Militant: Revolution in Portugal

[Militant, issue 207, 3 May 1974, some lines are missing]

By our correspondent

All the forces of world reaction are watching with horror the revolutionary storm which is sweeping Portugal. They understand from their class point of view that the events there threaten the regime in Spain, and the stability of Europa, Africa and Latin America. The removal of the old, hated regime of Caetano and Tomaz by a military coup provoked an upsurge on the streets of the main towns. Demonstrations of hundreds of thousands surged through Lisbon over the weekend with hastily made banners proclaiming “Power to the Workers!”, “End Colonialist Wars”, “End Capitalist Exploitation”, “Bread, Peace and Freedom”, and also “Bread, Peace and Socialism”.

For nearly fifty years the workers had laboured under the heavy boot of a savage dictatorship which fell last week giving way to an explosion of pent-up hatred against its especially vicious secret police. These “animals officered by intellectuals” as described by one who had spent some months under their “care”, were hunted in the streets by angry workers. At one point workers seized the Headquarters of the old fascist controlled trade unions, and were reported to be discussing the question of taking over the factories. Communist youth took over the offices of the former fascist youth movement and only relinquished it after impassioned appeals from their leaders.

Within hours of the news of the coup the revolutionary mood developed. Hundreds of thousands came onto the streets to celebrate. The prevailing mood was of jubilation […] well as the workers.

The fraternisation between the army and the population is of enormous significance for the future. And even more so is the active participation of the sailors in uniform on the streets of Lisbon. It is this which has already given cause for concern to the new junta and Big Business in Portugal – that the revolutionary monster which they have allowed to escape cannot so easily contained.

The coup which has pushed the new junta headed by General Spinola into power has opened a Pandora’s box of trouble for the […] across the border. In South Africa, especially in Mozambique, and in Brazil, the regimes are horrified at the implications of the movement. Behind the coup in the increasing crisis of Portuguese capitalism, caught between the detoriating situation of its armies in Africa, the rising militancy of the workers at home, and the impasse facing industrial development on a capitalist basis.

With the economy drained by an unwinnable colonial war in Africa to the extent of nearly half the national budget – more than 8% of national production – spent on […] way out. Despite the development of industry over the last decade Portugal remains the most backward nation in Western Europe with the lowest income per head of population (₤400 pa).

For capitalism to develop and create market outlets with the rest of Europe, an end to the colonial wars was necessary.

The coup was organised by the captains and lower officer ranks. They reflected the confused feelings of the mass of the population for change – many of these officers have been looking to the left as a way out of the terrible conditions and […] the earth below their feet trembling, wanted to make changes, particular in colonial policy, but not to fundamental change anything in Portugal. But from the very beginning they were playing with fire. The moves made over the last week have uncorked the bottle and a movement totally outside their control has begun.

Big Business supported the coup but at the same time feared the consequences. It took place without the participation of Spinola, who was presented by the younger officers with a “fait accompli” including a programme which he regarded as too radical.

In recent weeks over 20,000 workers have been on strike. Inflation this year is likely to be 25% to 30%. In his book “Portugal and the future” Spinola recognised the powder keg: “We are no longer in a position to withstand new pressures on the standard of living of the Portuguese people”. Sections of the ruling class were especially concerned lest the workers simmering revolt linked up with the discontent in the conscript army. But far from the coup heading off the aspirations of the workers, it has opened the floodgates. The revolution has begun.

The enormous pressure from below found its reflections in splits at the top. Just as in 1931 in Spain, a movement of revolt among the lower ranks of the officers in the army led to the downfall of the old regime and opened the road to a movement on the part of the working class. The parallels are almost uncanny. The removal of King Alfonso in Spain was taken as the sign for action by the workers.

It was followed by great victories for the socialist in the municipal elections which then opened the way for the Republic and a process of revolution and counterrevolution, which ended in the uprising of Franco in 1936, the answering seizure of power by the workers of Barcelona and other cities and then the final defeat of the workers in the civil war.

One million workers lost their live in this bloody carnage. Spain was crushed beneath the iron heel of fascism. Opposition to the regime, workers‘ organisations and parties were smashed to pieces for a generation.

The main responsibility for defeat lay with the leaders of the working class parties, who time and again derailed the revolutionary energy of the workers.

Not once, but ten times, the workers attempted to take the revolution to its conclusion – the creation of a workers‘ Spain – only to have the movement diverted into the hands of capitalist representatives. It was the class-collaborationist policies of the leaders of the Socialists and Communists which primarily enabled the ruling class to mobilise its forces and finally smash the workers.

But if the same fate is not to befall the young revolution in Portugal, the lessons have to be applied. Already Spinola has issued veiled warnings to the workers not to “go too far”.

Despite the euphoria and the obvious popularity of the army and Spinola himself, what has changed for the workers? Caetano knew that in handling over to Spinola he was not doing so to even a “liberal democrat”. Spinola fought for Franco in the civil war and served on the Eastern Front with the Nazi army. When handing over, Caetano said: “General, I surrender to you the Government. You must take care because you must keep control. I am frightened of the idea of the power loose in the streets”.

The former director of information said of the meeting: “It was a meeting of two gentlemen, of two friends who respect each other and who share a great sense of honour and responsibility.”

Caetano handed over power to Spinola “so that the mob do not take over”.

The differences between Spinola and the old regime are ones of tactics – for the same class interests. Without a doubt the new junta rests on the capitalists in Portugal, at the same time leaning for its mass support on the mood of elation of the workers and the middle class. They will seek to draw the leaders of the left closer to the regime in order [to] cover themselves and to confuse the workers.

In relation to the African situation Spinola has still not agreed to any form of independence at all, but will try to split the main liberation movements and set up rival “third force” groupings as have been built up in Mozambique recently, who represent sections of the white […] and the MPLA have said that they are ready to negotiate but only on the basis of complete economic and political independence.

If it were up to the junta then its promise to organise a civilian provisional government and then hold free elections would be abrogated. But it is not! The pressure of the workers will attempt to hold them to it. It would be extremely difficult for them to restrain from this, but even so why wait one year for elections? Such a delay can only serve reaction.

Soares and the CP leaders are both pushing to be included in the provisional government.

But one thing is abundantly clear in the days following the coup: the Communist Party has emerged as the strongest force among the workers and probably the most powerful political tendency in Portugal. With the Socialists, elections soon would lead to an overwhelming victory for the left. The tide has run overwhelmingly in their direction. Reaction has been isolated and thrown into disarray, temporarily …

The courting of both the Socialist and Communist leaders by Spinola’s junta (the most unlikely of courtships!) is a sign that the ruling class in Portugal could only stabilise the situation for at the most weeks without their support. It is the forces of Big Business who need the workers‘ leaders to hold the movement in check because it has gone too far for them to contain as yet.

The blunt truth is that if the Communist Party leaders were really revolutionaries they would be moving even now towards preparations for taking power. The mood for fundamental social change has penetrated the whole of the working class, the students, wide layers of the middle class and the ranks of the armed forces.

What is needed is to concretise and crystallise the chaotic and unformed demands of the mass of the population into a rounded out programme for taking power and reorganising Portuguese society along socialist lines. They should be calling for and organising workers‘ “juntas” in every factory, street an towns as the basis for a workers‘ government.

But instead the CP and SP leaders are putting forward demands for unity between the workers and the so-called democrats and progressives on the basis of a purely liberal programme which in itself offers not one concrete reform to the workers. According to the Morning Star (29/4/74) the CP called for “a provisional revolutionary government representing all democratic and liberal forces in the country”.

But this is proposing a Government of unity between workers and capitalist representatives – the sort of unity that you have between the rider and his horse! At a time when […] feet?

Why not take advantage of this enormous favourable position to take power peacefully into the workers‘ hands by campaigning boldly on clear socialist demands which would win to the workers‘ side the rank and file of the armed forced, the bulk of the middle class and peasants and the agricultural labourers in the countryside?

The programme that is put forward for this new “Popular Front Government”, according to the Morning Star (27(4/74) is centred around three items – amnesty for political prisoners; abolition of the secret police; negotiations with the liberation movements on Africa on independence. Not one whiff of socialism or even independent working class demands!

Soares of the SP has openly acknowledged in the past where he stands in relation to the programme needed. He said in a petition signed by 256 intellectuals to Caetano in 1968 that they:

“acknowledged the danger of extreme right wing reaction if reforms were made to rapidly – but they promised full support to Dr Caetano if he pressed ahead with a policy of amelioration …”

The policy of the workers‘ leaders are entirely based on capitalism. They are in favour first of “democracy” and then, later, much, much later, of moving slowly and gradually towards socialism. But along that road is disaster. The roads to democracy and socialism are intertwined. On the basis of capitalism there can be no way forward for the workers – what the ruling class gives today under the threat of revolution they will plot and prepare to take away tomorrow, if necessary by force.

The statement of Soares that the Portuguese army is not like the Chilean army is a danger sign. It is an attempt to lull the workers to sleep, believing that their fate will be safe in the hands of the “progressive” generals.

Only the working class movement can guarantee any lasting “freedom” and “democracy”. If, in the old, advanced capitalist countries of Europa, like Britain and France, we can say that the democratic rights of the workers are threatened as the classes move into a period of intense conflict, what will be the case in the backward nations like Portugal?

If, as is almost certain, a Popular Front Government is formed in Portugal in the immediate future, although it will be enormously popular first, the realities of class conflict will be manifested. The demands of the workers will not and cannot be met on the basis of capitalism.

Out of the stormy struggles which lie ahead, the workers will be forced to look for an alternative to bankrupt Portuguese capitalism. In this way it is hoped that the Marxists will build support for policies of overthrowing the rule of Big Business and creating a workers‘ […]


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