Quickly-moving political de-
Velopments in Portugal keep the
spotlight focused on that coun-
try. The “on again, off again”
participation of the Socialist
Party in the Council of Ministers
is being followed closely by pro-
gressives everywhere.

This May 22 statement by the
Political Commission of the
Central Committee of the Portu-
guese Communist Party sheds
important background on the
current situation. The statement
is translated from French.

* ~ *

LISBON — Today, May 22,
the Portuguese Communist Party
(PCP) was surprised by the de-
cision of the leaders of the So-
cialist Party (SP) to cease their
participation in the Council of
Ministers, as long as some con-
ditions will not be accepted.

This decision is part of a vast
hysterical undertaking of the SP
against the progressive policies
and measures of the Council of
the Revolution-and the Provisio-
nal Government, against the de-
mocratic forces, against the
Armed Forces Movement (AFM).
As of now, the SP uses as a
pretext the workers’ conflict
with the directors of the news-
paper, “Republica”. But this ac-
tion has been simmering for
quite some time. It was intensi-
fied after March 11, and the pro-
gressive measures taken by the
Council of the Revolution, after
the SP had already undertaken
‘a wide divisionary campaign on
May 1.

The SP acts, not as a party of
government, but as an opposi-
tion party, drawing to its side
conservative . and reactionary
forces, including so-called revo-
lutionaries, leftist groups.

e By its attitude and activ-
ities, the SP fails to meet the
pledges it took before the elec-
tions, when it signed, as the PCP
and other political parties did,
a pact with the AFM. By failing

“The Socialist Party acts ‘not

as a party of government but as
an opposition party, drawing to
its side conservative and reac-
tionary forces, including so-call-
ed _ revolutionaries, leftist
groups.” Above: Mario Soares
parading his anti-unity leanings
after the closure of the news-
paper Republica.

to keep its pledges it questions
the existing power system, na-
mely, the coalition government.
The leaders of the SP take a
heavy responsibility regarding
the consequences of such an ori-
entation and of such actions.

e The attitudes and activities
of the SP, backed by the Portu-
guese Democratic Party, and
other provocative groups, so-
called revolutionaries, serve and
stir up the forces of reaction.

The PCP draws attention of
the Portuguese people to the co-
incidence cf this activity with
the counter-revolutionary provo-
cateurs of the Movement for Re-
organizing the Proletarian Party
(MRPP) and their efforts aimed
at the deterioration of the econo-
mic and social situation, the
ealls to strike, which benefit
neither the .workers nor. the
democratic process, the announ-

_ the

cement of demonstrations and
assemblies of a reactionary na-
ture. :

e The activity of the SP is
fueling, outside the country, the
campaigns of slander against the
young .Portuguese democracy
and give false pretext and ques-
tionable arguments to the inter-
national reactionaries and to the
most aggressive segments of im-
perialism.

e The PCP has fought untir-
ingly for the unity of the people,
for the cooperation of demo-
cratic forces, for a coalition gov-
ernment, for a fraternal alliance
with the AFM.

Despite the violent anti-com-
munism of the SP, the PCP has
insisted on a common examina-
tion of the relations and possible
cooperation between the two
parties.

The positions and activities of
the SP could very well lead to
a deadlock in the coalition gov-
ernment and the present system
of power.

If the SP, by its activities, de-

stroys the coalition system, it”

withdraws any justification for
Constitutional Assembly,
elected on the basis of the pact
between the parties and the
AFM.

The Portuguese people will
not permit the revolutionary pro-
cess to be questioned and the
great democratic victories won
since April 25, and more particu-
larly since March 11 — it won't
permit the questioning of the
building of a democratic govern-
ment, on the road to socialism.

The PCP calls upon the Por-
tuguese people to be vigilant. It
calls for the unity of the work-

ing class, of the masses and of _

all democratic and progressive
forces, for the strengthening of
the alliance of the popular move-
ment with the AFM for the de-
fence of the liberty and the Por-
tuguese revolution.

MINSK PEACE MEET WARNS:

Fascist menace
hasn't vanished

By ANATOLY STUK
APN Commentator

MINSK — “The historic im-
portance of the defeat of Hitler’s
fascism, the struggle of peace-
loving forces against the threat

of neo-fascism” — this was the
subject of a symposium held at
the International Meeting of

Peace Champions in Minsk, ca-
pital of the Byelorussian Social-
ist Republic, marking the 30th
anniversary of victory over fas-
cism in the Second World War.

-The meeting was attended by
about 140 representatives: of the
peace movement in 35 countries
and a delegation of the World
Peace Council.

In his speech at the meeting
Romesh Chandra, general-secre-

tary of the World Peace Coun-
cil, said that it was important

_to understand the importance. of

the victory over fascism, the de-

cisive contribution to which

was made by the Soviet Union.

“The world socialist system
emerged as a result of this vic-
tory,” he said. “This not only
changed the map of the world,
but has also created new pos-
sibilities for all the peoples to
struggle for independence, a just
and democratic peace and for
social progress.

“Today we see how things
could have been, had fascism not
been defeated and it is only now
that we are able fully to evalu-
ate the sacrifices which the So-
viet Union, its army and people
had made,” said Raimond Peri-
netti, participant in the French
Resistance Movement and the
head of the French delegation.

“But has the danger of fas-
cism actually disappeared? No,
it has not. We have before our
eyes the example of Chile and
South Africa. Its echo can at
times be heard in France, Italy

and the West Germany. It lives
on in Spain. In Lyons the fas-
cists recently held a rally”

“We must be fully aware that,
though fascism had been defeat-
ed on the battlefields, its econo-
mic and political roots have not
yet been eradicated,” said Bran-
ka Golovic, Secretary of the
League of the United Fighters of
the National Liberation War in
Yugoslavia. -

The main idea of the symp0-

sium was the necessity to be.

vigilant against fascist intrigues
and to strengthen the unity of
peaceloving forces.

“The policy of detente and

strengthening peace,” stressed
Yurki Oranen, general secretary
cf the National Union of Stu:
dents of Finland, who represent
ed the Finnish National Peace
Committee, “is no plain and con-
flict-free sailing. Following this

policy, we constantly have t0 ~
overcome a multitude of ob-

stacles calling for intense strug’
gle and work on the part of the
peace champions.

One of the tasks of the sym
pcsium was ‘to.further the devé-
lopment of a still clearer picture
abcut the sources of fascism and
neo-fascism and the forces call-
ing it to life. ; ‘

Michel Pistillo, . Italian MP,
linked the emergence of new
forms of fascist-type movements
with international imperialism’s
attempts to block the deep de-
mocratic and socialist transfor-
mations.

The participants in the inter-

national meeting of peace cham-
pions in Minsk declared theif

determination to do their utmost

to see to it that.the joint efforts
of governments and the public
be directed to creating an atmos-
phere of confidence in mankind’s
peaceful future, at stopping the
arms race and that international
detente should spread over the

entire world and become irre-

versible.

sunnunsenunnenenaneeaeunsuaneneasaueueueuegeaseueeeuegedeaeeUeueoeee0e440QUQUUHQGOUGCUUUOUOEOCUUODEOEOUOUEDAGEOUOERLEUEAOGUACEGEGEOUOSOAELOUEOUOUESUOCOUOEOOOOOSOLEQOOUOQOUOOUOEOEOUEUEOEOUEUEDOONOUOUEGEOEOUOGEUEGEOOGOUOOEOUOGEAOQUOEOUEQEGOQEOOEOEGOOUEAUE

Europe's Maoists feed reaction’s fire

By VLADIMIR SIMONOV
(APN) Political Analyst

A group of Portuguese Mao-
ists styling themselves as the
Movement for Reorganising the
Proletarian Party (MRPP) re-
emerged after the government
had barred it from participation
in the elections to the Constitu-
ent Assembly a month ago.
Ignoring that warning, the MRPP
risked openly undermining pub-
lic order. The anarchists carried
out a series of arbitrary arrests
in the country, aiming to split
the Armed Forces Movement
and to isolate it from the people.
As a result, Portugal’s public
security agencies were obliged
to close the MRPP’s centres in
Lisbon and other cities.

If the Baader-Meinhof group
robbed banks, set fire to embas-
sy buildings and shot hostages,
their counterparts in Portugal
were content with the tortures
and intimidation of their victims.
Although terror differed in de-
gree, it was still larded with the
bombastic pseudo-left phraseo-
logy as if borrowed from Mao’s
works. The Portuguese MRPP
bent over backwards trying to
prove that they were “more re-

volutionary than the revolution
itself.”

It is understandable that such
a program impresses the West
European rightists, who are now
growing more active in condi-

“tions of economic crisis. But

what is even more valuable,
from their standpoint, is the pos-
sibility of -including under the
category of terrorists all demo-
cratic circles and parties, and
first of all, communists. It is
well known that every bomb
thrown by the Baaderites touch-
ed off in the FRG a campaign of
anti-communist psychosis.
Every act of violence has
pushed West German society
farther to the right, says Susan
Fraker, an American biographer

. of the Baader-Meinhof group. A

similar appraisal has also been
made to the political role of
Mao’s Portuguese flock. The
communique released by the
Armed Forces Movement clearly
denounces extremist groups and
the MRPP in particular, of ‘“‘col-
laboration with forces coming
out against the development of
the socialist revolution.”

No wonder politicians like the
Bavarian right-wing ultra,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 20, 1975—Page 6

Strauss, make much of “left’-
wing ultras. It’s not a secret
that Peking’s mission in West
Europe quickly gathers a com-
munity of like-minded persons
and becomes a_ generator of
anarchist sentiment, primarily,
among youth.

A. Bonn newspaper discover-
ed that four pro-Chinese “friend-
ship societies” were functioning
in West Germany and West
Berlin, while the Chinese em-
bassy was sounding out the pos-
sibility of founding a fifth. Many
members of these organizations
belong to Maoist groups, and
the societies themselves, as the
paper indicates, ‘are maintain-
ing excellent political relations
with Peking.”

The recent Paris visit of Teng
Hsiao-Ping, vice-premier of the
PRC, and the accrediting of a

Chinese representative at the -

-Common Market headquarters
have reinforced this point. How-
ever, such rapprochement brings
with it a stream of Maoist ideo-
logy to Western Europe. How
many more young Europeans
are yet to join those thousands
carrying portraits of Baader and
Mao Tse-Tung in their pockets?

Portuguese Maoists MRPP, (Movement for the Reorganizing ‘of

8

the Proletarian Party), before they were banned from taking P?

in the elections. The debarrment came after the MRPP refused to

change their hammer and sickle party symbol for election registro”
tion. In Portugal there is at least 35%) illiteracy and the election"

terate.

symbols on ballots served to identify parties for those who are illi-