save its bacon in Portugal.
an edition with a Jak cartoon depicting the typical trade unionist as a moronic criminal Comrades Cunvin and Foster should realise that there is a short step between refusing to publish lies and distortions on the one hand, and actually printing tne trutn yourselt on tne ouner.
The case of Republica has to be considered in the Portuguese context. It must be seen against the backcloth of the burning of the offices of trade unions and left-wing organisations in the norn. many of inese crimes nave been perpetrated by people purporting to be socialists. The Portuguese Socialist rarty nas taken no measures to ston what is being cone in its name. instead it has indulged in a smear campaign against the reds. It was because the staff of Republica refused to associate itself paper was taken over While I am not accusing comrades Cunvin and roster or accepting the trad itional capitalist belief in the sacred rights of private property, they nevertheless are making genuflections in that direction. In a country like Portugal, erty right, left and centre, they appear to be pleading: But leave these newspaper offices alone.
Comrade cunvin s cnaracterisation of the staff of Republica as syndicalist Labour Party General Secretary Ron Hayward welcomes Soares to Britain last year. Now imperialism hopes international social democracy will help before in history can there have been an example of political subversion on such a lavish scale as that apparently being carried out by Harold Wilson and nis cronies A further intriguing question is: where is the money coming from? The Labour Party is currently in an acute financial crisis. Its general fund showed a tzuo ozu dericit last vear. Could It be that Harold Wilson is acting as an intermediary, funding American money to support the side of reaction in Portugal? An interesting pamphlet, The Labour Party and the CIA has been published by Radical Research Services. It revealed unar policians uke caracnan ano Denis Healey have been active in CIA-front organisations. It also stated tnat Amer ican money nas been used to back rignt wing organisations in tne struggle against the left in Britain. whether the same thing is now happening But this, unfortunately, must remain merely speculation. What can be said however, is that if Harold Wilson is really concerned about freedom. then he should Tree bes warten. anc it there is any spare cash floating about, he should send it to the Clay Cross councillors.
KAY CHALLINOR, Whitley bay. Dear Comrades, I am concerned by what I see as a mis-estimation by Red Weekly of two linked factors in the Portuguese revolution: the possible roles of US and British imperialisms.
Hocust covering rora s statement unat the us was unable to intervene in event. in Portugal, and that the 'safeguarding of democracy' was the responsibility of the European powers, you suggest that ne was mere urvine to cover do tuE filthy plots of 'nine CIA operatives in Lisbon' (nine!). I will argue that for once the old man was telling the truth.
that "American imperialism is now incapable..of playing the role of world policeman by sending troops to intervene in ongoing revolutions and civil wars and stressea tne new moortance of 'economic pressure....of attempts at starving out the revolution. The US with support for reactionary forces, using its considerable economic and CIA links with Chile. are not now strong enough for a similar intervention by the US into Portugal.
Until the coup last year, Portugal was a low priority for the CIA. The the state apparatus the PIDE secret police, that was untouched by - and apparently ignorant of -radicalism in the army. The PIDE spent most of its energies against the Portuguese Communist Party, which played no direct part in the preparations for Ine coug up and its agents jailed after the coup, One can but wonder the CIA was left without contacts, anc ambiguous attitude the Armed Forces mass upsurges.
alism has for centuries had its closest ano most constant economic and gor itical links with British capitalism. Britularly in the large and traditional port In vour issue of 21 About a week before Ford made his remark, Ernest Mandel wrote in Inprecor adopted this technique in Chile combined such links. nowever latter's only links were with a section of - the developing When the PIDE was broken was completely unable to anticipate the Movement would adopt to the resulting At the same time, Portuguese capituguese delegation? ish investment in Portugal itself amounts to over E1 billion, and the links - particWilson gets the line from Ford at the Helsinki summit wine and cork industries - are very close as a result or aenerations or intermarnace Thus as Kenneth Maxwell points out in a very informative article in the New York Review of May 29: According to well-placed British sources the CIA is now relying heavily on British inteloenc tor intormation about ano con tact with the new reaime.
Ford needed to use the platform of Helsinki to convince the social democratic leaders that things really have changed. Remember Wilson's declaration that he had been "brutally frank' to the PortFord knew that Wilson would be terrinee or me enree nis dolive savolaye or a european revolution coule nave on the working class base of his party, and that he had an over-full load of American imperialism'. But this consideration does not prevent Ford - find ing US imperialism uniquely impotent before what could be the biggest blow to its power since 1917 - from cajoling Wilson into the driving seat, backed by European social democracy and the US Portugal must not become another Chile. If it does we can be sure that as soon as the repression has died down to a steady rumble in the back-streets and prisons, several Portuguese capitalists wil be shipping our to London to bredti their discreet but fervent thanks to their old friends over here.
The right-wing Tory 'Portuguese lobby', British imperialist interests and wison s Government wit be norror alarmed if, in response to their attempts to pull the fat out of the fire in Portugal,