November.
The first session of the conference heard two reports by Portuguese workers. The first came from an official of the domestic workers union, the other from a member of the shop stewards committee at the Standard Electric factory (a subsidiary of ITT).
He spoke of the attempts of ITT and other multinationals to bankrupt Portuguese subsidiaries and create mass redundancies.
An important development in the fight against their sabotage has been the formation of a coordinating committee of workers in the multinationals. But as the speaker pointed out, that alone is insufficient - international coordination is needed. The conference voted to mount a campaign against the multinationals (many of which are British), stressing the need to build real links between Portuguese and British workers.
IT delegate JOSE GANHAO Despite the presence of a number of Constituency Labour Parties, the Communist Party and all the various tendencies of the revolutionary left, there was only one clear debate and split vote. The International Socialists proposed an amendment to delete the campaign slogan which called for 'Solidarity with the organs of popular power'.
The IS argued - making a 180 degree turn since November - that today the struggle in Portugal is economic rather than political. All talk of armed insurrection has gone, and with it any mention of the need to develop and centralise the organs of popular power. As IS delegate Colin Sparks said: 'It is not the time to raise questions of taking state power CONTINUE Many delegates, including members of the IMG, argued in reply that the organs of popular power continue to exist and along with the trade unions are playing an important role in organising opposition to the austerity measures of the Sixth Provisional Government. They also highlighted IS's confusion by explaining that while the working class is on the defensive, that does not mean that the self-organisation of the class is any less important.
As was pointed out by John Wilkinson, secretary of the Merseyside support group and a member of the IMG, the severity of the Portuguese economic crisis means that the only solution for the working class can come through generalised workers control and the establishment of a workers plan to beat the crisis. It is in this process, which is already beginning, that the workers commissions and similar bodies have a key role to play.
GAINS The final point made by those opposing the IS was that any solidarity campaign worthy of the name has to take the historic gains of the Portuguese revolution into the British working class. For the first time for two generations, embryonic soviet type orgamsauons nave emer ged in Europe. The campaign has the responsibility to educate the working class in this country about these advances.
Arguments such as these convinced the vast majority of the delegates. The amendment was defeated. The conference went on to vote for the main campaign resolution, which outlined a series of solidarity tasks: work around the role of the multinationals; taking up the role of the Labour Party leadership in fostering links with the right-wing leaders of the Portuguese Socialist Party like Soares; countering the lies of the bourgeois press in its coverage of the events in Portugal; and opposing the imposition of import restrictions on Portuguese goods coming to Britain.
The need for such a campaign could be seen by one small announcement in the press the same day as the conference met. The Society of Graphical and Allied Trades has decided to export unemployment by instructing its members not to handle paper imported from a number of countries, including Portugal.
COMMITTEE Finally the conference elected a 15-person national committee to organise the campaign. The elections gave seats to all the political tendencies represented at the conference, as well as to representatives of various support groups and a number of trade unionists who have played an important role in the campaign to date.
The national committee now has the task of implementing the conference resolutions and building a mass solidarity campaign with the Portuguese working class — a task which in the coming months will be of greater and greater importance as the inevitable class confrontations materialise. As the campaign slogans say:
No to any economic boycott!
Big business, NATO, CIA - Hands off Portugal!
Portugal must not become another Chile!
Solidarity with the organs of popular power!
Against the repression of workers and soldiers -prisoners.
Solidarity with the Portuguese working class!
Ric Sissons President Ernesto Geisel of Brazil the popular assemblies Portuguese delegate from ITT's Standard Electric plant tells conference of the need for international co-ordination of struggles that he is worried about Brazilian
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Over 120 delegates met in London last Saturday for the found- ing conference of the Solidarity Campaign with the Portuguese Working Class - an excellent attendance in view of the relative downturn in the class struggle following the partial defeat of 25