Political Economy Students' Journal

Over the past weeks, Lisbon and other Portuguese cities were the stage for large popular marches and protests, marking the 50th year anniversary of the national democratic revolution of the 25th of April and May Day, this year of even greater importance, as the historical mayday that gathered hundreds of thousands in Lisbon after the 25 of April of 1974 also celebrates its  50 anniversary. 

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For all democrats, these two days are of the greatest importance for the democratic history of Portugal and are intimately connected, each enlarging the other’s importance for the workers and the people of Portugal, and the world. Occurring at a moment in which the “lower  classes no longer wanted the old way, and the upper classes could not carry on in the old way”(Lenin, V., 1920), the Carnation Revolution put an end to the fascist regime, supported by large monopolistic groups, facilitating the end of Portuguese colonialism, and of the imperialist colonization that Portugal itself was a victim of, carried by international capital, establishing democratic rights and social, political and economic transformations in favor of the workers and the people of Portugal.  

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A particularity, and of the most important aspects, of the Portuguese revolution is the role of the popular masses in supporting, participating, and advancing the great democratic transformations that followed the military uprising of the 25th of April. This was the case regarding union freedom, the release of political prisoners, the democratization of local power, the legalization of political parties, nationalization of the banking sectors and key sectors of the economy, and agrarian reform, amongst many other political and economic transformations.  

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Were it not for the 25th of April, it would not have been possible for Portuguese workers to gather in such magnitude publicly, demanding a better future and willing to collectively organize to construct that future. However, it should be remembered, that were it not for May Day 1974, were it not for the worker’s demonstration in the hundreds of thousands, committed to democracy, social justice, and a more egalitarian country and world, the 25th of April would not be remembered in the same manner, and we would not be celebrating the 50th anniversary of democracy.  

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Celebrating April and May, together, as they were and as they are, requires an articulation between “historical memory” and “revolutionary project”, as argued by José  Barata-Moura (1994). Only in this manner are we capable of properly celebrating these great achievements of Portugal’s history, having a dynamic conception of memory, that conceptualizes the Carnation Revolution not as a moment, but as a process, not as a historical fact, but as a movement, a movement with tasks that are for us to take upon. Against the historical revisionism and depoliticization that surrounds the 25th of April, by those that were never comfortable with its true nature, a popular and revolutionary nature, unity of historical memory and revolutionary project is the answer.  

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It is the responsibility of today’s democrats, to build this unity, and to sustain it, both through their theoretical analysis and through their political practice. This rejects any fetishism with a past that is not to return, and any romantic nostalgia that distorts the episodes that constitute the revolutionary process, to last until the 25th of November, 1975. Moreover, this requires an ever-present notion of the necessity of a revolutionary project. April is only celebrated, if its victories are remembered and valued, its flaws and mistakes criticized and self-criticized, and its future built by those willing to continue the process initiated in 1974 and stopped on 25th of November, 1975.  

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April is past, in the experiences and teachings its’ analyses leave us. April is present, in the rights and guarantees that are held to this day and in the resistance to protect them against those that, for their interest, desire to return to a different time, a time at which their privileges were greater, through the exploitation and oppression of the majority. April is the future, in the struggles that are still to be, in another democracy, one that reaches from the economy to culture, putting the necessary end to all forms of oppression and exploitation.  The process started on the 25th of April of 1974, and represents to this day an unfinished revolution. When society’s political and economic structures are transformed by the collective and organized actions of the people, revolution imprints its mark upon history. This is the case for the Portuguese revolution, of which various profound transformations last to our times.  Despite the counter-revolutionary process that the country has been on since the 25th of  November of 1975, of which a great part constitutes distorting and erasing the political character of the revolution and of its victories, the offensive to democracy has not been able to revert every conquest of the people during the revolutionary process, not because it has not attempted to, but because every time it did, it found a collective resistance, organized to struggle in unity and defend the conquests of the revolution, while never forgetting the victories still to be conquered, without which the revolution cannot be complete.  Historical development is not a straight line and is not only composed of positive aspects. However, even during retreats, only class struggle is able to sustain the victories of the past while maintaining a liberating perspective of the future.

 

With the 25th of April, all those who lived from their labor, those who love freedom for all, and those who value democracy in its various strands, political, economic, social, and cultural, benefited greatly. Honoring its legacy, through its critique and continuation, avoiding mysticisms or reductionisms, they will also be the ones carrying forward the future of the April process, and benefit from it.  It is the role of every democrat to highlight the liberating struggle of the workers and peoples of the world, against exploitation and oppression, integrating the struggle of the  Portuguese and the April Revolution, with the international revolutionary transformations that conquer, in the present and in the future, a new world, a world of universal political, social and economic rights. A world of freedom and fulfillment of human potentialities.