On This Day, 1974: Rebels seize control of Portugal

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

"Army rebels are in control of Portugal tonight after an almost bloodless dawn coup ended nearly 50 years of dictatorship.

Shortly after midnight, tanks rolled into the centre of Lisbon. The Salazar Bridge over the River Tagus was seized and the airport, radio and television centres were taken.
Troops armed with machineguns stormed the barracks where the Prime Minister, Dr Marcello Caetano, and several of his ministers had taken refuge.
The former deputy armed forces minister, General Antoniio de Spinola, received the surrender of the prime minister, who has now fled into exile to the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Restore civil liberties
By sunrise the Movement of the Armed Forces, or MFA, was in control. It issued an immediate proclamation appealing for calm and patriotism.
After almost five decades of dictatorship, it promised to restore civil liberties and hold general elections to a national assembly as soon as possible.
The MFA condemned Portugal's foreign policy. After 13 years of fighting, it said, Portugal had been unable to achieve peace "between Portuguese of all races and creeds".
It also called for a clean-up of state-run institutions which had legitimised the abuse of power.
A seven-man junta, led by General Spinola, would oversee the transition period until democracy could be established. General Spinola and his troops received a hero's welcome from crowds, who gave them cigarettes, food, newspapers and carnations which were in full bloom at the time."

(The 25 April coup became known as the Carnation Revolution. It ended the longest dictatorship in Europe, the Estado Novo.

The new regime pushed through a rapid and hasty programme of decolonisation. Over the next few years Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, and Angola all became independent.
General Spinola served briefly as interim president and was succeeded by General Francisco da Costa Gomes.
Between them they nationalised about 60% of the economy and carried out a major redistribution of land. Hundreds of political prisoners were released.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_4754000/4754581.stm

[Triple A]

It was heartbreaking when this week one of the revolutionary captains went on TV and said:
" We made this so the portuguese people would starve no more" as he held his tears he continued:
"Last week new data showed poor people are being sent back by churches and food banks that just dont have food to help so many starving people"
Almost crying he concluded:
" Meanwhile the bankers and capitalists are not making any sacrifice, they are not suffering, our government gave a bank 7 billion, why arent they helping those who are starving?"

[OCMO]

Fucking BBC!

To make it clear, Spínola didn't have any troops. He was aware of the MFA intentions but never compromised, same for Costa Gomes, the only two generals that had knowledge of the operation.
The only reason he ended up in power was because the very nature of the coup. The MFA was created to deal with internal issues within the Armed Forces and the politics regarding the Colonial War, and even when it was decided that a military coup was the best solution, they never seeked power. Also, as the coup was leaded mostly by low-ranking officers, the government and the troops loyal to the regime had little respect to them and the MFA had those two generals as leverage in negotiations. This is why Spínola appears in the picture.

Caetano (the men in charge of the dictatorship) with fear that the power fell "into the streets" agreed to cede power but only to Spínola. This was a specific demand. Why? Because, Spínola was opposed to Caetano but not of the regime. The MFA agreed with this demand. And the junta (national salvation junta, JSN) organized by Spínola wasn't represented by the MFA nor by civilians, only top officers supportive of the overthrow, in wich Costa Gomes, future president, was one of them.

Spínola had great popular support at 25 April of 1974, no doubt. But that soon faded away as with is presidency, tried to pushed a federalist solution to the colonies and kept the war effort and tried to accumulate all power in himself, no democratic effort whatsoever. This was to be expected from a man that fought among the nazis in the eastern front and a assumed germanophile.

In the article they mention that Costa Gomes succeded him in the presidency. This "innocent" transfer was just because Spínola tried to do a palace coup to concentrate full power to himself. He failed and resigned from is position. Costa Gomes enters as a progressive general that allowed the civilians to dictate the future of the country.

To resume, Spínola didn't rebel, had nothing to do with the achievements of the revolution and eventually had to refugee to Franco's Spain after two failed coups. To finish, the military made the coup, but since day 0, the people hitted the street and every conquest of the revolution was indeed a conquest by the people, not a present of any military, progressive or not. This last thing, the portuguese media tries to hide.

[Art Vandelay]

"Army rebels are in control of Portugal tonight after an almost bloodless dawn coup ended nearly 50 years of dictatorship.

Shortly after midnight, tanks rolled into the centre of Lisbon. The Salazar Bridge over the River Tagus was seized and the airport, radio and television centres were taken.
Troops armed with machineguns stormed the barracks where the Prime Minister, Dr Marcello Caetano, and several of his ministers had taken refuge.
The former deputy armed forces minister, General Antoniio de Spinola, received the surrender of the prime minister, who has now fled into exile to the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Restore civil liberties
By sunrise the Movement of the Armed Forces, or MFA, was in control. It issued an immediate proclamation appealing for calm and patriotism.
After almost five decades of dictatorship, it promised to restore civil liberties and hold general elections to a national assembly as soon as possible.
The MFA condemned Portugal's foreign policy. After 13 years of fighting, it said, Portugal had been unable to achieve peace "between Portuguese of all races and creeds".
It also called for a clean-up of state-run institutions which had legitimised the abuse of power.
A seven-man junta, led by General Spinola, would oversee the transition period until democracy could be established. General Spinola and his troops received a hero's welcome from crowds, who gave them cigarettes, food, newspapers and carnations which were in full bloom at the time."

(The 25 April coup became known as the Carnation Revolution. It ended the longest dictatorship in Europe, the Estado Novo.

The new regime pushed through a rapid and hasty programme of decolonisation. Over the next few years Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, and Angola all became independent.
General Spinola served briefly as interim president and was succeeded by General Francisco da Costa Gomes.
Between them they nationalised about 60% of the economy and carried out a major redistribution of land. Hundreds of political prisoners were released.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_4754000/4754581.stm

I stopped reading after that, I don't really care about bourgeois coups.

[JAM]

April 25th, 1974 is a historic day for Portugal. It was the day in which the military in alliance with the people liberated this country from the darkness in which was submerged for 48 years of fascism. The PREC (Revolutionary Process) which took place after the failed fascist coup of March, 11th, 1975 represented an extraordinary advance in the class struggle in Portugal for the working class. However, the revolutionary process was reversed by the reactionary forces that took over the country on November 25th, 1975 (date of counter-revolutionary coup) and led it to the degrading state where it is today.

Today more than ever it is necessary to retrieve the values ​​of the Carnation Revolution and recover the revolutionary process stopped at November 25, 1975. It's important to remember now that the most important social achievements in Portugal took place during the PREC in a time when some of those rights conquered by the people are being retired to the portuguese workers today.

The extraordinary social advancement produced by PREC should serve as an inspiration to oppose a new kind of oppression imposed on us by foreign powers with the connivance of the Portuguese government sold and surrendered to the interests of foreign corporations. A new fascist prototype is emerging in Europe and a new revolution should be the answer to it.

I truly believe that the countries most affected by the present crisis such as Portugal and Greece for instance will be forced to chose a path outside the electoral road dominated today by the big financial powers which express their interests through the two main political parties. But this time it is our duty to not let the revolutionary process to be stopped midway and guarantee that the reactionary forces are demolished once and for all in order to prevent this from happening again.

[Triple A]

I stopped reading after that, I don't really care about bourgeois coups.

It wasnt bourgeois but the MFA had to call Spinola wich was right wing because the govt in place only wanted to surrender to him and to avoid an american intervention that Kissinger was a big defender off.

Read about the PREC and the communist parties work, the collectivisations during the year of 1975

for example
http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1975/1101750811_400.jpg

[Mr. Natural]

Good to see some discussion from Portuguese comrades. Let's take a brief look at the "lesson" of the 1975 military coup.

Lesson: capitalism has triumphed (see globalization). Portugal and the African colonies that were "liberated" are now more firmly than ever imprisoned within The System.

I'm not saying we can't do something about this and the forms the triumph of capitalism has taken in our various countries. Not at all. However, the first step in creating viable revolutionary processes must be to recognize this triumph of the capitalist system and its consequent effects. Most of all, I believe we must recognize what is now capitalism's systemic mental envelopment of humanity.

Capitalism's mental capture of humanity takes near-infinite forms. Many comrades are presently in higher "education" in their countries, and as best I can tell, university and college "educations" are now universally horseshit. Colleges are now global capitalist institutions of job training and systemic mindfuck.

A different form capitalism's mental capture of humanity takes is the sectarian conflicts and adherence to dogma found on left discussion sites. Capitalism turns human social being into a collection of warring, isolated individuals, and the life has been taken from Marxism. As regards the latter observation, I want to note that Marx and Engels sure as hell would have revised and revolutionized their Marxism as events and capitalism unfolded. Where are the modern Marxists? Where is there a left site in which comrades come together in developing revolutionary processes out of capitalism into a human future?

Just thought I'd ask. So what's happening in Portugal now? Portugal and Spain are surely hot spots for getting something going. Anything happening?

My red-green, thoroughly frustrated best.