinguer said, On forming a coalition with the Christian Democrats.

That, to the CP leaders, is the only road to their objectives healthy economy, a democratic and efficient state and an orderly and workable one"

CONTEMPT

This complete and abject contempt for the interests of the working class is characteristic of the whole of the Stalinists' electoral campaign.

It has outlawed all further action in support of the long delayed new wage contracts. It is campaigning for less nationalisation and the implementation of the Chiarelli report which advocates the rationalisation of the huge public sectot along more capitalist lines. major Catholic paper.

After the Pope had darkly quoted St. Matthew against these candidates ('The enemies of man will be from our own midst') the Stalinists issued a statement:

"The proposal of the Communist Party implies no ideological arliesion to Marxism, nor approval of all ce. programmes and methods To the Italian CP 'those who are not with us are with us' The Christian Democrats are also trying to recruit new candidates and to retire those whose reputation has been most stained by the Lockheed, Shell and BP bribery scandals.

Umberto Agnell, Fiat Vice-President, 1s likely to be one of their candidates.

DIRECT PART

Enrico Berlinguer, General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party talking to his French counterpart, Georges Marchais.

panic prospects of a CP victory BREAK The CP must break from the Christian Democrats and fight the General Election on a socialist programme. Only through fighting for this demand will a Trotskyist jarty be able to struggle for the independence of the working class and the exposure of the CP leadership's alliance with capitalism. noW the will It is announced that Soares, Socialist Party leader, be throwing his support behind General Antonio do Santos Ramalho Eanes, commander in chief of the armed forces, as presidential candidate in the June 27th election in Portugal.

Soares, in confirming Socialist Party backing for the general explained that it was because "he [Eanes] could ensure the cohesion and unity of the armed forces"

Soares' support for Eanes has reportedly been reciprocated: Eanes will throw his weight behind Soares' plan for a Socialist Party minority government in Portugal.

The Stalinists meanwhile restrict themselves to the position that a Socialist Party minority government woul not antomatically gain the approval and support of the Soares Communist Party. The CP continues its policy of giving no independent lead to the working class and seeking at all times to tie workers to the various fluctuations within the bonapartist Armed Forces Movement.

LYNCH-PIN

The prospect of a Socialist Party minority government supporting a president who in Soares' own words is "above party" leveals very clearly the role of the Socialist Party leadership in the present period; it acts as a lynch pin in the attempt by the bourgeoisie to reconsolidate the state apparatus in preparation for a decisive confrontation with the Portuguese workers.

Soares fulfills this role in two ways. Firstly supporting the steps to secure the cohesion and unity of