Widespread outrage has greeted the news of the murder by torture of Venezuelan Trotskyist leader Jorge Rodriguez. General Secretary of the Liga Socialista, sympathising organisation of the Fourth International in Venezuela, Rodriguez had been arrested by police on a frame-up charge of taking part in a recent kidnapping.
ine rica socialista nas accused Ine interior Minister octavio Lepage, of direct responsibility for the death of Rodriguez in an attempt to halt the increasing influence of the Trotskyists in the Venezuelan workers movement. There have been protests in Parliament and a massive funeral demonstration - which was fired on ov memoers or the armed forces This incident has emphasised again now the democratic tacade in vene zuela relies on an essential under pinning of repression.President Perez is due to visit Britain in November to discuss a strengthening of trade links. His murderous record is hardly likely to worry the right-wing Labour Government, which has recently played host to government leaders from Brazil and Argentina. But those on the left may well have other ideas. general strike. But this qualitative leap forward, which in fact meant overcoming the trade union bureaucracy, could not be crystallised in a clear alternative leadership took advantage of the situation to workers' struggles. This explains the confusion, a certain feeling of relief, and the demobilisation in the workers ranks immediately following the coup.
lated resistance against the first economic and repressive measures of the military regime. When the trade union delegates who had led them in the struggles of the previous eight months were sacked or the workers and almost achieved a It was then that the armed forces do away with a Goverment which had been almost demolished by the Nevertheless, there was some iso10 Portugal/Spain
Try as they might, the theme pursued by the Portuguese ruling class over the past tew weeks-eupnora tor une turst "democratically' elected President and Government for the past fifty years-has falled to fire the imagination of the Portuguese people. And no wonder! With two exceptions, the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Labour, almost the entire Government is made up of right-wing members of the Socialist Party. In addition, and somehow forcotten in all the talk about democracy, three members of the Government are 'independents' (in other words, unelected) and another three are members of the armed forces.
Two in particular command extremely important posts. Lieutenant The return of ex-General Spinola to Portugal, with permission to move freely inside the country-at the same time as members of his former Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Portugal have been charged along with the police chief of Oporto with responsibility for a series of right-wing bomb attacks-shows the character of the new administration. Below DAVE WIMHURST reports from Portugal on the plans of the Soares Government and the problems posed for the workers movement.
La series of strikes if it is not consulted on al trade union cuestions These warnings reflect both the desire of the workers to continue the struggle against inflation, unemployment and low wages, and the desire of the Intersindical and Communist Party bureaucracies to have a voice in the new Government. When the InterLine views or all tne rortuguese trade unions, it does so not because it wants to lead an offensive against the bastions of capitalism but because it wants to do a deal over how many workers should be made unemploved. Their paper, Poder Popular, commented last November: "It is still the case that the Socialist Party wants to introduce the right of tendencies into Red Weekly 19 August 1976 Some 10,000 demonstrators marched in Lisbon last Friday to denounce the return of Spinola precisely the bureaucratic control of the trade unions as practised by the CP that weakens them. in hand with the formation of the trade union in the factory."
As a contribution to this process, the comrades of the LCI will be fight-