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Socialism in Portugal: Was it a Revolution?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Ben Pimlott
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Extract

THE CHANGE OF REGIME IN LISBON IN 1974 STIMULATED THE imagination of the far Left from Madrid to Santiago. For a brief period Lisbon was a political laboratory, attracting militants from every continent to test and analyse for future home consumption. What aroused this interest — unprecedented for a European upheaval since the Paris events of May 1968 — was a feeling that here was a rare example of history being made, not just by governments, but by the people themselves. How justified was this feeling, and how docs the Portuguese Revolution look now that it is, apparently, all over?

Type
Original Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , 01 July 1977 , pp. 332 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1977

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References

1 The mood is best captured by the radical film ‘Viva Portugal!’ (Infoscope, Frankfurt, and Cinema Action 1975), a vigorous, albeit one-sided, view of revolutionary phenomena during the first few months.

2 Ferro, A., Salazar: Portugal and her Leader, Eng. tr. London, 1939.Google Scholar

3 Finer, S. E., The Man on Horseback. The Role of the Military in Politics, Revised ed. London, 1976, p. 64.Google Scholar

4 The Economist Intelligence Unit. Quarterly Economic Review. Portugal, No. 1, 1974.

5 Finer, op. cit., p. 47.

6 Maxwell, K., ‘Portugal, A Neat Revolution’, New York Review of Books, 13 06 1974, p. 24.Google Scholar

7 M. Caetano, Depoimento, Rio de Janeiro, 1975, cited in de Figueiredo, A., Portugal: Fifty Years of Dictatorship, London, 1975, pp. 231–232.Google Scholar

8 Insight Team of the Sunday Times- Insight on Portugal: The Year of the Captains, London, 1975, p. 92.

9 Though it had increased absolutely, the military budget had however declined slightly in proportion both to GNP and total government expenditure since 1970, according to a calculation based on official figures ( Schminer, P. ‘Liberation by Golpe’ in Bienen, H., ed., Political Participation under Military Regimes, Beverly Hills, 1976, pp. 96–98 Google Scholar).

10 Cf. Salgado Matos, L., Investimentos Estrangeros em Portugal, Lisbon, 1973.Google Scholar

11 Bienen, op. cit., p. 98.

12 See, especially, Poulantzas, N., The Crisis of the Dictatorships, Eng. tr. London. 1976, p. 16.Google Scholar

13 Portugal’s annual growth rate (GDP) between 1966 and 1971 averaged at 6.6% (OECD Surveys, Portugal, July 1974)

14 Maxwell, op. cit., p. 20.

15 OECD Surveys, op. cit., p.

16 See Poulantzas, op. cit., pp. 61–63.

17 A. de Spänola Portugal and the Future (Eng. lang. ed.), Johannesburg, 1974, p. 4.

18 This, of course, is what many of them were: commissioned conscripts from white collar and lower middle class backgrounds. See Martins, H. ‘Portugal’ in Archer, M. S. and Giner, S. (eds.) Contemporary Europe: Class, Status and Power, London, 1973, p. 86:Google Scholar ‘the sharp increase in the military participation ratio must be expccted to exert levelling pressures, through raised aspiration levels, greater national identification and civil awareness etc…’

19 Cited by Schmitter in ed. H. Bienen, op. cit., p. 98.

20 See OECD Survey, op. cit..

21 See Pimlott, B. and Seaton, J. ‘How Revolution Reached The Schools of Portugal’, New Society, 9 12 1976.Google Scholar

22 Op. cit., p. 15.

23 Ibid.

24 The German government placed heavy controls on foreign immigration in November 1973; the French restrictions did not come into force until July 1974, though they had been predicted for some time (see Power, J. ‘Europe’s Army of Immigrants’, International Affairs, 07 1975 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

25 An abortive revolt at army barracks at Caldas da Rainha on 16 March 1974, which resulted in the arrest of 150 officers and men, encouraged one senior British diplomat to file a report saying that the possibility of a coup could now be ruled out for the foreseeable future (private information).

26 Speech at Montomor-o-Novo on 8 June 1975. PCP press release, Lisbon.

27 Socialist Party press release, 8 October 1975, Lisbon.

28 See B. Pimlott and J. Seaton, op. cit.

29 Author’s interview with Älvaro Cunhal, October 1975

30 In February 1976 the distribution of officially recognized agricultural ‘collective units of production’ were as follows by district: Castelo Branco 4, Santarëm 51, Portalegre 34, Lisbon 3, Èvora 159, Setùbal 74, Beja 71, Faro 3. Total 401. (Economia No. 1, 1976, p. 5.)

31 The Constitution provides for the continued existence of the all-military Revolutionary Council, with substantial veto powers.

32 The author wishes to thank the British Academy and Newcartle University Research Committee for generous grants which made research for this article possible.