statue of the vencrable Emperor Dom Pedro V of Portugal (covered from head to toe with the hammer and sickle), They stressed the identity of interests between the exploited masses of the colonies and the Portuguese proletariat, in their struggle against i common enemy; colonialBy these two initiatives, widely commented on by the Portuguese press, the LCI have already established themscives as one of the main organisations of the revolutionary vanguard, despite their relative youth While continuing its work among workers (particularly successful in Oporto), the ICI considers one of its central tasks at the present time to be the strugele aginst the rotten colonial war. It plans to carry this out within the framework of a united front of several far-left currents, which is in the process of being This campaign will reinforce not merely the solidarity between Portuguese and African workers, bur aiso that beeween workers and soldiers. It will allow revolutionaries to enlarge their audience within the armed forces and push forward the scil-organisation of the soldiers and * The first much joter action took place on Friday 24 May, acconding no the Paris dail Le Mande, when the CT. the URMI, end the PRP - together with wa other groups the LAR (League of Resolutionary Unity and Action/ and the Socialis Baner a job meeting th the Colise in Liabon.
The next day saw anorivr joint action by the some groupe, when over 5,000 demonstrators inarched through the streers of the aspire online for an inmediate end to the colonia! wars and the independence of the Afrion territories. Ar the head of the the murch were a number of coldiers and sailors brainform. carrying red flogs, end moky African workers also took part carrying homier in support of the PAJGC, The new Portuguese Gorernment is trying to block worker struggles by the enactment of a national minim um wage of E55 a month (not to include agricultural or domestic workers, or soldiers), coupled with a freeze on all wages over £125 a month With inflation in Portugal running at about 30% a year, this involves a major attack on the gains of all better paid workers.
But this policy was no sooner enacted than it met a vigorous challenge with the launching of an all our strike by Lisbon Transport workers-some of whom, at least, are in the "frozen' wage range.
Despite the destruction of the old -regime, censorship is not yer dead in Portugal. A special commitree stil exists to vet all news articles con cerning military matters. For this reason nothing appeared in the Portuguese press about the departure of two troop ships for Africa last week, nor about the fact that many of the soldiers due to be shipped overseas refused to embark.
Another case of the continuing censorship occured during the television coveruge of the gigantic May Day rally. The speaker from the metal workers' union made a fighting speechin sharp contrast to the milk-and-water oratory of the Socialist and Communist Party spokesmen pointing out the fundamental conflict of interests between workers and capitalists, and calling for the beginning of a struggle for socialism However, the TV coverage of this speech (and this speech alone) was obliterated by the playing of the Portuguese national anthem over the broadcast.
Ernest Mandel, prominent spokesman of the Fourth International, recently concluded a successful visit to Portugul. His meeting in Lison attracted an audience of over 2500 A reminder of which class is in power in Portugal came last week when the organisations of the revolationary left organised a united front demonstration. Some 4000 people turned out, but the army promptly moved in and broke the demonstration up using tear gas.