'Anarchy, Yes, But Not So Much'

"What do you think of our strike?" quipped Socialist Leader Mario Scares last week. He was referring to one of the most bizarre events in Portugal since the 1974 revolution: the government itself was staging a walkout. Its strike was to protest the massive rallies that have stymied its every move and the military's inability to guarantee its security to govern. The action meant that the 15-member Cabinet would no longer show up for work until President Francisco da Costa Gomes managed to restore discipline to the armed forces.

In theory, the move seemed fair enough. If everyone else could strike for what they want, why not the government? Actually, it was a move born of desperation, and it could well spell the end of the two-month-old government of moderate Premier Jose Pinheiro de Azevedo. President Costa Gomes, who is also commander in chief of the armed forces, went into session with the ruling Revolutionary Council to deal with the crisis. Abhorring a vacuum, the Communists quickly mobilized several thousand faithful, who marched outside the presidential palace, chanting: "Reactionaries out of the government."

Tentative Step. Costa Gomes, known in Lisbon as "the cork" because he always seems to bob up on top of every political crisis, waffled as usual. Addressing the crowd outside the palace as "my dear friends and comrades," he warned that if the Portuguese people did not reconcile their differences, they risked "a reaction from the right that could lead them to a regime similar to that in Chile." Nonetheless, he assured them, "while I am in this place, I will do everything possible to see that the reforms that are made in this country under any government will always be in favor of you, the working people."

After a meeting with Costa Gomes, Pinheiro de Azevedo emerged visibly angered. Only the week before he -along with 150 members of the Constituent Assembly -had been imprisoned for 37 hours in Sao Bento Palace by a mob of 60,000 construction workers seeking a 30% pay rise. After the meeting with the President, he told reporters: "I am fed up with being held prisoner. It is time the President resolved this crisis."

Moderates on the Revolutionary Council were helpless against moves by organized pressure groups in the army and among the workers. Attempts to replace maverick leftist General Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho -who openly sympathizes with riotous workers' demonstrations -as military commander of Lisbon failed when leftist commanders of the Lisbon units met and refused to accept Otelo's successor. The defeat was an ominous one for Pinheiro de Azevedo's Sixth Provisional government.

Alarmed by the growing threat of mob rule, which radicals euphemistically called poder popular (people power), Pinheiro de Azevedo has warned: "People power becomes tyranny when it is not united under a body of law." In the wake of the construction workers' lock-in of the Premier, the 247-member Constituent Assembly debated whether to move to the more tranquil environs of Oporto in the north. In the end, they decided to stay in Lisbon to show they were not afraid, but they did pass a motion allowing them to meet anywhere in the country if conditions warrant. Disgruntled businessmen bitterly joked that Portugal has become a "country under self-management," and one wit painted a slogan on a Lisbon wall reading: "Anarchy, yes, but not so much."

New Rumors. In fact, a little self-management would not be half bad. In the 19 months since the Portuguese revolution, virtually every institution in the country has fallen victim to political factionalism and a contest of wills. Even the now factionalized Armed Forces Movement, the tightly knit group of officers who engineered the 1974 revolution, realizes that it must come to some kind of agreement or it will be impossible for any government to operate. At week's end, the Revolutionary Council urged that the Cabinet return to its duties and try to resolve the crisis. But there are new rumors that Costa Gomes might appoint an all-military Cabinet in hopes of ending leftist defiance of the government within the armed forces.

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As if President Costa Gomes did not have enough trouble in Lisbon, General Atlino Magalh`aes, military governor of the Portuguese Azores, last week warned that the islands would not accept a government that was unrepresentative of the Portuguese people. The statement was interpreted as a veiled threat that Magalh`aes and the island's other military commanders may join forces with the secessionist Azorian Liberation Front (FLA) if near anarchy continues to dominate Portuguese politics. The right-wing FLA, which advocates independence for the Azores, has proved nettlesome in the past; late last month it fomented riots against Portuguese troops, closed down the radio station, and demanded a referendum on the question of independence. Although the U.S. Government claims "strict noninvolvement" with the Azorian separatists, TIME has learned that middle-level State Department officials have received FLA representatives in Washington, and the CIA has developed extensive contacts with the separatists. The purpose, says TIME'S source, was "to keep lines of communication open and occasionally to provide some guidance and share information about developments on the mainland." The CIA also wanted to be in a position to help push for secession if Lisbon went Communist.

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