ment of military police, which has been organising a campaign against the sending of any more troops to Angola, ten reactionary officers were purged after they were discovered plotting to get rid of revolutionary recruits.
At the same time a group of disabled ex-servicemen launched a campaign for welfare and pensions they have received nothing from the Government or the Armed Forces Movement for 14 months. With support of workers and neighbourJohn Weal's eye-witness report from Lisbon for last Thursday thus promised to be a make-or-break affair. If the turn-out was small, the reactionaries would have been given a green light to go on the offensive. If it was large, it would be a tremendous step forward for the revolutionary movement.
Large it was. By 7 pm they were already beginning to assemble: workers from the Lisnave shipyards still in their boiler suits and safety helmets, groups from the different workers' and neighbourhood comfeet and the quiet whistling of the "Internationale'.
the Avenue of Liberty, and the de demonstrators spill out onto the applause greets the reading of a in the Italian army. announces: Tomorrow we will liberate our two comrades who are in ULISUH.
electric: "Not tomorrow now! But how can we do it? Comrades Victor Pinto and Figueiredo are in prison twenty miles away across the river. It doesn't take long to work out a way, however. way to the nearby bus depot, and soon 200 crammed double-decker buses accompanied by a huge armada of coaches and cars set off. It is now 1.30am, but the wide-eyed population roused from their beds by the noise laugh and cheer.
there is a sobering announcement that the commandos and fusiliers are on their way to defend the prison. But there is no panic. It is decided to build barricades, with We, Portuguese workers, are today living through a particularly