ANTI-SALAZAR FRONT
By Julio Cabral
Three ‘thousand copies of a new book criticizing Salazart!s colon= ial policy were seized by the Portuguese police at the beginning of February, according to reports coming from Portugal, Entitled Ilusdes Macabras (Macabre Illusions), the seized work is the latest of a series written on the Portuguese colonial question by Francisco Pinto da Cunha Leal. Oo.
The author, a pre-Salazar prime minister, is one of the most venerable spokesmen of the Portuguese opposition. | Eoonomist, financier arid expert on colonial questions, his opposition to the dictatorship derives from divergence of views on how Portuguese capitalism can best operate. In particular, since the Angolan war and the liberation of Goa, he has vehemently propounded the view that of all Salazar's crimes, his worst is that of risking losing the empire, without which -- according to Cunha Leal =~ Portugal will become an appendage of Spain,
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In three preceding works: A Gadanha da Morte (The Soythe of
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Death), A Patria em Perigo (The Fatherland Imperilled), and 0 Gantaro vai & Fonte (The Pitcher Goes to the Well), published respectively in 1961, [962 and 1963 -~ Cunha Leal appeals to the Portuguese bourgeoisie to open its eyes and recognize that the tyrannical and repressive methods of Salazar fascism not only isolate Portugal from the "free ~ world," but have also provoked the birth of nationalism in the Portuguese colonies, Liberalization, both politically and economically, is in his view the only answer, Only the restoration of parliamentary democracy can prevent the continuation of excesses and mistakes of the dictatorship; only free enterprise and untrammelled liberty. for foreign investors can provide Portugal with the capital necessary to develop the colonies and provide the means for educating Africans, Ineidental to this basic thesis (but very indicative of Cunha Leal's ideology) is-the author's criticism of the Portuguese tradition of "miscegenation" and his advocacy of racial segregation in the "autodetermined" Portuguese colonies, English style,
In Ilusoes Macabres. Cunha Leal goes further. Till now he had argued that Portugal should cease her stubbornness and satisfy world opinion by agreeing to the right of colonies to self-determination, In his Latest work he reveals more clearly his concept of "selfdetermination": a government of whites and blacks, in which whites. would dominate, Eventually, after the education of an African élite and preparation of the masses, the Africans could form the majority, but Portugal would retain control over the colonies! defence and | foreign policy. co
That opinions such as these == which are as radical as an Eng~ lish conservativets -- can meet with censorship in Portugal is an index of the obscurantism of Salazar, However, the opinions expres- ‘sed in the book, together with the current political alliances of the author, are of more than superficial interest, Not only do these views correspond toa growing currént among Salazarists thomselves, but they also represent the only solidly constructed body of thought to be found anywhere in the opposition, That this opposition, including the. Communist party -- organized in the Frente Patriotica da Libertagao Nacional LFPLN] -- is responsive to Cunha Lealts views is ‘evident from recent events and from the FPLN's radio broadcasts praising this colonialist politician. December Conference |
In December 1965, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the FPLN held its second conference since the Front was founded a year previously, In _ addition to transforming the FPLNts governing body == the socalled Delegate Commission, which is composed of self-appointed individuals no one of whom has been elected by an organization == into the Por~: tuguese Revolutionary Junta, and choosing General Delgado to lead -: it, the Conference also decided to admit two new groups, Till now, the FPLN had included individual liberals, socialists, Catholics and monarchists and the Communist party, the only anti-Salazarist organ= ization with any mass basis and apparatus inside the country. In addition the FPLN embraced various exile groupings in South America,
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Britain and France, In. December, 1963, however, a new group from inside Portugal, the Resistencia Republicana, was officially admitted.to the Front. Hitherto onty- individuats from. this’ group had ~ belonged to the: Front.
Resistencia. Republicana. isa bourgeois and colonialist grouping _ whose leading public figures. are: » Professor Azevedo Gomes (agronomist and big landowner); Colonel Helder Ribeiro (manufacturer and . former Republican’minister); Dr, A. C. Velga~Pires .(who has close links with the Banco. Portugal do Atlantico, a.bank with important interests in Angola); Mario Soares. (proprietor: of an exclusive private school); Manuel Tito de Morais (FPLN representative in Algiers); -Ramos da Costa (an economist), . . and Cunha Leal. . The movement is semi-legal and its leaders have published open “letters to Salazar.
Resistencia Republicana's adherence to. the Front: has now been made public. But behind closed. doors the FPLN Conference also admitted to - its ranks the group of dissident Salazarists headed by Marshall — Craveiro Lopes (President of the Republic before 1958), and including two writers whose views are very similar to those of Cunha Leal: the industrialist with big Angolan interests, Manuel Vinhas, and the deputy Homem de Melo, The adherence of this group is kept secret, not because its members have anything to fear from Salazarist repression, ports order not to embarrass the FPLN in its quest for African sup ne Por ; . ; In the course of the Conference the Communist: partyts anxiety to find. favour with its new allies was piquantly expressed when the FPLN!s: Statement of Aims was under discussion. General Delgado, doubtless influenced by his residence in Brazil where everybody talks of “agrarian reform," proposed that "reform of agrarian structures" should figure in. the FPLN's platform, This was sharply opposed by — Communist party General Secretary, Alvaro Cunhal, who held that such a demand was "too radical," Delgado became indignant, pointed out. that he was apparently more to the left than the Communists, and “won his point. However, what kind of reform of agrarian: structures - is. meant the -FPLN does not explain, . Lon
The Portuguese Communist party's total abdication of rovolution-= ary leadership was admitted by Alvaro Cunhal on June 23, 1963, on Prague Radio (Radio Free Portugal) when he. declared. that the party “had no ambition to lead the Patriotic Front. te
This was further emphasized in a recent: public statement in Algiers by a Front leader, Fernando Piteira Santos, At a public forum of Spanish and Portuguese youth held in danuary, when Algerians in the audience questioned the policy of the Communist party regarding desertion from the colonialist army, Piteira Santos declared that although the party had at one time forbidden desertion from.the Ango= dan war, it now entirely subordinated its policy to that of the Front, “which, in certain cases, favours desertion," The Portuguese Commun- ‘ist party, the speaker stated, had no other aims than those of the Fron
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The Portuguese Communist party, whose general secretary last | August violently attacked the Chinese Communist party in the party's official paper, Avante, is now evidently hastening to put Khrushchevism quite concretely into practice. In this connectionthe open alliance with the colonialist Cunha Leal is of some interest, For Cunha Leal, a vicious anti-Communist all his life, devotes many pages in A Patria em per ee to the world danger of Chinese Communism, whose aim he identifies with that of the African nationalists. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, says Cunha Leal, as a modern European power is susceptible to persuasion to make common cause with America and the West against the "coloured hordes,"
In any event, there can be no doubt at all of Khrushchevian back ing for the Communist-colonielist alliance within the FPLN, Not only did the organization's conference meet in Czechoslovakia, but chief of the Portuguese Revolutionary Junta, General Delgado, is at present undergoing treatment in a Prague sanatorium, The Comnunist party would seem to have come a long way from the days in early 1958 when it. distributed leaflets all over Portugal attacking Delgado's candidature for presidency of the Republic as "a candidature fabricated in the American and British. embassies in Lisbon," praised by Schow
That statement five years ago was backed by fairly solid evidence, for only three months earlier, when Delgado was about to leave Wash- “ington where he was Portugal's NATO. representative (and had already received the U.S. Legion of Merit), the General was the subject of an extraordinarily warm leave-taking Prom the Americans, At a farewell reception in Washington, no less a personage than the U.S. Army's Secret Service Chief, General R, A. Schow, praised General Delgado in the presence of more than a hundred U.S, zenerals and. admirals as well as all the NATO representatives, in glowing terms: "portugal," said Schow, "could not have sent a better ambassador of. Portuguese military virtues, .. I believe that he must know more people in military circles than any other NATO officer, both here and at Sac~ land headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. . . General Delgado returns to Portugal accompanied by our best wishes and our most agreeable recollections,"
Nevertheless, a month before the presidential elections in June 1958, the Communist party abandoned its opposition to Delgado and called on its supporters to vote for him. An about-face? Only superficilally. For when one recalls that the original Communist nominee for these self-same elections was none other than the colonialist financier, Cunha Leal,* it becomes clear that from a class point of view the Communist party did not. have to turn very far. Today the wheel has come full circle, for now the party, the general and the ~cOlonialists all find themselves in the same Front «= a Front <in
*Not at all pleased to be a nominee of the Communist party, Cunha Leal pleaded ill-health and refused nomination.
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which the Communist party has..abandoned all pretence at leadership, and in which inevitably those with their hands on the State apparatus, the dissident Salazarists, are at an advantage in the. coming manoevres. for. power. The only thing that has changed is that. instead of open U.S. backing, the General is now receiving open Khrushchevite backing. — .
Under these circumstances. it is not surprising that Portuguese Conmunist rank “and. file both at home and in exile, among whom expulsions and suspensions are multiplying daily, are. beginning to read Chinese literature avidly. Recent reports from Portugal indicate that young militants have lost all respect for the party!s official martyrology of Alvaro Cunhal, and now talk of the need to reconstitute the Communist party on revolutionary’ class lines,
Their task is not an easy one. A factional struggle in.an illegal party in fascist conditions is fraught with danger of police interven= tion. But even more difficult. is the ideological struggle to break down.the “unity” blackmail used by. the leadership to hold the party together - and force support, even. from party dissidents, for the Patri-~ otic. Front,. From.the Central Committee downwards the argument is. propounded that anything is better than Salazar -- even repentant Sala- Zaristse
_ After thirty-five years of fascism and in a politically uneducated party this argument is a powerful one. When it is reinforced by. widespread foreign backing from Khrushchevians it has a strong impact on the isolated and politically inexperienced Portuguese mili-~ tant. But unless the Portuguese Communists. succeed in making a break with opportunism and rebuilding a revolutionary party with a class programme it is clear that whether Salazar stays.or goes the Portuguese colonialist bourgeoisie will remain, and solidarity with the Angolan people will continue to be sacrificed.
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