EXPULSIONS
*There have been many expulsions of those expressing their discontent, and although the SP campaigned on a Socialist programme, its growing denunciations of nation alisation measures carried out by the MFA seem to indicate a readiness to use Socialist rhetoric but a reluctance to turn it into action...
'In addition, there has been a growing readiness on the part of the SP to stand aside from attempts to construct a popular front and to indulge in the sort of inflammatory anti-communism that has given rise to violence in the North....
*In his personal campaign against the Government of Goncalves and the Communist Party, Soares has legitimised international pressures against the Portuguese and given encouragement to the *My own feeling is that the SP is now being used by the old ruling class to give it respectability and thwart any real progress towards RE-ASSESSMENT Banks concludes with a call for *a re-assessment of Labour Party support for Dr Soares, and although his article contains absurd illusions in the Armed Forces Movement as the hope for the future - illusion which must already have been shattered by subsequent events there can be no doubt that it is an accurate account of the present role of the SP leaders in trying to hold back the workers movement The same view is also expressed by Audrey Wise MP in a new Spokesman publication, Eyewitness in Revolutionary Portugal (to be reThe pamphlet is an account of her visit to Portugai last month, and she too gives examples of how 'the attitude of the leadership of the PSP gave the reaction cover in the beginning. ner introduceon, sue comments "The groundswell of popular power and direct democracy.... is by far the most exciting and probably the most significant feature...It is not true that there is repression and dictatorship in Portugal. In August 1975 the overwhelming atmosphere presses its concern at events in Portugal which threaten a loss of the democratic rights of which people were deprived for so long under the Fascist regime, welcomes the advances made by the Portuguese workers towards the socialist transformation of society "Conference views with alarm the build up of reactionary forces aroun some of the leaders of the Armed Forces Movement and the leadership of the Socialist Party. The international support afforded these people and their call for a 'pluralist (ie. capitalist) democracy, is typified by the espousal of their cause by such champions of socialism as The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Economist, ete.
NO SOLUTION *Conference sees no solution to the problems of the Portuguese work ing class other than the complete abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a democratic workers' state, and calls on the National Executive Committee to afford all moral and material support to the Portuguese Socialist Party members who struggle for those aims."
RALLY
IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PORTUGUESE REVOLUTION SPEAKERS INCLUDE PHILIP AGEE (former CIA operative)
and a representative from the PVCC Friday 26 September 7.30 pm HODon Assemoy sal sonns News Northington St., London, WC1
Eleven opponents of the Franco regime now face death by the garotte as a result of the latest trials —eight alleged members of the Patriotic Anti-fascist Revolutionary Front (FRAP) and three Basque militants. the sentences-imposed under the new 'antiterror laws-were due to be carried out or revoked by this Friday. And there could be many more victims unless the international Six of red weekly 25 september 1975 spain 3 of forces in its favour. This is why the 'Democratic Convergence', composed of SP, Christian Democracy, and some Maoist groups is a real bureaucratic alternative to the Democratic Junta. I think it is a manoeuvre by the SP to create a more favourable position for when it eventually joins the Democratic Junta.
Q. What is the weight of the revolutionary left in Spain?
A. In Spain we have seen the development