In the history section, we recall the anarchist background of the
so-called Carnation Revolution, which swept away the fascist regime in
Portugal in 1974. It will be fifty years since this event at the end of
April. The article was published in the magazine Solidarita, then edited
on the AF website. ---- In Portugal in 1974, workers used a military
revolt against the dictatorship to spontaneously establish
self-governing bodies. Who stifled this initiative? ---- On April 25,
1974, a radical faction of the Portuguese Armed Forces, the MFA,
rebelled against the government. Until then, Portugal had been under a
fascist dictatorship for more than half a century. Whether the MFA leans
to the left or to the right was unclear at the time. But the military
mutiny created a space in which people could change their lives, and
they seized the opportunity.
Left-wing activists were returning from exile, new political parties
were being formed. These parties used the situation to gain political
power in government - but ordinary people were interested in how to
improve social conditions in their municipalities and businesses through
new autonomous organizations. And it was at this level that the changes
that most interest anarchists took place.
Portugal was the least developed country in Europe during the fascist
dictatorship. It had 400,000 people out of work, 150,000 people lived in
slums, one million had emigrated, and the infant mortality rate was
almost 8.5%. Strikes and other expressions of resistance by workers
against cruel conditions were met with the brutal force of fascist
repressive forces.
Workers' struggle
The workers' struggle continued even after the revolution: one of the
most significant strikes took place at TAP, a semi-state airline whose
employees had already experienced a number of social struggles (during a
strike in 1973, three TAP workers were murdered by a paramilitary police
unit). And it was the strike struggle at TAP in the summer of 1974 that
showed whose side the supposedly radical revolutionary government was on.
The strike broke out in the airlines after the government refused to
meet the workers' demands of May 1974. These included, in particular,
the dismissal of all fascists from the company, an increase in wages,
the right of workers to renegotiate collective agreements whenever they
deemed it necessary, and also the firing of those executives, who
displayed "anti-labor attitudes". The strike, which halted all
international flights, was supported by all employees - except members
of the Communist Party, whose member, the Labor Minister, appealed to
the strikers to return to work.
And what was the response of the coalition government (including the
Socialist Party and the Communists)? She sent the army to occupy the
airport and arrest the strike committee. Two hundred workers were
dismissed from their jobs. When these measures did not break the
resistance of the workers, mass demonstrations took place and further
strikes were threatened, the dismissed employees were taken back. A
40-hour work week was gradually introduced.
Around this time, however, the first Provisional Government also
introduced anti-strike laws. The government's reaction thus indicated
how all post-fascist governments would react to workers' struggles.
However, the working class was not worried about this: during the summer
of 1974, around 400 enterprises experienced social conflicts.
Enterprises: workers' committees and self-governing cooperatives
As a relic of the fascist era, unions were considered by many to be
reactionary, and workers needed to organize themselves more
democratically and independently. Thus, workers' committees were
created: delegates to them were elected by workers' assemblies once a
year, and if they were not satisfied with the activities of their
delegate, they could dismiss him. Most of them were not revolutionary,
but the committees were a manifestation of people's distrust of the
"left parties", the government and the army. By the end of October 1974,
about 2,000 were in operation.
In the summer of 1975, this movement began to develop further. When
management ignored their demands, workers occupied the plant and in many
cases set up self-governing systems. In Unhais de Serra, 1,100 textile
workers got rid of management and elected a workers' committee to run
the factory. According to estimates, in the summer of 1975 there were
380 factories under self-government and 500 cooperatives operating.
Self-government in municipalities
Of course, social struggles were not limited to the factory level:
people were unwilling to rely on and beg the government to do something,
and decided to solve their problems themselves. Thus, after April 25,
1975, a movement of the poor grew up, who, as a response to the housing
crisis, began to occupy empty properties in an organized manner.
In working-class neighborhoods and in neighborhoods where the lower
middle class lived, residents elected Autonomous Revolutionary
Committees of Estates. These committees organized the occupation and use
of houses and ensured the operation of free crèches, workers' centers
and other municipal services. One local housing committee in Lisbon
organized the occupation of about 400 empty houses. A "social rent" was
paid, which paid for house repairs. 260 families from the slum moved
into apartments near the center of Lisbon.
About 150,000 slum dwellers were members of the Federation of Slum
Committees. It was independent of political parties and fought for the
construction of new housing estates instead of slums, land expropriation
and rent regulation.
Collectives in the countryside
Agricultural workers made up a third of Portugal's population. Seeing an
opportunity for change, rural workers began occupying estates, cattle
farms, and unused land. In addition, they cooperated with industrial
workers and various labor organizations: in Cabanas, with the help of
the local housing committee, an abandoned farm was occupied, and a
nearby factory provided equipment. When 354 workers from the estate in
Santarem decided to occupy the land, dozens of workers from the city
came to help them - eventually ten large estates were collectivized.
Socialism was apparently a natural thing for the workers: the land was
not divided among the individual inhabitants, but was cultivated
collectively and owned by the village as a whole. In August 1975,
official statistics reported that there were over 330 agricultural
collectives operating here.
What about the political parties?
And how did the political parties react to the workers' spontaneous
initiative? Amid a growing culture of self-government, the Proletarian
Political Party (PRP) launched its campaign to create councils based at
workplace, neighborhood and barracks levels. It sounded nice, but the
PRP was more interested in creating bodies to dominate than councils
through which the working class could decide public affairs. Delegates
from companies and soldiers' committees thus met a large block of
"workers' party" members in the councils: in addition to delegates who
were elected directly by the workers, there were also activists who were
not elected by the workers and who got into the councils automatically
as party members. In short: if the self-styled "revolutionary parties"
were unable to gain enough support to have their members elected as
delegates by their collaborators, they were to be given seats by the
simple title of calling themselves "workers' parties."
Housing organizations also faced the same difficulties. Left-wing
parties tried to control the committees of housing estates and slums.
Partisans, often well-practiced orators, allowed themselves to be
elected to key committee positions to use to build their parties. Many
ordinary people stopped going to meetings when they got the impression
that they were being dominated by a certain group.
On the whole, it seems that the "workers' parties" did not so much help
the committees as hinder them.
The changes did not go deep
However, the capitalist system itself was not fundamentally affected
during the Portuguese revolution. Cooperatives and collectives had to
negotiate the price of their labor under the conditions set by the
capitalists. Even the workers' committees were almost nothing more than
the workers' self-government of their own exploitation. The cooperatives
were not revolutionary either. It still had to cope with the limited
possibilities of capitalism. It had to make a profit and their members
received wages (of varying amounts). Even though many cooperatives were
able to reduce the prices of goods and services, this situation
inevitably led to competition between them.
All this fighting took place against the backdrop of six interim
governments, several coup attempts and rumors of right-wing plots and a
NATO invasion. The space for radical worker-led social development that
the armed forces had created was quickly reoccupied by politicians,
pushing programs that had nothing to do with the revolution. The fault
cannot lie in the absence of a "workers' party," as some Trotskyists
claim: in fact, there were at least fifteen "workers' parties" in
Portugal. And in fact, it was precisely the center and left-wing
"workers' parties" who participated in stifling the workers' independent
initiative. Not only have they diluted democracy, they have also given
rise to the idea that the "incompetent masses" need some sort of elite
to guide them.
https://oafed.noblogs.org/post/2024/04/23/padesat-let-od-revoluce-o-ktere-vas-ve-skole-neucili/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
so-called Carnation Revolution, which swept away the fascist regime in
Portugal in 1974. It will be fifty years since this event at the end of
April. The article was published in the magazine Solidarita, then edited
on the AF website. ---- In Portugal in 1974, workers used a military
revolt against the dictatorship to spontaneously establish
self-governing bodies. Who stifled this initiative? ---- On April 25,
1974, a radical faction of the Portuguese Armed Forces, the MFA,
rebelled against the government. Until then, Portugal had been under a
fascist dictatorship for more than half a century. Whether the MFA leans
to the left or to the right was unclear at the time. But the military
mutiny created a space in which people could change their lives, and
they seized the opportunity.
Left-wing activists were returning from exile, new political parties
were being formed. These parties used the situation to gain political
power in government - but ordinary people were interested in how to
improve social conditions in their municipalities and businesses through
new autonomous organizations. And it was at this level that the changes
that most interest anarchists took place.
Portugal was the least developed country in Europe during the fascist
dictatorship. It had 400,000 people out of work, 150,000 people lived in
slums, one million had emigrated, and the infant mortality rate was
almost 8.5%. Strikes and other expressions of resistance by workers
against cruel conditions were met with the brutal force of fascist
repressive forces.
Workers' struggle
The workers' struggle continued even after the revolution: one of the
most significant strikes took place at TAP, a semi-state airline whose
employees had already experienced a number of social struggles (during a
strike in 1973, three TAP workers were murdered by a paramilitary police
unit). And it was the strike struggle at TAP in the summer of 1974 that
showed whose side the supposedly radical revolutionary government was on.
The strike broke out in the airlines after the government refused to
meet the workers' demands of May 1974. These included, in particular,
the dismissal of all fascists from the company, an increase in wages,
the right of workers to renegotiate collective agreements whenever they
deemed it necessary, and also the firing of those executives, who
displayed "anti-labor attitudes". The strike, which halted all
international flights, was supported by all employees - except members
of the Communist Party, whose member, the Labor Minister, appealed to
the strikers to return to work.
And what was the response of the coalition government (including the
Socialist Party and the Communists)? She sent the army to occupy the
airport and arrest the strike committee. Two hundred workers were
dismissed from their jobs. When these measures did not break the
resistance of the workers, mass demonstrations took place and further
strikes were threatened, the dismissed employees were taken back. A
40-hour work week was gradually introduced.
Around this time, however, the first Provisional Government also
introduced anti-strike laws. The government's reaction thus indicated
how all post-fascist governments would react to workers' struggles.
However, the working class was not worried about this: during the summer
of 1974, around 400 enterprises experienced social conflicts.
Enterprises: workers' committees and self-governing cooperatives
As a relic of the fascist era, unions were considered by many to be
reactionary, and workers needed to organize themselves more
democratically and independently. Thus, workers' committees were
created: delegates to them were elected by workers' assemblies once a
year, and if they were not satisfied with the activities of their
delegate, they could dismiss him. Most of them were not revolutionary,
but the committees were a manifestation of people's distrust of the
"left parties", the government and the army. By the end of October 1974,
about 2,000 were in operation.
In the summer of 1975, this movement began to develop further. When
management ignored their demands, workers occupied the plant and in many
cases set up self-governing systems. In Unhais de Serra, 1,100 textile
workers got rid of management and elected a workers' committee to run
the factory. According to estimates, in the summer of 1975 there were
380 factories under self-government and 500 cooperatives operating.
Self-government in municipalities
Of course, social struggles were not limited to the factory level:
people were unwilling to rely on and beg the government to do something,
and decided to solve their problems themselves. Thus, after April 25,
1975, a movement of the poor grew up, who, as a response to the housing
crisis, began to occupy empty properties in an organized manner.
In working-class neighborhoods and in neighborhoods where the lower
middle class lived, residents elected Autonomous Revolutionary
Committees of Estates. These committees organized the occupation and use
of houses and ensured the operation of free crèches, workers' centers
and other municipal services. One local housing committee in Lisbon
organized the occupation of about 400 empty houses. A "social rent" was
paid, which paid for house repairs. 260 families from the slum moved
into apartments near the center of Lisbon.
About 150,000 slum dwellers were members of the Federation of Slum
Committees. It was independent of political parties and fought for the
construction of new housing estates instead of slums, land expropriation
and rent regulation.
Collectives in the countryside
Agricultural workers made up a third of Portugal's population. Seeing an
opportunity for change, rural workers began occupying estates, cattle
farms, and unused land. In addition, they cooperated with industrial
workers and various labor organizations: in Cabanas, with the help of
the local housing committee, an abandoned farm was occupied, and a
nearby factory provided equipment. When 354 workers from the estate in
Santarem decided to occupy the land, dozens of workers from the city
came to help them - eventually ten large estates were collectivized.
Socialism was apparently a natural thing for the workers: the land was
not divided among the individual inhabitants, but was cultivated
collectively and owned by the village as a whole. In August 1975,
official statistics reported that there were over 330 agricultural
collectives operating here.
What about the political parties?
And how did the political parties react to the workers' spontaneous
initiative? Amid a growing culture of self-government, the Proletarian
Political Party (PRP) launched its campaign to create councils based at
workplace, neighborhood and barracks levels. It sounded nice, but the
PRP was more interested in creating bodies to dominate than councils
through which the working class could decide public affairs. Delegates
from companies and soldiers' committees thus met a large block of
"workers' party" members in the councils: in addition to delegates who
were elected directly by the workers, there were also activists who were
not elected by the workers and who got into the councils automatically
as party members. In short: if the self-styled "revolutionary parties"
were unable to gain enough support to have their members elected as
delegates by their collaborators, they were to be given seats by the
simple title of calling themselves "workers' parties."
Housing organizations also faced the same difficulties. Left-wing
parties tried to control the committees of housing estates and slums.
Partisans, often well-practiced orators, allowed themselves to be
elected to key committee positions to use to build their parties. Many
ordinary people stopped going to meetings when they got the impression
that they were being dominated by a certain group.
On the whole, it seems that the "workers' parties" did not so much help
the committees as hinder them.
The changes did not go deep
However, the capitalist system itself was not fundamentally affected
during the Portuguese revolution. Cooperatives and collectives had to
negotiate the price of their labor under the conditions set by the
capitalists. Even the workers' committees were almost nothing more than
the workers' self-government of their own exploitation. The cooperatives
were not revolutionary either. It still had to cope with the limited
possibilities of capitalism. It had to make a profit and their members
received wages (of varying amounts). Even though many cooperatives were
able to reduce the prices of goods and services, this situation
inevitably led to competition between them.
All this fighting took place against the backdrop of six interim
governments, several coup attempts and rumors of right-wing plots and a
NATO invasion. The space for radical worker-led social development that
the armed forces had created was quickly reoccupied by politicians,
pushing programs that had nothing to do with the revolution. The fault
cannot lie in the absence of a "workers' party," as some Trotskyists
claim: in fact, there were at least fifteen "workers' parties" in
Portugal. And in fact, it was precisely the center and left-wing
"workers' parties" who participated in stifling the workers' independent
initiative. Not only have they diluted democracy, they have also given
rise to the idea that the "incompetent masses" need some sort of elite
to guide them.
https://oafed.noblogs.org/post/2024/04/23/padesat-let-od-revoluce-o-ktere-vas-ve-skole-neucili/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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