Portugal

Portugal: fading memories of fascism?

Constant secret police surveillance, arbitrary arrests and assassinations. Violent repression of political protest. Absence of free trade unions and meaningful elections. Censorship of the press, books, radio and TV. Systematic torture of opponents. Island camps for political dissidents. All features of a right wing regime that was swept away fifty years ago in Portugal in the “Carnation Revolution” . A half a century on, the collective memory of that dictatorship seems to have faded, as many Portuguese cast votes for the far right Chega party in the 10 March parliamentary election. The figure...

Refugees need a real welcome

Setúbal, a municipality ruled by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) is facing fines of up to €10 million over its reception of Ukrainian refugees. The Portuguese police have accused two pro-Russian activists of illegally collecting and sharing the personal data of Ukrainian refugees in the country. The Ukrainian ambassador to Portugal, Inna Ohnivets, has said that the personal information recorded would be “of interest to Russian intelligence”. Police raided buildings linked to the Edinstvo — an association for eastern European migrants. Portuguese media reports the couple, who had no...

Lipstick and the far right

Portuguese social media is filled with images of men and women wearing red lipstick, after the leader of populist far-right party Chega insulted Marisa Matias for her “very red lips.” Matias is the Left Bloc candidate in Portugal’s 21 January presidential election, and a current MEP. Chega’s presidential candidate, André Ventura, who opposes the Portuguese lockdown and organised demonstrations supported by neo-Nazi groups, went on to accuse Matias of “not doing very well in terms of image, performance”, adding that she painted her lips “as if it were a joke.” Matias responded to the sexist...

The first government to ban strikes in this crisis

Portugal’s social democratic government has for years been cited as a model, particularly among leftish anti-Brexit campaigners. It has done better than other European governments, reversing many austerity measures and expanding elements of social provision, but within a neo-liberal framework. In the pandemic, Portugal has had a lighter toll than elsewhere. (928 deaths so far; the virus arrived later, reaching 10 deaths on 21 March, by which time neighbouring Spain had already had 1381; a lockdown from 23 March “flattened” the curve from early April, even if it has not yet pushed it down much...

Marxists and “left governments”

“We are not a government party; we are the party of irreconcilable opposition… Our tasks... we realise not through the medium of bourgeois governments... but exclusively through the education of the masses through agitation, through explaining to the workers what they should defend and what they should overthrow. Such a “defence” cannot give immediate miraculous results. But we do not even pretend to be miracle workers. As things stand, we are a revolutionary minority. Our work must be directed so that the workers on whom we have influence should correctly appraise events, not permit...

Portugal: settling for neoliberalism?

On 10 November, the conservative Passos Coelho government in Portugal, in office since 2011, fell. It is likely to be replaced by a government of the Socialist Party (SP, similar to pre-Corbyn Labour) supported by the Portuguese Communist Party and the Left Bloc. Passos Coelho has carried through Portugal’s mandated cuts programme since it applied for a eurozone “bailout” in April 2011. The SP, which had gone for the bailout, crashed in parliamentary elections in June 2011. In new elections on 4 October 2015 Passos Coelho lost his parliamentary majority. His bloc was still the largest minority...

Portugal: the Carnation Revolution of 1974-5

Portugal’s revolution began on 25 April 1974, set in motion by a military coup against the country’s nearly-50-year-old fascist regime. It was effectively ended by another coup on 25 November 1975. Portugal started 1974 as a backward, isolated colonial power run by an authoritarian regime, and began 1976 as a state without colonies, on its way to becoming a stable bourgeois democracy, integrated into European capitalism. Mark Osborn tells the story. Click here to download the whole of WL 3/46 as a pdf . Portugal’s unstable democracy was overthrown in 1926 and a period of right-wing military...

When the far left lined up behind the military

The ferment in Portugal reached its peak in summer 1975. The old top military command had been marginalised by the failure of its attempted coups on 28 September 1974 and 11 March 1975. Power was in the hands of the loose-knit Armed Forces Movement (AFM), middle-rank officers, some close to the Socialist Party, some close to the Communist Party. The Fifth Provisional Government, in office from 8 August to 19 September, was close to the CP. Swathes of industry had been nationalised, and some was under workers’ control. Workers’ commissions and neighbourhood commissions flourished in the Lisbon...

Organs of “popular power”

Text edited from International-Communist League pamphlet, The Revolutionary Left in Portugal (1977). Portuguese Trotskyism entered the country via Paris after a couple of Portuguese students had been influenced by the ideas of the USFI [mainstream orthodox Trotskyists led by Ernest Mandel] in 1968. At the time Caetano was overthrown there were nine Trotskyists in Portugal. Now [1975] the number is probably 6-700. Of these 4-500 are in the LCI, the “official” sympathising section of the USFI, and the remainder are in the PRT. The PRT originally split from the other Portuguese Trotskyists...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.