Wage Cut in Portugal

Scan page 2

•IÝ•7 poloctinian Solidarity ramnaign merting in The Communist Partydominated trade union federation, CGTP-Intersindical, last week hailed 'victory' when the coalition government of Mario Soares announced a 26% increase in the minimum wage and a 22% increase in pensions. This is just what the CGTP had been demanding insistently since its February congress.

The following day it became clear what an utterly hollow victory had been won.

Soares followed up this nove by raising the price of basic subsidised foods by an average of 22%: he raised :ariffs on public services i electricity, gas, transport) by between 25% and 50%; he raised taxes by 15%; he put up the interest rate from 13% := 205c.

These are the measures agreed with the International Monetary Fund as conditions :: a new loan.

They are a monstrous anack on working class living standards very much greater even than Soares' previous set =: austerity measures in February 1977.

Unemployment

They will, along with the iatrol of wage increases to .. lead to a huge fall in * 23: wages.

And the! are expected to ..::35 unemployment =EICR3 115 present level of demands made by the Stalinist leaders of the CGTP which can be simply played with in this cynical way by Soares, and the demands on wages and jobs of the Transitional Programme-such as the sliding scale of wages and work sharing on full pay.

Fraudulent

The Stalinists will not make these demands because they know that capitalism in Portugal cannot grant them.

The Stalinist union leaders prefer to maintain their position by winning fraudulent 'victories' which can be wiped out, as in this case, in a matter of hours.

The Communist Party has also shown in another respect this week its contempt for the independence of the working class by uncritically declaring its support for the 'left' commander of the Lisbon military region, General Vasco Lourenco, who was dismissed by President Eanes at the same time as the right wing army chief of staff General Rosca Vieira.

These dismissals follow a spate of rumours, fostered by Sa Carneiro the former leader of the Social Democratic Party, that Eanes plans to abolish constitutional government and stage a coup in order to bring to power a 'Peru-style' military dictatorship.

Although these PAIGN doubt the ravings of a defeated reactionary, there can be no doubt that the army crisis, which follows the reinstatement of both right wing and left' officers removed over the last four years, reflects the weakness of bourgeois democracy in Portugal and the readiness of certain sections of the army to seize power again in the event of any major working class upsurge.

Though that threat is real enough, the Stalinists who dominate the organised labour movement abuse it to justify their abject refusal to mobilise any serious opposition to the increasingly anti-working class policies of the reactionary Soares coalition.

PHOTO: Mark Rusher, IFL