Electricians.
The trade unions which have sighed this communique are informed of the proclamation published today by the Movement of the Armed Forces announcing the end of the regime of fascist oppression. This regime always identified itself, exclusively and in a criminal manner, with the monopoly economic powers, imposing a really miserable standard of living on the country-ll was the workers move ment, in struggle for the last 50 years despite violent repression, that created the necessary conditions for the success of the movement of the armed forces, We consider that effective economie and political liberation of the working class, in the face of all reactionary forces, can only be realIsed by the conscious and immediate participation of all workers in the process now underway Apart from this, the desired, urgent and full debate about the future of trade unionism in our country must take place in fortheoming general assemblies, The following are the immediate, fundamental and intransigent demands of all workers:
1. May Day to be a national holiday 2. Total trade union freedom; and was signed by the following unions: Shop Assistants; Insurance Employces; Lisbon Steel Workers; Lisbon Chemical Workers; Radio and Telecommunications Worker: Administrative Services of the Merchant Marine; Airline Services and Fishing Industry; Lisbon Transport Workers; Lisbon Bank Employees; Salesmen of medical products; Journalists: Lisbon Wool Workers; Santarem Clerical Workers; Lisbon Public Service Workers; and the ratification of Convention No. 87 of the International Labour Organisation 3. Civil Rights must be returned to the Portuguese people 4. An end to rising prices 5. Immediate increase in wages and prices, and establishment of a national minimum wage 6. Reduction of the working week to 10 hours and 5 days 7. Reinstatement of all workers arbitrarily sacked as a result of their trade union activity 8. Freedom of assembly and association 9. Completely free press. Responsibility for the orientation of publications must be in the hands of those who write them. 10. The workers must have exclusive responsibility for the administration of social security 11. The right to federate in inter-national trade union bodies 12. The right to strike 13. Total abolition of PIDE/DGS [political police] and publie trial of their members 14. Immediate release of all political prisonens.
Long Live the Working Class!
Long Live Portugal! calling for an immediate end to the nies.
Under these pressures the with the Provisional Government set up by the liberation group open in London on 25 May. At the same time, all Portuguese anilitary operations in Angola have been halted.
SOCIALISM
the liberation forces in the colonies and the growing combativity and king class opens up great prospects for developing the struggle for socialism in Portugal.
has led the Portuguese ruling class to accept the Communist Party in the new Government. There they will carry out the job of holding back the mass struggle, as they did in Chile, while the reactionary forces regroup and reorganise.
But the Communist Party may find it difficult to carry out this job. Already the Communist Minister of Labour (who is President of the bank workers union), Avelino is in the Government 'in a personal capacity and not as a representative of his union, This may suggest a certain discomfort among union milito make any headway against the NEF This contrasts with the NLF's con