The massive strike of metal workers, the strike and siege of the Govemment by construction workers and last Sunday's demonstration of 100,000 workers in Lisbon all show that the working class is really on the move again. The Government of Azevedo is now clearly in deep crisis.
Furthermore, under the impact of the new wave of struggles, the Socialist Party is being forced into deeper splits - with large numbers of Socialist Party workers resigning in Torrao and other towns, and with Soares being forced to pull out of a pro-Government rally in the northern town of Viseu. This follows the approaches already made by the Socialist Party youth to the revolutionaries for a joint campaign in support of Spanish political prisonThe struggle of the soldiers also continues. of the paratroop regiment of Tancos - the same regiment which was used to dynamite the transmitter of Radio Renascenca - have denTwo SUV soldiers guard Radio Renascen ca studios. But paratroopers were tricked into blowing up the transmitter. Last week saw a further deepening in the struggle against the reactionary Sixth Provisional Government headed by Admiral Pinheiro de Azevedo. ounced the reactionary purposes for which they have been used. left wing of the Armed Forces Movement (AFM, once again feeling itself under the pressure of the workers, has been forced to adopt a more open attitude of opposition to the Government - with General Carvalho ostentatiously boycotting AFM meetings, and Admiral Coutinho declaring his support for the demands of the construction workCISI VANGUARD Within the workers' demonstrations and strikes a powerful vanguard has developed. The CP leaders of the Intersindical trade union federation were continually rebuffed in their attempts at a sell-out over the building workers' demands. The Communist Party declared on 14 The soldiers and sergeants November that the siege [of Azevedo's residence did not benefit the workers and permitted all sorts of provocations' - a curious response to an action which won the workers' demands, and one which cannot have boosted the Party's standing amongst the thousands of workers who participated in the struggle! So it might be thought that the revolutionary left - which only six weeks ago was able to get 40,000 workers and 4,000 soldiers onto the streets of Lisbon in support of the 'Soldiers United Will Win' (SUV) movement - was in an excellent position.
SECTARIAN
Unfortunately, however, the ultrasectarian policies of the Revolutionary United Front (FUR) have wasted most of the potential which existed. There was a tremendous opportunity to campaign around clear concrete demands which could have consolidated the early victories, rooting them in the broad masses of soldiers and workers, and strengmeng the embryos of workers self-organisation - - demands like the election of officers; wage increases to compensate for increases in the cost of living; an economic plan for the nationalised industries; etc.
ERRORS
Instead, the majority of the revolutionary left committed a series of disastrous errors. Firstly they characterised the Socialist Party as a party of the bourgeoisie - or even worse, as 'social fascist" - and rejected the offer of an allsions that it could also jump over to adopt a sectarian attitude even to the CP rank and file.
large sections of the revolutionary left are in a state of collapse or dis Tiate insurrection. iance with the Socialist Youth. Then the FUR began to have further illuthe mass of the workers who followed the Communist Party, and started The result that in Portugal today with the AFM.
The FUR demonstrafirst sent its armed Revolutionary Brigades' underground, and is now carrying on an idiotic and extremely dangerous campaign for an immedThe result of this crisis of most o1 tne revorunonary lert is a real strengthening of the position of the Communist Party, not merely at the expense of the Socialists with, for example, many unions which had disaffiliated from Intersindical rejoining - but also at the expense of the revolutionary left. It is this double strengthening which will probably now allow the CP to achieve its goal of greatly strengthening its position in a new government - something it is carefully pursuing through its combination of working class mobilisations with avoidance of any head-on clash 'left' CP-SP-AFM government.
The revolutionaries could gain greatly from this, breaking down the present left image of the CP. But for that a radical re-orientation of policy would be necessary, of which the majority of the FUR is incapable.
Only the Trotskyists of the LCI - in particular, in their defence of the soldiers in Oporto - have begun to show the capacity for the bold united front tactics which are neces sary in the present situation. Sene second congress of the LCI, to be held in December, will mark an important turning point for the whole Portuguese left.
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