A Big Step to the Left

The extreme left-wing forces seemed to be gaining the upper hand in Portugal last week. To some stunned politicians, it seemed that the tension-racked nation had taken a giant step toward becoming a dictatorship of the proletariat. "We have left even Albania on our right," wailed one moderate party official in Lisbon. "The Armed Forces [Movement] has approved 1917-style Soviets for Portugal," said another.

Both men were referring to a radical new political blueprint for Portugal that had been approved by the 240-member Armed Forces General Assembly after 18 hours of deliberation. In essence, the program would give power to the people through local revolutionary councils. To some, the establishment of the plan looked like a Communist-inspired attempt to bypass the popularly elected Constituent Assembly, in which the moderate forces have a majority. Portugal's outraged Socialist leader, Mario Scares--perhaps the country's best hope for Socialism with a human face --resigned from the government, in which he served as Minister Without Portfolio, declaring that his party "will never accept a dictatorship." Officially, Scares resigned to protest the fact that the government had refused to give back to the Socialists their Lisbon daily Republica, which last week resumed publication under radical workers' control. In fact, he resigned because of the program.

The M.F.A.'s new--and exceedingly fuzzy--plan calls for a government built on a pyramid of local worker and neighborhood commissions and popular assemblies, organized at grass-roots levels and culminating at some indistinct point in an undefined "popular assembly." Under this system, there would no longer be a need for contending political parties. At the same time, the secret ballot would be abolished, and the elected Constituent Assembly, which is supposed to represent the voters, would be made impotent. All of the so-called people's assemblies would be fostered and directed by the military, and would be encouraged to create "people's courts" to deal with "political crimes" and "economic saboteurs."

Similarity to Soviets. The Communists and other extreme left-wing parties endorsed the program. Communist Party Boss Alvaro Cunhal has made similar proposals in his writings; moreover, the new councils bear a certain resemblance to the workers' Soviets that were established by the Bolsheviks during Russia's 1917 Revolution. Most other Portuguese politicians denounced the plan as a recipe for a new era of tyranny. "We are absolutely against it," said Dr. Freitas do Amaral, head of the Center Social Democrats. "It will be used to give power to minority groups who could not win power through legal elections. It will kill democracy. It will [also] kill the Armed Forces Movement. The M.F.A. will be dissolved like sugar in water because it will not be able to control the system."

At week's end the government announced that it had accepted Scares' resignation; a communique was issued complaining about the Socialists' "negative attitude." But Scares was obviously not ready to give up. Relying on the confusion and division within the M.F.A., the Socialist leader called on his followers last week to press for abandonment of the new plan. Said Soares: "It is time the Armed Forces Movement decides if it wants to govern with the backing of the Communist minority or with the Socialist majority."

As Scares spoke, the Communists were already mobilizing their considerable strength in the country to reinforce their victory. Through their controlled labor confederation Intersindical, the Communists called for a giant demonstration to honor "the progressive officers of the movement." Workers' committees in factories and shipyards declared their support. At the same time, the Communists, along with the radical left-wing parties, also launched a campaign to dissolve the Constituent Assembly, in which they hold only 30 of 247 seats.

Growing Like Mushrooms. Actually, the new program would only institutionalize something that has been happening in the country since the revolution began. The Portuguese Democratic Movement (M.D.P.), a Communist-front party, as well as other radical left-wing groups, has been busy organizing neighborhood committees and workers' commissions on its own. M.D.P. members have manned roadblocks, taken over factories, occupied land, arrested "economic saboteurs" at gunpoint, cleared land, staged propaganda plays and, of course, talked ceaselessly of themselves over television. In an interview recently, Marcos Antunes, a member of the M.D.P.'s Central Committee, explained how his party had "purged the local governments and helped the neighborhoods to organize." He said it was impossible to know how many such popular assemblies and workers' commissions of all political stripes had sprung up across the country, though, he added, "they grow like mushrooms." Indeed they do. In addition to having taken over the Socialist newspaper Republica, the radicals still occupy the Catholic radio station in Lisbon. Increasingly, they dominate businesses and in some cases they are running factories completely on their own.

To observers in Lisbon, it looked ominously as if the Communists might succeed in winning their final battle with the Socialists. Force is on their side. Populist General Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, who controls the balance of power with the weight of the tanks and soldiers he commands, is known to favor the radicals. As for President Costa Gomes, "his position is unclear," a Socialist charged. "He is weak."

Despite the odds against him, Scares insists that his cause is not hopeless. As he keeps warning, the country is slowly going broke. Unemployment is rampant. Foreign and local investment has dried up in alarming fashion since wholesale nationalization of industry began. Opposition to the military's confused regime is increasingly evident in the countryside. If the April elections proved anything, it was that the vast majority of Portuguese desperately desire orderly democratic government. Nonetheless, that hope has now been seriously dimmed.

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