La new workers' offensive in the autumn.
to strike break during the recent postal workers'strike.
Well may the bourgeoisie hasten to make such preparations. For the wave the coup revealed the immense creativity and fighting determination of the Portuguese workers.
STRIKE MOVEMENT The strike movement became generalised throughout the country only after the massive working class May Day demonstration had made clear the powerful position of the workers.
Among the first workers to act were those in communications. As early as 30 April workers in one Lisbon radio station had struck over management's refusal to broadTHE RECENT repressive moves made by Portugal's Provisional Government are designed to strengthen the position of the ruling class in preparation for The latest development has been the prosecution of two Lisbon nowspapers for daring to publish news reports about the recent arrest of two They were supported by workers at another major daily paper.
The movement extended into the construction industry, where immig rant workers - most of them from the African Cape Verde Islands fought side by side with Portuguese workers in every militant struggle.
On 15 May the workers of various construction companies went on strike and organised flying squads to protect their struggle. On 13 May ammigrant workers (400 from Cape (Verde) and Portuguese workers (1,200) in the Panassqueire iron mines launched a movement that lasted until 20 May when all their demands were met (guaranteed minimum wage of 6,000 escudos [£100] a month, an extra month's pay every year, free medical assistance, one month vacation). The workers commission that led the strike was composed of four Portuguese and four Cape Verde workers.
The chemical industry, the automobile and related industries, the food industry, the banks and insurance companies, were all hit by workers mobilisations.
The demands that were raised in nearly all these mobilisations were:
a minimum monthly wage of 6,000 escudios, forty-hour workweek, thirteen and fourteen months' pay a year, one month vacation, guaranteed wages in case of illness or accident. Demands directed against the capitalist organisation of labour were rare, but those concerning security of cmployment (rehiring of Tired workers, no layoffs) became more and more numerous as the mobilisations went on. This is abviously important, for the fight against unemployment may well be one of the main axes of the mobilisations in the sutumn.
The process of conscious unification of the movement was very limited, being restricted to the textile: industry, where the MES (Movement of the Socialist Left) has an imporTant trade union influence. On 12 May some 6,000 workers in the wool industry initiated a struggle demanding a 1,000 escudo (E17) increase for all. By 14 May more than 20,000 workers in the textile industry were engaged in struggle DEMOCRATIC FORMS In many factories, democratic forms of organisation of the strikes emerged. Workers commissions were elected in order te work out a platform of demands and organise the fight. This was the case, for example. in the Lisnave shipyards (where 8,400 workers went on strike on 13 May) and in the Mossa metal factory (on strike since 16 May), in which a workers" commission composed of nine members organised the occupition of the factory and the formation of picket squads.
These workers commissions were somewbere between strike committees and factory committees. They united the workers vanguard in the leadership of the strike and also organised general assemblies of workers Federation (controlled by the Comstruggle.
eded since 30-31 May, But it would situation.
As far as wages are concerned, although the CP supported the minimum wage of 3,300 escudos (£55) a month that had been granted by the Provisional Government (before 25 April the CP was demanding 6,000 escudos), the increases won in struggle were generally of the order of 1,000 to 1,500 escudos and the minimum wages most often exceeded by several hundred escudos the national minimum 'offered by the Provisional Government.
ed, victories were less numerous. But vacations were won. And the deline of the struggles is not so strange considering that in a few days thousands of Portuguese workers will be able to go on paid vacations for the first time The crucial question remains what to a worsening of the economic situation and to a counter-offensive by the employers.
ADVANCED
Some strikes have arisen whose goals and organisation indicate the deeper process of radicalisation that is affecting advanced sectors of the working class. The strikes at Timex and Messa presage what could develop Mass meeting of postal workers during the strike to make essential decisions. At Messa and Timex these workers' commissions struggles. rejected the intervention of the Union munist Party), which tried to interfere in the strike to take over its leadership and destroy the democratic forms of organisation that had developed in the The wave of mobilisation has recbe completely wrong to interpret the decline in struggles either as a defeat or as evidence of the CP's or the Un ion Federation's ability to controt the gle them.
As far as the workweck is concernkind of reaction the masses will mount more widely during a new rise of It must tirst of all be understood that such strikes immediately confront the whole anti-strike campaign the CP has been waging, a campaign that has heen taken up by the junts. The continuation of these strikes therefore involves a process of politicization - breaking with the line of the CP and opposing the manoeuvres of the Union Federation, which is seeking to get a tight grip on these struggles in order to be able to stranThis confrontation and this break with the CP line involves a strengthening both of the forms of self-orgunisa tion and of the support campaigns for the struggles. On 27 May, after having waged a strike from 9 May to 15 May and after having put the forty-hour work-week into effect themselves. the Times workers occupied the factory. The workers commission that washold over their European competitors leading the strike organised strike pickets, gained control over the com pany's stocks, prevented any watches from being shipped out, and planned on occupying the company offices and on establishing a "war chest' to make sure that the workers would be paid for the time they were on strike. The struggle at Lip in France had developed an influcnesthat spread as far as Listion!
In addition, the working men and women of Timex, like those of Messa, published a newspaper in order to publicise their struggle, a newspaper which more and more consciously expressel their opposition to the strategy of the CP und the Union Federation. Finally, they organised demonstrations in conjunction with the Timex Support Committoe, in which the militants of the ECI (in ternationalist Communist League, Portuguese sympathising organisation of the Fourth International) played a decisive role The clements at work in these strikes (demands like integration of bonuses into basic wages, the initiatives tending toward workers' con trol, the democratic organisation of the struggle and the factory occupa tions, the opposition to the policy of the CP) have allowed revolutionary Marxists to develop agitation and propaganda that is winning a signifcant hearing among the young workers who, after having successfully led strikes and having fought for democratic management of the struggle, find themselves facing a Communist Party that is actually opposing their struggle Even in relation to the most immediate problems it uppears that the CP is totally disarming the workers in face of the policy of the employers, who can only be expected to try and maintain the "wage advantages they in the Common Market and who will try to win back what they have been forced to yield under the 'pressure of events".
It is not likely -and there are already various indications of this -that the CP will be able to contioue this policy and still maintain its present influence over the working masses. The demonstration to sup port the policy of the Ministry of Labour, at the head of which marched the Communist Pacheco Goncalves, was a failure On 30 May, the day of the march, ao more than 5,000 or 6,000 demonstrators expressed their support of the policy of national union' and of the anti-strike struggle'. The national unthem was sung in this demonstration, and portraits of Spinola were carried. The Union of Communist Students swell the runks of the workers favouring "social peace OUT NOW!
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army officers. The officers were charged with refusing to obey their orders On 9 May the workers at Lisbon's leading daily newspaper struck.to of struggle that swept the country after demand publication of a statement from the workers on the front page.