Point of No Return?

Alvaro cunhal, leader of the Portuguese Communists, spent most of the past two decades in Prague. From there he ran the underground Portuguese party with the help of Soviet, Czech, and other East European agents and money. Cunhal’s relations with the World Federation of Trade Unions, which has its headquarters in Prague, were particularly close. Last April a contingent of WFTU operatives arrived in Portugal along with Cunhal, a few days after the overthrow of Caetano. They set to work with the conviction that the proletariat really was going to be the key to the revolution this time, as classic Marxian doctrine prescribes but reality has seldom confirmed. They and the local Communists have been able to draw on the ample funds—believed to be averaging more than $10 million a month—that Moscow has been sending into Portugal.

Many workers were already organized into a government-controlled federation set up by the old regime. Its national leadership dissolved overnight, leaving the constituent unions on their own for a while. Many of these had already been infiltrated by Communists during the underground period. Now the Communists moved quickly to replace the old officials with their own people. In this way they got control of most of the old unions. They have also been recruiting new members and starting new unions in hitherto unorganized fields.

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James Burnham

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Alvaro cunhal, leader of the Portuguese Communists, spent most of the past two decades in Prague. From there he ran the underground Portuguese party with the help of Soviet, Czech, and other East European agents and money. Cunhal’s relations with the World Federation of Trade Unions, which has its headquarters in Prague, were particularly close. Last April a contingent of WFTU operatives arrived in Portugal along with Cunhal, a few days after the overthrow of Caetano. They set to work with the conviction that the proletariat really was going to be the key to the revolution this time, as classic Marxian doctrine prescribes but reality has seldom confirmed. They and the local Communists have been able to draw on the ample funds—believed to be averaging more than $10 million a month—that Moscow has been sending into Portugal.

Many workers were already organized into a government-controlled federation set up by the old regime. Its national leadership dissolved overnight, leaving the constituent unions on their own for a while. Many of these had already been infiltrated by Communists during the underground period. Now the Communists moved quickly to replace the old officials with their own people. In this way they got control of most of the old unions. They have also been recruiting new members and starting new unions in hitherto unorganized fields.