inside.' DH-36We must know how to get rid of these illusions while there is still time. An army cannot be transformed from the The words are those of Carlos Matos Gomes, a captain in COPCON, speaking to Dominique Pouchin of the Paris daily Le Monde. His attitudes show just how far the radicalisation inside the army has developed, particularly since the reactionary manoeuvres around the "group of nine officers led by Melo Antunes. Gomes is quite clear about what is at stake:
"The hierarchy wishes to re-establish militarism, a strict respect for bourgeois authority. But the soldiers, the sergeants and the progressive officers will struggle for their rights. They have made a conscious and serious class choice - to fight for the maintenance and development of democratic rights in the barracks, to insist on mass assemblies in each unit, to encourage the 'dynamisation brigades' [propaganda units], to confront those in power who want to halt the revolutionary process.
'That will only be possible, and have a real meaning, if we link our struggle to that of the workers' and neighbourhood commissions, forceable the village committees....Only the alliance of the organs of popular power together with the soldiers organised in the barracks can bring about changes in the structure of the army. icalised young officers consider that they are not represented inside the new Revolutionary Council - nor do they want to be. 'In the framework of the State apparatus one canno reconcile revolutionary positions with a socia democratic orientation.
Instead they pose an alternative, which is often confused notably in its emphasis on creating a force above parties - but neverThe military authorities in Portugal also suffered a crush- to impleme ing defeat last week when Headed b they had to admit that a law Republica, e preventing the press from re number of n radio station porting debates and activities inside the barracks was unen Rise mass me the new law This decree was obviously protest reso aimed at isolating the dem ation. ocratic rank-and-file organisa Almost a tions inside the armed forces continued to as a prelude to crushing them paign by the and restoring bourgeois military discipline. But the auth- from being orities were met by an almost The result w blanket refusal by the press blow in favo
----- pull-quotes -----
Top brass on pr