Abstract

On the 25th of April 1974 it took place in Portugal what was to be known as the ‘Carnation Revolution, ’ led by the military – the Portuguese Armed Forces - that put a stop to one of the longest dictatorship in Europe. Then, for 19 months, Portugal would live a period called PREC or Revolutionary Process Under Way. People took the power in the streets, the factories were taken by the workers, landowners were expropriated, the lands occupied by people who reclaimed the ‘right to work’, the newspapers were taken by the typographers, there were strikes almost every day, manifestos were issued almost daily, politics was everywhere in every conversation, where before there had been but silence. This ‘revolution down the road’ as many non-Portuguese put it attracted all sorts of people: journalists, photographers, political activists, film makers, workers, who came running to experience live a ‘true’ revolution happening in front of their eyes. D. L. Raby writes to the effect: For 19 months this small and impoverished nation on the western fringe of the continent was to experience a genuine revolutionary process such has not been seen in Western Europe for generations.” (D. L. Raby, Democracy and Revolution – Latin America and Socialism Today, London: Pluto Press, p.213)

On the 25th of November 1975 a coup staged by a moderate faction within the Armed Forces put a stop to this ‘Revolutionary Process’ and Portugal got ‘back into the track again.’ The 25th of November is still today an obscure episode of Portuguese history, some saying it saved the nation from a communist dictatorship, others saying that it betrayed the ideals of the revolution and ended it. Where some say true democracy started with the 25th of November, others say this date was actually the death of all possible political freedom. So, when did the revolution end? What revolution is this we are talking about? Is it one revolution or more? These discrepancies are today gaining momentum as ways of remembering these events are constantly being transformed with each new government and according to its ideology.

This performance lecture aims at looking at these narratives of transition, using testimonies from several people engaged in both ‘revolutions’ to highlight the conflicting memories pertaining one of the most important and crucial moments of Portuguese history. I will also be using and analysing important films and documentaries made during this process, namely “Scenes from the Class Struggles in Portugal”, by Robert Kramer and Phillip Spinelli (1976), and “Torrebela”, by Thomas Harlan (1975/76), as well as the documentary “Another Country” by Sergio Treffaut (1999), that documents the foreign film production during this period.


Nota biográfica

Joana Craveiro - Theater stage director, performer, writer, director of the Teatro do Vestido, currently performs doctorate research  in Roehampton University, London, on forms of political memory transmission in Portugal, regarding the periods of dictatorship, revolution and Revolutionary Process in Course.

Note: Activity within the Cities, Cultures, and Architecture Research Group (CCARq)