Socialist Party leader Mario Soares The formation of a majority government by the workers parties in Portugal is a real possibility following their conquest of 53 per cent in the recent elections. In fact, from the point of view of the interests of the Portuguese masses, it is an absolute necessity.
The immediate formation of a Socialist Party/Communist Party government would not only encourage and strengthen the ability ana determmanon or te workers and peasants to maintain and extend the gains they have made so far. It would also put these leaders on the spot before the thousands and thousands of Communist and Socialist voters who still have illusions Enem But as history has shown, reformists are thorough cowards when faced with the prospect of taking power in a pre-revolutionary situation - and the present Portuguese breed is no exception. Less than 24 hours after the results, Cunhal and Soares declared on television their support for the present Sixth Provisional Government, saying that nothing must change until after the presidential elections in June. Reactionaries The longer the workers parties delay in forming a government, the Presidential candidate Admiral de Azevedo bourgeois CDS and Popular Democrats (PPD). However it is not unlikely that the SP will jilt the admiral in favour of the general. So far the CP has merely emphasised that the president must be a military man, without naming any specific figures.
As far as the bourgeoisie is concerned, the presidential election is of great importance following their defeat at the polls. An all-powerful president can soon push aside the problems imposed by the workers parties' majority on the parliamentary terrain - as long as he is favourably disposed towards the bourgeoisie, of course. At the moCarvalho Movement (MES) and the Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat (PRP) have declared their support although he himself has said that he is not running.
there is apparently no contradiction between boycotting the 'bourgeois' general elections in the most ultraleft fashion and only conclusion to be drawn is that the PRP place the presidential elections above classes and the class struggle - which falls right into the "bonapartist' trap set by the bourgeoisie.
figures are winning the support of political parties in the race to the presidency the LCI. We will only support a candidate from the working class; and if no candidate is presented by any other political party, the LCI will present its own candidate, a workers candidate, and will call for a vote for this candidate against all military or bourgeois candidates ment both candidates are so disposed with Eanes being the clear favourite.
The centrists of the Left Socialist for Otelo de Carvalho as a candidate, As far as the PRP is concerned diving head first into the race for the presidency. The From the right to the left, military - with one exception, European capitalism. General Eanes-also standing This position completely accords with the position presented by the Lei during the recent election campaign, which revolved around the central question of workers unity and how to defend and extend it. During the campaign the LCI called for a national congress of the trade unions and a national conference of the workers commissions as the best means possible for the working class to centralise their experience of the past two years, to develop their own organisations, and to unite as a class in the struggle against Portuguese and Alvaro Cunhal-heads Communist Party This theme underlies the demand for the CP and the SP to form a government responsible to these forms of workers organisations. This neme undernes une necessity Lo present one, and only one, workers candidate for the presidential elections, to unite the workers' vote against the uniformed representatives of capital.
Strike It is clear that the next period in Portugal will be marked by deeper and more prolonged struggles. The workers are showing that even if they have won a majority in the elections, and even if the next national elections are only two months away, it is their own struggles that are the most important In Coimbra, one of the largest and most important ceramic factories in the whole of the country is entering its third week of strike. The workers in the pharmaceutical industry are launching a total strike in support of their collective contract. The workers in the shipping com panies are preparing to go on strike within a few days. The miners are still in struggle.
Without a doubt, this summer in Portugal will be a great deal hotter than the tourists have bargained for.