The Anti-Communists Strike Back

Black Volkswagens slipped through Lisbon's twisted streets last week carrying army officers to midnight rendezvous with political allies. Headlights flashed signals in parking garages. To elude detection, shadowy figures flitted from one car to another, then sped away. Some clearly feared for their lives, especially the nine dissident officers who issued the now famous moderate manifesto attacking the ruling troika for dragging Portugal toward a Communist dictatorship. Their leader and the author of the manifesto, former Foreign Minister Ernesto Melo Antunes, was reported to be spending each night in a different place to avoid, in the words of one Western diplomat, "getting snagged by some freelance left-wingers."

The midnight meetings, the clandestine signals, the fears of assassination --were all outgrowths of the crisis that has overtaken Portugal in the past two months. On one side were the moderates, symbolized by Melo Antunes, who favor a gradual, pluralistic approach to socialism. On the other were the well-organized orthodox Communists, who seek to impose total control over the country. For the moment, the political momentum plainly belonged to the moderates. In the north and central regions, Portugal's conservative Roman Catholics staged violent assaults against one local Communist headquarters after another (see color opposite). The attacks were eloquent reminders of the depths of anti-Communist feeling among a majority of Portuguese.

From outside Portugal, the moderate forces also received a powerful boost. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in an otherwise routine speech in Birmingham, expressed sympathy "with those moderate elements who seek to build Portugal by democratic means." Perhaps more important, he warned the Soviet Union, which many believe has been sending millions of dollars to Portugal's Communist Party, not to try to influence events in a country that was "an old friend and ally of ours."

Moderate Group. The Communists and their man in the troika, Premier Vasco dos Santos Gonc,alves, were very much on the defensive. Gonc,alves was clinging desperately to his position, ignoring demands that he resign. But the cabal of officers intent upon ousting him has generated such impressive support that Gonc,alves' days seemed numbered. Melo Antunes' moderate manifesto, with its call for a gradual, pluralistic approach to socialism, had won the backing of a majority in the armed forces --some estimates went as high as 85%. Just about every officer of any consequence in the country had signed the document, and military units with some 70,000 men were reportedly backing the moderate group.

Even aides of President Francisco Costa Gomes acknowledged privately that the Communist-leaning Gonc,alves had been irredeemably discredited. In the course of a 2 1/2-hour meeting at Belem Palace, Costa Gomes reportedly asked Socialist Leader Mario Soares for a six weeks' grace period to arrange Gonc,alves' resignation and restore political parties to representation in the government. Soares rejected the proposal. Soon afterward, he was backed by 7,000 Socialists who marched on Belem Palace shouting "Vasco must resign!"

Of growing significance was the wave of popular anti-Communist violence that continued to swell in the north. Inspired and led by the country's Catholics, the mass demonstrations reflected the fact that the church, quiescent for much of the revolutionary period, was becoming a crucial element in the complicated Portuguese political puzzle. Heretofore weakened by political differences, the Catholics now seem to have united in the face of a common enemy: the Communists.

Best Values. In Braga, an ancient, bustling religious center, thousands turned out to hear conservative Archbishop Francisco Maria da Silva denounce the Communists and demand restoration to the church of Lisbon's Catholic-owned Radio Renascenga. Organizers of the demonstration collected no fewer than 100,000 signatures in a petition calling on the Communists, who seized the station two months ago, to give it up. "We want respect for public morality and moral values!" cried the archbishop. "We want respect for fundamental human rights. Christian people must assume their responsibilities, certain that the best values guide their lives: God, his church, and the homeland."

At the end of the archbishop's speech, thousands moved to the Communist Party headquarters and tore the flag from a balcony pole and burned it in the street. Surrounded and terrified, the Communists opened fire on the crowd; 30 people were injured or wounded, some seriously. Though four armored personnel carriers and two truckloads of troops rumbled in from Oporto at midnight and dispersed the crowd with tear gas, angry demonstrators later managed to set the Communist headquarters ablaze. By morning, it was a gutted ruin.

Elsewhere in northern and central Portugal, it was much the same story. In Viseu, a factory town 80 miles southeast of Oporto, hundreds of Popular Democrats converged on the local Communist headquarters shouting support for the "Melo Antunes Document."

Nobody could say last week exactly where the Portuguese disorders would lead or who would gain power if Gonc,alves did resign. One obvious candidate was Melo Antunes; as the leading moderate dissenter, he has become something of a national hero. Another possibility was Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, the unpredictable, radical, opportunistic chief of Portugal's military security force, COPCON, and a strong admirer of Fidel Castro. Apparently trying to ride the wave of anti-Gonc,alves feeling, Saraiva de Carvalho backed still another dissident manifesto--a radical alternative to Melo Antunes' more moderate charter. It harked back to a program earlier promoted by radicals in the Armed Forces Movement: the creation of neighborhood councils of workers, soldiers and peasants that, in bypassing the political parties, would form the country's basic political units. There were reports that Melo Antunes was revising some sections of his dissident charter in an effort to incorporate some of the radicals' principal ideas.

Even if the radicals and moderates do manage to triumph over the Communists, Portugal's future will remain precarious. Were Saraiva de Carvalho to emerge as a strongman, Portugal might well escape an East European-type dictatorship only to end up with a perhaps unorthodox but still dictatorial system. Then, too, nobody could discount the possibility that if the drift toward anarchy continues, the old right wing, powerless since the April 1974 revolution, might stage a coup. Indeed, the anti-Communist activities led by the armed forces' moderates provided an umbrella for all kinds of non-Communist groups, including former backers of the overthrown Caetano regime.

Little Bloodshed. Still, there was reason to hope that the forces favoring political pluralism would yet gain the upper hand. Both the mass passions against the Communists and the armed forces' abhorrence of the old right-wing dictatorship seem to favor a victory for moderation. There was also cause for encouragement in the fact that there has been little bloodshed despite the chaos and tension of the past several weeks. So far, the various political factions have devoted themselves to writing manifestoes--not trying to impose their wills by force of arms.

Upheavals in the remnants of its 500-year-old colonial empire complicated Portugal's crisis last week. In oil-rich Angola, Lisbon resumed complete control, thus ending the Portuguese-African transitional government that had been appointed to run the country in January. The reason for Lisbon's action was the bloody civil war among Angola's three independence parties. Portugal still intends to grant independence to Angola on Nov. 11. But the murderous infighting among the black Angolan factions could compel Lisbon to hang on to its troublesome African colony far longer than it would like.

Main Danger. Trouble also broke out in another colonial quarter--the tiny island of Timor (pop. 650,000), situated in the midst of the Indonesian archipelago. Last week one of the island's fledgling independence parties, using ancient Mausers, Sten guns and Timorese cutlasses, staged a bizarre coup, seizing the police headquarters and the radio station and demanding independence from Portugal.

The instigator of the coup was the Timor Democratic Union (U.D.T.) which had always advocated a gradual approach to independence and a continuing association with Portugal. One possible explanation for the U.D.T.'s action was that it had joined forces with another independence party, Fretelin, to crush a third party that advocates eventual union with Indonesia.

Portuguese authorities on Macao, the country's other remaining Pacific possession, declared that Lisbon's troops would not "open fire against the people of Timor no matter what the outcome of the current crisis." Similarly, Indonesia announced a policy of noninterference. The main danger seemed to be that the three independence parties would begin to bicker among themselves, `a la Angola.

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