Arriving at the central square, the troops gathered round the town hall, whose steps served as a make-shift platform. A speaker warned of the threat from the military hierarchy: 'General Fabiao (the army chief-of-staff) sent a note by telex to all unit commanders telling them that our demonstration was coun ter-revolutionary. He has forbidden us to go onto the streets in uniform.' Suddenly a soldier shouted: Down with Fabiao!' Within seconds the cry was taken up on all sides.
Coimbra infantry regiment told how the commander of the central region, General Charais - one of the signatories of the Melo Antunes document - had also tried to prevent soldiers from leaving their barracks. Again a roar went up: "Down with Charais, Pinochet's apprentice!' Finally an anonymous soldier appealed to the audience to step up their activity:
*We must generalise to showto the authorities and the bourgeoisie the power of the soldiers. taken the first steps towards the independent self-organisation of the workers in uniform. The soldier is a son of the people. to shoulder with the people organised in their factories and their neighbourhoods, we shall thwart the manoeuvres of the reactionary officers.
Then, shouting the slogan 'Portugal will not be the Chile of Europe', the soldiers dispersed from what was undoubtedly one of Today he no longer thinks so.
nothing today. socialism.
Then another speaker from the on the Antunes document:
these demonstrations Tonight we have cism.
Shoulder of COPCON? Gomes explains: