The Battle of Sao Paulo

In Sao Paulo's municipal election last fortnight, the voters were in a truculent mood. They voted down the government's candidate for mayor, in protest to the government's failure to check inflation; they also slapped down the Communists' candidate, giving him only 4.3% of the vote. Last week the Reds set out to rebuild prestige by a show of strength. Their tactic: seize control of strikes started by non-Communists angry over inflation.

The situation was tailor-made for the Reds: all over the country, the workers, galled by remorseless price rises, were in a rebellious mood. On Rio's waterfront, dockers by the droves left the government-controlled union, went over to a militant new independent outfit; they refused to do any overtime work until the government started paying bonuses promised last December. Merchant marine officers threatened a strike that would tie up the government's two shipping lines. Even doctors at government institutions in Rio staged a one-day strike. Things were at their worst in Sao Paulo, where almost a tenth of the city's population was out of work because strikes had forced shutdowns in textile mills, breweries, machine shops and the building trades. It was in Sao Paulo that the Communists acted.

To turn the city's strikes into riots required only a little Communist know-how. The Reds moved in with a front called The Committee Against the High Cost of Living, and called on the workers to assemble at Prac,a da Se, before the city's unfinished cathedral, for a "March of the Empty Pots." Policemen with loudspeakers warned the strikers to disperse. Instead the crowd grew. Firemen turned their hoses on the strikers, who reacted with laughter and jeers until the plainclothesmen waded in, swinging rubber truncheons. Saber-wielding cops on horses charged into the mob. Tear-gas bombs ricocheted off iron-shuttered shops and cobbled streets. Fifteen strikers were wounded, one cop stabbed.

Next day the Reds called for another hunger march, but cops sprayed Red headquarters near the cathedral with tear gas, and rounded up 31 weeping Communists on a rooftop. They were jailed, but the strikes continued. On Easter Sunday, while pickets patrolled suburban factories, an uneasy peace lay over Sao Paulo's famed skyline. This week a settlement seemed likely in the form of a big wage boost--which would balloon both inflation and the Reds' prestige.

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