Olá todos! BREAKING NEWS… PORTUGAL HAS BEEN LIBERATED!
On the morning of April 25, 1974 the front page of Portugal’s national newspaper, República, screamed aloud. THE ARMED FORCES HAVE TAKEN POWER FOR THE PEOPLE AND FOR THEIR FREEDOM. With even greater pride, the editors of República blasted a second headline at the bottom of the front page. THIS NEWSPAPER WAS NOT TARGETED BY ANY CENSORSHIP COMMISSION. This last bit, framed in red, showed just how much everything had changed overnight.
April 25th celebrates Portugal’s liberation from more than 40 years of rule under the oppressive and destructive Estado Novo, the self-styled dictatorship of the brilliant and professorial António Salazar. The Estado Novo itself was an odd conglomeration of incongruent ideas. If you are interested we can return to this subject in a later post. For now lets just focus on a few facts behind today’s celebration.
The Mostly Non-violent Revolution
The April 25th overthrow of Europe’s longest-lived authoritarian regime followed a typically Portuguese script. Perhaps only the Portuguese can pull off a nearly bloodless, nonviolent military coup. In addition, their plain common sense prevailed over tortured ideological differences. Finally, for me at least, among the lasting impressions of this revolution against an oppressive dictatorial regime involve lots of flowers and a song.
Unfortunately four people died when president’s personal guard shot into a crowd in Lisbon. Otherwise the revolution, this Carnation Revolution, evidenced no violence. The military leading the coup never fired a shot although tanks rolled into Lisbon and uniformed soldiers where everywhere. Nonetheless tens of thousands of ordinary citizens stood side-by-side with the thousands of soldiers.
Revolting Together
Military and citizens mentally synced: a new day without war and with true democracy must dawn. Enough already. The Portuguese already had fought 13 years of bloody wars in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. They fought against the freedom of their African brothers and sisters rather than for their own freedom.
These wars made no sense to either the military nor to the citizens conscripted to fight them. Money spent to kill the Portuguese thousands of miles away also killed the Portuguese at home. Funding for education, healthcare and basic staples already had evaporated. Metropolitan Portugal had remained as underdeveloped as any of its far-off colonies. The time for change had arrived.
The Carnation in the Revolution
For me the quintessentially Portuguese nature of April 25th Revolution expresses itself through flowers and song. Something as serious and earthshaking as revolutionary change ought to be sweet and wryly humorous too. Lisbon flower-shops mysteriously had an over-supply of carnations on April 24th. Young and old grabbed handfuls of red and pink flowers on the morning of April 25th as they headed to streets to join the soldiers.
The images taken of streets throughout Lisbon bring a smile onto your face even to this day. Old ladies reached up on tippy-toes to make a flower vase of gun-barrels. Young women pinned carnations to smiling soldiers’ lapels. Elderly gents handed bouquets to serious faced guards on tanks. The joy and exuberance shines through the grainy photographs.
But also the signal to launch of revolution was a song. The tanks started to roll when Portugal’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest – E Depois do Adeus, or And After The Farewell – played on radio stations just before midnight on April 24th. A silly song on a silly show launched the most serious and consequential of events. You cannot miss the wry humor inherent in the song’s title nor the weight of its promise.
What Is After the Farewell?
The military quickly started turning control over to a civilian-lead government. Just a year later, Portugal held its first election. The parliament approved the new constitution a year after that. Democracy has thrived in Portuguese soil and had pushed its roots deep.
But we must that revolutions mark not an end, but rather the beginning. Here starts of a new experiment! Liberal democracy shows many flaws these days, cracks that the Far-Right exploits. Corporations and a handful of individuals have reaped much of the promise that liberal democracy has delivered. Today the world appears closer to 1973 than it should. Still there are a few haves and a lot of expendable have-nots.
People grow frustrated and look for change. The Far-Right eagerly provides lies that promise change. The adherents of liberal democracy seem to forget that the revolution is not over. Everything is not alright. There is much more work to be done.
The Ongoing Work of Revolution
Some of that work will necessarily focus on undoing the mistakes that liberal democracies the world over have permitted of unchecked capitalism, consumerism and globalism. Redistribution of wealth needs happen. Opportunities to advance and succeed individually and collectively must exist. Access to basic necessities like housing, healthcare, education, a living wage and an equitable pension must be opened up. Accordingly, productivity should not be exclusive of other metrics of economic bliss.
Liberal democracy does not have a future if cannot live up to the promise of revolutionary change. The lies of the Far-Right will glimmer and sparkle brighter in the dark frustration of the people left outside by liberal democracy. So liberal democracies must kindle a brighter fire of demonstrable improvement in the lives of all citizens. The Revolution continues.
Até quinta! See you again this Thursday!
thank you so much for this very interesting history of the Carnation Revolution. It’s a testament to what can get done when people organize and care for the civic good of the land. And I bet all those carnations made the air smells fantastic on April 25.
Thank you Davidson! Like you say, we need to keep working at getting it right.
It is most interesting that truly the people took control of their country after a long dictatorial rule. There must have been something within the people that allowed this to happen. The fact that it continues to this day almost fifty years later is truly a tribute to people and their drive to be a democracy. It is so sad that the people of Ukraine seek the same freedom, but have to fight an outside dictator to achieve it, losing many lives and the destruction of their land.
Bill, I have been tardy! Thank you for your comments on The Carnation Revolution post. It is truly remarkable that the Portuguese choose democracy using flowers and a kitschy song rather than violence. It says a lot about the Portuguese people. May that spirit endure.