Towaros ne socialist rartv or wich comrade barour repeatediv accuses une PCP. In fact the PCP leadership has conunually warned acainst sectarianism. toi instance, Alvaro Cunhal, speaking at Vila Franca de Xira on 18 May, stated:
•We call on Party members to overcome symptoms or seciananism and to seek, among all sections and without any discrimination, co-operation with other trends, even if they are divergent with those of the Party, once those sections show themselves genuinely prepared to combine their efforts with those of Communists.
ne interests or au workers are acmtical, whatever their views or creeds, and this unity of interests can be matched by unity of organisation and action in the workplace, in the made unions, and m me arcar and exalting tasks of constructing the new democratic Portugal marching forward to socialism."
Or again, very clearly in Cunhal's report to the Central Committee meeting of 10 August (a meeting to which com comrade balfour does make passing reterence):
'Sectarianism leads to reserves, lack of confidence and recriminations between forces that could and should oe m stel co-oDeranon. sectantanism is particularly malign in the political situation in which we are living now The PCP is combating, within its own ranks, the group spirit, narrowness and political rigidity which in many cases have been shown in dealings with other political sectors and in dealings with the masses.' wot only nas tne ror consistently held out a hand of friendship to the socialist rarty, demanding as the price of co-operation only that the SP leadership drop its anti-communist campaign, but it has also recently attempted to hold talks with other left groups, including the IMG s sister organisation in Portugal, the LCI. Unfortunately the LCI's attitude to this initiative is less than constructive - the LCI leaflet reproduced in Red Weekly of 14 August denounced such approaches by the PCP as manoeuvres. monicany enougn tnis piece was neadlined rortuguese trotsky• ists Appeal for Workers* Unity'. Who, one might ask, is really guilty of sectarianism?
If comrade Balfour expects articles he writes on the PCP to be taken seriously In Tuture then ne nad better start in forming himself as to what the PCP's position actually is. A crude amalgam or unsuos tantiatea generansations laced with the standard trotskyist patter may Comrade Fauvet cites Cunhal to refute my contention that the PCP did not claw inspilauon tom une results ot the April elections. Well, let us admit it - Cunhal was 'inspired' by the election results to issue a politically vacuous statement neraraine tne outcome wnich nad te not incidental errect or glossing over the abysmal showing of the PCP). But does that contradict the point I was making in my article? No. What I said quite clearly was that a party dedicated to davancing the cause of the working class would have been inspired by the election results to carr tor une tormation of a government of the workers' organNo amount of scissors-and-paste work, comrade Fauvet, will produce a quota tion from Cunhal saying anything like tat - tor, as i pointed out. the reaction of the PCP was quite the opposite. Once this course was rejected the PCP had no alternative but to develop its own class collaborationist plan, centred around its relationship with the Armed Forces Move ment which requirec a torouaniv sec tarian stance towards the Socialist Party. No amount of verbal sugar-coating from Cunhal can cover over the blatantly sectarian political practice of the PCP in this period: typified by such measures as the exclusion of the SP leaders from the May Day demo held after the elec tions and the later attempt to physically obstruct the oocialist rarty s national demonstration by setting up barricades on the outskirts of Lisbon.
If we look a little closer at Cunhal's statement, offered by Fauvet as a model of the PCP's anti-sectarianism, even the sugar-coating looks pretty thin. For wiat does it say That ror member Shouid not adoor sectarian a tudes that would prevent cooperation with other sections 'once those sections show themselves genuinely prepared to combine their efforts with those of the Communists. In other words. if non-CP workers come pounding on the door of the PCP neadquarters begging to take part in PCP initiatives, Party militants should refrain from kicking them in the balls!
Sne broDem was mate members were doing just that. Part of the PCP leadership's manoeuvres in this period was to use the prestige of their alliance with the AFM to try to drive a wedge ture, for this is a centre where the SP has an important base among the indus trial working class and where the local SP membership were known to be restless about Soares' rightward course.)
not have limited itself to passively waiting for converts from the SP ranks. It would have launched a fight for the leadership of the masses under SP influence by mounting a major campaign around clear and concrete demands on the SP leadership to unite around specific, practical measures. But the PCP never made such a move - because to do so would have flown in the face of its class collaborationist schemes.
Central Committee is in fact the clearest evidence of its total political bankruptcy. Here was a major meeting of the highest body of the PCP - accompanied by the fanfare of a press conference to of the PCP paper Avante devoted to its proceedings. It took place at a time when the PCP and the revolutionary left throughout the country were facing a wave of physical attacks from reactionaries.
produce a single statement from this crucial meeting of the PCP leadership which maps out a clear-cut initiativ towards the SP leadership aimed at winning the ranks of the SP membership away from Soares' reactionary ploys. This would be a quotation worth reading.
If you can produce it I shall readily adnit that my articte was 'ill informed" If you cannot, then you confirm out of your own mouth the impotency and bankruptcy of the PCP at this decisive juncture.
If one needed further evidence of this, we have only to look at the situation in Portugal today. The pro-capitalist forces are trying to assemble a concerted scheme to restore and restabilise capitalist institutions in the economy and the state. What is the PCP doing about this? At the moment it is simply debating whether or not to take part in this reactionary project!
A revolutionary workers party would The 10 August meeting of the PCP publicise its decisions and a special edition I offer a challenge to comrade Fauvet:
Dear Comrade, Republica SO Soldiers on guard outside the offices of Republica.
CONT a particularly virulent editorial against Trade unionism. ine Government used this as a pretext for breaking off nego tiations with the TUC General Council.