Word: cunhal
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Defensive. In fact, both appeared to be losing ground swiftly. When the Communist-dominated trade union organization, Intersindical, called a half-hour general strike as a show of support for Gonçalves, most workers simply stayed on their jobs. Even Communist Party Chief Alvaro Cunhal appeared to be backing off from his staunch support of the Premier. In talks with Costa Gomes, Cunhal said that the Communists would not make an issue of Gonçalves' ouster. Earlier, at a rally, he conceded that the moderates' manifesto had some "good points...
...wave of anti-Communist violence throughout the conservative north in the past few weeks has clearly left the Communists on the defensive. At least 50 party headquarters have been sacked, six persons killed and hundreds injured. Cunhal himself narrowly escaped injury when a mob attacked a rally at which he was speaking in Alcobaça, north of Lisbon. Three days later, when the military said it could not guarantee his safety, Cunhal canceled a scheduled rally in Oporto, the country's second largest city...
...troubled waters" and that the Portuguese must solve their problems "in an atmosphere free from the pressures of outside interests." Studiously ignoring the Kremlin's substantial aid to Portuguese Communists,* Pravda charged that "NATO interests" and "reactionary forces" were meddling in Portugal and called for solidarity with Cunhal's Communists...
Party Boss Cunhal spent 13 years behind bars, eight of them in solitary. He became something of a legend, even among nonCommunists, for his daring 1960 escape with nine other prisoners from Lisbon's infamous Peniche Prison, which sits on a rocky promontory overlooking the Atlantic. The inmates were aided by a sympathetic guard who marched them one by one underneath his rain cape to a 60-ft. wall overlooking the sea. Using a rope of knotted sheets, they climbed down and were able to swim to shore, where waiting cars picked them...
Party members used aliases (Cunhal was known as "Duarte," Pato as "Melo" and "Fresão") and did not have legitimate identity papers-a particularly risky status during World War II-thus they were often not even able to send their children to school. The youngsters had to be taught informally at home or packed off to live with relatives. Says Pato: "This was the most painful thing for parents who had to live underground." Many of the children were pressed into service for the party as messengers and typesetters...