Outrage at murder of
Trotskyist militant
IN THE early morning of 28
October José
Carvalho, a leader of the Revolutionary
Socialist Party (PSR,
Portuguese section of the Fourth
International) was murdered in front of the Lisbon offices of our party. [see IV
173] José was known to his comrades as Zé of MESSA (the factory where he worked). His assassins were a band of neo-Nazi skinheads, already known for a series of small provocations, largely directed against the African and Indian minorities. There is reason to believe that this group has killed other people, although without witnesses and in other conditions.
of group), was kept in detention by the magistrate, although, during the course of the investigation, he did not wish to charge the others with complicity.
José Carvalho was 37 and for a year had been a member of the Central Committee of the PSR. Elected at the last congress, he immediately became a member of the party's Political Bureau, responsible for the distribution of our press and support for the anti-militarist campaign amongst youth.
He had joined the LCI (Internationalist Communist League, which later became the PSR) in 1974, during his military service. He participated in the anti-militarist sector of the party, and in 1975 helped to build a broad democratic and political movement amongst soldiers. A worker, he had begun work at the age of 14 in an important factory on the outskirts of Lisbon, MESSA, which produced typewriters. He worked in this factory for 15 years, and for many years was a member of its Workers' Commission.
MESSA was the arena for the most important struggle against industrial reconversion which Portugal has known. For nine years, nearly a thousand workers resisted the threats of closure of the factory, negotiating with, and struggling against, different governments, spending month after month without pay.
Bastion of working class combativity
FRANCISCO LOUCA
N THE evening of José's murder, as every week, the PSR offices were the venue for a rock concert, organized in connection with the anti-militarist campaign that the PSR has been building amongst youth for the past year. These concerts have been organized in collaboration with nearly 70 rock groups (almost every group in the country, and certainly all the most important). Because of the popularity of the anti-militarist theme — in a country where youth are obliged to serve two years in the military, being trained by officers who have an ideology and a practice inherited from the colonial wars — and given that this is the only place in Lisbon where live rock music can be heard, some hundreds of youth attend these concerts each week. For some months, para-military skinhead groups have been organizing provocations, gathering at the entrance to intimidate the young concertgoers. However, until now, we have only known minor confrontations, which have been dealt with through efficient stewarding supported by the self-organization of the youth themselves.
On the night of José's murder, the skinheads behaved differently. After some provocations, a group of around forty PSR militants and sympathizers came out of the offices to block their access. The skinheads moved away quickly enough, but this was simply a manoeuvre to prepare their attack. This was very rapid, and took place when only a small number of militants remained outside the doors of the offices. In a few seconds, the attackers had wounded two people (of whom one suffered concussion and the other a broken nose) and had killed another. José Carvalho was stabbed in the heart, and died almost instantly.
A pursuit was organized, this time with significant numbers of PSR comrades and with the assistance of the police, but it was not immediately possible to find the band of skinheads, who had quickly taken flight. Around half an hour after the attack, the PSR provided the police with descriptions of three of the attackers, so that they could conduct their own enquiries. By the following morning, all the members of the band had been identified and imprisoned, and it was soon possible to reconstruct the circumstances of the murder. One of the members of the group, who had confessed to having a knife (a habitual small arm for this type
The democracy that existed in the factory, the general assemblies that led the struggle, made this enterprise a bastion of the combativity of the working class left. As one of its principal leaders, Zé participated in all these struggles: he organized demonstrations 30 kilometers long to Parliament, he negotiated with secretaries of state and ministers, he organized the popularization of the struggle amongst the workers in other enterprises.
From the beginning, Zé devoted himself tirelessly to party work, assuming numerous responsibilities and initiatives, involving himself in every aspect of work and discussion. He had, on most issues, a critical and independent frame of mind. At our last congress, he was part of a minority that was critical of our project, since adopted, of transforming the section's newspaper into a permanent instrument of collaboration with those revolutionary independents who were participating in party initiatives. But this position did not prevent him from being one of the central figures responsible for the distribution of our press, which has now attained a circulation of 5,000 and aspires to surpass this figure. Such was his attitude to party work; his opinion was respected all the more because of his recognized authority stemming from his leadership abilities and Orientatiole towards collative det have 15 The whole party knew that it could have
PORTUGAL confidence in him.
On the very day of his assassination, a national conference of the party was due to meet which was to vote for José's status to become permanent, for the first time. Relieved of his youth responsibilities, he was to become responsible for the network of national contacts of the PSR in the large towns; and this task reflected a significant advance due in no small part to the work of José himself. The week following, he was to have participated in a five-day conference to establish a new youth sector of the party, born out of the anti-militarist campaign. His loss is a terrible blow for the PSR.
Impressive reaction to assassination
The reaction to the assassination was impressive. Some thousands of people attended the burial, held 24 hours after the crime. All the parties of the left without exception; the two trade union federations; the soldiers of April 25; the municipal councils; the individual trade unions; the student associations; the cultural centres and anti-imperialist/international solidarity groups, the national and European deputies, the associations of African workers; the youth organization of the
PSR leadership to express his sadness and to put himself entirely at our disposal. Parliament unanimously approved a motion of condolence (see box). Some hundreds of letters and telegrams have arrived, notably from many youths who had witnessed or been victims of skinhead aggression, putting themselves at the disposal of the party as witnesses or wishing to help identify the murderers at the investigation. Range of judicial procedures opened up
From the beginning, the PSR has reacted at two different levels. On the one hand, it has put pressure on the authorities and the institutions that all the murderers be held responsible. Successive meetings have been held with the police, the minister of justice and the state prosecutor. Meanwhile, a range of judicial procedures have been opened by the PSR and the two wounded militants, in collaboration with their families.
At the same time, the PSR has endeavored to organize a mobilization of the whole of democratic opinion and all the forces of the workers' movement. Working with an important group of investigative journalists, the PSR has compiled a dossier on the links between these neoNazi groups — which go back, as might be supposed, to the Salazar dictatorship — and has started a campaign to reply to the threat.
Two big tribute concerts, in which all the principal names of Portuguese music, from rock to opera, by way of jazz and popular music, will participate, will form the centerpiece of this campaign. All the Lisbon theater troupes are to dedicate a show to Ze. The trade unions and left parties are collaborating in our initiative. Thus, the PCP has put at the PSR's disposal both its newspaper and the part of its infrastructure that deals with the organization of festivals.
The reply has begun. It is far from over. The crime will be neither forgotten nor forgiven. * viva a vida! homenagem. josé carvalho musicos contra o nazismó PAY BESPORTES, LISBBA, 07,17 180, 2128 SFOAP, COVA DA PIEBAUE, 07,24 NIV,21.38 party in government and several parties of the right sent messages to, or were represented at, the funeral. Prominent leaders of the Socialist and Communist parties, as well as of all the formations of the far left; the president of the Association of the soldiers of 25 April; a brother of, and the widow of, singer José Afonso; friends who came from throughout the country; writers and artists; militants of the trade unions and popular struggles from the area where José lived, all joined in an impressive and moving funeral cortege. The rock groups with whom José worked in the anti-militarist campaign also formed part of the cortege.
All the daily newspapers led with the theme, which also featured as the lead story of the day's television news. The dailies and the national weeklies have devoted more than a hundred pages to this event. The radio gave live reports hour by hour, as well as declarations and commentaries on the progress of the investigation. On the Saturday evening, the principal Lisbon radio station broadcast a programme on Zé of MESSA.
Twelve hours after the murder, the PSR organized a public tribute in Lisbon, after having adjourned its national conference scheduled for that weekend. All the delegates, and particularly those from three regions where the party's implantation is fairly recent (Coimbra, Caldas da Rainha and Evora), who were attending a national conference for the first time, participated in the organization of this reply to the fascist provocation. 16 Republic Mary ShareS, elephonef the The next day, the President of the
Motion unanimously approved by the Portuguese Parliament
"Vote of sympathy: in the early morning of 28 October 1989, José Carvalho, a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, was murdered in Lisbon, by a group of individuals belonging to a gang which adheres to a fascist ideology and has a policy of employing organized violence. The Assembly of the Republic expresses its sadness at the death of Jose Carvalho and sends its condolences to his family and to the Revolutionary Socialist Parly; It expresses its indignation at this barbarous act which has taken a human life, and its great concern at the growing activitles of the neo-fascist groups: it pronounces Itself In lavour of adopting the measures laid down in article 46, paragraph 4 of the Constitution of the Republic. " [which forbids organizations of a fascist character].
Message sent by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho [one of the radical army leaders at the time of the 1974 revolution]
* heard in Oporto the terrible news of the assassination on early Satur day morning of José Carvalho at the hands of a young Nazi: 1 add my revulsion to yours al this alarming event whose detalls | have read in the newspapers, and on the occasion of this tragic event 1 send greetings of fraternity and solidarity to you and to this militant, this friend, this comrade, who is dead."
Message of the GUP one of the major trade union contederations. *The General Confederation of Portuguese Labor (CGT) condemns absolutely the crime committed on the night of Friday to Saturday, againsi a leader of the PSR and a trade union militant, dosé Carvalho, and expresses its solidarity with his party comrades and with his family, at this moment of bereavement and indignation. This tragic crime Is an Indi cator of the growing violence of extreme right groups, which, until now, have been treated with too great an incomprehension and a tolerance by the authorities of the country. This growth must be rapidly checked and this shocking assassination must be severely punished The workers and the democratic forces must be vigilant against any reappearance in our country of something that has no place in the democratic society in which we live and which we defend.
International Viewpoint #174 • November 27, 1989
SPANISH STATE