"Burchett would go on to interview some of the main protagonists of the Portuguese Revolution, including MFA leaders like Vasco Gonçalves, Ernesto de Melo Antunes and Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. He zigzagged across the country, venturing into the inland northern region of Trás-os-Montes, to fishing towns like Peniche, and into the heart of the Alentejo region, in the south. His narrative is colourful and rich in detail, discussing the Portuguese Revolution in its national and international dimensions with the skill that only an experienced international correspondent could achieve. After decades of reporting from hotspots like China, Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, the journalist was well positioned to understand the magnitude of the Portuguese revolutionary process and the disintegration of empire in the global context of the Cold War.

In a style reminiscent of George Orwell’s journalistic output in books like Homage to Catalonia or The Road to Wigan Pier, Burchett offers a mixture of reflection, analysis and intimate interviews with important historical protagonists of the revolutionary process in the capital, Lisbon, but also with average people in the provinces – farmers, fishermen, factory workers. As a result, he captured the zeitgeist of the revolution like few could. He unapologetically revealed his enthusiasm for the captains who led the coup and for the social mobilisations taking place in the streets, factories and farms around the country.

Burchett’s journalistic output during the Cold War was often labelled by his detractors as communist propaganda against the West. But Burchett always vehemently denied being a member of a communist party."

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/journalism-from-a-remarkable-outsider-wilfred-burchett-s-lens-on-the-portuguese-revolution

#Portugal #25deAbril #Journalism #CarnationRevolution #RevolucaoDosCravos #Jornalismo #History #Historia

Today - the 25th of April - marks the 51st anniversary of the Carnation Revolution that got Portugal rid of its 41 years dictatorship (48 if you count from the military coup).

Contrary to what our center-right govt said about not celebrating it due to the pope's death, it's still a day of remembrance, protest, and celebration. Especially with the ever more present threats to liberty and people, here and everywhere.

#CarnationRevolution #25DeAbril

(picture from here: https://pixabay.com/pt/vectors/cravo-flor-vermelho-157672/)

"The old and new right-wing parties are amalgamating into a neoliberal and hyper-conservative ‘pleiad’ (social notables) that comprises neo-Christian fundamentalists, including Fatimists (a Catholic religious faction). The new desire to celebrate November 25 emerges from here. The latest extreme on the right is embodied in the anti-communism of IL (the Liberal Initiative) and the neo-fascism of Chega. The media normalizes it all as milquetoast ‘liberals’ rather than what they are – figures of the ‘radical / extreme right’. These groupings want to celebrate November 25 for what it was: a coup d’état against democracy at work, against the duality of popular power. In short, they want to celebrate the counter-revolution, the beginning of the end of the Revolution.

November 25 heralded Portugal’s reconstruction from a ‘national capitalism’ dependent on forced labour in its African colonies until 1974 to a subservient capitalism that is a de facto protectorate of the leading European power of Germany, France, and Britain. Portugal now helplessly depends on investments and capital goods from North America, Spain, China, and other countries.

The ostensible ‘democratic counter-revolution’ of 25 November 1975 is a central political event for understanding what happened in Portugal, and it was far less democratic and far more reactionary in its roots. As we rescue the authentic memory of the Carnation Revolution and lament its demise, no wonder Father Martins Júnior said in a piercing manner that what remains is “50 neo-fascists in the hemicycle 50 years after the April Revolution.”

The impossible became possible on that day 50 years ago. The dreams unleashed on April 25, 1974, neither have been vanquished nor fulfilled. The slogan could not be more urgent: April 25 forever, fascism never again!"

https://socialistproject.ca/2025/04/the-carnation-revolution-of-portugal-today/

#Portugal #CarnationRevolution #25deAbril #25deNovembro #Fascismo #Fascism #EstadoNovo