[The following article appeared in the March 17 issue of Inprecor, a fortnightly news bulletin published by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.]
The Fourth Congress of the Liga Comunista Internacionalista (LCI- Internationalist Communist League), Portuguese sympathizing organization of the Fourth International, was held in Lisbon February 25-27. After a discussion opened in September 1976 and marked by intense debate in all the cells of the organization, the Congress amended the resolutions presented by the outgoing Central Committee. The approximately 100 delegates present adopted various documents unanimously or by majority vote. These dealt with the political situation and the building of the organization, work in the factories, work among student youth, work among women, the international situation, and the fusion with the Partido Revolucionário dos Trabalhadores PRT- Revolutionary Workers party). The Congress also adopted new statutes and elected a new leadership.
Many sections of the International sent delegations to the Congress. The LCI delegates gave an especially warm welcome to the representative of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) of Spain, who also brought the greetings of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. A PRT delegation participated in the entire Congress discussion.
The closing session heard representatives from the Portuguese Communist party as well as from the Popular Socialist Front (FSP) and the Chilean Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).
This Congress marked significant progress for the Portuguese Trotskyist organization since its Third (Extraordinary) Congress of December 1975. This was reflected in the important political success won through participation in struggles against the government austerity plan, the group's emergence during the December municipal election campaign and the preparation of the trade-union congress last January, the intervention among women, and the building of the National Union of Portuguese Students (UNEP). It was also reflected in the organizational strengthening of the LCI. A campaign to raise money to buy printing equipment adapted to the LI's growing needs has just been successfully concluded. This will pave the way for improvement of the weekly Luta Proletária, which has been appearing regularly for a year now, and for promoting the new theoretical journal of the Portuguese Trotskyists, Acção Comunista, the first issue of which contains a long and very rich article drawing the balance-sheet of three years of the Portuguese revolution as well as several contributions on the present situation and revolutionary strategy in Europe. (To order a copy, write to Acção Comunista; Francisco Louca; Rua Conde de Sabugosa 29, 90 Esq; Lisboa 5; Portugal.)
Forecast for Britain: Cloudy,
Plumes of Highly Radioactive Dust
Plans for Britain's National Health Service in the event of a nuclear war have been brought up to date, according to a report in the February 5 London Times.
Although details of procedures previously outlined were not reported, the prognosis for survival does not appear to have improved.
The new plans are said to take into account the assumption that the "greater part of the country would be covered, in varying degrees, by plumes of highly radioactive dust and that the intensity of the fallout would prevent movement for at least 48 hours in most areas."