omy Portugal into the coffers of other European countries via repatriated profits. ple, during 1971 alone one Dutch biochemical firm registered a 145 per cent return on its capital invested in Portugal.
they will lift their trade boycott For examsee the Portuguese working class smashed before equipment and in the last three years made £3 million profit from its Portuguese subsidiary, is now trying to shift production to At the same time proposals are being made to encourage foreign investors to remain and develop in Portugal. The very hirms who have drained the economy of resources are being asked to come back for more. Guarantees have already been given that no foreign interests will be nationalised, and if such a tragic event should occur then full compensation will be paid A real workers government would have drawn no distinction between the Portuguese bourgeoisie and their foreign counterparts. All the key sectors of the economy, irrespective of foreign interests, should have been nationalised without compensation.
Recently the building workers smashed through the austerity measures by gaining a 44 per cent wage increase. Other sections of the working class are demanding the same However the defeat of the left units' adventurist uprising has given the Government the victory it needed to go on the offensive.
With many other workers likely to be demanding big wage rises to compensate for the effects of inflation, a confrontation is certain The Lisnave shipyard workers, despite the world crisis of ship repairing as the oil tankers lie idle, have shown the way by demanding the total nationalisation of this sector, the reconversion of the yards, workers control over production, and the planning of the economy at a national level, for only in this way can one have a correct notion of the forms of productive reconversion of the various sectors without leading them to a collision.
The choice facing the workers and peasants is either the austerity measure of the Sixth Government or a planned economy as the Lisnave workers suggest. But it is a choice whose outcome can be influenced by socialists in the rest of Europe. It is the multinationals based in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland who have been sabotaging the Portuguese economy with the backing of the social democratic leaders like Wilson, Mitterrand and Schmidt. International solidarity throughout Europe can play an important role in defending the gains of the Portuguese revolution and extending them to final victory and a planned, socialist economy.