Now the Communist Party bas once again entered a coalition GorTwo of the five ministers who were involved in the right-wing man.
back again, But the main thing about the new Government is that it is dom inated by the military, While military men hold only seven posts out of the 17 in the Government, they include almost the key positions — the Prime Minister, and the ministers of home affairs, defence, labour and informa- 25 May] The only important posts not held by the military are the ministries of finance and the economy (taken over by bourgeois coonomic experts with no political affiliations) and foreign The military have decided to take (including even labour, •.. The Portuguese Communist Party is prepared to continue to participate in a coalition Government as long as it firmly applies the programme of the Armed Forces Movement ..." [Avantel - paper of the Portuguese CP -It is obvious that there is nothing radical in the programme of the Armed Forces Movement... one cannot even find a specific attack on the class division of Portuguese society, or on the traditional existence of a ruling class, or even on the composition of the bloc in power...
'The fact that the military has been able to play a decisive role in the destruction of the political regime is a new guarantes for the maintenance of the interests of the holders of economic power. The authority that is always associated with a military government will be very useful in stabilis ing a social and political situation that inevitably will be turbulent after the military coup." [Tempo Economico -Portuguese employers" magazine -where the Communist Party's strikebreaking has served the Portuguese capitalists so well). The non-military members of the Government are there for a specitic purpose.
The three socialist ministers are to give the Government the left wing' image which the military still want to preserve (the continuation of Soures as Foreign Minister is proof of the power of the African liberation movements, who would be disturbed by any switch).
The right-wing Popular Democratic Party (the only bourgeois party to have really got off the ground so far) has been given one member in the Government in order to boost its efforts to build an effective capitalist party before the elections take