In the struggle to forge, unite and generalise mass democratic organisations of working class power in Portugal a leading role has been played by s struggle and it will certainly prove its importance as an arm of struggle in the coming months. Below we print some excerpts from the Manifesto of the workers of Republica to all the workers, poor and exploited of Portugal issued on une.
•We, workers of Republica, are aware that we live in a society in which knowledge and education are scarce, and which lacks, moreover, a policy for the news media that, instead of crippling the working class, exploited and poor, gives them intellectual and economic Socialist construction We defend, in the presence of all Portuguese came the first in the country to draw up and approve its constitution.
(including the election of representatives to the Assembly) through mass meetings.
popular culture the Assembly a Revolutionary Committee will be elected to act as its executive body aspects by the workers), and not to new forms of capitalism and oppression.' The Popular Assembly - a democratic body consisting of delegates from 15 workers' commis sions, 24 residents committees, and the local army unit — met in the local barracks, which is occupied by a unit that has broken with the hierarchy of the capitalist army and conducts its affairs According to the statutes adopted, the purpose of the Assembly is to: 'Mobilise the popular masses for the tasks of building socialism; constitute the basis of a new state in the service of the workers; guarantee that the popular masses can take their destinies into their own hands; control production, prices and rents; defend the revolutionary process from attacks by national reaction and imperialism; and contribute to the constitution of a collective consciousness and a All decisions at the Assembly are taken by a show of hands after an open and democratic dis cussion. The Assembly is the sovereign body of the working class in the area, and its decisions are binding on all the organisations that take part in its deliberations. At the next meeting of the As the Lisbon newspaper Republica, now published under workers' control, said in its report of the Pontinha Assembly: 'It is this organisation which will allow the unity of all those forces who are struggling against the dictatorship of capital. This and only this sort of organisation is profoundly democratic and truly represents the workers. It guarantees that the exploited masses can themselves take matters into their hands, leading them forward in the struggle for their liberation, and ensuring that this leads to socialism (the only free society, for it is run in all its