Portugal The Impossible Revolution?

by Mailer, Phil; Brinton, Maurice

• ISBN13: 9781604863369
• ISBN10: 1604863366
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-01-25
• Publisher: PM Press

Summary

This is the story of the political revolution in Portugal between April 25, 1974, and November 25, 1975, as seen and felt by a deeply committed participant. After the military coup in Portugal on April 25, 1974, the overthrow of almost 50 years of fascist rule, and the end of three colonial wars, there followed a year and a half of intense, democratic social transformation that challenged every aspect of Portuguese society. What started as a military coup turned into a profound attempt at social change from the bottom up and became headlines on a daily basis in the world media. This personal history depicts the hopes, the tremendous enthusiasm, boundless energy, total commitment, released power, and revolutionary innocence of thousands of ordinary people taking a hand in the remolding of their lives. It does so against the background of an economic and social reality that placed limits on what could be done.

Author Biography

Phil Mailer is a political activist and the former editor of Combate. He lives in Lisbon, Portugal. Maurice Brinton was the pen name under which Chris Pallis wrote and translated for the British libertarian socialist group, Solidarity.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Glossary	p. x
The First Week	p. 1
Day 1: Thursday, April 25, 1974	p. 1
Day 2: Friday, April 26	p. 5
Day 3: Saturday, April 27	p. 10
Day 4: Sunday, April 28	p. 13
Day 5: Monday, April 29	p. 14
Day 6: Tuesday, April 30	p. 16
Day 7: Wednesday, May 1	p. 19
The First Three Months	p. 22
Sizing Things Up	p. 22
Timex, Sogantal, Mabor, CTT	p. 27
The Cultural Nonrevolution	p. 34
Collapse of the First Provisional Government	p. 37
The First Six Months	p. 43
The Return to Reality	p. 43
TAP, Lisnave, and Other Big Disputes	p. 44
The Antistrike Law and the Resurgence of the Right	p. 51
September 28	p. 54
The Third Provisional Government	p. 59
The Upsurge	p. 62
The Committees	p. 62
The Trade Union Question	p. 74
The Emergence of Inter-Empresas	p. 77
The Agrarian Struggles	p. 80
The Rural Structure	p. 80
Early Confrontations	p. 81
Taking the Land	p. 85
The Political Chessboard	p. 90
The Right	p. 90
The Centre	p. 92
The Left	p. 94
The Polarisation	p. 99
The Mfa	p. 103
Beginnings	p. 103
April 25, 1974	p. 107
Soldiers' and Sailors' Committees	p. 110
What Political Role?	p. 112
March 11, 1975	p. 113
Urban Struggles	p. 118
Background	p. 118
The Occupations	p. 120
Housing Struggles	p. 123
Inter, CRAM, SAAL, and the Shanties	p. 127
Machismo and the Women's Movement	p. 129
Beyond the Elections and Political Parties	p. 133
Electoral Arithmetic	p. 133
"Popular Power" and the Military	p. 135
The República and Rádio Renascença Affairs	p. 138
COPCON and the MRPP	p. 145
The Great Nonparty	p. 149
Autonomous Workers' Struggle	p. 152
Inter-Empresas and the Unions	p. 155
The "Revolutionary Workers' Councils"	p. 159
The Cooperative Movement	p. 162
Land Occupations	p. 163
Crisis Looming	p. L67
Backlash in the North	p. l67
The Road to State Capitalism	p. 171
The Crisis and the Emergence of the "Group, of Nine"	p. 172
The Sixth Government and the Advance of "The Nine"	p. 177
The Situation in the Class	p. 180
Popular Assemblies	p. 181
Everyday Life in the Cooperatives	p. 183
Beyond Local Workers' Committees?	p. 189
De-Socialisation	p. 194
The Media of Control and the Control of the Media	p. 195
Military Factions	p. 199
Towards Breaking Point	p. 208
November 25	p. 217
A Balance Sheet	p. 226
Afterword	p. 235
Chronology	p. 251
Appendix Transcript of Rádio Renascença Broadcast	p. 259
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