revolutionary deputies on April 25.
in the Portuguese elections
"Today, more than ever, it is essential for the workers' struggle and unity to elect UDP-PSR deputies to parliament who can be real standardbearers of a determined struggle against conciliation and alliances with the right, who will be intransigent defenders of the people's demands, as Mario Toma has been in par-
AVANGAR liament "
Those deputies elected on the UDP.
PSR Electoral Front slate will be committed to maintain five courses of action
ODER P
1-02-1 INTERNATIONAL VIEWPOINT As soon as special legislative elections were called for April Partido Socialista Revolucionario (PSR), united revolutionary slate.
PSR's objective a revolutionary current that would put forward a program of class independence and offer an alternative to the class collaborationist policy of the Socialist Party of Mario Soares and the Communist Party of Alvaro Cunhal.
But a united slate was also necessary to avoid a proliferation of far left slates, to give a focus to the interest by the PR's proposals for struggle, and to increase the chances of electing revo-
In the October 5, 1980, elections, for example, the PSR got 1.03% of the vote and came within a few hundred votes of getting a deputy in Lisbon. While at that time the UDP, the far left organization with the strongest base, lost 40% of its vote, it nonetheless managed to maintain its Lisbon seat.
For all these reasons, therefore, the PSR wanted to reach an electoral accord based on a clear political platform. wanted to put together a slate enough to serve as the basis for a national campaign, and at the same time enable the signatory organizations to put forward their whole program.
On February 16, at a press conference the leaders of the UDP and the PSR signed an accord setting up the "UDP-PSR Electoral Front."
The agreement provided for running candidates in the most important election districts. In Lisbon, Mario Toma, who has held a Lisbon seat for the UDP since 1979, headed up the slate. Oporto, the slate was headed by Heitor de Sousa, a member of the Central Committee of the PSR and a public
This is the first time that an electoral front of this type has been achieved. In all districts where there is not a slate for the front, the PSR will run its own can-
This assures its autonomy in the election campaign and in presenting its own political positions over TV and radio.
The political platform of the UDP. PSR Electoral Front points out the disastrous consequences of the policy of the
Democratica (AD), the rightwing coalition in power. It notes that "the SP leadership, in the name of 'naconsensus' is preparing to take the PSD (a bourgeois party that calls
"Social Democratic") government after the elections."
At the same time, the CP's electoral coalition, the Alianca do Povo Unido of the People United) "which to oppose the SP leadership's allances with the right, is proposing a 'democratic government' The effect of this is also to extend a hand to the reactionary chiefs of the PSD. It shows, moreover, that the CP also wants to subworkers strugggle to a so-called 'social pact? "
Therefore, to make the workers' voice heard in parliament "the UDP and the revolutionary organizations different programs, have assumed set down in the electoral platform of the
Firm opposition to the AD and
"The UDP-PSR deputies will support the demand for the ouster of the parties of the right from the government. This is the immediate demand of all Portuguese
In parliament, they will firmlv oppose the reconstitution of an AD government with the parties of the right.
"2) Independence from a government formed around the SP.
"The UDP-PSR deputies will maintain total independence from a government formed around the SP. They will oppose alliances by the SP with any party of the right whatever. They will reject any kind of 'social pact' and mobilize the workers to block any concession by such a government to the bosses, as well as to force the capitalists to meet the most urgent deof the workers and the Unity and struggle against the 'social pact.' "
"The UDP-PSR deputies will defend the unity in struggle of all the workers and their class organizations...In the tradedemocracy and the right to free expression of all currents in the union, opposing the bureaucracy and divisions that keep the workers and their representative bodies from uniting against the right."
"4) Support to workers, people's, and democratic struggles and the most urgent demands raised in these struggles."
Under point no. 4, the coalition calls for fighting "against the rise in the cost of living and for the right to a job for all. That means an end to layoffs, a 40 hour week, etc. It calls for defending the liband rights of workers, i.e., reinstatement of fired union activists, equal pay for equal work for women and youth, for a law on abortion."
It calls for "defense of the agrarian reform law decreed" in revolutionary crisis. It calls for the «defense of the poor peasants against imperialist interference, that is, for a Portugal without foreign military bases and out
"This means opposing the entry into the Common Market and the measures of
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
AVANGARA
dustry and, above all, large scale econ- retaries Dohnal and Fast are actually
"In presenting this electoral agreement, the UDP and the PSR call on all revoludoing something to reduce discrimination on and Angola."
Point 4 calls for "fighting for peace SP and APU, or no party at all, to unite against all imperialist intervention, a nucear-free Europe and a nuclear-tree world, Increasing the support for revolutionar or solidarity with the revolutions and struggles of workers throughout the world against the imperialist policy of the workers will have an independent war and pillage."
"5) For electing revolutionary deputies momentum will be built up for a real turn who will devote themselves to advancing to the left, which can be won today by a the unity and struggles of the working tionists and the workers who support the and fight for the demands of the masses. candidates, a massive vote for the UDPPSR coalition is the best assurance that voice in parliament and that the mass determined independent struggle of the
Portuguese workers."
against women. And it may be that even a Kurt Steyr is serious about applying some environmental protection. But what have they all really accomplished, really changed?
The real policy of the SPO toward the new protest movements is to kill them with kindness so that it can get away with actually carrying out the policy of such right-wing figures as Benya, Kery, and Kienzl.
There is, thus, every reason to fight for a socialist alternative to the Social Depeople.