those who attended its death agony.
*The SP has lost a battle but not the war', Mario Soares declared the day after the Socialist ministers and state secretaries resigned. Within just a few days, the SP leadership mapped out a real campaign plan. The troops for this campaign were assembled by the SP leadership's disguising its position against the emerging organs of workers power with some lyrical braggadocio about socialism in freedom'. These troops were recruited at top speed and by all available means; the SP leadership uned up every Tom, Dick and Harry with hysteria against communist totalitarianism.' and 'social fascism'. Next, the generals had to be rallied and broken from their fetishism about the unity of the MFA.
TENDER GAZE With beautiful synchronization, on the night of July 18 itself the SP struck a real blow by assembling 70,000 people in the Antas stadium in Porto. The next day, more than 100,000 people gathered in the Alameda Afonso Henriques to listen to speeches by the central leaders of the SP, who, under the tender gaze of representatives of the major European Socialist parties, attacked the Communist Party with unprecedented violence, calling it a 'social-reactionary and murderous The Government had got everybody's backs up with its hesitations, compromises, and powerlessness. The bourgeoisie, exasperated at seeing the MFA give in each time under the hammer blows of workers' combativity, withdrew the support it had previously extended to the Government through the PPD (Partido Popular Democratico-Popular Democratic Party) and the Socialist Party in order to control the situation somewhat. The workers had expected the Government, which they regarded as their own, to take energetic measures to halt the economic crisis of which they are the victims: when that did not happen, their attitudes shifted from confidence to distrust, and even to outright hostility. The Coalition Government died unlamented by organisation that wants to transform Portugal into an immense concentration camp'. Also denounced were 'the captains, a bit too quickly promoted to generals, who supports its (the CP's) totalitarian schemes.
Soares demanded a government of national union in which the SP, representative of the Portuguese people, must have its rightful place.
He also demanded the resignation of Vasco Goncalves and his replacement by a really independent prime minister who respects the popular will as expressed by universal suffrage' ROVING BANDS In Porto, as in Lisbon, Soares washed his hands in advance of any consequences his reactionary and anticommunist diatribes might have on the overcharged crowd. During the night, roving bands set fire to propaganda stands of the CP and the MDP (Movimento Democratico Popular-Popular Democratic Move•Ment, close to the CP) that had been set up in Humberto Delgado Square in Porto; later they tried to assault the studios of Radio Club Portugal, which were protected by the army.
Despite its 'socialist' pretensions, the campaign organised by the leadership of the SP against the CP has opened the floodgates for a broad reactionary offensive. Between Thursday, July 17 and Saturday, July 19 local headquarters of the revolutionary organisations, the CP, and the Intersindical (the trade-union federation) were attacked in Alcavem, Sacavem, Leiria, Batalha, Porto de Mos, Aveiro, Rio Maior, Lorinha, and Cadaval. The news spread (confirmed by revolutionary soldiers with access to the army's radio transmission service) that 200 mercenaries recruited in England had just arrived in Spain to join the estimated 5,000 armed men of the ELP (Portuguese Liberation Army, a fascist military organisation) massed on the Spanish side of the border, INDISPENSABLE At no time did the SP leadership take a clear position on the disturbing wave that was developing, especially in the north, where whole villages fell under the control of reactionary forces.
In fact, the SP leadership took advantage of this sudden tension, to which it had contributed in no small measure, to make apparent its ever more indispensable role within the state as the guardian of order'. But this subtle blackmail could well end up turning against the SP itself by touching off a massive reactionary aggression against the workers movement, of which the Socialist workers are still an integral part.
These past few days have given a frightful foretaste of what the fury of the fascists would be if they managed to regain control in Portugal thanks to a persistent division of the workers movement. Everything must be done to make sure that this never happens.
The leadership of the Communist Party bears a large share of the resgrouplets.
cupations of factories and companies; experiences of workers control; land red weekly 14 august 1975 country, the garrisons are controlled by officers who lean politically toween the clearly counter-revolutionary political programme of the leadments for immediate unity in action with all the political forces prepared