WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.400 Fifty years ago, on the 25th of April 1974, under pressure 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:08.000 from national liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau 00:00:08.100 --> 00:00:11.026 and confronted with the inability of the dictatorship to 00:00:11.051 --> 00:00:14.351 resolve the serious crisis the the country was facing, 00:00:14.426 --> 00:00:18.426 a military coup in Lisbon brought down the fascist government. 00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:24.400 After that, peasants and workers began to take over fields and factories. 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:28.500 Between 1974 and 1975, Portugal experienced a revolutionary phase. 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:33.600 The official goal was to replace the fascist regime with a bourgeois democracy 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:39.200 that would end the war, reform the institutions, modernise the economy 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:43.300 and make concessions to the urban and rural proletariat, 00:00:43.400 --> 00:00:46.400 which was becoming increasingly rebellious and took to the streets. 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:50.673 A wave of strikes and factory, land and house occupations began. 00:00:50.706 --> 00:00:54.685 Together with the release of political prisoners from the radical left 00:00:54.739 --> 00:00:58.290 and massive demonstrations on the 1st of May, this marked the beginning 00:00:58.371 --> 00:01:01.783 of an 18-month intensification of class struggles in Portugal, 00:01:01.841 --> 00:01:04.614 which ended on the 25th of November. 00:01:05.900 --> 00:01:10.360 I saw this people fighting to end their exploitation. 00:01:10.453 --> 00:01:16.600 Streams of crowds carrying history in their hands. 00:01:19.300 --> 00:01:23.286 On one side stood the armed forces fighting for supremacy 00:01:23.333 --> 00:01:26.293 in this new phase of bourgeois dictatorship, 00:01:26.332 --> 00:01:29.816 by suppressing the popular and workers' movement 00:01:29.923 --> 00:01:33.583 and subjugating them to the institutions. 00:01:33.880 --> 00:01:37.509 These forces ranged from the fascists who had fled to Spain and Brazil 00:01:37.567 --> 00:01:44.403 to the counter-revolutionary petty bourgeoisie of the PS, the MFA and COPCON, 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:48.900 to the governments of Vasco Gonçalves, to the eternal conciliator: 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:50.783 the Portuguese Communist Party. 00:01:50.833 --> 00:01:53.377 Loyal to the doctrine of the 7th Comintern Congress 00:01:53.410 --> 00:01:55.724 after decades of struggle against fascism 00:01:55.777 --> 00:02:00.078 the PCP would also fight against the seizure of power by the working class in Portugal. 00:02:00.173 --> 00:02:03.812 On the other side stood a mass movement 00:02:03.858 --> 00:02:07.159 that was able to exert enormous pressure through proletarian initiative 00:02:07.206 --> 00:02:10.706 to create institutions and organs of class struggle: 00:02:10.767 --> 00:02:15.983 The famous commissions of workers and residents, soldiers and sailors, 00:02:16.113 --> 00:02:18.979 occupied land and arrested fascists 00:02:19.005 --> 00:02:22.606 administered factories and estates and created a new way of life. 00:02:22.906 --> 00:02:27.812 We were over a million neighbours without a roof over our heads and without any means. 00:02:27.913 --> 00:02:32.612 We made a virtue out of necessity each in our own way 00:02:32.732 --> 00:02:36.946 We lived without water, we lived without dignity a life without rest 00:02:36.992 --> 00:02:40.992 In old barracks and dilapidated flats 00:02:41.139 --> 00:02:45.778 And from the combination of these factors the idea slowly emerged 00:02:45.885 --> 00:02:51.600 to form residents' committees elected in assemblies 00:02:52.600 --> 00:02:56.730 We occupied houses and built roofs 00:02:56.870 --> 00:03:01.200 With the population – and even some architects 00:03:01.300 --> 00:03:05.800 Forward with the people's organisation! 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:10.900 Forward with the people's organisation! 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.903 Victory means fighting! 00:03:15.700 --> 00:03:19.700 The people's and workers' movement was now facing a fundamental problem. 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:23.800 It was split into two wings: One saw its future in an alliance 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:29.640 with parts of the military left, the COPCON, and even Gonsalvism, 00:03:29.793 --> 00:03:31.486 or with the petty bourgeoisie, 00:03:31.533 --> 00:03:34.979 who dreamed of military or patriotic socialism. 00:03:35.166 --> 00:03:38.686 The other wing focused on taking over production 00:03:38.746 --> 00:03:43.890 and social reproduction, without directly confronting the bourgeois state. 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:46.703 Both defended the power of the people. 00:03:46.956 --> 00:03:49.616 They linked the proletariat with the radical petty bourgeoisie 00:03:49.677 --> 00:03:51.403 and the armed forces 00:03:51.463 --> 00:03:55.603 instead of trusting in their own strength and establishing their own class power. 00:03:55.696 --> 00:03:57.956 Thus, 50 years have passed 00:03:58.009 --> 00:04:01.689 since the first attempt to introduce a democracy of the rich and the bosses, 00:04:01.949 --> 00:04:05.662 which the MFA wanted to enforce with the military coup of the 25th of April. 00:04:05.736 --> 00:04:09.589 This attempt was delayed by the mass movement during the PREC 00:04:09.642 --> 00:04:13.409 and finally achieved after the 25th of November. 00:04:13.609 --> 00:04:17.249 Today, as yesterday, the class struggle continues. 00:04:17.349 --> 00:04:21.549 In a country where wages are stagnating, the cost of living and rents are rising, 00:04:21.629 --> 00:04:25.763 where two million people live in poverty, hundreds of thousands of workers and 00:04:25.816 --> 00:04:28.800 migrants are rejected by bourgeois society 00:04:28.900 --> 00:04:31.900 and the climate crisis is increasingly becoming a reality, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.336 in which patriarchal violence persists and reactionary movements are growing, 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:39.536 where 50 far-right MPs sit in parliament 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.596 it is inevitable that mass resistance will intensify. 00:04:42.730 --> 00:04:44.470 That is exactly what is happening right now. 00:04:44.693 --> 00:04:49.670 Even if we are still a long way from a situation like the 18 red months, 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:53.296 it is obvious that class struggle is intensifying. 00:04:53.393 --> 00:04:57.253 The large demonstrations for housing, the increase in strikes, 00:04:57.293 --> 00:05:01.240 the solidarity protests with Palestine, the occupations for climate protection 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:03.736 and the growing anti-fascist struggle 00:05:03.792 --> 00:05:07.292 show that a popular movement against the current state of affairs is emerging. 00:05:07.826 --> 00:05:11.826 Forward with the people's organisation! 00:05:11.933 --> 00:05:16.059 Forward with people's organisation! 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:18.646 Victory means fighting! 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.800 On this 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, we would like to emphasise 00:05:21.900 --> 00:05:26.230 that, in addition to preserving the memory and lessons of this period, 00:05:26.336 --> 00:05:30.000 one of the most important tasks is the fight against the ‘April myth,’ 00:05:30.100 --> 00:05:34.100 which confuses a conciliatory and populist message with the class struggle 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:36.656 and the necessity of the struggle for power. 00:05:36.713 --> 00:05:40.970 We must not descend to the level of the petty bourgeoisie and its goals. 00:05:41.146 --> 00:05:44.313 We will fight for the proletarian revolution, for communism, 00:05:44.386 --> 00:05:47.630 without any form of reconciliation with interests other than our own. 00:05:47.696 --> 00:05:51.276 We must draw clear boundaries between ourselves and our class enemies, 00:05:51.330 --> 00:05:55.276 but also between all middle layers that waver between revolution and reaction. 00:05:55.886 --> 00:05:59.453 That is the greatest honour and tribute we can bestow on those 00:05:59.546 --> 00:06:04.046 who have set out to seize power. 00:06:04.913 --> 00:06:07.371 Like them, we will storm the heavens, 00:06:07.467 --> 00:06:09.646 for this time we are armed with the knowledge 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.794 of the defeats of the past and will triumph! 00:06:13.400 --> 00:06:19.786 They have guns and machine guns, tanks and grenades, 00:06:19.873 --> 00:06:28.821 not to mention the truncheons. You have the police and the guards, 00:06:29.256 --> 00:06:34.143 who you pay very little, but are ready for anything 00:06:34.750 --> 00:06:39.700 But what good is such an arsenal to them? 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:44.403 One minute before the end they will see that they are lost, 00:06:44.473 --> 00:06:48.473 that nothing will save them.