If illusions in the bulk of the MFA are rapidly disappearing, however, they unfortunely continue to exist in the 'left' minority Above all they have been - in the case of General Carvalho ups like the PRP. Revolucao, the paper : PRP, summed up its general attitude, example, on 8 May when it wrote: We rline the courage of this soldier, who is rays ready to advance without fear.' The real nature of the 'courageous soldier' been underlined only too clearly in the ent weeks. The fact that Neves, the comnder of the Amadora commandos, is only amand of his regiment because Carvalho 1 him reinstated after the men had voted to pange him, the fact that it was Carvalho who amanded the troops which occupied the adio stations, underline his real role even more clearly than did his previous manoeuvres with the Antunes group, and his use of troops against strikes. Carvalho is not 'the Fidel Castro of Europe', but merely the last 'left' card which the bourgeoisie might play if it feared that the workers were really going to take power.
STAR SLIPPED
Unfortunately, as Carvalho's star has slipped, an even more ridiculous left' mini-cult has threatened to emerge around the character of General Fabiao. Carvalho, no less, has declared that he, Goncalves and Fabiao constitute the 'revolutionary core' of the MFA - a view whose worth can be seen by the fact that Carvalho also said, in an interview printed in the weekly O Jornal on 12 October, that Azevedo was 'a convinced man of the left. The cult of Fabiao as a 'left' is even more ridiculous than that of Carvalho. Facao was actually the original nominee for Prime Minater by the right-wing Antunes group of officers. But Fabiao has allegedly now shown his revoluBonary worth by securing the victory of the troops occupying the artillery barracks in Oporto. The reality, however, is very different.
Firstly, it is true that the troops in Oporto won a victory in the sense that the Government had to abandon all thought of removing them by force. It is also possible, if the agitation General Fabiao in Oporto - manoeuvring to play for time in the army continues, that the soldiers will actually win their demand for the reformation of the disbanded transport regiment.
But the actual agreement which Fabiao made was not at all a simple victory for the soldiers. There will be an 'investigation' into the affair, and the Government has stated that disciplinary action could be taken against certain ring-leaders. Furthermore, the commander of the Northern region, Brigadier Veloso, has ordered various of the leaders to return to their homes pending discharge from the Army. The ability to fight this attack is greatly weakened by the fact that Fabiao has meanwhile persuaded the soldiers to abandon the barracks, and all the supporting troops have thus returned home.
REAL ATTITUDE
As for Fabiao's real attitude towards the soldiers movement, it was summed up in his view that 'the SUV (the rank-and-file soldiers' movement) has a certain strength. reservations because it is a horizontal organisation, and in the army we have a vertical organisation - a view which freely translated means: "I would like to smash them, but unfortunately at the moment they are too strong for me.' The second reason why it would be wrong to consider the Oporto struggle as a clear-cut defeat for the Government, is that at present Azevedo's aim is not at all to take on and directly confront the rebellious troops. Above all the Government is playing for time. Prime Minister put it in an interview with Eme magazine last week: "If I can govern my country for one more month in the present conditions then I am practically certain that relations between us and the United States, as with Europe, will improve. for one more month. The Government has now more or less given up its attempts to win back whole sections of the army lets them go their own way. It aims to gain the weeks necessary to organise its new military intervention force, and rearm the counter-revolutionary police, veterans' organisations, An golan refugees and so on. a position to strike back. Fabiao has precisely But I have As the But we must hold on Mary aggression.
- It Then it will be in jective.
people -ctober 1975
CP announced that it was a "serious error' to see the current 'great agitation' within the army as anarchy. On the contrary what was happening was that: "The broad and vigorous movement of the soldiers is an expression of the struggle of the working people. The new revolutionary flux which is taking place constitutes a magnificent riposte by the Portuguese people to reactionary and conservative forces and to attempts to swing to the right.' The CP demanded an end to the purge of 'progressive' i.e. pro-Communist soldiers.
However, just to make it clear that no one should be scared that the CP was for destroying the bourgeois army, Cunhal let it be known on 13 October that the CP was a complete supporter of discipline and democratic order within the army. condition: "The PCP thinks that discipline in the armed forces must coincide with the line of command of the MFA and of the revolutionary line in Portugal today' - which simply means that the CP is all for keeping the rank-and-file soldiers in their places - provdied that the officers carry out the counterrevolutionary line of the CP instead of the counter-revolutionary line of the SP.
Until it gets this the CP is prepared to kick up a bit of a stink and fool around with the revolutionary left a little to force the MFA to realise that it can't get along without There was only one