Use the Government appears to have sucradical left-wing units....It [the Armed t can deal with Portugal's ever more ve problems (Financial Times, 27 NovThe multinationals began to influence • economy in 1965, when - as part of the n of the Portuguese economy towards rope - Salazar introduced various decrees wing foreign capital to move into the untry and repatriate profits. Between 1960 1 1970 the penetration of foreign capital e dramatically from 1½ per cent of Portrese industry to 27 per cent.
LOW WAGES
These multinationals invested in Portugal c out of pity but for profit. As in Latin erica, the attraction was a labour force fering severe repression and paid very low ges. In 1960 the average wage was a agre £2.50 per week. By 1970 it was still than £4, and meanwhile prices had risen at least 40 per cent.
Since April 1974 these links with the multinationals have turned sour. Credit, loans and orders have been cancelled. The Lisnave and Setenave ship repair yards, which employ over 10,000 workers, have found their order books emptying as international capitalism boycotts the yards. For example the Japanese firm of Sanko Kisen should have sent 40 ships this year - but none have arrived.
The brewing firm SSC, who produce Schweppes under licence - and for the privilege pay royalities on all SS products = arranged a 4 million dollar loan from the First National City Bank. After SSC was nationalised - no loan. Similarly SECIL, which has links with Dutch cement firms, had an 18 million dollar loan cancelled. Other Portuguese firms have found that foreign firms have refused to deliver orders of important spare parts and raw materials. Foreign firms will not accept letters of credit from the Portuguese banks and instead demand cash.
It is quite obvious that British firms have been pursuing such policies. British exports, especially of machinery and transport, have declined dramatically in 1975. In March of this year Britain exported £3,668,000 worth of non-electrical machinery, £1,339,000 of electrical machinery, and £2,769,000 of transport goods. In September the figures read £1,644,000 and £472,000 respectively. Plessey, which produces telecommunications DE longer prepared to remain as a cheap labour pool but have successfully fought for massive wage increases the near future.
markets with big profits.
haven of repression, Brazil. cent. tion Malta because the wages are lower there.
The economic sabotage of the multinationals has greatly deepened the impact of the world recession of the Portuguese economy.
This year gross domestic product is likely to fall by 6 percent and total investment by as much as 30 per cent. Manufacturing production is forecast to decline by 14 per cent and construction by up to 20 per cent. Thirty per cent of the 300,000 building workers are on the dole, and 80 per cent of building firms report a fall in the level of industrial activity.
Other industries face similar prospects. Textiles, clothing, paper, printing, iron and steel metal products, non-electrical and electrical machinery - which between them employ 49.5 per cent of the workforce - are in decline and do not envisage any improvement in Let us look more closely at the fate of the textile industry. This is of great importance to the Portuguese economy, employing 250,000 workers, and involves major British firms like Courtaulds, ICI and Coats Patons.
Under Caetano this industry operated by importing raw materials from the colonies at half price, working a 60 hour week, and paying wages of 77p a day. The British textile firms exported various fibres, yarns and the necessary machinery, then the goods were made up in Portugal at low cost and re-exported to be sold on the competitive world CRIPPLED Since 1974 things have changed. Firstly the whole textile industry has been crippled by the world recession - for example, during March 150,000 British textile workers were on short time. Consequently the British textile industry has been clamouring for import controls on Portuguese goods. Harold Wilson, backing these nationalist demands, pushed through the imposition of EEC import tariffs on Portuguese textiles, and since Britain has always been the largest market for Portuguese textiles it is obvious who stands to gain.
Between May and September of this year, Portuguese textile exports to Britain fell from £4,253,000 to £3,118,000; meanwhile British exports to Portugal of yarn and machinery dropped from £1,083,000 to £826,000. One British mail order firm has already switched their order for T-shirts from Portugal to that A further change has been the demands won by the textile workers, which the Financial Times described as 'dramatic'. The working week has been cut to 42 hours; a month's holiday gained; and wages doubled. The cheap labour pool has dried up, hence the departure of the British firms with all the unemployment and other consequences that entails. The sabotage of the Portuguese economy by Britain is however fairly general. In seven months this year, exports to Portugal fell by The decline in output, the closure of subsidiaries by the multinationals such as Plessey and ITT, the demobilisation of the army, the return of the African settlers, and the slowdown of emigration as unemployment rises in France and Germany also mean that unemployment in Portugal has shot up dramatically. Today the Centre for Studies and Planning estimates that 500,000 are on the dole - 17 per cent of the working populaHowever unemployment is only one of Worker at Lisnave ship repair yard-boycotted by
Red Weekly 4 December 1975
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half and imports from Portugal by 22 per DECLINE