PCP - Demonstrations in defence of workers and the right to protest

 

Great marches in defence of April, against exploitation and impoverishment

On this past October 19, hundreds of thousands of workers demonstrated, in the cities of Lisbon and Oporto and in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, against exploitation and impoverishment, in answer to the call by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers – CGTP-IN.

A huge wave of protest and indignation filled the streets, in a powerful affirmation of dignity, courage and determination in defence of the rights of the workers and the population and demanding the resignation of the PSD/CDS government, the defeat of the Pact of Aggression – the “memorandum” signed by PS, PSD and CDS with the EU, IMF and ECB – and of the right-wing policy and for the implementation of a policy to serve the workers, the people and the homeland.

A rousing affirmation of resistance and struggle against the illegitimate attempt to curtail fundamental freedoms with the government’s provocation that clearly showed its fully antidemocratic face, by placing all sorts of hurdles to the march on the 25^th April Bridge over the Tagus River in Lisbon. The workers imposed the exercise of their democratic rights and a new and important defeat on the government by crossing the 25^th April Bridge on buses, while at the same time in the north of the country thousands of people marched on the Infante Bridge that links the cities of Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia.

A day of struggle which constitutes a great show of unity and combativity in defence of April, the Portuguese Constitution and national sovereignty.

Mobilising for resistance and struggle, CGTP-IN has already announced a new gathering in front of the Assembly of the Republic, on November 1^st, the day of the first vote on the 2014 State Budget, which announces further brutal cuts in wages and pensions, while benefiting the big economic and financial groups, submissively obeying the EU and the IMF, who impose a painful stranglehold on the workers, the people and the country.