A People's History of the Portuguese Revolution, livre ebook

On the 25th April 1974, a coup destroyed the ranks of Portugal’s fascist Estado Novo government as the Portuguese people flooded the streets of Lisbon, placing red carnations in the barrels of guns and demanding a ‘land for those who work in it’.
This became the Carnation Revolution - an international coalition of working class and social movements, which also incited struggles for independence in Portugal’s African colonies, the rebellion of the young military captains in the national armed forces and the uprising of Portugal’s long-oppressed working classes. It was through the organising power of these diverse movements that a popular-front government was instituted and Portugal withdrew from its overseas colonies.
Cutting against the grain of mainstream accounts, Raquel Cardeira Varela explores the role of trade unions, artists and women in the revolution, providing a rich account of the challenges faced and the victories gained through revolutionary means.

Photographs, Figures and Tables

Acknowledgements

Editor’s note on the English edition

Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. The Seeds of Change

3. 25 April 1974: ‘The People are No Longer Afraid’

4. Who Governs?

5. The Anti-Colonial Movements and the Myth of a ‘Bloodless Revolution’

6. Strikes and their Reverberations

7. Self-Management and the Struggle Against Redundancies

8. Women in a Democracy are Not Mere Decoration: Social Reproduction and Private Life in the Revolution

9. Artists and the Revolution

10. Workers’ Commissions and Unions

11. ‘Here is the Nursery’ – Urban Struggles and Residents’ Commissions

12. Workers’ Control, 11 March and Nationalisations

13. The Birth of the Welfare State

14. Scheming for Power

15. The Land for its Workers: Agrarian Reform

16. The ‘Hot Summer’ of 1975 and the Fifth Government’s Frail Governance

17. Spain and other ‘Links in the Chain’

18. The Crisis

19. Democracy and Revolution: The Meaning of the Carnation Revolution

20. In Celebration

Chronology

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author