o magalhaães as criancinhas sócrates e as desculpas

Magalhães obriga Sócrates a pedir desculpas

Primeiro-ministro escreveu carta aos pais

O secretário-geral do PS, José Sócrates, já pediu desculpas aos pais das crianças utilizadas no vídeo do tempo de antena do PS, confirmou o porta-vos do partido, em declarações ao «Correio da Manhã». O primeiro-ministro escreveu uma carta aos encarregados de Educação.

O vídeo foi para o ar a 22 de Abril. Inicialmente o PS descartou responsabilidades e disse que foram pedidas todas as autorizações, mas agora dá uma nova explicação centrada na «ausência de comunicação».


Está bem.Estamos de acordo .

O Ps distrai-se com a estória das criancinhas , mais lá das campanhas e do magalhães etc etc etc e está bem de acordo todos sabemos que isso não se faz.
Mas não exageremos, que isso que o ps fez, já outros fizeram e que me lembre ninguém falou muito nisso--houve mesmo os que silenciaram e muito atitudes do mesmo em género e intenção e sim senhor, é muito bonito e democrático denunciar; mas então haja justiça e boa memória para denunciar e recordar todos os aproveitamentes de criancinhas, vélhinhos e vélhinhas ,pessoas de meia idade e afins, desempregados, desempregadas , creches lares hospitais etc etc onde todos filmaram falaram e se aproveitaram para campanhas politicas melhores ou piores. Que isto de politicas, que me desculpem os senhores que agora se ouriçam contra o partido socialista são quase sempre iguais entre si lol.

O que acontece é que sócrates está na berlinda.
O que acontece é que os que andam a correr contra o ps e contra o vento, querem obter resultados , o que acontece é que estamos em periodo de escolha eleitoral e em periodos destes vale tudo até tirar olhos e como o ps está em melhor posição para obter dividendos sobre o trabalho que fez, vá de atirar a torto e a direito que isto daqui a nada acaba e a vida politica é uma pressa lol.

Mas não me falem mais de criancinhas a ser usadas em campanhas publicitárias para partidos e partidarismos que isso de criancinhas é hoje o que foi ontem , uma forma de mostrar resultados

Pelo menos estas criancinhas aparecem na televisão e até recebem cartinhas de nosso primeiro. As outras receberam a tal beijoca e mais nada e muitas delas nem isso hehe.

E não; eu não quero beijocas de nosso primeiro ;) nem dele nem de ninguém, esta é mesmo a minha opinião e livre sobre tal assunto.

e a tal gripe suina estará em portugal?

Em Portugal não há casos confirmados, mas duas portuguesas estão proibidas de sair de casa, durante pelo menos dez dias. Conta o Correio da Manhã que as duas jovens chegaram da Cidade do México com sintomas e já foram atendidas no hospital Amadora-Sintra




Esta história da súbita transformação da gripe suina numa versão mais agressiva e mortal tem muito que se lhe conte.
Já há muito quem sussurre que isto é manobra de gente sem escrúpulos, invenção mortal de laboratório , mais uma manifestação do que os tempos modernos têm de pior e que daqui a pouco está tudo infectado como num filme de terror .
Eu que não sou própriamente pessimista também estou a desconfiar.
Dizem que os porcos não têm nada a ver com isto , o que não ajuda nadinha a confianças, pois está bem , se calhar não terão ,mas nisto de gripes como em tudo , todo o cuidado é pouco e eu daqui para a frente, em relação a carne de porco passo a judia afinal de contas eles sabem o que fazem.

Mas voltando a insinuações e terrores , isto é muito de desconfiar sim senhor.
Então não nos bastava a tal crise , agora também temos que apanhar com
a tal gripe?
Para já, suspeita-se de que tenha chegado a Portugal.
Depois de outros países terem dado o alerta e de já haverem imensas mortes no México.
Não está com bom aspecto não e com Portugal não se brinca .
Investiguem pois e tomem cuidados

Será necessário tratar dos que estão neste momento a sofrer as consequências da doença seja ela o que for e tenha vindo de onde quer que seja,mas depois conviria dar explicações e fazer investigações sobre o que é afinal e como se desenvolveu.
É que há para aí muita gentinha capaz de tudo e enquanto ameaçam com bombas atómicas podem muito bem estar a atirar bombas sim,mas de outro tipo

Pelo sim pelo não aqui fica informação mais profunda sobre as relações com porcos e suas possiveis consequências.

México terá vacinação em massa contra gripe suína após 60 mortes

O vírus normalmente é ligado ao contato com porcos


O governo do México anunciou estar preparando uma campanha de vacinação em massa para deter o avanço de uma nova variedade de gripe suína que teria provocado a morte de 60 pessoas no país desde a metade de março.

Escolas e universidades na região da capital do país, Cidade do México, foram fechadas para evitar mais contaminação

SOURCE

Portugal issues swine flu alert

www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-27 09:15:24

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Backgrounder: Key facts about swine flu

Photos: Mexican gov't hands out 6 mln masks for free

LISBON, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's health authorities said Sunday that there are no confirmed cases of swine flu in the country so far while the government is on alert for a "potential pandemic risk."

The General Health Directorate said Portugal has issued an alert asking residents experiencing symptoms like a swift increase in temperature, intense headache or muscular pain to see doctors and give samples for analysis, especially when they recently visited Mexico, Canada or the United States or had contact with people from those countries.

The directorate said there were no confirmed cases of swine flu so far in Portugal and local officials were asked to report to the National Health Agency immediately if a case was confirmed. Face masks have been recommended for health workers.

In Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez reported three patients hospitalized with swine flu symptoms. Up to Sunday, more than 1,300 suspected or confirmed cases were reported in 17 states in Mexico, 20 confirmed cases in the United States and six confirmed in Canada.

e a gripe suina ataca de novo mas desta vez fizeram um virus melhorzinho

Dois casos de gripe suína confirmados no Reino Unido

Foram confirmados os primeiros casos de gripe suína em solo britânico, na Escócia. Entretanto, o número de casos confirmados nos Estados Unidos chegou aos 40. No México, o governo admitiu ter dificuldades em fazer a contabilidade das vítimas. Oficialmente, morreram 149 pessoas naquele país

Por enquanto nada de grave se passa neste nosso paraíso e isso é bom.Esperemos que esta coisa da gripe a que alguns decidiram chamar de suina ,mas que a mim me parece ser mais um daqueles mistérios que aparecem nem se sabe de onde , nem como,mas que aparecem determinados a destruir a confiança e o equilibrio que neste momento já se encontram muito debilitados pela incerteza e privações que a tal crise -outro mistério visto que culpados nem se vislumbram-nos trouxe a esta civilizaçõa global onde muitos roubam e matam e apenas alguns são condenados.Na verdade é uma benção que a nós nada de pior nos aconteça e que os bons ventos nos excluam do perigo e das intempéries que disso já temos cá com fartura ,não precisamos de gripes sejam elas suinas ou não,mas para aqueles que estão a ser atacados por este virus de má lembrança as coisas devem estar cada dia pior e se é verdade que todos estamos ligados uns aos outros em resultados e connsequências não será menos verdade que nisto de gripes como noutras coisa teremos que nos acautelar acautelando futuras desgraças que pelos vistos atacam rápido e onde menos se espera.

e sócrates lá se rodeou de criancinhas

Propaganda e promiscuidade PS/Estado sem fim.

"Fui informado há pouco que uma escola do 1º Ciclo de Castelo de Vide foi contactada para uma reportagem sobre o computador "magalhães".

O contacto foi feito por alguém que se identificou como estando a falar em nome do Ministério da Educação.

Os professores pediram então autorização para recolha de imagens aos pais das crianças.

Na data marcada foi efectuada a reportagem em nome do Ministério da Educação.

Sucede que no dia 22 de Abril, a comunidade escolar de Castelo de Vide ficou chocada com o resultado da reportagem.

Os pais, alunos e professores verificaram, pela televisão, que não se tratou de uma recolha de imagens para o Ministério da Educação, mas antes para um tempo de antena do Partido Socialista.

Espero que as responsabilidades sobre mais este lamentável episódio sejam apuradas."

(in 31 da Armada)

De qualquer maneira e diga-se o que se quiser contra o magalhães , a verdade é que hoje em dia a vida de imensas crianças ficou muito mais interessante e muito mais possivel em termos de aprendizagem e divertimento.E se tivermos em conta os defeitos e as virtudes, essas duas virtudes são bem mais importantes do que tudo o que se possa dizer contra, portanto o magalhães não é de todo tão mau como o pintam.Portanto todo este sururu á volta das criancinhas e da publicidade feita na campanha televisiva do partidio socialista parece-me um bom bocado hipócrita.Até parece que foi a primeira vez que um partido foi buscar criancinhas para mostrar ao mundo como é bom e eficiente.Talvez não tivesse sido boa ideia mas a verdade é a ser má ideia muitos outros antes do partido socialista a foi buscar e talvez com menos direitos ainda.

salazar salazar já tens o largo querido

Santa Comba inaugura Largo Salazar no 25 de Abril

Pois desta é que foi e foi logo no 25 de abril ,salazar salazar deves andar todo contentinho com os teus que não te esquecem.
Houve quem tivesse ficado muito aborrecido com o evento e com o tal largo,mas a verdade é que largos há muitos e salazares há poucos e o homem por lá nasceu.
Santa comba tem direitos sobre ele e fez valer esses direitos ; acho muito bem.
Portanto , o largo lá está e salazar teve direito a nome .
Só náo teve direito ao reconhecimento de dirigente do povo português.
Ficou-se pelo professor.Já não é nada mau.

sócrates e a sua cruz

O primeiro-ministro revelou ter apresentado uma queixa por difamação e injúrias contra Charles Smith, que o acusa de «corrupto» no já famoso DVD do caso Freeport. Sobre Cavaco Silva, avisou que «cada um tem que pedalar a sua própria bicicleta» e que a oposição faz mal em «instrumentalizar» o Presidente

E já lá diz o Poeta que bicicletas , o melhor é mesmo pedalar as nossas.Sócrates deve conhecer poesia e não só porque a sua intervenção teve momentos da mais alta qualidade em termos de poesia subversiva, mas também porque permaneceu na atitude poética de sorrir sempre que os adversários procuravam insultá~lo; se este homem não tem classe quem é que tem..

Na verdade , no que relaciona com o caso freeport o que se está a passar neste país seria ridículo se não fosse tão grave e não ofendesse tão profundamente o bom nome do nosso primeiro ministro e o nome de portugal na pessoa do mesmo e não consigo vislumbrar razões para que tantos se unam nas ofensas e nas acusações sem fundamento ou prova , apenas perpretadas no silncio da má lingua e de interesses obscuros dos que esses sim, terão boas razões para se esconder atirando a lama na direcção de outros.

Os politicos portuguese poderiam aprender valiosa lições sobre respeito por si se conseguissem ultrapassar as tentações de vitórias construidas sobre ataques pessoais e ofensas á dignidade.

Sócrates esteve bem e teve graça , também teve a coragem de num momento difícil da sua vida pessoal e politíca ripostar alto e em bom som contra aqueles que na verdade têm usado de menos rigor e decncia no modo como usam as armas dos média para tentar ganhar pontos para os partidos que servem ou para si próprios.


Eu sei que a vida está difícil e que é difícil conservar estilos de vida ,mas em tudo nesta vida deve haver limites e os ataques que sócrates , a sua familia e os seus amigos têm sofrido últimamente já ultrapassaram e em muito os limites da decência e da boa convivência.
E até nesta coisa das cruzes deve haver limites que o tempo para levantar cruzes ao alto com seus crucificados já passou.
Seria muito melhor reconhecer esses limites e tentar fazer política com o rigor do reconhecimento do respeito que todos devemos uns aos outros.

Portugal's prime minister, Jose Socrates, is embroiled in an alleged corruption scandal over permission granted for a British development on protected land outside Lisbon.


Police searched the home of Mr Socrates's uncle this week in connection with the affair, which is said to have taken place when Mr Socrates was environment minister in a previous socialist government. Britain's Serious Fraud Office is said to be investigating the unexplained transfer of some 4m euros to bank accounts in Portugal at the time of the deal, press reports say.

Mr Socrates is alleged to have waived environmental restrictions in 2002, following intervention by his uncle and cousin, to grant the British company Freeport a licence to build the Alcochete mall or "village outlet", a gigantic emporium of designer shops south of the Portuguese capital.

The English royal family is reported to have a large stake in Freeport, which was taken over by the US conglomerate Carlyle in 2007.

Mr Socrates denies having misused his ministerial position to allow the shopping mall to go ahead, or having taken bribes from Freeport. In a rare television appearance at the weekend, he scorned the storm of media allegations, which was spearheaded by Lisbon weekly "Sol".

"The reports and the way they are presented are meant to target me personally and weaken me politically in an election year," Mr Socrates said. "Those who think they can beat me this way are wrong, because I'll fight to defend my honour, my integrity."

The Alcochete project was one of a number of major schemes that carved through Portugal's virgin lands, sometimes in defiance of environmental protection orders, in a drive to modernise the country.

The scandal has re-emerged at the worst possible moment for Mr Socrates, who faces general elections this autumn battered by the economic and financial crisis sweeping Portugal.

Environmental approval of the Freeport Outlet project met all legal requirements at the time, Mr Socrates said. He denied that the go-ahead, granted three days before general elections in 2002, was given with "unusual haste". The shopping complex, built in an environmental protection area along the Tagus estuary, needed cabinet approval for regulatory changes.

Ministers reportedly approved the changes just three days before the polls, which Antonio Guterres's Socialists lost to Jose Manuel Durao Barroso's conservative Social Democratic Party. Portugal's environment secretariat subsequently granted planning permission.

"I never gave any instructions to give the case urgent treatment," Mr Socrates insisted. "I reject all insinuations and slanderous allegations that involve my name regarding this case."

The media spotlight focuses on the prime minister's uncle and cousin, Julio and Hugo Monteiro. Hugo Monteiro is alleged to have held meetings with Charles Smith, a Scottish intermediary contracted by Freeport to ease the deal. Julio Monteiro is then said to have used his kinship with Mr Socrates to set up a meeting with the erstwhile environment minister for Mr Smith.

Mr Socrates vaguely recalls meeting Mr Smith in 2001, but "only to present to him the government's environmental requirements," after his ministry had twice blocked the building project. He says he has nothing to do with his uncle's business operations.

THE INDEPENDENT

louçã e as estratégias

Louçã critica «gritante falta de estratégia para o ensino superior»

O coordenador do Bloco de Esquerda, Francisco Louçã, criticou hoje, em Braga, a «gritante falta de visão estratégica do Governo para o ensino superior e a universidade, ou seja, a qualificação dos país.

Francisco Louçã is an economist and a Left Bloc member of the Portuguese parliament. He was the candidate of the Left Bloc in the presidential election of January 2005 (where he won 5.3% of the votes).

Na verdade as estratégias dos últimos anos no que se relaciona com o direito á educação não tem andado nada bem neste nosso cantinho.Melhorou talvez um bocadito para alguns mas no que se relaciona com os direitos que todos têm a uma educação melhor com mais oportunic«dades e aberta a todos os que quiserem dar continuidade aos seus estudos , a verdade é que ainda há muito para se fazer e que muito existe que não foi feito .Para os alunos com menos recursos as universidades continuam de portas fechadas e se é verdade que o governo de sócrates se tem esforçado abrindo janeles de novas oportunidades , não é menos verdade que em termos de setudos superiores os mais pobres continuam sem acesso aos sonhos que apeans para alguns se tornam realidade.-Não vejo razão para que esta situação tão injusta permaneça até porque no meios dos mais pobres existe muita inteligencia e muita vontade de aprender que continua desperdiçada e muitos dos que se vêm obrigados a trabalhos mais desinteressantes ficam assim privados de dar a sua contribuição para um pais que diz precidar de todos e onde todos somos necessários.Dizer estas coisas mantendo os que menos têm fora das universidades é continuar a tal politica hipocrita onde se diz que todos somos necessários ,mas apenas alguns continuam a ter os lugares de destaque
que por direito de oportunidades iguais deveriam pertencer a todos ,tanto pobres como ricos.

IV Online magazine : IV396 - January 2008
Portugal


Where is the Left Bloc going?

Interview
Francisco Louçã



On June 2-3, 2007 the Fifth National Convention of the Left Bloc took place in Lisbon. Since its creation in 1999, this unitary organization of the anti-capitalist Left in Portugal has strongly consolidated itself and has established a presence in the country. Today it has become a significant force, with 4,200 members, an active presence in struggles and social movements, as well as 350 local councillors and 8 members of Parliament. The following interview with Francisco Louça was conducted on July 7, 2007.

Q. The Left Bloc is a pluralist party of the socialist Left. How does it define itself in relation to the hard core of the socialist programme, in the strong sense of the term, i.e. to the socialization of the large-scale means of production, distribution, credit, etc? How do you tackle the key question of property in your programme? Is it possible to refound an anti-capitalist left without taking a clear position on this question?

A. When the Bloc was formed, eight years ago, we made a political choice which I believe is still valid: to create our party on the basis of the political confrontations which define our activity and not on the basis of a priori ideological cohesion. We thus brought together very different traditions, coming from the Communist Party, Maoist or revolutionary Marxist (Trotskyist) currents, as well as people from independent social movements. The possibility of building this regroupment, in a very defensive situation, implied that we were able to formulate political proposals and to have an impact on society. So started not by discussing a programme of historical reference, but a programme of political intervention. We defined ourselves as socialists shortly after our foundation, in a double sense: initially, by rejecting "real socialism" (Stalinism, the experiences of the USSR, Eastern Europe or China), then by identifying ourselves with the anti-capitalist struggle, against the social-democratic experience and its current social-liberal version.

In this sense, we defend the idea of collective ownership. But what is really important, in particular for the organizations which followed the path of small minority groups, is to find the means of expressing political ideas which fight to have an influence on the masses. So we translated our socialist ideas into specific proposals, very much linked to the modalities of political life in Portugal.

For example, we recently proposed the socialization of the services of water, energy, etc, and one of our principal campaigns this year centres on the defence, the modernization and the transformation of the national health service. That enables us to concretize our perspective of socialization on the basis of social needs and concrete struggles.

Q. Reading the majority resolution of your June congress, we can see a quite clear difference between the way in which you tackle social questions and environmental questions. On social questions, you put forward defensive demands - refusal of privatizations, defence of a social security system that meets the needs of everyone, etc. -, therefore an anti-liberal programme, compatible with a left Keynesian perspective. On environmental questions, you point out that we cannot answer a problem as serious as climatic disorder without challenging the very logic of capitalism. It seems to me that your approach becomes more radical here, including in the way you choose to formulate things. Is there not here a tension between a minimal social programme, which corresponds to the defence of "possible" objectives – in fact, the term is used on several occasions - and the need to seriously break with capitalism, in particular on ecological questions?

A. On all questions, the only coherent strategy is to break with capitalism. We do not share a left Keynesian perspective, because it is a perspective that is based on the market, a perspective which had a material base in the capitalist systems after the Second World War, but which is no longer possible today. We defend on the contrary the idea that the Left, our Left at least, has fight to develop the consciousness and the capacity for action of people, without limiting itself to making propaganda for socialism. Actually, the idea that the only practical alternative is socialism, which cannot be an immediate objective, leads to a perturbation of the thinking of the Left. In order to fight, you have to demand everything, and yet... everything is not possible. We have to break this crazy mirror!

If the central objective of the European bourgeoisies, at least of the Portuguese bourgeoisie, is to suppress part of the indirect wages of workers and to take for itself revenue from taxation, from the socialized part of the state, that forces to us to defend public services as a democratic gain for which we are collectively responsible, and to win the majority of the population to such an objective.

This battle is not defensive! It is the most offensive battle that you can think of, since by putting forward proposals that are specific, and thus possible, people can see that they are applicable. It is what we do in the fields of health and social security. For example, faced with the biggest initiative of this government with a Socialist majority, that is, the reform of social security, we were the only party to present a concrete alternative in terms of methods of financing, the role of taxation or the way services were divided up between the generations. That gave us a very big impact, because everyone could understand that the only argument of the partisans of a liberalization of social security - that it is the only viable alternative - was erroneous. We have to fight clearly for that ground.

Having said that, our congress developed a basic position on the question of the environment that was more programmatic, centred on climatic disturbances, undoubtedly because it was the first time that we had done it. We had to explain why market solutions -the “Al Gore way” - lead to a dead end from the point of view of the transformation of habits of consumption, forms of production, distribution of wealth, North-South relations, etc. That is why we chose a more educational approach.

Q. In the last 20 to 25 years, the cumulative results of neo-liberal policies, the policies of really existing capitalism, have produced a social regression whose effects on class consciousness have been profound. So we can note a general retreat of solidarity to the advantage of “everyone for themselves”, which is the expression of the increasing influence of bourgeois ideology... Broad sectors of society are more atomised than ever and are experiencing head-on the material and ideological offensive of capital. This situation favours the multiplication of all sorts of divisions, between those in work and the unemployed, between those who have a permanent job and those in precarious work, between natives of a country and immigrants, old and young, men and women, etc... This general weakening of capacities of resistance marks a qualitative degradation of the relationship of forces. In such a context, to resist durably implies not only organising the social movement around anti-liberal objectives, but also rebuilding it, which supposes the redefinition of a horizon of radical social transformation - what socialism meant for the working-class movement before the Second World War... What do you think about that?

A. It seems to me that the left does not have a very complete answer to this question, because the only possible answer will have to be based on social experience, on the creation of new traditions of struggle. But I believe that there are two elements for a reply. First of all, the capacity for political initiative; secondly, the organization of new social networks, new forms of social intervention. I believe that the key to the strategy of the socialist Left is to take back the initiative and go on the offensive, where it is possible, and to always maintain this orientation. I greatly respect the militants and the tradition of the European radical Left, but I believe that if a party is not able to establish itself as a reference in national political debates, in particular by its capacity for initiative, it will fail. It is absolutely necessary to build this capacity for political action that becomes a reference.

I can give you two examples in our history. The Bloc was formed in 1999, at a moment when, in spite of the rising tide of liberalism, individualism and the privatization of consciousness, Portugal experienced a rather unique movement of solidarity with the people of Timor, not yet independent and under the military pressure of Indonesia: a nation-wide strike, street demonstrations lasting all day, therefore a mobilization which was not an expression of material interests. How was such a capacity for commitment and initiative possible in an overall defensive climate? The answer is political: certain tensions can make possible important initiatives on concrete themes.

Furthermore, very recently, we won a referendum on abortion with a majority of 60% in favour of one of the most advanced laws in Europe, and that in a very Catholic country, where the weight of the Church on the political world is very strong. That is explained by the capacity for initiative of the supporters of decriminalisation. We were able to divide the centre and the Right, to draw right-wing members of Parliament in behind the movement, and on a key theme: how could we continue to imprison women who have had abortions? That completely changed the terms of reference of the political debate. So it is necessary to be wary of attitudes that are apparently very radical, but which actually lead to a wait-and-see policy, because nothing seems possible. No, many things are possible... on condition that we make choices and create a relationship of forces by taking the initiative where it is possible to take steps forward.

Fundamentally, I believe that you are right. We have to envisage a major reorganization of the social movement in the 21st century. In reality, it will be difficult for the trade unions to organise precarious workers. It is necessary to create other types of networks and social organizations. We have some experiences in this regard. For example, we organised a march for jobs, one year ago, which crisscrossed the country. There were two to three public meetings every day, with many workers present. Sometimes, the workers of companies that were going bankrupt or threatened with closure contacted us. We took this problem very seriously, because there is more or less 10 per cent unemployment in Portugal. And the workers do not see an alternative, because it is difficult. However, in some cases, we obtained significant gains. Militants of the Left Bloc are in the leadership of the workers’ commission of one of the most important factories in the country, Volkswagen, in the south of Lisbon, which employs several thousand workers. There, the workers agreed to give up wage increases so that several hundred precarious workers in the factory could be given permanent contracts. That reinforced confidence in solutions of solidarity, and this in an extremely defensive context.

Q. At the end of the 20th century, the global justice movement represented an element of rupture in the field of ideas. So we saw the appearance of a new form of internationalism. Nevertheless, the difficulty that this movement has had in engaging in large-scale social mobilizations also shows some of it limits. Your congress document highlights two European examples – the mobilizations of youth against the CPE in France and of Greek students against the Bologna reforms - which would not have been conceivable without the precedent of the global justice movement. But such examples remain limited. Without large-scale social mobilizations, don’t you see a danger that the global justice movement goes round in circles, and that its demonstrations and forums become rituals, without liberating the capacities of social initiative that are essential to a counter-offensive?

A. This danger exists. But the global justice movement nevertheless had an impressive success by showing itself to be capable of organizing an international movement against the war on the basis of new forms of organization that were very attractive and very productive. It made possible the expression of a mass movement of millions of people, which was a decisive factor in beginning to confront imperialism and war. Having said that, you are right, it encounters a real difficulty in organizing broad social sectors. In Portugal, the global justice movement has been much more important as a laboratory of ideas than as a movement capable of organization and initiative.

There were two Portuguese Social Forums, but they were of very modest proportions: the first one was certainly a little less so, thanks to the involvement of the trade-union confederation on a unitary line, but the second was limited to a few hundred people, because of the Communist Party’s obsessive desire to control the whole process, which dissuaded many social organizations from taking part in it [1] . This narrow-minded attitude has had an effect on the capacity for autonomous intervention of the global justice movement in Portugal. Therefore, the social forums, as organized movements, did not have any influence in Portugal.

Q. Although the international anti-war movement was a spectacular consequence of the global justice movement, it was directed above all against US imperialism and George W. Bush’s policy of war without end. Didn’t it nourish illusions on the peaceful character of the European imperialisms? Your last congress criticized any support for the intervention of European troops – from Portugal as well as other countries - in Afghanistan. What do you think of the turn of the majority of Rifondazione in Italy in favour of the continuation of the military interventions of NATO member states, provided that they have been approved by the UN, in particular in Afghanistan or, in another context, in Lebanon?

A. It is true that the anti-war movement developed against US and British imperialism. Obviously the positions taken by Chirac and Schröder nourished illusions. But I believe that this division of the imperialist front was also the product of the mobilization of public opinion against the war. It is thus also a success to have paralysed the capacity for unification of the various imperialisms around US super-imperialism. That said, there are today obviously important political debates.

In Italy, I believe that Rifondazione is speaking a double language: in the government, it accepts the imperialist intervention in Afghanistan, whereas in the European Left Party, it approves resolutions in favour of the withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan. And this double language is also found in Italy: you cannot take part in a demonstration against the extension of an American base then, a few days afterwards, vote in favour of the same project. People understand that there is a contradiction and that has created a problem between Rifondazione and the anti-war movement.

And yet, the role of Rifondazione was very important at the head of the anti-war movement, and that was one of its strong points in 2003-2004. There is a deficit here which is leading to a very dangerous situation, because a political party must be very clear about its objectives, in particular on war and peace, which are decisive questions in the life of the people. The best tradition of the socialist movement is clear on this subject, from Jaurès to Rosa Luxemburg. There is no such thing as a left-wing policy which is not clear in its opposition to war, militarism and imperialism.

Q. The Left Bloc is a coming together of the anti-liberal socialist Left, but without the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). However, at the European level, the Bloc belongs to the European Left Party, which is dominated by forces coming from the communist movement. How do you explain that the PCP has followed a separate path from that of the Bloc, and that your documents make hardly any mention of it?

The Bloc was built in opposition to liberal policies, therefore in opposition to the Socialist Party, but also to the PCP. We represent a third force, alternative by its programme and its capacity for initiative. Our strategic goal is to reconstruct the relationship of forces within the Left and in society as a whole. In Portugal, the Communist Party, as in some other countries, represents a form of organization in the Stalinist tradition, in which it is the party that directs the trade unions, in which there are movements to organize women and young people.

That does not make it possible for trade unions to represent workers in a unitary fashion and restricts their capacity to organize precarious workers, as well as other social layers. The social force of the PCP depends primarily on this type of party control of the trade-union movement. So it was necessary for us to break with this conception, which weakens the popular movement. It was to contribute to rebuilding the capacity for initiative of this movement that the Bloc was organized as a political and social force.

So we have relations of confrontation, of debate, but sometimes also of convergence with the Communist Party, even if we defend a clearly alternative vision. The PCP was the party of the Soviet Union throughout its entire history; now, it is the party of the Chinese Communist Party. It is not comparable to the split in the Italian Communist Party which gave rise to Rifondazione Comunista.

As regards the European Left Party, to which we belong, it should be said that the European Communist Parties are divided. The European Left Party has a non-Stalinist conception, a conception of opening out, of being a network, not a Comintern-style conception. The PCP is not part of it. We do not obey the European Left Party.

None of its decisions is binding on us. It is a network of collaboration that depends on the positions of the national parties. The Red-Green Alliance in Denmark and Respect in England are associated with it... The Communist Parties which form part of it have been transformed, a little bit or a lot, while the PCP is trying to develop a parallel network, with parties of the East, the Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban Communist Parties, etc...

Q. The Left bloc has obtained a growing number of elected representatives, in the national Parliament as well as in the municipalities. With 350 municipal councillors, it has nearly 10% of its members in elected assemblies. Does this not pose a problem for you, insofar as the weight of these elected representatives can tend to adapt your political priorities and activities to those of these institutions, to the detriment of the priority needs of the social movement. Not to mention the impact that elective mandates can have in terms of material and symbolic privileges, which are of course extremely reduced. How does the Bloc organize itself to build bulwarks against such dangers?

A. As you know it, since you also have elected representatives in Switzerland, if a party stands for election and that results in it winning seats, it must fill them where it obtained those votes. In bourgeois democracy, every mass party will have elected representatives and political polarization can be expressed through electoral gains, even though defeats and retreats are inevitable.

In Portugal, our elected councillors do not receive wages and take part in municipal meetings only once week in the big cities, and once a month – or even twice a year - in the small towns. They also participate in some commissions. The local councils have very little power: they are forums for political discussion. We also have members elected to municipal executives, which are elected according to proportional representation. They are generally not in the majority, except in a small town of some 30,000 people, close to Lisbon.

It is true that the fact of having these councillors leads to a demand for political answers to local questions. These questions are also important - housing, transport, public services, education, etc. Some of them are directly related to financial and budgetary policy, but also to the organization of society in the whole of the country, which makes it possible to develop an opposition that is better informed on local conditions.

This obliges us to concentrate a lot of effort and a lot of cadres on municipal matters. Indeed we have to do this work while trying to get out from the four walls of the municipal assemblies in order to explain to the population what is involved in the current confrontations. The PCP on the contrary often allies with the Right in order to obtain posts in the municipal executive, because the Socialist Party and the parties that are in power form a dominant bloc.

This explains why the PCP takes part in municipal governments with the Right and the far Right in several large cities, such as Oporto, Sintra and Coimbra. But what is most important is to maintain a national political profile around central campaigns. For example, over the last year, we have concentrated the bulk of our forces on the march for jobs, directly confronting the employers and the government, as we did in the battle for abortion. The Bloc is widely recognized for that!

Q. The Bloc has made it possible to amalgamate quite different political currents. Not only from new forces and the new generations, but also from older traditions – Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists, forces coming from minorities in the PCP, etc. Has the progress of the Bloc been made possible by collaboration between these forces?

A. I wouldn’t like to generalise. Portuguese conditions are undoubtedly not extendable to other European countries. In France, for example, the LCR is discussing a broad anti-capitalist party. The experience of SolidaritéS in Switzerland is also different. But what is common to many of these experiences and debates on the European Left, is the will to create a political framework that is broader, more offensive, capable of organizing social activists, of representing both a political and social Left.

The path that we have chosen rests basically on the confidence that can be built in the process of constituting a collective leadership on the basis of common political tasks. This confidence has to be tested in the course of our activity, in our successes and our setbacks, going through an apprenticeship of a will to integrate the various trends and to seek consensus and cohesion. If that succeeds, it becomes possible to engage in politics.

There is indeed a great difference between making propaganda, developing ideas, defending a programme, even of a high quality, and being able to transform that into a political weapon by involving broader social sectors in struggle, by mobilizing them. New forces are coming to us because we have convictions, because we make campaigns, because we give examples of battles to be conducted, because we discuss new ways of organizing ourselves on the left. We reach thousands of people by posing centrally the following questions: how can we transform the present relationship of forces? Where should we concentrate our efforts in order to make the enemy retreat?

Q. The post-1968 generation was educated in political organizations that were very homogeneous on the ideological level, where the work of reappropriation of knowledge, theoretical training and development was very important, often to the detriment of the ability to conduct politics within broader frameworks. Having said that, how do you pose the problem of the education of new cadres, who do not develop only through the practice of the movements, but who also acquire tools for analysis and a serious theoretical training?

A. The theoretical debate and the historical knowledge of our generation are an immense asset. Nothing would have been possible without this critical examination of the history of the workers’ movement, without this effort to create a living Marxism. I believe that a party of the socialist Left must take up these reflections again and look further into them. We are perhaps fortunate to be continuing this effort within the framework of a capitalism and a working class which have been transformed, while using Marxism for what it is, that is, as a working tool. Our last congress decided to create a centre of education which addresses itself especially to social activists. Its first courses are starting now and deal with the history of the revolutions of the last century - October, the Spanish Civil War, China, Cuba, Vietnam, May ‘68, the Portuguese Revolution - in order to think about the strategic questions which they raised. We are also starting to publish a theoretical review.

We are also making an effort to develop new means of communication, since the role played by newspapers, some decades ago, is being supplanted today by interactive means. Thus, our Internet site has developed in a spectacular way, with thousands of visits every day. We publish on it a weekly dossier on political, historical and other questions, which is aimed at a broad audience. We diffuse radio programmes by streaming. Finally, we want to develop audio-visual production – from clips to documentaries – which can be used as a basis for education and discussion, but also in the campaigns of the Bloc. In September, we will hold a study weekend, "Socialism 2007", to discuss strategy and history, trade-union and ecological struggles, but also cultural questions.

Interview by conducted by Jean Batou of the Swiss organisation SolidaritéS.

SOURCE

os governos os partidos e aquilo a que se diz não

Ferreira Leite esclarece que recusa governar com o PS

A presidente do PSD, Manuela Ferreira Leite, disse hoje à agência Lusa que «como é sabido» recusou sempre «a hipótese de um Governo de Bloco Central», considerando abusivo que se faça essa interpretação das suas declarações à SIC

Ou talvez não.
A verdade é que quando esta coisa do poder se torna dificil as coisas tomam caminhos que muitas vezes são aqueles que menos se deseja e nisto com em tudo somos quase sempre todos iguais.

E nesta coisa de recusas , quando se trata de politica nunca nada é o que parece e quase nunca as conclusões sobre o que se quer e o que não se quer são as mesmas .

No caso de manuela ferreira leite e do psd as coisas são tão iguais como noutros lugares , a tentação do poder é grande e as coisas que não se desejam acanbam por tornar-se difusas quando em plano superior estão o que se considera o superior intersse dos partidos ou seja , do psd neste caso. é que nisto de governações sempre é melhor governar do que ficar na prateleira.

mário soares não gosta dos lideres europeus -até se percebe

Mário Soares diz que líderes europeus «são todos fracos»
O antigo Presidente da República alertou para a necessidade de os Estados membros da União Europeia trabalharem em conjunto, mas lamentou que os actuais líderes sejam «fracos e com pouca preparação» em relação aos do passado

Eu gosto imenso de ouvir e ler sobre o que pensa o dr Mário soares,
acho que se aprende sempre imenso com o que ele sabe e com a sua experiência da vida e da política.E quando as suas opiniões se encontram de algum modo com as minhas, fico convencida de que vale a pena prestar atenção ao que alguns dizem e escrevem porque o fazem com a intenções de trazer algo mais ao mundo do que vagas ilusões pessoais de poder .

Mário soares nunca diz nada sem que se aprenda alguma coisa de novo e nestas suas declarações sobre os que dirigem os destinos da europa , encontrei muitas semelhanças ao que deles penso e muito pelas mesmas razões.
Na verdade na sua maioria também os considero fracos.

Claro que desta vez o mundo e a europa estão metidos numa crise de todo o tamanho e cujas consequências talvez ainda se não tenham feito sentir em toda a sua violência,mas não ha dúvida de que estes senhores e senhoras que ora andam de sorriso e mãos dadas para a fotografia,ora não são na sua maior parte gente que não nos dá grandes garantias de que um dia sejamos nós a sorrir ou os nossos filhos.

Gostei de o ouvir e gostei muito quando em oposição a José sócrates e mantendo a abertura e independência de espirito que o caracterizam, deixou bem claro que não apoiaria nenhum candidato português apenas pelo facto de ser português, uma vez e seguindo o que disse -

"“Se houver um português que seja mau, não o vamos defender pelo facto de ele ser português”"


Ora é aqui neste mesmo ponto que eu me entendo com Mário soares ,não existe nada mais triste e mais bacoco do que um nacionalismo simplex e nesse simplismo está muito dos que ora dirigem os destinos desta europa, sendo esse o seu ponto fraco e aquilo que os torna tão fracotes.

Claro está que Sócrates, sendo Primeiro ministro não pode dizer o mesmo que Soares, mas é sempre bom que num partido exista a liberdade para que todos se critiquem partilhando as mesmas convicções . Soares disse o que tinha a dizer e disse muito bem.
Na verdade estes lideres europeus também a mim me parecem fracos demais , se isso se vai transformar num problema para a Europa só o futuro o dirá.

Mário Soares diz que líderes europeus «são todos fracos»

MÁRIO SOARES 21/03/2009

La situación actual de Europa me preocupa mucho. Porque no veo que exista un plan común para vencer a la crisis y, a causa de la mediocridad de los líderes que la gobiernan, la Unión Europea tiende a apagarse como agente global. Cuando era preciso que ocurriera exactamente lo contrario. Porque, sin un plan concertado, ninguno de los países europeos puede salir de la crisis, empezando por Alemania, el más fuerte de todos y, afortunadamente, uno de los más europeístas también.

Como ha hecho EE UU, la UE ha de asumir que la solución no es volver al fracasado sistema anterior

Y eso no es lo que está ocurriendo. Las repetidas reuniones de los países más ricos de Europa parecen mostrar cierta tendencia a volver a la idea de un "directorio de los grandes" -lo que es algo contrario a la letra y a la lógica del proyecto europeo- y, por si fuera poco, con el agravante de que no se entienden entre sí. Gordon Brown, que habló en el Congreso norteamericano, donde hizo, por lo que parece, un juego de malabarismo político, todavía no se ha dado cuenta de que sin una integración europea conducida seriamente, tanto en un plano económico como político e institucional, la Unión Europea, sacudida por la crisis, que nos afecta a todos, tiende a desagregarse, lo que sería una catástrofe para los europeos y para otros grandes países, empezando por la propia Norteamérica de Obama que, obviamente, sólo encuentra ventajas -dados los cambios geoestratégicos en curso- en tener como aliada a una Europa con prestigio, fuerte y activa.

Aparte de eso, el motor europeo -el eje franco-alemán- parece estar absolutamente gripado, en parte a causa de las desavenencias entre sus respectivos líderes, pero también porque en Alemania las elecciones están a la puerta y la señora Merkel no quiere imponer medidas que puedan desagradar a los electores.

Con todo esto, al contrario de cuanto sucede con la América de Barack Obama, los líderes europeos no parecen haber comprendido todavía que la solución de la crisis financiera y económica que vivimos implica una ruptura de raíz con el pasado económico neoliberal y el inicio de una nueva era, como ha dicho Obama, con el predominio de la política sobre el economicismo, el restablecimiento de los principios éticos, el castigo de los responsables de los grandes escándalos, bancario especulativos, la abolición de los paraísos fiscales y de las retribuciones y bonus millonarios concedidos a los administradores y gestores de las grandes empresas, etc.

Un elemento fundamental para salir de la crisis es el restablecimiento de la confianza de la población y para ello es necesario que haya nuevas inversiones y que, a través del crédito concedido y de los depósitos, el capital pueda volver a fluir. ¡Sin confianza nada será posible! Ahora bien, ¿cómo va a ser factible restablecer la confianza si los grandes responsables de los errores y de los fraudes continúan impunes y si los responsables políticos siguen teniendo los mismos rostros y no han cambiado de ideas ni de comportamientos? Se han limitado a hacer algunas concesiones, con la mano tendida al Estado (ese mismo Estado que antes creían que no debía intervenir, porque el mercado se autorregulaba, ¡vaya colosal error!) para que con tales cambios -los Estados proporcionando millones a los bancos y a las empresas- todo siga igual...

Ahora eso ya no es posible. Es el error que Europa está a punto de cometer, al contrario de lo que ha ocurrido en Estados Unidos, en las semanas transcurridas desde la toma de posesión de Obama.

Como la gran economista portuguesa Maria Joâo Rodrigues, antigua ministra que ahora trabaja como consultora en Bruselas, Londres y en Pekín, dijo hace unos días a un periódico portugués: "Esta crisis es algo completamente inédito. Más que una recesión es una crisis del sistema a escala global. Por eso, limitarse a hablar de planes de recuperación tal vez no sea el mejor lenguaje que quepa utilizar a estas alturas. Se tiene la idea de que si conseguimos regresar al estadio precedente, todo irá bien. Cuando lo que ha ocurrido es un colapso del sistema". Ésta es realmente la cuestión fundamental, que la mayor parte de los políticos y grandes empresarios europeos se resisten a comprender. Y a la que la Administración Obama está intentando valerosamente dar la vuelta... ¡Es absolutamente necesario -como afirma Maria Joâo Rodrigues- un new deal a escala global! ¿Podrá salir de la próxima reunión del G-20, con una honda preocupación social y ambiental y una nueva geoestrategia global de negociación y de paz? Desgraciadamente, no creo que algo así vaya a ocurrir. Todavía no...

Mário Soares es ex presidente y ex primer ministro de Portugal. Traducción de Carlos Gumpert.

UE

(Unión Europea)

A FONDO

Ver cobertura completa

Crisis financiera mundial

A FONDO

Ver cobertura completa

La noticia en otros webs

as lições do freeport ou talvez não

Ferreira Leite diz que Sócrates não aprendeu a «lição do Freeport»

Ferreira Leite diz que Sócrates não aprendeu a «lição do Freeport» A presidente do PSD considerou hoje que o primeiro-ministro não tirou «a lição do Freeport» porque volta a tomar «decisões polémicas» em véspera de eleições, «nomeadamente o TGV e o aeroporto»

Se calhar ela tem razão, Sócrates parece não ter aprendido a lição do freeport, o que não admira porque aquilo não é uma lição .

É uma difamação e percebe-se que ele a recuse.

Ainda esta para nascer alguém que a ser tramado aceite e leve para casa.
Ferreira leite anda um bocado distraida e talvez ainda não tenha compreendido que se isto que está a acontecer a sócrates estivesse a acontecer-lhe a ele , talvez as suas (dela) reacções fossem diferentes para pior, que aquilo lá pelo partido dela também não se pode dizer que volta e meia não caia para o lado mais tristinho. ainda niguém difamou ninguém no psd e as vozes que já gritaram fizeram-no forte e bem feio, portanto nisto de polémicas, é preciso ter muito cuidado e não tecer tanta crtica que o futuro é sempre incerto e nunca se sabe quando a bola alheia nos atinje na cabecinha.

e viva a vida e o 25 de abril

sei que para alguns o 25 de abril não é dia de boas memórias, sei que para alguns o 25 de abril é sinónimo de perda e de tristeza, sei que para alguns o 25 de abril representa o fim de um estilo de vida , o fim de muitas ilusões o fim absoluto de uma época que teriam desejado eterna.
mas a vida não é estática, muda e náo é possivel viver uma vida inteira com a vida assente sobre a tristeza dos outros , sobre a pobreza dos outors sobre a falta de liberdade dos outros.

Viva Viva Viva

Nunca será demais gritar esta palavra bem ao alto que é para se ouvir muito bem e para entrar nos ouvidos e nas memórias que isto de ouvidos andam um bocado para o surdo e as memórias isso ainda anda pior.

Viva Viva Viva

Relembrando os tempos antigos, mas nem por isso impossiveis de regressar gritemos e a bom som que o 25 de abril de 1974 trouxe esperanças onde já só havia desespero , liberdade a quem já não a esperava e alegria imensa a quem nunca duvidou.
Agora que mais tempos dificeis e bem cinzentos nos cercam é tempo de gritar aos quator ventos que sem esperança nada se consegue fazer e que sem a alegria da confiança em nós próprios toda a confiança que possamos ter nos outros e ilusão. A vida é nossa, somos nos que a vivemos e vida sem esperança e força é triste vida.

Neste 25 de Abril impõe-se mais força, mais esperança mais alegria. Viva o 25 de Abril!
Viva a nossa Alegria Para que todos possamos viver em paz!

25 DE ABRIL SEMPRE

o mais belo cartaz do mundo e foi o sérgio guimarães quem o criou


Pois cá estamos á beira de mais uma comemoração do 25 de abril e que deus o guarde que os que querem acabar com ele são mais que as mães,sem ofensa para as mães que ainda são o melhor desta vida.Cada vez se sente mais o incómodo que causa a esses, que no que respeita á democracia nem conseguem pronunciar o nome , quanto mais comemorar e a cada dia que passa é cada vez mais visivel que se os que realmente querem viver em liberdade não se unirem ,isto um dia muda e muda definivamente para pior.
Assim a melhor das comemorações seria ver de novo abril em todo o seu explendor, tal como um dia foi vivido.
Sem separações , sem interesses pessoais ou de grupos,sem ódios ou malevolências sem difamações nem intrigas.

Alguns dirão que estou para aqui a imaginar cousas impossiveis.
Está bem aceito cru«iticas lol, manem por um minuto esquecerei que ás vezes na vida acontecem cousas extraordinárias que pareciam impossiveis.

O 25 de abril de 1974 foi uma dessas cousas maravilhosas que ás vezes acontecem quando se quer bem agir .
Não se esqueçam, se nos unirmos pode acontecer outra vez.







porque a memória não fica mal a ninguém

25 Apr 2010

This public holiday is recognised throughout Portugal and celebrates the Carnation Revolution which brought an almost bloodless end to 48 years of Fascist rule under Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. The name 'Carnation Revolution' derives from the fact that those who brought about the change carried red carnations and achieved their political goals without the use of violence. As the story goes, Fascist soldiers exchanged their bullets and weapons for the carnations which brought about the end of the dictatorship and welcomed in a democratic government. However, the 25 April is not marked by ostentatious celebrations and is a relatively subdued day when many shops and businesses remain closed.

Times

History

1974, revolution in Portugal

A half-century of fascist rule was swept aside in a day.

Manny Thain

It started at 12.25 am on Thursday 25 April 1974 when the rebel song, Grandola Vila Morena, played on the radio. By early evening the end of dictatorship was announced. The Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA), radical mid-ranking officers, had executed the plan devised by Captain Otelo de Carvalho. Troops secured Lisbon and the second city, Porto. Key installations were taken, ministers arrested.

THE news of the regime's downfall spread like wildfire. People flooded the streets. MFA vehicles were mobbed by adoring crowds. Thousands of school students marched, shouting "Down with fascism". Red carnations, the symbol of the revolution, blossomed in rifle barrels and festooned the streets in this festival of freedom.

The ex-dictator, Marcello Caetano, cowered in National Guard barracks. He was the successor to the fascist regime consolidated in the early 1930s by António Salazar. Paramilitary groups terrorised left-wing and industrial militants. Independent trade unions and the right to strike were illegal. The secret police had a massive network of agents and informers. Torture was systemic.

Even under these conditions, workers resisted. Illegal trade unions operated. The Partido Comunista Português (PCP) maintained a clandestine organisation. Student protest flared up.

Colonial revolution

But it was the armed African liberation struggles - especially Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique - begun in the early 1960s, which drove the final nails into the coffin of the fascist regime. Many mid-ranked officers had been influenced by the Marxism they read in counter-insurgency training. Radicalisation continued in Africa with the brutal repression meted out to the people fighting for their freedom. A policy of fast-tracking new officers fuelled the anger.

For Caetano's regime, the colonies meant the difference between Portugal being regarded as an insignificant nation or an international power. But Portugal was also the poorest country in Western Europe, its economy underdeveloped, centred around the export of sardines, textiles, cork and wood. The wars consumed over 40% of the budget.

The MFA set up a 'junta of national salvation' to rule until a provisional government was formed. Elections were promised within a year. It announced freedom of association and expression, and an amnesty for political prisoners.

Spínola and the MFA

General António de Spínola was made acting president. The son of a friend of Salazar, Spínola had impeccable fascist credentials. He had, however, called for the easing of direct colonial rule, which gave him a certain amount of support.

The MFA reflected a wide range of political views. The lefts, including Carvalho and Vasco Gonçalves, were strongly influenced by the 'socialism' (Stalinism) of Eastern Europe, Cuba or Algeria. Others, such as Melo Antunes, were linked with the social democrats around Mário Soares.

Having suffered at the hands of bosses and landowners linked to the regime, workers drove them out of the factories and off the land. The editor of the daily, Diário de Notícias, was forced out on 7 June after print workers seized the presses, publishing a front-page article exposing his fascist connections. Homeless people occupied empty properties. Shipyard and underground workers went on strike for a 50% pay rise. Car workers won a 40-hour week. Bakery and textile workers struck. Train and tram conductors refused to collect fares.

Spínola's coalition included politicians with ties to the old regime - for example, the new, conservative Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) - alongside the PCP, Partido Socialista (PS) and the MDP/CDE (linked with the PCP). Mário Soares, PS leader - a well-known lawyer funded by social democratic parties (and the CIA) - returned from exile on 28 April. Álvaro Cunhal, PCP leader, got back on 30 April after 14 years in exile in Eastern Europe. Almost immediately, they were sharing power.

Spínola aimed to use the PS and the PCP to turn back the revolutionary tide. Both parties saw explosive growth. PS membership rose from 200 in April 1974 to 60,000 in early 1975, its support mainly from white-collar workers and professionals. The PCP strongholds were among agricultural workers in the south, and in the industrial centres.

Horrified and impotent, the imperialist powers looked on as the PCP joined the government of a Nato country. They feared the effects of a 'communist' state in Western Europe, especially on Franco's dying dictatorship in Spain.

There was little base for reaction, the US superpower had just emerged humiliated from Vietnam, and the worldwide economic recession limited the scope for action.

The workers' parties

Unfortunately, influential leaders like Cunhal based themselves on the methods of the Soviet Union's ruling bureaucracy, not on independent mass action by the workers towards socialism. The working class was mobilised as and when its support was required, while PCP leaders relied on their influence with the MFA left, exerted in meetings behind closed doors.

The radical measures taken by the MFA were in response to the mass movement from below rather than as part of a conscious socialist programme. A minimum wage of £55 a month affected 65% of the workers. Controls on prices and rents were introduced, taxes imposed on under-utilised farmland on the big estates. A thousand leading company directors were dismissed.

Thirty thousand postal workers struck from 17-21 June. Rail, electricity, shipping, and major industries saw strikes. Frantically trying to control the movement, the PCP tried to hold back the workers.

Its newspaper, Avante, criticised bosses for conceding wage increases which were "too high"! And the PCP helped introduce a trade union law which both legalised and attempted to restrict industrial action. Workers had the right to picket but not to occupy or organise solidarity action.

The PS cynically condemned the restrictions - part of a strategy to win over the working class, away from the PCP and far-left. Soares frequently called for the 'socialist transformation of society'. Once the revolutionary heat had cooled, however, he planned to direct the movement down a safe, reformist, capitalist road.

Attempted coup

Spínola called a 'silent majority' demonstration for 28 September. He was testing the balance of power. Rumours circulated of a right-wing coup. But armed workers set up roadblocks to stop reactionaries moving on Lisbon. And as the silent majority evaporated, a dejected Spínola called it off. Right-wing officers and civilians were arrested.

Political confrontations were becoming increasingly violent. The first national congress of the right-wing Centro Democrático Social (CDS - based around members of the former regime), in Porto on 25 January, was besieged by left-wing protesters and cancelled. Soldiers sided with the demo.

On 7 March, a PPD meeting in the industrial city of Setúbal was broken up. Two protesters were shot dead in clashes with the police.

Spínola made one more pathetic bid for power, on 11 March 1975. But the paratroopers he mobilised mutinied. The fact that six members of the Espírito Santo banking family were implicated in the coup fiasco fuelled further outrage.

The colossal economic and political power wielded by the banks meant that they were particularly hated by workers and much of the middle class.

The bank workers' investigation revealed that the Espírito Santo family had siphoned off money allocated to provide jobs for demobbed troops, to safeguard the family's wealth in the event of nationalisation. It was funding right-wing parties. Workers occupied the banks, preventing the bosses from removing documents or transferring funds. On 14 March, Portuguese banks were nationalised!

On 11 July, the PS withdrew from the government in protest over the takeover of the pro-PS República newspaper by Communist print workers. Soares accused the armed forces of attempting to impose a 'communist-style police state'. On 17 July, the PPD also withdrew, and the fourth coalition government in 15 months collapsed.

Matters were coming to a head. A triumvirate of President Francisco de Costa Gomes, Prime Minister Gonçalves, and Carvalho gave the impression that the PCP/MFA-left had been strengthened in the corridors of power. But right-wing parties were growing in confidence, with attacks on PCP and MDP-CDE offices and members intensifying, particularly in the north.

Counter-revolution in 'democratic' clothes

The MFA pro-Soares wing around Antunes was emboldened. On 29 August, Gonçalves was removed and a group supported by the PS and PPD emerged to lead the MFA.

MFA troops refused to intervene when 30,000 construction workers surrounded the assembly on 13 November demanding higher wages and the nationalisation of building sites. Carvalho was dismissed and PCP members were kicked out of the ministries.

Right-wing groups mobilised farmers - mainly poor smallholders from the north - setting up barricades on 24 November to try to isolate 'Red Lisbon'. Next day, troops under right-wing Lieutenant Colonel António Eanes occupied military bases. A state of emergency was called.

'Order' was restored. However, it would take years of militant defensive struggles before the bosses could take back what they had been forced to concede: far-reaching reforms on land, health, education, housing, social services, wages and conditions, and the nationalisation of three-quarters of the economy.

Lessons

Without a revolutionary programme, the Portuguese working class had ensured that 50 years of brutal dictatorship ended - another magnificent achievement. The scale of the movement, however, meant that it could have achieved much more.

A socialist revolution was on the agenda. A clear socialist direction - which can only be provided by a revolutionary party respected by the working class - was missing. Nonetheless, Portugal's workers set a high standard - maybe a world record - for revolutionary initiative, energy and determination. They will have to call on these rich traditions in many battles to come.

what the cwi said in 1974

"Only a revolutionary leadership is missing"

Militant, the forerunner of the socialist, carried articles immediately after the 25 April coup.

They were translated into Portuguese and circulated in the workers' parties, particularly the Socialist Party and the Young Socialists. The material explained the criticial role of the workers' parties and their leaders in successfully transforming society along socialist lines. In particular, it compared this task confronting the PCP and PSP leaders with the successful revolution carried out in Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

"The Socialist Party has had no tradition of struggle under the Salazar/Caetano regime. Nevertheless, it will undoubtedly grow into a mass workers' movement under the present conditions, just as the Mensheviks [a reformist party] became a mass force in February 1917... The millions of politically naive, untutored masses pouring on to the political arena will not at first distinguish between the different working-class tendencies. That makes it all the more vital that the Communist Party, with its prestige among industrial militants, should tirelessly and patiently explain the danger of leaving power in the hands of the capitalists.

"That is how the Bolsheviks won the overwhelming support of the Russian workers within a few hectic and stormy months and led the world's first socialist revolution in conditions far less favourable than those existing today in Portugal."

... "So far the role of the CP has been to limited to policing the workers in the interests of the junta. The CP has condemned the workers' spontaneous action in occupying the factories, and now a planned steel strike has been called off after an appeal by the CP."

... "If either the Socialist or the Communist Party were revolutionary parties, the workers could be in power today. But instead, we see all the authority of these parties prostituted at the service of the capitalist class."

Free elections

The elections on 25 April 1975 were the first based on universal suffrage in Portugal's history.

More than six million people were eligible to vote.

A massive 91.73% voted. The PS gained 37.9% (115 seats), PPD 26.4% (80), PCP 12.5% (30), CDS 7.7% (16), MDP-CDE 4% (5), UDP 0.8% (1 seat). In total, 58.5% had voted for left-wing parties (including those which did not win seats).

This showed the widespread support for socialist ideas in general. There was also a deep suspicion of Stalinism. The model provided by the former Soviet Union was unattractive to the working class, and the PS exploited this genuine fear for its own gain.

Special feature from The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party, cwi in England and Wales

home socialist history

a tortura e as alianças

Muita tinta corre hoje em dia sobre os videos que percorrem o youtube e outros locais onde se mostram interrogatórios conduzidos por homens ao serviçao da cia e onde os métodos são aqueles todas as nações e lugares usaram desde sempre para massacrar os inimigos, ou aqueles que lhes oferecem dúvida .

É feio, é mau , é terrivel sintoma de que não é por ser mais rico ,mais culto ou mais inteligente que se consegue chegar a mais humano.

Mas também não é menos verdade que nem o dinheiro , nem as condições de um povo sejam elas melhores ou piores, o impedem de actos da maior violência sobre si próprios e sobre os outros, é prova de que nisto das evoluções nada é fácil e tudo é muito lento.

Não há volta a dar-lhe ,
qualquer método de interrogatório que envolva tortura é indesculpável e é um crime que deveria ser punido .

Não existe nação que esteja acima deste facto e se ainda tais actos permanecem é porque no fundo todos estão unidos pelos mesmos crimes.
E desculpam-se uns aos outros porque todos praticam o mesmo.

Para mudar tal estado de coisas seria necessário que todos se sentassem á mesma mesa assinando os mesmos tratados que impedissem tais barbaridades independentemente das hostilidades que os desunissem e que depois fizessemn cumprir essa norma:
Não torturar sobre que pretexto fosse.

Há crimes que são todos iguais.
Aqueles que a eles recorrem não são diferentes entre si,mesmo que pensem que o são.

Ahmadinejad-onde um louco fala fogem os outros

Conferência contra o racismo

Diplomatas abandonam sala onde Ahmadinejad discursava
Vários diplomatas saíram da sala onde o presidente iraniano discursava numa conferência das Nações Unidas contra o racismo, em Genebra. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acusou Israel de ser um «governo racista»

Não admira que a sala de confências tenha ficado quase vazia.
Nesta coisa dos encontros é preciso ter muito cuidado , sobretudo quando os que se encontram têm a mania do poder.

Eu gosto muito destas reuniões para a paz e contra o racismo
( dizem eles ) porque normalmente acabam sempre da mesma maneira ou seja, acabam quase sempre com um louco a espantar os outros loucos -lembram-se daquele filme muito antigo onde os loucos fugiam do hospicio e encerravam por lá todos os que haviam tido poder sobre eles?
-pois é isso mesmo que deveriam fazer com os loucos do tipo deste Ahmadinejad,
mais com todos os que aceitam sentar-se no mesmo sitío com ele.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad não faz ideia do que seja um mundo civilizado.
Nem quer sequer fazer ideia de tal coisa.
A única coisa que parece interessar-lhe e que desde há muito se revelou como uma ideia fixa, é insultar e ameaçar todos os Judeus e o país livre de Israel.
Este louco nega o Holocausto.
Diz que nunca existiu, que é um mito, como se a morte de milhões de pessoas pudesse súbitamente ser branqueada e desaparecer como se nunca tivesse existido.

Chamar um tipo destes , com tanto ódio e representando tanto ódio para uma conferência contra o racismo é só por si prova de uma enorme falta de sentido politico, uma vez que se sabia da presença de israel na mesma.
Ou será que isto das conferências são mais um meio para pôr a capacidade de tolerância e a paciência de Israel á prova?

Se assim for não se espantem que um dia destes ninguém ponha os pés em sitios destes porque nesta coisa de doidos á solta há sempre o risco de se fugir deles a sete pés.Que foi o que afinal aconteceu desta vez.

Quem convida loucos perigosos seja para onde for é ainda mais perigoso e mais louco.
Pode portanto dizer-se que o resultado de todo este encontro contra o racismo, a única coisa que fez foi tentar exarcebá-lo.
Que é como quem diz ,no meio de um grupo de loucos ; quando um abre a boca , os outros dão ás de vila diogo.

CNN) -- Dozens of international envoys walked out during a speech by Iran's president Monday as he accused Israel of having a "racist government" and committing genocide.
European Union delegates leave during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech Monday.

European Union delegates leave during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech Monday.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of making "an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering ... in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine."

Many delegates at the controversial U.N. anti-racism conference in Geneva, Switzerland, cheered his words as a minority of diplomats -- mostly from Europe -- collected their papers and briefcases and left the room. Cameras at the scene showed empty seats where delegates from France, Finland and Denmark had been sitting.

The British and Spanish delegations also walked out, both countries' foreign affairs divisions confirmed. Video Watch delegates make their exit »

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement criticizing Ahmadinejad for using the conference "to accuse, divide and even incite."

Ban said he had spoken to the Iranian president and asked him not to focus on "divisiveness" in his address.

"It is deeply regrettable that my plea to look to the future of unity was not heeded by the Iranian president," Ban said.

"This is the opposite of what this conference seeks to achieve. This makes it significantly more difficult to build constructive solutions to the very real problem of racism," Ban said in a statement following Ahmadinejad's speech.

During Monday's speech, Ahmadinejad paused a moment, then continued: "In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.