The growth of the struggle in the Portuguese colonies is not only to be judged by
die advance of the military front lines,
the increased offensives, and the expansion of the liberated areas. It can also be
seen from the growing involvement and
and commitment of forces outside - both
reactionary forces, who are rapidly closing their ranks, and also progressive
forces who are increasing their support
and solidarity in countries where only a
few years ago ours was described as a
'forgotten war'.
Several events over the last few months
have demonstrated that Portugal's NATO
allies in particular have decided to come
to the aid of Portugal's repressive colonial policies even more openly and closely
than before.
In January this year Britain and the
United States finally withdrew from the
United Nations Committee on Colonialism
after several years of obvious dissatisfaction at their inability to control its resolutions and statements. A member of the
U.S. mission to the U.N. confirmed this
when he stated: «We felt the Committee
was not fulfilling its mandate and that it
was being irresponsible by advocating
violence.»
The advent of the Conservative government in Britain has of course produced
the anticipated re-establishment of even
closer links with Portugal than existed
under its predecessor. The arms sales to
South Africa are but one aspect of its
policies towards the oppressive regimes in
Southern Africa.
There have recently been official visits to
Britain by both the Provincial Secretary
for the Economy of Angola and the Portuguese Secretary for Industry - the first
member of the Portuguese government to
visit Britain officially since 1955. A delegation from the British National Export
Council recently toured Mozambique, as
did the former Conservative Minister, Mr.
Duncan Sandys who stated that this
government would take a much more
positive attitude towards Cahora Bassa
than the previous one. A month after the
export mission's visit a 5 million sterling credit for Portugal was announced,
to be used for 'African development'.
The strongest indication of the new trends
however,, is the recent invitation to the
British Foreign Minister to visit Portugal.
Details of closer NATO collaboration are
given elsewhere. In addition, the Nixon
administration has been continuing its
usual hypocrytical international role of
proclaiming loudly its defence of human
rights and then doing precisely the opposite. Nixon's 'State of the World' message
to Congress 'denounced' white minority
regimes but equally firmly rejected any
solution that called for violence or even
economic pressures, pretending that the
isolation of white regimes would not
serve 'ultimate justice' and that America's
main contribution to Africa would be to
keep it free of 'great power rivalries and
conflicts'. The implications for Portugal
are obvious - for, as all her friends point
out, the Portuguese colonies are some of
the most peaceful areas of Africa, troub
led by only a few foreign-backed terrorists.
A few months earlier, the Portuguese ambassador to the United States had come
rather more to the point when addressing
the Institute of High Studies for National
Defence. He stated that the USA now had
a more sympathetic attitude to the Portuguese 'problems' in the African colonies,
and that he expected a closer collaboration
in future between Portugal and the USA,
in view of Portugal's rich material resources. The more tangible evidence of
these policies recently has been the sale
of Boeing aircraft to TAP, and small 'civil'
aircraft to South Africa, both ideal for
supporting the military effort; the one
through large-scale transport capabilities
and the other by wav of reconnaissance
radio co-operation with ground police,
co-ordination of army airforce activities
etc.
France and West Germany, on the other
hand, have never felt required to make
even the slightest pretext about their
objectives. Both are giving Portugal every
support with her Common Market application. One of the few thorns in Franco-
Portuguese relations, illegal migrant workers in France, has been solved by a series
of recent agreements. During a recent
visit to France by the Portuguese Foreign
Minister, President Pompidou expressed
France's great esteem for Portugal and
said that France would resolutely continue its policy of close co-operation between both countries. West Germany's
main concern, apart from the sale of arms,
has always been the mineral wealth of the
colonies which provides the raw materials
for these. The growing importance of this
was recently demonstrated by the visit to
Angola of Franz Josef Strauss, Minister of
Defence, accompanied by West German
generals Von der Hidt and Tretners, who
visited the Cassinga iron mines.
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