He realised that military victory was impossible and raised the need for a managed release of direct colonial power, with Portuguese influence maintained behind the scenes. Caetano and President The conservative forces surrounding Spinola and the MFA radicals initially confronted each other (covertly or overtly), and Spinola was forced to appoint key MFA figures to senior security positions.

Ein friedlicher Putsch einiger Mitglieder der Militärs beendete 1974 Diktatur in Portugal, die mehr als 40 Jahre angedauert hatte. De Spínola war jedoch nicht Teil des MFA und damit nicht der Wunschkandidat der Aufständischen.

Only one section of the Portuguese population was prepared to resist the coup, the secret police - out of sheer panic in the face of workers intent on vengeance.On May 5th The Observer commented, "Portugal is a state with a head but no body." Thousands of young men avoided After the revolution, the MFA began to negotiate with African pro-independence guerrillas. Die neue Regierung entließ schließlich die Kolonien in die Unabhängigkeit.

With the leadership of a revolutionary, Bolshevik party, the workers could have taken power peacefully - reaction was impotent. "These "abuses", the workers' strikes and occupations, were also denounced by the CP and SP leaders, as "ultra-left adventures" or even "imperialist plots." 23–27. Some of the insurgents put carnations in their Caetano found refuge in the main Lisbon military police station at the Largo do Carmo. A socialist future could have been assured. Die ersten roten Nelken, die der Revolution den Namen geben sollten, tauchten auf, leuchteten an den Uniformen der Soldaten und aus ihren Gewehrläufen. To avoid conscription of up to four years on starvation rations in the African jungles, a massive movement of desertion and draft dodging gathered pace.Between emigration and conscription, Portugal lost half its labour force. Each attempt of reaction was repulsed by the actions of the workers, which in turn pushed both the CP and SP further to the left.The CP carried a heavy anchor in the shape of its heritage of struggle and its direct links with the Russian Revolution, but the SP was tossed around on the waves of revolution, forcing its leaders to swing left or be blown overboard.Thus we saw the remarkable transformation of Soares declaring the SP to be a Marxist party, adopting a position far to the left of the CP.At the December Congress of the SP, delegate after delegate called for the nationalisation of industry and the banks, democratic workers control and a socialist plan of production.

But the CP leaders saw victory over the March coup as an opportunity to bureaucratically consolidate their positions in the local councils and trade unions.The AFM too was pushed to the left by the movements of workers and rank and file soldiers. Despite repeated radio appeals by the revolutionaries asking the population to stay home, thousands of Portuguese citizens descended on the streets and mingled with the military A group of low-ranking Portuguese officers organised as the At the beginning of the 1970s, nearly a half-century of authoritarian rule weighed on Portugal. Then the masses flooded the streets.Caetano insisted on talking to a top ranking officer, and finally agreed to hand over power to his old friend Spinola. Workers' committees sprang up and began clearing away remnants of the old regime.Without the permission or advice of the junta, workers exercised the right to strike; without waiting for lawyers verdicts they exercised the right to demonstrate with half a million marching through Lisbon on May Day. Denn die faschistische Führung hatte das Lied des linken Liedermachers José Afonso wegen seiner kommunistischen Tendenzen verbieten lassen. After 13 years it was clear these wars were unwinnable. Watchtower, 7 January 1999. pp.