Lisbon: 150,000 workers protest social cuts

Photo: Avante

Union leaders estimated that 150,000 workers marched through Lisbon on March 2 in probably the biggest pro-labor protest in that country in more than 20 years to demand a halt to the government’s policies of privatization and the dismantling of social programs.

The government is led by Premier Jose Socrates and by the party that calls itself Socialist. But this party is more like the Democratic Party in the U.S., and has been carrying out reactionary social reforms as aggressively as the former center-right government it replaced. The Socialists won by a landslide two years ago, supported by voters who opposed the rightist polices of the prior regime.

The demonstration, called by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), demanded higher pay and pensions and an end to the government’s destruction of the social infrastructure. Socrates’ policies include tax hikes, halts in promotions for government employees, cuts in health and retirement benefits and the dismantling of medical clinics and schools.

As in France, where mass protests reversed reactionary programs in 2005, in Portugal too the workers are dependent on their actions in the streets to stop these reactionary government policies. The March 2 demonstration has given a big boost to this continuing struggle.

—John Catalinotto