A People's History of the Portuguese Revolution by Raquel Varela (2019)

Book Review #3

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Raquel Varela: A professor at the New University of Lisbon. She has also been active in the Portuguese and international labor movement. She is also president of the International Association of Strikes and Social Conflicts. This is her first book that gained international recognition and she is currently in the process of writing A People’s History of Europe From World War I to Today (2021)

Summary

Varela covers some uncharted waters in this book. She takes a look at the Carnation Revolution of 1974 from a labor perspective. She highlights the role that the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) played in destabilizing and ultimately overthrowing the Estado Novo regime in a bloodless coup. But Varela focuses her earliest chapters on establish the background in which the labor movement developed. It’s clear that without the popular labor movement, the MFA would not have been able to get as far as they did. The working classes, trade unionists and women all play a role in bringing about revolution not just on social terms but with enacting lasting changes. While Varela admits the young socialist officers of the MFA tried to advance more substantial changes, ultimately Portugal would stick with capitalism but refine it along the edges. While Verela does mention Portugal’s future she keeps the changes in perspective. The Carnation Revolution is one of the most important revolutions of the 20th century and the last one for a former colonial empire. Portugal paid dearly for holding onto their colonies and the overextension of their economy. Additionally, the unfair military draft they had in place made tensions run extremely high by the end of the 1960’s and it was clear that major changes were coming.

The Meat

The revolution caught the US State Department by surprise and it had the European and American elite classes afraid that the Mediterranean region would fall under communist influence for good. Recent left-wing movements in Italy, Germany and the summer of ‘68 in Paris, had the elites on edge. While Washington was focused on colonial wars in Africa, developments in Southeast Asia and the coup in Chile that installed Pinochet, the Portuguese were starting their own revolution from the ground up with hardly an organized party apparatus. Varela makes sure to note that not only did the revolution fall under the western powers’ radar at the time, but even still today, it’s one of the least studied revolutions in history. Why you might ask? Varela seems to think it’s because of the bloodless coup and the fact that after Salazar stepped down (due to illness) in 1968, the regime was weakened and vulnerable and it wouldn’t take much to overthrow it. Because the military functions as the sole defense of the ruling elite, the fact that so many young officers were involved in the coup means that the military was never on the side of the Estado Novo. This Catholic, corporatist regime was unique in the way it wreaked havoc on the Portuguese people for 48 years. It was authoritarian in nature no doubt, but it wasn’t as ruthless as many other regimes, allowing it to go unnoticed much of the time. But by the late 1960’s, it was coming apart at the seams. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) would be legalized in 1974 and take over as the main vehicle for policy changes and a new constitution that would be drafted. There of course was consistent friction between left-wing blocs and Varela does a decent job of pointing out those differences.

The liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau were the main reason why the regime got so overextended financially. The fog of war and the weariness of young officers, played a secondary and still crucial role in developing the psyche of the officers. They couldn’t understand why they had to keep deploying to Africa all throughout the 1960’s in order to go fight in colonies that Portugal barely ran effectively. Extraction capitalism was running out of style and most of these young officers were reading Marx and Foucault and could care less about the newest practice of neocolonialism. But they were only one half of the story. The trade unions would shut down factories with massive wildcat strikes and young revolutionaries would take over state buildings. These acts were extremely effective in the short and long term. By taking over factories and threatening nationalization unless workers councils were developed, the trade unionists held all the cards. Without the protection of the state, capitalists had to negotiate from a tough position and many factories would indeed be nationalized or be taken over by major strike waves to the point of forced negotiation. Varela gives some direct examples such as the Post, Telegraphs and Telephones Corporation (CTT), Rolex, Lisnave, Carris and some state-owned oil refineries. Some of these strikes lasted for as long as a month; some only 10-20 days. These were crucial in breaking the backs of the corporate networks that propped up the Estado Novo. The Lisnave port strike was one of the longest and most important of the entire revolution. As many as 400 dockworkers would be on strike at any given time, basically crippling Portugal’s fishing economy. The dockworkers were part of some of the most radicalized unions in the country (not too dissimilar to the dockworkers’ unions on the American west coast that still exist today). One can see easily how the combination of having the military on your side and massive wildcat strike waves, could lead to an effective bloodless coup.

Varela goes a bit further in her later chapters in terms of theorizing what the revolution really meant in the context of European powers. Was it a revolution or just a gradual transition to democracy? She ponders the fact that the answer could be both. Because there was counter-revolutionary activity after the coup, conducted by right-wing forces, it de-stabilized the new provisional government well into 1975. These reactionary forces (left-over from the Estado Novo regime) certainly delayed any transitions to a straight socialist economy that the PCP was hoping to experiment with. Ultimately, the revolution would result in a return to capitalism. But one with a strict regulatory system that operates cleanly within the Eurozone. In other words, Portugal doesn’t rock the boat and upset the power balance in Europe. The memory of those who did in 1974, lives on.

Conclusion

Varela has an interesting writing style. Her labor background allows her to expand on subject material that many readers might find dull. The trade unionists and workers behind the scenes, are the ones who will always move a revolution forward. You can only gain an appreciation for that if you study labor history. In the final chapters, Varela explains what some historians have thought of the revolution. Some, like the Marxist Eric Hobsbawm, argued that many historians have a revisionist outlook on the revolution and although it wasn't a “historical accident” like many attribute the French Revolution to be, it was a spontaneous reaction of collectivist anger at the “old system” which had become so segmented, nobody seemed to believed in anything. Varela finished by acknowledging that there is still some confusion around what happened that day in April of 1974, but it doesn’t matter. She attributes things to natural cause led by various left-wing factions, some of which were never organized before and had some of their leaders still in jail. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I think it’s essential for anyone with a labor background who understands the role a labor movement plays in cultivating a revolution. While I believe she should have covered the military’s role in the revolution more, she stuck to her focus area which was the labor struggle. I can’t fault her for that. I’m still looking forward to her next title, slated to come out in 2021.

4/5