The political problems acing the ruling classes of the two countries thus moved in step. For both, the extension of the present ties with European capital was a life-and-death matter. In an era of growing crisis, when each capitalist class is turning more and more to tend its own garden. membership of the Com mon Market is required by both the Portuguese and Spanish capitalists as a guarantee against their industries being frozen out of the European market by new protectionist measures.
struggle for recognition of their occupation This struggle was even co-ordinated in Lisbon and Porto. The neighbourhood commissions of both cities organised demonstrations for decent housing on the same day, with 4,000 in Lisbon and 3,000 in Porto. Furthermore the neighbourhood commissions developed a cam paign of agitation and propaganda to explain to their neighbourhoods the need to form commissions. They called on everyone to come to an assemory to democratically elect the commission and discuss problems of housing, health, day-care centres, price control over stores, and the need for vigilance against reaction, etc.
The Communist Party itself has initiated many neighbourhood commissions so as to better control them.
In several neighbourhoods of Lisbon, Setubal, and the Alentejo, the neighbourhood commissions are more advanced. They have already formed popular assemblies in which, as in Olivaes, Pontinha, and other places, the workers commissions of the neighbourhood participate, as well as the delegates of soldiers elected in their barracks for this purpose.
ASSEMBLIES
The function of the popular assembly is to co-ordinate the struggle of neighbourhood commissions, workers' commissions and soldiers' commissions against reaction and capitalist exploitation. Some popular assemblies have even demanded the arming of the workers, and in the Alentejo, they have formed committees to carry out the land reform In Setubal there is a permanent secretariat of the popular assemblies which was democratically elected, which is in charge of co-ordinating struggles and calling mass assemb+ lies when the situation requires it.
Because of this development of neighbourhood commis sions and popular assemblies between May and July, the AFM was forced to recognise their existence in order to try to tie them to the state apparatus and to prevent them from going beyond the limits within which the AFM wants to keep them.
The situation following || March which I have deceribed had to seek some way by their regimes a democrati sort of institutions of cap absorb and redirect the el Half century go the capitalism forced its rulin leap to dictatorship that its own future. On 25 Ar forced the Portugese cap ate leap - this time to ca Under the hammer blo fighters, the colonies had lief for the Portuguese ca can be characterised as a pi nationalised companies the workers in ea mission which is in charge on the industry in collabor commissions or tne maustr (a massive conglomerate), o tiles in the North, elected v and the nationalisation o In this same period whe the SP made alliances with (PPD) and Centre Democra ent Assembly to criticise th bourgeois PPD and CDS The SP left the Governn tal reason was the Republic was the AFM's refusal to s people's power and its de assemblies Here is how Antonio Re of the Socialist Party, expla ernment. The quotation is azine Vida Mundial: "To a tion of the workers to deve ment tom governing, bec tion of its power and the p thinks the only guarantee o Government including the the authority of the Consti POPULIS By refusing to link up w of the struggles which were its campaign against the CP in the factories and barrack ponsible for what happene the daily newspapers from because the SP had told th