Portugal. "The old structure of the dictatorsmip remained intact in tne weeks after the coup. The MLSTP remained illegal. But a huge popular movement sprung up and a series of strikes broke out.
The climax came in September. On the fifth of that month we held a massive demonstration in Sao Tome and the police opened fire, killing one demonstrator. In the first week of September also, a unit of African troops in the Portuguese army mutica ana captured an arsena *The colonialists were very shaken by these developments and realised that they would have to negotiate with us. Talks were held for the first time between the MILST and the Portuguese government and on 26 November, at the end of four days of talks in Algiers, we signed an agreement with the Portuguese by which we would get our independence on Agrarian reform Umbelina emphasised that this agreement did not mean that the Portuguese boronen nad roung aisnca all interest in the future of the islands. "Almost from the day that the transitional government was installed in December, conflicts broke out. We have thousands of unem ployed workers in Sao Tome. It was necessary to create employment possibilities. The reactionaries in the Ministry of Economic Coordination refused to take the necessary measures •We began to push for agrarian reform, the only way to provide jobs. We said: "Take the land left uncultivated or abandoned by the plantation owners, nationalise it without compensation to the settlers, and put the unemployed workers on this land. Let them grow beans and maize, which we have always had to import in Sao Tome because the colonialists have only found it profitable to produce cocoa and coffee for export. It caused an uproar.
underground congress A week late Umbelina told t flew to Portugal, thinking that the.actions of the High Commissioner were not sanctioned by the Government in Portugal itself. We were verv mistaken. The Ministry of Social Communication in Lisbon immediately issued an order to the press banning information about us in the Portuguese press. Then Gastao Torres was mediately catching a plane out of the country The incidents in Sao Tome reveal quite a lot about Portuguese intentions in the African colonies. While having no choice but to accept the liberation movements demands for independence, the colonial authorities are acting fast to preserve colonial and imperialist interests in these countries after the formal hand-over of power takes place.
Military value
As regards Sao Tome, that means that the Portuguese Government aims to pro tect the interests of the 28 agricultural companies which own 90 percent of the cultivable land. The interests of firms like the British oil company Ball and Collins Which has prospecting rights off Sac Tome-are also to be defended. Most important of all, perhaps, is the strategic military value that the islands could have for the imperialists.