(The following article appeared in the June 12 issue of Combate, the central organ of the Liga Comunista (Communist League), a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International in Spain. Signed by E.A., the article is dated June 9.
(The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
The attack against a working-class newspaper-as in the case of any organization or right of the workers-is an attack against the entire workers movement, which has forged such instruments of struggle through its own efforts.
However, the leadership of the Portuguese Communist party is responsible for the attempted seizure of the daily República from the Socialist party. Even if it did not promote it directly, the miseducation provided by its method of attacking the SP paved the way for the seizure. And, above all, instead of uncompromisingly defending the right of the SP to keep the paper, the PCP acted to support the seizure along with sectors of the military who want to silence a workers party.
Doubtless, the PCP actions in this case are in harmony with its rhetoric about the so-called "revolutionary dynamic promoted by the MFA,"' which is supposed to be above formal bourgeois democracy. Nonetheless, everyone knows that the PCP is the staunchest opponent of the formation of factory committees—mass organizations of direct democracy, which are the only thing that can provide the basis for higher forms of democracy.
But there is more to this. The República affair, like the PCP's previous support to restrictions on the right to strike and to the policy of "one unionism," makes it clear that in the name of "revolution," this party is joining representatives of the bourgeoisie like the MFA to attack the freedoms, newspapers, and most basic rights of the working class.
The SP counterposes to such aggression a campaign for "freedom of the press" within a "pluralistic" democracy like that in Western Europe.
In Western Europe "freedom of the press" is the right of the monopolies and their state to manipulate information. The Francoist press and all European reactionaries have supported Soares's campaign. Curiously, during the same days, a banker who defends that type of "freedom" fired the publisher and the whole editorial board of the weekly Destino. Only in this case it was not a question of "something imposed by the workers." It was a case of the rights of ownership. The "democrat" Pujol? had decided to kick out the editors because, according to him, they were trying to let the voice of the PCE -among many othersthe voice of the majority party in the workers movement and one that is persecuted by Franco, be heard. And this is not an isolated case: The scandalous repression of journalists is repeated over and over again in the press of the Spanish "democratic opposition." Publications in which the PSOE* has a certain influence are not marked by a great tolerance for other views.
In Portugal, since the masses have forced the capitalists to loosen their grip on the press somewhat, "freedom" means that it is controlled by the MFA acting as the bourgeoisie's representative. And the SP along with the CP signed an agreement recognizing the MFA's right to trample this and many other rights of the workers. They are in the coalition government to endorse such outrages.
But to Soares the most immediate threat to freedoms in Portugal does not come from the MFA, the bourgeois parties led by Salazarists (PPD, CDS® ... ), or from the fascists. It comes from the PCP. In the República campaign as on other occasions, the SP, in the name of socialism, has united with the PPD and the CDS to pressure and appeal to the MFA and to exclude the party that has the support of the largest section of the proletariat. "Pursued by the CP (and by the PPD), we have but one true ally: the MFA," Soares said.
In short, the two parties are rivals in servility to the military chiefs. While they fight publicly, dividing the working class, they lend a hand to help the MFA repress the MRPP6 and the soldiers who do not want to defend imperialism in Angola. And, above all, in opposition to strikes like those of the chemical and hotel workers, both are carrying out the MFA's slogan calling on "the Portuguese people and the political parties to consolidate national unity in view of the difficult task of reconstruction." This reconstruction consists of imposing capitalist superexploitation in the so-called "battle for production" on the proletariat.
To unite with the bourgeoisie, to divide the workers and oppressed-that is the task of all popular fronts. The beneficiary is always the bourgeoisie:
• The MFA is encouraged in its desire to go over the heads of some workers parties that it cannot suppress at the moment. Thus it can utilize them as transmission belts to force the workers to accept capitalist aggressions.
• The bourgeois parties fish in the troubled waters and capitalize on the demoralization of some sectors of the petty bourgeoisie that are disillusioned with the working-class parties.
• And, in short, the way is opened for the fascists to denounce the "chaos of political parties" (Cunhal offers proof) and the "threat of a Moscow dictatorship" (Soares offers proof). Precisely while the CP and SP were squabbling over the República affair, the fascist ELP7 began to carry out terrorist actions.
Each step in the combined betrayal by the PCP and PSP projects more clearly the need to fight for the unity of the workers movement, and in the course of that struggle, to construct a revolutionary party worthy of the Portuguese proletariat. For a united front of the CP and SP to fight against capitalist reaction; against fascism and against the MFA, which opens the way for it; against all attacks on the freedoms and organizations of the workers and the oppressed. Against the capitalist battle for production.
Such a battle against bourgeois reaction was what the workers of República sought with their class instinct. They are not responsible for the fact that that instinet has been derailed and deformed, leading them to try to suppress a newspaper considered by tens of thousands of socialist workers as a weapon in that very struggle.
Workers democracy (which in this case showed that it was not up to a small group of workers to take away the newspaper of a
5. Pe party Celato Demonic Social sociali workers party with a broad mass audience) is indispensable for the unity of the entire class in the struggle for its common interests. To defeat the reactionaries it is vital to fight for workers democracy in the parties and trade unions, and to develop forms of direct democracy in the factories and work centers. Only thus is it possible to unite the class and cement the firmest alliance with the other victims of capitalist aggression: the peasants, the soldiers, the youth, the people of Angola.
Notes
1. Movimento das Forças Armadas-Armed Forces Movement.
2. Jordi Pujol, a Catalan banker associated with the "liberal" wing of the Spanish bourgeoisie.
3. Partido Comunista de España-Spanish Communist party.
4. Partido Socialista Obrero Español-Spanish Socialist Workers party.
6. Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado-Movement to Reorganize the Proletarian Party.
7. Exército de Libertação Portuguesa-Portuguese Liberation Army.