The events of 25-26 November last year gave the Portuguese ruling class the room for manoeuvre against the working class it so desperately needed. And the international capitalists have not been slow to respond in lifting their previous boycott, now that the Sixth Provisional Government, dominated by the Socialist Party, has given back Republica, Radio Renascenca and the Manuel Goncalves textile factory to their previous owners; renegotiated the agrarian reform laws; disbanded leftist army units and imprisoned others; and imposed austerity measures.
Recent loans have included: Food and Agricult ural Organisation (United Nations), £1.75m; International Monetary Fund, £42.75m; European Economic Community, £60m; European Free Trade Association, £50m; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, £74m; European Investment Bank, £180m; National Bank of Switzerland, £25m; Bundesbank of West Germany, £138.5m. These total £572 million, and the motivation can be judged from the recent comments of the German Foreign Minister that, the rest of Europe had been pleased and impressed at the Portuguese people's rejection of a return to dictatorship' (Financial Times, 5 February).
MORE ON WAY More big loans are in the pipeline. France is considering such a move, and further tentative abreoments nave already been reacned witn European Economic Community, £100m; Bank for Intemational Settlement, £125m; United States of America, £100m; International Monetary Fund, £1Sm. These four loans offer a further £440 million.
The ruling class, of course, is still not totally satisfied. The strength and combativity of the working class must be broken in order to impose the sort or austenty measures tor which tne IMr Is calling. It is not surprising that they see the April elections as crucial to establish a government with the "authority" to confront the workers and peasants. The Timex bosses in Portugal recognised this when they recently telexed America with the message to await the election results before deciding whether TO DULL OUL OTTOL The depth of foreign investment in Portugal makes international working class solidarity not just an academic question. For the Portuguese workers it can make the difference between winning or losing struggles. At the present time Timex workers are locked out, while the bosses managed to get some parts out to Dundee. London W.C.2.
TIMEX The working class may not be able to match the financial support that the ruling class is giving their counterparts. But international sondarity in campaigning against the sabotage of the Portuguese revolution can tar outweign tnat. Ine 1s March conference called by the Solidarity Campaign with the Portuguese Working Class can be an important step in this direction. Credentials and further details from: SCPWC, 12 Little Newport Street,
East Timor. condemning the invasion of East Timor. struggle. be Acaulines screaming about a supposed "Red inrasion" of Angola have contrasted strangel with the press's silence over the very real invasion by serialist-backed Indonesian troops of another former Portuguese colony, The all-our Indonesian assault on 7 December came only hours after US President Ford and his strategist Kissinger had apparently approved the plan during a visit to the country's capital, Jakarta. But the US is not the only backer of the military regime, which took power after slaughtering nearly a million communists in 1965, and still holds an estimated 100,000 political prisoners. The Labour Government provides more aid to Indonesia than to any other non-Commonwealth country except Pakistan; and Britain's representative at the United Nations abstained on a resolution Despite this powerful line-up of forces, however - and the brutal massacres carried out by the Indonesian troops - the invasion is meeting with fierce resistance from the guerrillas of Fretilin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor). Last week the Foreign Minister of the Fretilin-established Democratic Republic of East Timor, JOSE RAMOS HORTA, was in London to urge a change in Labour policy on this question. Martin Meteyard talked to him about the development of the Red Weekly 19 February 19/0 * FRETLIN London (North) Jon Taylor Manchester IMG Brighton IMG Watford IMG Oxford IMG Bath reade Anonymous Ma vecia eraction Hackney IMG Paris sympathiser tional Rally in London. Contributors last week included:
4.50 2.00 25.00 10.00 21.75 100.00 1.00 10.00 OURUL ZU.UU South Wales steelworker 30.00 Carolit IVIC 5.00 P. Purton 10.00 Anonymous Anonymous 500.U0 Southall IMG James Black 100.00 Anonymous 6.00 CPSA member, Manchester 5.00
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£15,000 FUND DRIVE A magnificent response has followed our decision to extend the deadline for the £15,000 Fund Drive to 5 March, the date of our Fourth Interna-