Freedom from a Dictatorship
- penelopeeicher
- Apr 23, 2024
- 4 min read
I am inspired by the great courage of the leaders of the Carnation Revolution of Portugal. April 25 marks the 50-year anniversary when Portugal achieved democracy in a non-violent coup-d’etat by the Portuguese military forces (!) against the 48-year long ruling authoritarian dictatorship started by António de Olveira Salazar. People flooded the streets to cheer the military and to celebrate freedom. They put red carnations in the rifle muzzles of soldiers of liberation.
Street Art from independent.co
Unfortunately, I hear echoes of Salazar’s rise to power in recent rhetoric and actions of right-leaning politicians in the U.S. and abroad. Portugal offers some lessons about how a populist politician can become a dictator, and how a government can evolve to oppress the governed.
Initially Salazar was appreciated for stabilizing the economy and espousing values of home, family, and church. By the time his oppression was obvious, he was muzzling the press and using arrests, torture, imprisonment, exile, and secret executions to suppress opposition. Our landlady explained that people would not even mention politics to a neighbor because they could be denounced and imprisoned – or worse.
Salazar’s regime kept the people poor and illiterate. Per capital annual income was $470 in 1967, the lowest in Europe, and illiteracy was the highest. Compulsory education stopped at third grade but was increased to fourth grade in the 1960s. Salazar considered education the task of the family.(1) When we hear similar rhetoric in the US about education of the child belonging in the family, we are concerned that our under-funded public education will become a victim of political rhetoric.
Portugal's strides since the revolution are quite impressive. Nowadays education in Portugal is compulsory until age 18, and young adults are employed throughout Europe for their high education level and proficiency in two or more languages.
But for almost 5 decades girls and women were held down. Salazar considered a woman’s most fruitful work was in the home, and few girls attended school beyond third grade. Women lacked economic, political, and social rights.(1) In the US, we still hear sentiments about women belonging in the home from right-leaning nationalists.
Our Portuguese friend Carlos talked about his mother's life under the authoritarian regime. When she was young, his mother married a policeman. They separated, but divorce was forbidden under the regime. Fed up by her lack of rights, his mother joined the underground resistance, where she met the love of her life. Carlos was born to the couple, but his parents could not get married. Ironically, the law required the policeman to be listed on Carlos’ birth certificate as his parent -- although Carlos never even met him!
The Salazar regime justified oppression of the people under the banner of patriotism, nationalism, and defending Portugal’s traditional Catholicism. Anyone who spoke up for democracy was denounced as a communist and arrested.(1)
I am disconcerted by the many parallels between the underlying philosophy of Portugal’s past authoritarian regime and current movements in the U.S.: privitazation of education and school vouchers; extreme parental rights over common sense; book banning in schools and libraries; rising white nationalism and Christian nationalism; restricting women’s rights and rights of vulnerable populations; political isolationism; anti-science sentiments; and labeling people with epithets (communist, socialist, woke, etc.) if you disagree with their politics.
The Military Liberates the People
In many countries, the military has become an instrument in support of a rising dictator, but in Portugal the military actually initiated the liberation of the people. The seeds of the coup were sown in the growing discontent within the military over actions in the Colonies. 100,000 soldiers had been stationed in Portuguese Colonies to resist independence movements in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Portuguese India. (1) The brutal and senseless Colonial Wars created disaffection among military forces. 20% of Portugal’s military defected to the Netherlands, France, and other European countries.
Music Launches a Coup
On April 24, 1974, two radio broadcasts were secret signals that alerted the rebels to begin their coup. The first was the airing of Portugal’s entry in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The second was the broadcast of the folk song Grândola, Vila Morena.(2) Listen to it here.
I am in awe of the courage of military leaders, who faced execution if the coup failed. Unlike most military coups, rather than keep the power to themselves, the military supported the establishment of a democratic republic with free elections. The gripping film drama, April Captains (Capitãis de Abril), covers the crucial 24 hours that changed life in Portugal.
After the coup, services to the people began to improve. Luisa, our landlady, explained that electricity and potable water were first delivered to her rural home two years after the revolution (1976). The African Colonies became independent, and funds were invested in infrastructure and development within Portugal. Teachers and classrooms were expanded to serve more and more youth. Women won, almost overnight, a host of concessions and made massive strides towards equal pay and equality.
Red Carnations Symbolize Freedom and Democracy
street art of "Celeste de Cravos" -- Carnation Celeste.
In the early morning of April 24, 1974, Celeste Caeiro arrived at work with an armful of carnations for a scheduled event at the restaurant. She discovered throngs of cheering people mixing with soldiers in the streets. A soldier asked her for a cigarette, but she only had the flowers. So he took a bright red carnation and stuck it in the muzzle of his rifle. Soon all the flowers were dispersed among soldiers and sprouting from gun muzzles, giving the non-violent coup the title The Carnation Revolution. (2) Every year people all over Portugal take to the streets with carnations in hand to celebrate democracy.
This history gives us hope for the future of democracy at home and around the world.
Love from Tim and Penelope
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