Portugal : the impossible revolution? / Phil Mailer ; afterword by Maurice Brinton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mailer, Phil, author.

Contributor:

Brinton, Maurice.

ProQuest (Firm)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Portugal--History--Revolution, 1974.

Portugal.

History.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 262 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oakland : PM Press, 2012.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

After the military coup in Portugal on April 25,1974, the overthrow of almost fifty years of Fascist rule, and the end of three colonial wars, there followed eighteen months 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 in the world media on a daily basis.

This is the story of what happened in Portugal between April 25, 1974, and November 25, 1975, as seen and felt by a deeply engaged participant. It depicts the hopes, the tremendous enthusiasm, the boundless energy, the total commitment, the released power, and even the revolutionary innocence of thousands of ordinary people taking a hand in the remolding of their lives. And it does so against the background of an economic and social reality which placed limits on what could be done. Book jacket.

Contents:

I The First Week 1

Day 1: Thursday, April 25, 1974 1

Day 2: Friday, April 26 5

Day 3: Saturday, April 27 10

Day 4: Sunday, April 28 13

Day 5: Monday, April 29 14

Day 6: Tuesday, April 30 16

Day 7: Wednesday, May 1 19

II The First Three Months 22

Sizing Things Up 22

Timex, Sogantal, Mabor, CTT 27

The Cultural Nonrevolution 34

Collapse of the First Provisional Government 37

III The First Six Months 43

The Return to Reality 43

TAP, Lisnave, and Other Big Disputes 44

The Antistrike Law and the Resurgence of the Right 51

September 28 54

The Third Provisional Government 59

IV The Upsurge 62

The Committees 62

The Trade Union Question 74

The Emergence of Inter-Empresas 77

V The Agrarian Struggles 80

The Rural Structure 80

Early Confrontations 81

Taking the Land 85

VI The Political Chessboard 90

The Right 90

The Centre 92

The Left 94

The Polarisation 99

VII The Mfa 103

Beginnings 103

April 25, 1974 107

Soldiers' and Sailors' Committees 110

What Political Role? 112

March 11, 1975 113

VIII Urban Struggles 118

Background 118

The Occupations 120

Housing Struggles 123

Inter, CRAM, SAAL, and the Shanties 127

Machismo and the Women's Movement 129

IX Beyond the Elections and Political Parties 133

Electoral Arithmetic 133

"Popular Power" and the Military 135

The República and Rádio Renascença Affairs 138

COPCON and the MRPP 145

X The Great Nonparty 149

Autonomous Workers' Struggle 152

Inter-Empresas and the Unions 155

The "Revolutionary Workers' Councils" 159

The Cooperative Movement 162

Land Occupations 163

XI Crisis Looming L67

Backlash in the North l67

The Road to State Capitalism 171

The Crisis and the Emergence of the "Group, of Nine" 172

The Sixth Government and the Advance of "The Nine" 177

XII The Situation in the Class 180

Popular Assemblies 181

Everyday Life in the Cooperatives 183

Beyond Local Workers' Committees? 189

XIII De-Socialisation 194

The Media of Control and the Control of the Media 195

Military Factions 199

Towards Breaking Point 208

XIV November 25 217

XV A Balance Sheet 226.

Notes:

Title from cover.

Includes bibliographical references.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.

ISBN:

838213

OCLC:

773565395

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.