A WEEK ago, here in Porto, I attended the city’s latest pro-Palestine march and once the event came to a close we all ended up in Praça Dom João I (pictured), where some activists erected tents and staged an additional protest about the lack of housing and the high rental costs that are destroying communities and driving people out of their homes. What began as a peaceful protest, however, was deliberately escalated by the authorities and 37 people were injured when the police waded in with their truncheons in the early hours of Thursday morning. Despite what was clearly an act of state brutality, social media was full of Right-wing goons laughing at their perceived Left-wing opponents and praising the police for doing their ‘duty’. In fact they were even suggesting that they should have hit the housing activists harder. All from the comfort of their homes, naturally.

Although the protest is focussed on serious issues that affect a lot of ordinary Portuguese people, regardless of their political views, the fact that many participants are from the Left has, once again, led the reactionary Right to reveal its true colours and claim that organisers “are trying to turn Portugal into France”. In reality, they are not out to cause social unrest at all but demanding socio-economic reform; it should be noted that even the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) does not adopt a revolutionary approach, as you might expect in certain other countries, but participates in national and local elections. Despite a communist presence at these events, therefore, the housing protest is being led by a broad committee called “Não dá mais para viver assim” (We can’t go on living like this) and involves between 30 and 40 different groups, including the Movimento pela Habitação (Housing Movement) and Casa para Viver (A Home to Live In),

Many of the so-called ‘patriots’ from the Right have no idea that corrupt town halls are putting the city’s traditional, working-class areas up for sale at foreign conventions or that powerful Israeli interests are demolishing houses and apartments so that they can construct their own high-status projects; or, given that the Portuguese Right’s favourite political organisation is the ultra-Zionist party, Chega, perhaps they do? Further research has revealed that Porto’s gentrification is being driven by the same corporations who are planning to build luxury Jewish homes on the bones of the dead in Gaza. The main culprit is Israeli-owned company Douro Habitat which, despite being named after the famous old river that runs through the city, is out to drain its inhabitants dry.

Moreover, large-scale Israeli immigration into Porto is creating new ghettos for wealthy Jews and former IDF soldiers have already started attacking activists on a long-standing pro-Palestinian vigil in one of our main squares, as well as damaging property with the intention of driving out Portuguese residents. Each time the Right attacks those who are defending the interests of local people, therefore, another Zionist nail is driven into the heart of the country they claim to love and thus undermines the future of its young people.