because the PRP with its "immediate insurrection' line was responsible perhaps more than any other organisation for imposing this bitter defeat on the Portuguese revolution.
We fully recognise the valuable solidarity work which the IS has done on Portugal. We do not for one moment doubt the personal dedication and bravery of the members of the rkr and neir dev otion to the cause of the working class. But this cannot hide the fact that the line of this organisation has played a major role in imposing the heaviest defeat to date on the Portuguese revolution.
The IS have not only supported this organisation politically and financially in the past, but according to last week's issue of Socialist Worker, you actuaily propose to continue this policy and distribute vast quantities of the PRP's manifesto and other material. We will of course join with you in any. moves against the répression of the PRP or any other organisation ormeer in rortuzar outll is aiso necessary LU point out the disastrous nature of your relations with inis organisation and une pouncal consequence which this entails.
Throughout the entire period of the Portuguese revolution the PRP has spread the most dangerous illusions in the nature of the left-wing officers in Portugal. This is well summed up in the PRP paper Revolucao's description of Carvalho: 'We underline the courage of this soldier, who is always ready to advance without fear' (8 May 1975). We only need emine vou or carvamo s toie m automoune tu break strikes, his flirtation with the Melo Antunes group, nis implication in the military occupation of the radio stations and so on to show what nonsense that is.
in me ene carvaino - tons creat- crusca te go along with the une or azevedo, but mis main role has been to provide a left cover for the Armed Forces Movement. a government provocaton, a pre-arranged plan, o anything else. Even if - as is most likely - it was a provocation, the immediate insurrectionist line of the PRP, the MES and the leftist officers with which they were allied meant that they would inevitably fall into the trap.
Of course the IS leadership may claim that all this has nothing to do with them. After all, didn't they caution against a premature insurrectionist line - for example in Cliff's open letters to the PRP printed in Socialist Worker?
'Only a national insurrection on the basis of armed power represents at the present time a way out of the contradictions of the revolutionary process in Portugal. PRP Declaration 10 November.
Unfortunately, however, the problem of the PRP's line on insurrection wasn't just some spot on an otherwise healthy sun, but flowed inexorably from its whole politics. A glaring example of this was the PRP's line on the Socialist Party - characterising it not as a reformist party of the working class, but as a party of the ruling class or even as a party of fascist revolution of Ebert, Schiedeman and the Social Democrats (aimed at smashing a workers revolution to install a bourgeois democracy with the existence of workers organisation) with the counter revolution . of Hitler (which not merely smashed bourgeois democracy but the workers organisations as well)
This adoption of completely confused positions by Socialist Worker is characteristic of the whole way in which the IS leadership has increasingly dealt with the situation in Portugal. In fact, some of the reporting in Socialist Worker has been utterly grotesque:
tion of 20 August had 150,000 people on it when the real maximum was 60,000; or that the SUV demonstration in Lisbon at the end of September had 85,000 people on it with 100,000 at the rally at the end, and with 12,000 soldiers - one fifth of the whole Portuguese army' - taking part, when the real figures were 40,000 on the demonstration with 4,000 soldiers.
This type of thing cannot be brushed aside as a trifling matter of no real consequence. Everyone knows the temptation when reporting any demonstration to add a couple of thousand to the numbers. But to exaggerate the size by 100 per cent, or even give treble the real figures, is totally insane in a revolution when a realistic estimate of the relation of forces is vital. Whether you think you have 4,000 soldiers actively behind you or on the contrary a fifth of the entire army' makes a vital difference to your activity. By carrying such reports Socialist Worker only succeeds in spreading utter confusion. For example, an ecstatic report of the 20 August demonstration was headed Portugal - the turning point. - which singularly fails to explain why a few days
'While the Communists
retain some influence in the working class..... With the SUV the revolutionary left has emerged as a major contender in the national struggle for power.' International Socialism No. 83 power!. Instead of the reality - that the Communist Party in particular, and the Socialist Party to a certain extent, enjoy the support of the mass of the workers while the revolutionaries as yet command onlv the support of a vanguard - the entire situa tion becomes stood on its head. The result of such an analysis is complete political disorientation - wit the revolutionaries, rather than using the important vanguara mey do mnuence to win ure masses from the CP and the SP, instead seeking to act as *a major contender in the national struggle for power. This succeeds only in discrediting and isolating the vanguard and imposing major defeats on the revoluWhat confronts IS militants in relation to Portugal is clear. Devalop the solidarity work. Campaign against the repression of the PRP and the other left organisations. But demand an end to the nonsensical line on Portugal carried in your press and pubneatons. End your absurd relationship with the PRP.
The situation in Portugal and the Iberian peninsula is too important for such behaviour. Your association with the PRP - an organisation which has helped to impose a severe defeat on the Portuguese revolution - not merely endorses a disastrous line for the situation in Portugal but discredits the entire
AUSTRALIAN SUGALET VOTF FICHT FOR Red Weekly 4 December 1975 Students/Timor 9
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the question of an insur- rection.' PRP Declaration 30 September.