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PROPAGANDA BY PORTUGUESE PRIME MINISTER SOCRATES
Lisbon, 2007, Dec. 07
EXPLOITATION OF LABOUR
We are not in a political election period, in Portugal, but today I saw some outdoors in Lisbon which are propaganda for the Ministry of Education. The headline reads: 99 percent of the primary schools have English classes.
The common citizen has two options: he/she accepts the propaganda and shrugs his/her shoulders; or he/she reflects and thinks - so we have returned to the time of the National Secretariat of Information and Propaganda (recalling the figures of António Ferro and Moreira Baptista - two of Salazar's experts in this field). But then we lived under a dictatorship. Now, thank God, there is a democracy but the methods are similar in what concerns official propaganda. About other matters no. It is much worst now. For instance, read the hidden connection of this case:
The government, representing the State, the central, regional and local administrations, as well as companies and public enterprises and institutes, is the largest employer in Portugal. And at the same time it is the greatest exploiter of cheap labour. I dare say that 99 per cent of those English teachers are under temporary contracts, and many have not been timely paid for the last months. Futhermore, the officials cannot say that it is my fault (as they come on TV saying that the situation is due to the tax evasion custom of the Portuguese people and companies), because I have always paid my taxes in due time, not withsatnding the higher increases recently decreed, with the excuse that the State Treasury needs to balanced its accounts, after thirty years of waste spending. And when I ask what is the amount the government owes to local councils and suppliers, they just say: it is a State secret. In a Democracy?
I have come to the conclusion that we live a Republic exploiting its citizens and withdrawing the sttlement of its official debts. It also keeps copying the worst means of propaganda make believe used by the dictators we had before 1974.
By humberto ferreira

ORIGINAL TEXT sent today to the editor of Diário de Notícias, in Lisbon:
"Não estamos em campanha eleitoral mas vi hoje cartazes em Lisboa a propagandear o dinamismo do Min. Educação. Dizem: 99% das escolas do ensino básico com aulas de inglês.
O cidadão lê e das duas uma: aceita a propaganda e encolhe os ombros, ou reflecte e pensa - então voltamos à era do Secretariado Nacional da Informação e Propaganda (fazendo lembrar António Ferro e Moreira Baptista). Nesse tempo havia uma ditadura. Hoje, ainda bem, há uma democracia mas os métodos são semelhantes, em matéria de propaganda oficial. Noutras matérias não. São piores!
O governo, representando o Estado, a administração central, regional e local, assim como as empresas e institutos públicos, é o maior empregador de Portugal no séc. XXI. Mas simultaneamente é o mais explorador. Atrevo-me a dizer que 99% dos professores de inglês são precários, contratados a recibo verde e muitos têm salários em atraso. Mas não me podem dizer que a culpa é minha, porque tenho pago civica e atempadamente todos os altos e agravados impostos, para sanear o regabofe das finanças públicas nos últimos anos. E qual é a dívida do Governo às autarquias e aos fornecedores? Segredo de Estado mau pagador. Vivemos numa República que explora os cidadãos, faz calotes às empresas e autarquias, e copia a pior propaganda que o Estado Novo usava.
Resta saber se a Nova Censura instalada, por este Governo e esta AR, vai permitir a publicação deste desabafo."
Signed by Humberto Ferreira