//
you're reading...
Portugal

Portugal’s Revolution 40 years on: 5 Voices

In April 1974 a coup carried out by left-leaning army officers led the way to democracy in Portugal. The coup on April 25, was led by soldiers and joined by a popular resistance movement. Nowadays austerity measures are threatening the welfare state, healthcare, education, pensions, labour and all the social achievements accomplished 40 years ago.

The Carnation Revolution toppled a dictatorship that was ended by a bloodless uprising against the fascist Estado Novo was named after the red spring flowers that were placed in the muzzles of the soldiers’ rifles.

Portugal’s bloody colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau were a major factor in persuading the army officers to revolt.

In 2011, Portugal was ‘bailed out’ under a plan devised by an elite who lived far from the country, and under which ordinary people had to  foot the bill of the greed and folly of those bankers, bureaucrats and politicians in the pockets of corporations. They are still paying.

1. Col.Vasco Lourenço, leading Captain of 1974 Carnation Revolution 

“The policies being implemented now have nothing to do with April 25. All the social achievements of the revolution – the national health service, education, pensions – are under threat from austerity policies. They can’t just have a pause to applaud the Captains of April and then go back to what they are doing, destroying the values of April 25.”

2. Brig. Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, leader of the 1974 coup as a 37-year-old major

“I look at the situation in Portugal today with great disappointment, almost disaster. It’s lamentable what’s going on. The ideals we had when we made April 25, the hopes for rapid improvement of people’s economic, social and cultural conditions — that’s all gone. I think another revolution is needed. ”

3. Catarina Martins, MP and coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc)

“The Carnation Revolution forty years after the April 25, 1974, stands as an inspirer of our struggles for democracy and freedom against government austerity and dictatorship of the markets which require the bankers and the troika.”

4. Joaquim Chissano, former guerrilla leader, Mozambique president from 1986-2005

“Our struggle always went hand in hand for the struggle for democracy in Portugal. April 25 is seen as a great day, a historic day that saw the fall of fascism and contributed to the freedom of all our peoples.

5. Pedro Guerreiro, a leader today of Portugal’s communists, a party that played a central role in the coup 

A culmination of almost 50 years of heroic resistance and anti-Fascist struggle, the Portuguese Revolution liquidated fascism, ended the colonial war and recognized the peoples’ struggles, their right to independence, carrying out deep democratic changes – bringing many political, economic, social and cultural achievements based on the affirmation of national sovereignty and independence, opening the path towards a socialist society…After 37 years of a counter-revolutionary process, many of the major Portuguese Revolution achievements have been destroyed….But a people determined to struggle, sooner or later, will achieve its path towards victory.”

 

About revoltingeurope

Writer on Europe's Left, trade union and social movements @tomgilltweets or @revoltingeurope

Discussion

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

w

Connecting to %s

Twitter Updates

  • Mandela100 - Living the Legacy By @lynncollins65 tuc.org.uk/north-west/blo… @The_TUC 2 weeks ago
  • RT @JanetWilliams99: @Emma4facs @tpearce003 @normanlamb @catherinecox2 Returning from London to the report in the @M_Star_Online as campaig… 2 months ago
  • #blackworkers @The_TUC twitter.com/m_star_online/… 3 months ago
  • RT @M_Star_Online: Spycop who infiltrated the Stephen Lawrence campaign named ow.ly/aEUP30jx8vH #Spycops #StephenLawrence https://t.c… 3 months ago
  • RT @PeoplesMomentum: .@JeremyCorbyn has just raised the appalling treatment of the Windrush Generation at #PMQs. Here's why ⬇ https://t.co… 3 months ago
  • RT @GlobalDebout: La France insoumise: Mass demonstrations against Macron's reform plans. Students joined trade unionists and public sector… 3 months ago
  • bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=39114 3 months ago
  • theguardian.com/world/2018/apr… 3 months ago
  • foxnews.com/world/2018/04/… 3 months ago
  • sputniknews.com/analysis/20180… 3 months ago
Follow @tomgilltweets

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow Revolting Europe on WordPress.com

Top Clicks

  • reuters.com/article/us-am…
  • vnavarro.org/?p=14272

Subjects

Meta

THE EURO

The Dossier

FRANCE

GERMANY

GREECE

ITALY

PORTUGAL

SPAIN