Last Friday, it decided to let the TUC negotiate with Michael Foot to persuade the Government to guarantee publication of the Pay Board report on London pay on 18 June and the backdating of any settlement.
IE chese paper guarantees urc made then the NALGO leadership proposes to call off all action. Nesrly 2,000 union mebers at present on strike in London will be brought back to work, and the Goverament will be let uff the hook.
In the unlikely event that Foot will turn dowa such a surrender by the bureaucrats, the NEC promise to "'escalate" action once agrin.
Just how serious an 'escalation the has been sabotaged hy che majority of the London weighting panei and the national exccutive, who have consistently tefased to bring the branch out A miss lobby of tre aroon cacquarten by 500 NALGO members Before the NEC meeting last week demanded thal Tower Hamlets, Hackney -whith aiso voted to sinke -anu LEb branches be breught out immodiataly and the action extended rapidly lo the rest of London, In spito of the delaying and Tragrenting cactios of the "leadership" chis shows that enthusiasm and the desize for a real fight is still spreading Islington branch, now increasingly ussuameg tne coi or ureaaisng centre und leaderstor ol liw strugie, i5 snu solidly out. It holds berween twe and thee Fau brancaeceines a wook, 1o0 has attempted to bring ather brancti TELO SCE! iemands were made ta bring ine other branc hes immodiately The leadershin in che nexi leu dars, the midest possible unofbcial actien must starting to comnc into tbe canspaign, Jomt Computer Cornițice hranchos tapic extensian ef strikes in otber arcas.
mass raily af all strike committees.
in London. The rally woukd be able to plan a straregy to givo leadership lo the campugn, deal with the sell-out of the barceucrats, and start to build tie necciery links with other unions in strugge aguinst the social conitreet.
With the posibilaty of'a sell-out by в том ака та Loodon Homuens must be given the fullest possihle supper! and encouraged to stay out. The best way prosbie ta do this wauld he threugh the Tris now absolutely necessary for a campaig committoos, and other mill tants ALAN BENNETT oppression of woles is not, as some "revolutionaries" consider, a diversion which weakens the strugg'e. The strugdo will be wenkened by tailing to mako this a central isue within the working class.
JEFF KING Red Weekly EDITORIAL/FEATURES 01-837 6954 NEWS/REPORTERS 01-278 2616 PRODUCTION 01-837 9987 All at 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1.
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Red Weekly 9 May 1974
an official day of mourning.
team of junior officers.
The ruling military junta are all men recruited and educated by the old regime. Their leader, General Spinola, fought as a volinteer with Franco's army during the Spanish Civil War, and was an observer with Hitler's armies in Russia during the Second World War. As commander in the Portuguese colony of Guinea, he was the architect of a Vietnam-type strategy (bombing of civilian population, use of napalm, uprooting and imprisonment of civilians in 'strategic hamlets").
But Spinola and his fellow Generals are balanced delicately on the edge of a volcano, Within this volcano the forces of popular struggle are mounting steadily. ready to explode into the light of day and remake the landscape PORTUGAL WAS THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO greet the news of Hitler's suicide in a Berlin bunker by proclaiming Today Portugal's fascist regime, after a brutal and bloody history stretching back more than 40 years, shares the same fate as Hitler's "Third Reich'. It was destroyed in less than four hours by the country's armed forces, under the leadership of a little known of Portuguese life from top to WORKERS MOVEMENT Despite the long years of repression under the dictatorship, the Portuguese workers movement burst onto the scene within hours of the coup.
The most spectacular demonstration of worKine CIss UNIV aDd readiness to struggle so far has been the massive May Day demonstration.
for an official celebration of May Day we 2 fat refusa Now is the time to get back to work', is reported to have been his reply, However, faced with spontaneous preparations throughout the working class for a May Day general strike, the junta was forced to beat a retreat and try to bring the celebrations under its own wing.
REBUILDING UNIONS
ets" organisations allowed to operate openly have been the "sindicatos" trade unions strictly controlled by the Government.
The 'sindicates' were kept deliberately weak and fragmenced. Their leaders were Government-appointed, they did not have the right to strike, and they were not allowed to cooper. ate, or even communicate with one another.
Two years ago, relatively froe elections wete permitted in the 'sindicatos' for the first time, in an effort to step the growing rash of spontaneous strikes. However, the Government was dissatisfied with the outcome of this new policy, and promptly removed most of the newlythe requests from the left-wing parties elected union leaderships from office.
A few unions resisted Chis crackdown. The bank eruployees, among the best organised workers in the country, were successtul in this tigbt until the eve of the coup The first task for many workens, therefore, was to hegin the rebuilding of genuinely independent and democracie trade unions For over 40 years the only workleaders, after the coup Workers from seven disterent unions (including the shopworkers) started the job by physically seizing their union headquarters immediately after the coup. They then took on the task of restoring the democratically elected leaderships, or electing new The Government-run workers social centre was simlarly taken over. Now re-usmed the May Day Association", it wos the site of the Angola first major political meeting in Lisbou WORKERS' COMMITTEES Over the past few days mass meetings bave been taking pince in factories across the country, Workers" committees are being elected, and lists of demands drawn up for pres entation to the management.
Typical of such meetings was one held in a factory belonging to the Dutch electronics monopoly Philips. A miss meeting of 1000 workersalmost the cotire work force-gathered early in the morning Rejecting all requests from the management for discussions until they had concluded tbeir own deliberations, the workers Area: 34,500 sq. mies (England -50,000 sg. mirasi Population: 8% miltion.
Capital: Lisbon Ipop. 780,000l. National Income por person f394; year (Britain-CHOO)
MAIN PORTUGUESE COLONIES Guinea-Bissau Area 14,000 sl. miles.
Population, 500,000 Area: 488,000 sq, miles.
Population: 57 million.
Mozambique Aree: 300,000 ag. miles.
Population: 8,2 milion