PSD [Social Party ATTACKS June and been allowed to return.
eventually want to see the occupied land. On 11 December the Portuguese people went to the polis for the third time this year, this time in local elections. The predicted fall in the Socialist Party vote from the Constituent Assembly elections in April will allow President Eanes and the ruling class to press even harder for a coalition government between the SP and the bourgeois Democratic TarL, formerly the Popular Democratic PPD], perhaps with the participation of the military or the CDS (Social and Democratic CenOuIC!
mTterSmaiCal!
Since the election of Eanes in the formation of a minority SP Government, continual attacks have been made on the gains of the working class and peasantry. The role of the workers commissions has been limited, at- for "division'. tempts have been made to limit the right to strike, and old bosses have But this challenge is still insufficient for the ruling class, who -Lie uc nationalisation of much of indust- of minorities. ry, and the total evacuation of all Such an assaut cannor be car ried out by the SP if it wants to keep any of its working class base, nor does the present relationship ot class torces permit . workers movement still retains its organisational strength. Hence the pressure for the involvement of the parties of the ruling class, the PSD and CDS, support.
In the last month the centre of class struggle has again moved to the south. Following the appointment of a new minister of agriculture, Antonio Barreto, new moves were taken against the agricultura Under agrarian laws passca Dy the Fifth Provisional Government led by Goncalves, former owners were given the right to return to part of their land which was when many OrtneSe Previously In two cooperatives the workers refused to return the land, while in two others pickets surrounded the land. The National Republican Guard were sent in and the Government suspended all credits to the cooperatives for ten days.
The SP's efforts to consolidate a base witnin the trade umon move ment have also suffered a setback during the autumn. imaculatch ment. after the April elections an 'open letter' was launched signed by 29 unions calling for a congress of all unions to be planned by a parity commission of Intersindical and unions 190 oi the Portuguese unions are afiliated to These proposals were rejected by the CP-dominated leadership of Intersindical, as well as by Maoist UDP (Popular Democratic Union) and the centrist MES (Left Socialist Movement), on grounds that they opened the way LCI (Internationalist Communist League), Portuguese sympathising section of the Fourth International, was alone in arguing for democratic trade union unity with the right of tendency to safeguard the interests CONGRESSES The campaign for the open letter reached its high point in Coimbra when 51 on 13-14 september. union met to support it. But in the wake of the attacks by the Soares Government on -Tace - UnIOL rights, the open letter rapidly lost Twenty-one unions had resigned by the end of November leaving only unions such as the Lisbon teachers and the Oporto and Lisbon bank and office workers. The Intersindical conference planned for January will be attended by all the unions of the most important sections of the workers movement.
During November the SP and the CP held their national congresses. The first to meet was that of the Socialist Party.
A few weeks later the Commu nist Party held its eighth congress. The objective of the hierarchy was made clear - to appear as un most ardent defender of the constitution and to get into the Govadvance towards socialist society, and that of course means respecting the powers of the President and the military. This 'non capitalist road', which Cunhal took 2½ hours to explain, can only be guaranteed by the 'convergence government action and the active participation of the workers - that is, the CP in the GovernCALL However, Cunhal offers no rea alternative to the Soares Government. He too supports austerity measures and an increase in production with reductions in conSUMOLION Soares' aim was to marginalise the criticisms of the Government from its trade union and working class base, and by so doing to unite the party benina ue soares dov ernment.
The price he paid for this was considerable; if not in the short term, then undoubtedly in the long term. The president of the teachers' union was suspended: Lope Cardoso, then minister of agricul ture resienea trom une Jovcr! ment; an alternative slate for the National Committee won 25 pe cent of the votes: an emergenc! congress is going to be held il January to change the party stat utes; while shortly after the congress five leaders of the left were suspended for backing a meeting against terrorism of the right.
While the two reformist parties have been jockeying for favours with the military, the LCl and another Trotskyist organisation, the PRT (Revolutionarv Worker Party), were putting forward a joint slate in the elections under the slogan of For a workers maioritv in the elections. In thei election material the LCI and the PRT explained their call for a government of the SP and CP:
It is necessary that the mass workers parties, that the leadership of the SP and the CP, abandon their politics of making conces sions to the bourgeoisie and to Eanes and form a government of the two parties, responsible for the application of a plan of struggle decided by the workers, and par