«The figures which are already available concerning the support for the General Strike cover almost all sectors, both public and private, and register extremely high levels of support, often close to 100%. They allow us to state that the General Strike is a success and a remarkable response by the workers who have, united in their action, unequivocally condemned the package of labour laws and the policies of the PSD-CDS/PP Government, demanding more just social policies.
The scale and impact of the General Strike is all the more meaningful, given the intimidatory manoeuvres by the Government and the big bosses: violating the right to strike, they illegally attempted to decree, on the eve of the strike, that minimum services would have to be guaranteed in the transportation sector; they have used the [Public Security Police] PSP and [National Republican Guard] GNR against workers on strike; in many companies they have replaced workers on strike, intimidated and threatened workers, in particular workers with precarious contracts or un-unionised workers.
The Portuguese Communist Party greets all working men and women who have joined the strike, all those men and women who took part in this great civic movement of citizenship, to defend their rights and for a Portugal of progress. We greet the CGTP-IN [Trade Union Central], the Trades Councils, the Federations of Trade Unions, the Trade Unions and Workers' Councils, the generous and militant commitment of thousands of trade union activists, and in particular, the hundreds of thousands of workers who decided, organized and took part in, the General Strike.
The PCP also wishes to extend these greetings to other social sectors, organizations and associations which stood in solidarity with this struggle. We equally wish to encompass in these words of greetings all those workers who, while supporting the General Strike and its goals, were unable to join it, namely due to the constraints induced by the precarious nature of their contracts and the fear of reprisals by their bosses. The PCP further wishes to greet those men and women who, with great understanding for the problems which a general strike always gives rise to, problems for which the Government is responsible, have expressed their understanding for the goals of the strike.
The PCP has committed itself from the very beginning to opposing the extremely violent political, social and legislative offensive upon which the Government has embarked and which is reflected in the Fundamental Law on Social Security, in the attacks against the National Health Service, in the Law on Surplus Workers, in the changes to the Public Employees' Code of Pensions, and in the so-called Labour Code. Our opposition has been on a political and institutional level, through the activism of our members, and in raising awareness among the workers. Today, we wish to express our solidarity with, and admiration for, all those working women and men on strike, who have given a magnificent lesson of dignity, unity, determination and struggle in the legitimate defense of their rights.
The PCP considers that the underlying doctrine, the content and the core objectives of the current [Government] proposals, imply that no amount of patchwork or re-touching may transform them into the basis or starting point for a negotiation.
The labour package is the key issue of this powerful display of protest and struggle. But its success also reflects the profound discontentment of diversified sectors of workers and social sectors that have been drastically hit by the right-wing policies of the PSD-CDS/PP Government.
The Government has betrayed the just expectations of thousands of old-age pensioners who have very low pensions and who believed in the many promisses of [the leader of the CDS/PP and Cabinet Minister] Paulo Portas and of the right-wing parties, to the extent of voting for them. The Government has announced a miserable increase in the minimum wage. The crucial issues affecting the Public Employees remain open.
In the name of the public accounts deficit, they have increased taxes and the price of essential goods and services, with drastic effects on the purchasing power of workers and less well-off families, in a clear contrast with the interests of speculative and financial activities, that continue to be privileged and untouchable.
The General Strike is a clear condemnation of the Government's backward policies. Its scale represents a message: that no national progress is possible when based on an avowed war against the workers and their rights. The redoubled need for a different political course is now clear, and with it, the responsability of the democratic political forces to draw the necessary conclusions from this condemnation and from the workers' most profound aspirations.
We are aware that the Government wishes to continue insisting upon its goals, that it has commitments with the powerful interests of domestic and international big business. But we are also aware that, however autistic the Government may wish to be, it will not remain immune to this significant display of will, of hope and determination surrounding the great social cause of labour legislation and of the country's future. The PCP stresses that it is the continuation of the struggle that will determine the ultimate outcome and fate of this labour package, and of the unjust policies that are associated with it. The working women and men may, as always, count upon the PCP».
