Tabs on Portuguese working class coverage of Portugal. en up and bombed, and their property (14 August).
all, aren't these Catholic mobsters the "moderates' who wish to establish mould as those greeted by the London Lisbon troops*.
cont. page 8 workers' democracy is alien to the Labour leaders, blinded as they are by cap italist parliamentary democracy which has failed to advance the working class in this country one step towards socialism.
Harold Wilson had even harsher words for Portugal. We are not in the business of financing dictatorships in Europe declared Wilson, although it would seem to be perfectly all right for the Labour Government to sell arms to the ferocious military dictatorship in Chile, responsible for the death of 40,000 socialists. After all, it's outside Europe.
But Wilson's geography is as bad as his politics. Labour Governments have happily traded with fascist Spain for decades. And one of Wilson's party colleagues, the Labour MP for Normanton, Albert Roberts (sponsored by the Mineworkers) is a life-long supporter of Franco and Chairman of the Anglo-Spanish Pariamentary Association PRESS FREEDOM Nor is Wilson's concern for the 'freedom of the press'-central in what one British spokesman termed Wilson's "brutally frank' questioning of Portuguese President Costa Comes at the Helsinki. summit - that universal. One of his It is well known that the British press is one of the strongest upholders of 'law and order and 'moderation'. It abhors 'violence' on the streets-particularly any show of force by the terrorists' of the Catholic minority in the Six Counties of Ireland. Yet something seems to have goue sadly amiss in the pursuit of these worthy pacifist principles with regard to Strangely enough, the wave of reactionary violence sweeping the north of Portugal and directed mainly against Communist Party buildings has not been greeted in the British press by calls for 'moderation' or 'order' in blazing, righteous editorials. On the contrary, commended. much of the press almost seems to relish the idea of young communist workers being beatdestroyed. The Daily Telegraph has gone so far as to describe it as the most heartening thing to have happened in Europe for years The reason, of course, is that anything goes in 'the battle to salvage democracy and prevent a Communist dictatorship. After "democracy"? No doubt they are in the same Evening Standard after the abortive March 11 Spinola coup with the headline 'Moderates attempt uprising in Portugal-planes strafe BRAGA ATTACK The coverage of the attacks on the Braga headquarters of the Communist Party on 10 August provided one of the most vivid examples of British press reporting in Portugal. The neadlines in several papers summed up the approach-'Communists fire on crowd"
'comrades' in the "Socialist International' is Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore. Journalists who dare to criticIse Mr. Lee s government are arrested at four in the morning and held without. charge or trial. But for Wilson that's quite acceptable compared with the spectre of workers in Portugal taking over the press to run it in the interests of the working class.
INTERVENTION In one thing, however, the right-wing social democrats are consistent-and that is in their support for capitalism.
Wilson belongs to the same wing of the Labour Party that supported 'non-intervention' in the Spanish Civil War, while Hitler and Mussolini armed the fascists.
In Portugal today, where the possibility again exists or the workers getting us upper hand, intervention is required from the start.
In an impressive display of social democratic "internationalism', leaders of 17 European social democratic parties met with Portuguese Socialist Party leader Mario Soares in the wake of the Helsinki summit to work out how to defeat the revolution in Portugal.
With direct intervention ruled out, these traitors intend to concentrate their efforts on two fronts: international support for the SP, which is being used as a cover by every reactionary inside (Guardian), 'Communists open fire on demonstrating Portuguese catholics' (Times) 'Communists in Portugal open fire on rioters' (Financial Times). •Women and children' were of course among the injured.
The several unarmed victims of the frenzied mob, who were badly beaten up for alleged Communist sympathies, hardly featur ed in the reports. The fact that the Communists had no other defence but their arms against vastly superior odds was hardly touched upon The fact that some of the more right-wing sec tions of the army allowed the attacks to take place was not condemned but imphitly LIBERAL FRINGE The role of the British press, even its more "liberal' fringe, has been quite clear-to back all those forces opposing the further development and consolidation of the gains made by the working class in Portugal, under the guise of supporting the fight for democracy and freedom from Soviet domination. If these forces include frenzied right-wing mobs, probably led by remnants of the old fascist administration, who wish to burn and murder the dreaded reds, then that is perhaps unfortunate. But as the Daily Express on 8 August put it, such protests of courage and integrity' are all for the best.
The right wing in the AFM too, according to the Guardian on 9 August, is all set to *vigorously defend democracy. We ve seen right-wing sections of bourgeois armies 'vigorously defending democracy' beforeChile, Brazil and Greece are just some of the more vigorous examples. But you can't expect a little thing like that to worry the highly paid hacks of Fleet St and outside Portugal; and on turther sab otage of the Portuguese economy which is already close to collapse under the hammer blows of capitalist sabofage.
CONTROLS Thus the Labour Government-which has long proclaimed its hostility to import controls-has had no hesitation about securing the re-imposition of import controls by Common Market countries on textile products from. Portugal. Textiles are one of Portugal's major industries.
At the Common Market summit in July, Wilson declared in a comment whick twisted the meaning of words by even his own low standards: We are not inter fering. What we are saying is: "Don't come around here looking for economic assistance if you haven't got a democratic form of government".
SOLIDARITY The attempts of the leaders of international social democracy to strangle the Portuguese revolution can and must bi smashed. In Britain one way we can contribute to this is by getting every militant we can-especially from the Labour Party-out on to the streets on 20 September to demonstrate in solidarity with the Portuguese revolution. James Drake
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Daily Mirror THE GUARDIAN