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URBAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN PORTUGAL, 1974–1976*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2008

PEDRO RAMOS PINTO
PEDRO RAMOS PINTO*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
*
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, pedro.ramospinto@manchester.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article examines the impact of the urban social movement active in Lisbon on the Portuguese transition to democracy (1974–6). Academic and public discourse over the last three decades has tended to characterize the movement either as an embryonic form of a participatory society, or an illusion created by the manipulation of a minority of activists. Conversely, this article argues that the movement was largely autonomous and powerful enough to win valuable concessions for the urban poor, in the context of increasing competition between political elites, although more moderate than many have assumed. As the contending political forces fought for supremacy, the urban movement became a coveted ally and potential source of legitimacy. With the political arena becoming increasingly polarized during the course of 1975, movement supporters were faced with a stark alternative between revolution and moderation. It is suggested that their choices were instrumental in making the victory of the moderates possible, revealing the contradiction between the street and the ballot box as a false dichotomy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 1025 - 1046
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

This article is based on a paper given to the Cambridge Modern European History seminar in 2007, and written while at the Centre for History and Economics in Cambridge, for whose support I am greatly indebted. I am also grateful to the editors of this journal and anonymous readers for their comments, as well as those from Martin Daunton, Nancy Bermeo, Simon Szreter, William O'Reilly, and Rosie Vaughan.

References

1 In Jan. 1975, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger stated at a White House meeting that ‘there is a 50 percent chance of losing it [Portugal]’. Document ck2349562154 Memo. White House. Secret. Issue Date: 22 Jan. 1975. Date declassified: 24 Aug. 2004. Reproduced in Declassified documents reference system (Farmington Hills, MI, 2007).

2 Maria de Lurdes Lima Santos, Marinus Pires de Lima and Vitor Matias Ferreira, O 25 de abril e as lutas sociais nas empresas (Oporto, 1976); Rafael Durán Muñoz, Contención y transgresión – las movilizaciones sociales y el estado en las transiciones española y portuguesa (Madrid, 2000), pp. 100–1; Nancy G. Bermeo, The revolution within the revolution: workers' control in rural Portugal (Princeton, NJ, 1986), p. 5.

3 Poder Popular, 3 Feb. 1976, pp. 6–7.

4 A good example of this position is José Cutileiro's assessment of the popular movement: ‘A via democrática’, in Diário de Notícias, 29 Oct. 1976, p. 3.

5 PS: Partido Socialista, Socialist Party; PPD: Partido Popular Democratico, Popular Democratic Party.

6 Rustow, Dankwart, ‘Transitions to democracy: toward a dynamic model’, Comparative Politics, 2 (1970), pp. 337–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Michael Burton, Richard Gunther, and John Highley, ‘Introduction: elite transformations and democratic regimes’, in John Highley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and democratic consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge, 1992).

7 Sidney Tarrow, ‘Mass mobilization and regime change: pacts, reform, and Popular Power in Italy (1918–1922) and Spain (1975–1978)’, in Richard Gunther, P. N. Diamandouros, and Hans-Jürgen Puhle, eds., The politics of democratic consolidation: southern Europe in comparative perspective (Baltimore, MD, 1995), p. 205. Nancy G. Bermeo, ‘Myths of moderation: confrontation and conflict during democratic transitions’, Comparative Politics, 29 (1997), pp. 305–22, 314, 318–19. Ruth Berins Collier, Paths toward democracy: the working class and elites in western Europe and South America (Cambridge, 1999).

8 See n. 2 above.

9 The only detailed study of the urban movement, on which subsequent analyses have relied, was Downs's work on Setúbal: Charles Downs, Revolution at the grassroots: community organizations in the Portuguese Revolution, SUNY Series in Urban Public Policy (Albany, NY, 1989). See also: Vitor Matias Ferreira, Movimentos sociais urbanos e intervenção política (Oporto, 1975); Luís Leitão, António Dias, Jorge Manuel, and Laurent Dianoux, ‘Mouvements urbains et commissions de moradores au Portugal (1974–1976)’, Les temps modernes, 34, 388 (1978), pp. 652–84; John L. Hammond, Building popular power: workers' and neighborhood movements in the Portuguese Revolution (New York, NY, 1988): Diego Palacios Cerezales, O poder caiu na rua – crise de estado e acções colectivas na revolução portuguesa 1974–1975 (Lisbon, 2003); Nunes, João Arriscado and Serra, Nuno, ‘“Decent housing for the people”: urban movements and emancipation in Portugal’, South European Society and Politics, 9 (2004), pp. 46–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Only rough estimates of numbers are possible. For Lisbon, this research identified 166 residents' commissions, with executive committees of anything from five to twenty members, and involving up to several hundred residents in regular meetings. Bermeo suggests that, at its peak, the farming co-operatives involved in land seizures employed 71,900 men and women. The movement for workplace occupations reached, according to a 1980 government report, 1·44 per cent of all private businesses, although most of these were small employers: Centro de Estudos Fiscais da Direcção-Geral das Contribuições e Impostos, Auto-gestão em Portugal – relatório da comissão interministerial para análise da problemática das empresas em auto-gestão (Lisbon, 1980), pp. 253–4, Bermeo, The revolution within, pp. 253–4.

11 This reflects the changing opportunity structures highlighted by both Cerezales and Munõz: Durán Muñoz, Contención y transgresión; Cerezales, O poder caiu na rua.

12 A Capital, 3 May 1974, p. 32; 5 May 1974, p. 6; 9 May 1974, pp. 1 and 24.

13 Castells, Manuel and Portas, Nuno, ‘La question du logement au Portugal démocratique’, Espaces et sociétés, 13–14 (1975), pp. 199–207Google Scholar, 204.

14 The SAAL Scheme (Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local – Mobile Local Support Service), gave residents control over budgets and design of co-operative housing schemes, and recognizing a right to place (as opposed to clearing shantytowns by relocating residents far from their jobs and social networks). For more information see: Portas, Nuno, ‘O processo SAAL: entre o estado e o poder local’, Revista crítica das ciências sociais, 18/19/20 (1986), pp. 635–44Google Scholar, Nunes and Serra, ‘“Decent housing for the people”’. The Rental Law gave landlords 120 days to rent or sell vacant properties in the free market, after which period it would be allocated to city council selected tenants at a price determined by the city's housing services: Decreto-Lei N° 445/74, 12 Sept. 1974, in Fernando Ribeiro de Mello, Dossier 2a república – 1° volume 25/4/74–25/4/75 (Lisbon, 1976), pp. 621–34.

15 Centro de Documentação 25 de abril, Universidade de Coimbra (UC/CD25A), Fundo de comunicados e panfletos: organizações populares de base/comissões de moradores II/Lisboa: ‘Porquê e como surgiu a inter-comissões de moradores dos bairros de lata’, Jan. 1975.

16 Diário de Notícias, 8 Sept. 1974, p. 24; O Século Ilustrado, 28 Sept. 1974, pp. 2–6.

17 Diário de Lisboa, 13 Nov. 1974, p. 18.

18 Including from newspapers close to the moderate Socialist Party: Républica, 12 Nov. 1974, p. 24.

19 Including the right to appoint and remove the president, the government and to initiate legislation.

20 A Capital, 1 Apr. 1975, pp. 12–13; 3 Apr. 1975, p. 24; 10 Apr. 1975, p. 24. Diário de Notícias, 2 Apr. 1975, p. 8. Arquivo Histórico Municipal de Lisboa/Arquivo do Arco do Cego (AHM/AAC) Correspondência eleitoral 1976, ‘Ofício n°43-VP/75’, 14 Apr. 1974.

21 Decree-law 198-a/75, 14 Apr. 1975, reproduced in Fernando Ribeiro de Mello, Dossier 2a república – 2° volume 25/4/75–25/11/75 (Lisbon, 1976), pp. 637–44.

22 Only a few days after the fire, the PPD newspaper Povo Livre called for the expropriation of empty houses near the shantytown: 3 Apr. 1975, p. 6. Five days before the election the PS called housing ‘a revolutionary right’ and demanded the ‘urgent beginning to an accelerated process of collectivization of urban land’: Portugal Socialista, 20 Apr. 1975, p. 6.

23 Vasco Gonçalves, Discursos, conferências de imprensa, entrevistas (Oporto, 1976), p. 169.

24 With over nine in ten voters turning out, the PS gained 37·9 per cent of the national vote and the PPD 26·4. The Communists came a distant third with 12·5. In Lisbon, the PS did even better than nationally, reaching 45·8 per cent. Although the PCP also did better in Lisbon than in the country as a whole, it still trailed the PPD. Ministério da Administração Interna, Secretariado Técnico dos Assuntos Políticos, Instituto Nacional de Estatística and Ministério da Comunicação Social, Eleições para a assembleia constituinte 1975 – i volume: resultados por freguesias, concelhos e distritos do continente e ilhas adjacentes (Lisbon, 1975), pp. 35–6, 103–4, 171–2.

25 Leading Santos to call it a ‘dual powerlessness’: Boaventura Sousa Santos, O estado e a sociedade em Portugal, 1974–1988 (Oporto, 1990), pp. 29–35.

26 A Capital, 21 Apr. 1975, p. 8; Vida Mundial, 3 July 1975, pp. 12–13.

27 Ibid.

28 UC/CD25A, Fundo de comunicados e panfletos: organizações populares de base/comissões de moradores II/Lisboa, inter-comissões dos bairros pobre e de lata de Lisboa ‘Sábado Dia 17’: Auto-construção, or ‘self-build’, was a part of the government's co-operative building scheme (SAAL), which allowed members to contribute with their own labour and financial resources to the construction of their houses.

29 Joaquim Russinho and Maria Graciette Ferreira, ‘Movimentos sociais urbanos após o 25 de abril de 1974 – o movimento das ocupações’, Cadernos de intervenção social – associação de estudantes do instituto superior do serviço social, 2 (1979), pp. 48–69, 65. The Lisbon based papers refer to ‘many thousands’ but fail to put a definitive number.

30 Vida Mundial, 31 July 1975, p. 28; A Capital, 3 July 1975, p. 13.

31 Diário de Notícias, 24 May 1975, pp. 1, 11.

32 Giovanni Sartori, Parties and party systems: a framework for analysis (Cambridge, 1976): 134–137.

33 ‘Aliança Povo-MFA’ in Mello, 2a república – 2° volume, pp. 773–4.

34 Ibid., pp. 776–7. The COPCON was a military command charged with law and order during the transition period.

35 Ibid., p. 776. Democratic assemblies had been instituted by the MFA as representative bodies to the movement within each military unit.

36 A Capital, 3 July 1975, pp. 12–13.

37 A Capital, 30 June 1975, p. 14. ‘Socialism in freedom’ was a PS slogan.

38 A Capital, 22 Aug. 1975, p. 12; AHM/AAC, Actas de reuniões da câmara municipal de Lisboa 1975, minutes of 25 Sept. 1975 meeting, p. 2.

39 Jornal Novo, 27 June 1975, p. 10. Diário da Assembleia Constituinte, 1975–1976, Issue: 15, 11 July 1975, Session: 10 July 1975, p. 306.

40 See, for instance, the article by PS founder Dieter Dellinger in A Luta, 27 Aug. 1975, p. 2.

41 O Militante, Series iv, Issue 5, Nov. 1975, pp. 14–17.

42 Boaventura Sousa Santos, Maria Eduarda Cruzeiro and Natércia Coimbra, O pulsar da revolução (Oporto, 1995), p. 264. For more on the Oporto municipal council see: A. Botelho and M. Pinheiro, O conselho municipal do Porto – balanço de uma experiência (Oporto, 1977).

43 Diário de Notícias, 13 Oct. 1975, p. 6.

44 Speech of 13 Oct. 1975, reproduced in Mello, 2a república – 2° volume, p. 902.

45 Josep Sanchez Cervelló, A revolução portuguesa e a sua influência na transição espanhola (196 1–1976) (Lisbon, 1993), pp. 247–9.

46 Diário da Assembleia Constituinte, 1974–1976, Série i, n. 067, 22 Oct. 1975, pp. 2098–9.

47 Diário de Notícias, 10 June 1975, p. 6.

48 UC/CD25A, Fundo de comunicados e panfletos, ‘Comissão de moradores do casal ventoso’, 19 July 1975.

49 Diário de Notícias, 15 Aug. 1975, p. 4.

50 Républica, 7 Oct. 1975, p. 5.

51 Républica, 22 July 1975, p. 6.

52 Républica, 24 Nov. 1975, p. 5.

53 A Capital, 3 July 1974, pp. 12–13.

54 Républica, 24 Sept. 1975, p. 5; 3 Nov. 1975, p. 11.

55 Cervelló, A revolução portuguesa, pp. 252–60.

56 Francisco Rui Cádima, ‘Os “media” na revolução (1974–1976)’, in J. M. Brandão de Brito, ed., O país em revolução (Lisbon, 2001).

57 These demonstrations took place on 16 July, 20 Aug., 3 Oct., 13 Oct. and 23 Oct. 1975. For a detailed exposition of the methodology used in this analysis and its results, see Pedro Ramos Pinto, ‘Urban protest and grassroots organisations in Lisbon, 1974–1976’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 2007), pp. 257–60.

58 AHM/AAC, Correspondência eleitoral 1976, various items.

59 Diário de Notícias, 20 Oct. 1975, p. 4.

60 Diário de Notícias, 28 Oct. 1975, p. 5; A luta, 28 Oct. 1975, p. 9.

61 A Capital, 5 Sept. 1975, p. 9; 20 Sept. 1975, p. 6; A Luta 19 Nov. 1975, p. 11.

62 Républica, 24 Nov. 1975: p. 6; Diário de Notícias, 24 Nov. 1975, p. 3.

63 Diário de Lisboa, 24 July 1975, p. 11.

64 Républica, 21 July 1975, p. 13.

65 UC/CD25A, Viva a luta dos bairros, Issue 4, Aug.–Sept. 1975, p. 9.

66 A Capital, 10 Oct. 1975, p. 2.

67 Diário de Lisboa, 14 Oct. 1975, p. 10; Républica, 14 Oct. 1975, p. 2; A Capital, 14 Oct. 1975, p. 5; A Luta, 14 Oct. 1975, p. 9.

68 A Capital, 8 Sept. 1975, p. 9.

69 UC/CD25A, Viva a luta dos bairros, Issue 4, Aug.–Sept. 1975, pp. 3 and 5. The Renascença radio station, owned by the Catholic Church, had, like the Républica newspaper, been taken over by its radical workers' commission.

70 Ibid.

71 Diário de Lisboa, 21 Nov. 1975, pp. 10–11.

72 Poder popular, 10 Mar. 1976, pp. 4–5.

73 Diário de Notícias, 10 July 1975, p. 8; A Capital, 10 July 1975, p. 9.

74 Républica, 2 Oct. 1975, p. 6; 3 Oct. 1975, p. 10; 4 Oct. 1975, p. 11.

75 Diário de Notícias, 15 Nov. 1975: p. 10; Républica, 17 Nov. 1975, p. 5.

76 Including that of the leadership of the Inter-comissões. See Revolução, 20 May 1976, p. 16; 25 May 1976, pp. 8–9.

77 Manuel Castells, The city and the grassroots: a cross-cultural theory of urban social movements (London, 1983); Robert Fishman, Working-class organisation and the return to democracy in Spain (Ithaca, NY, 1990); Hipsher, Patricia L., ‘Democratization and the decline of urban social movements in Chile and Spain’, Comparative Politics, 28 (1996), pp. 273–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

78 Nancy G. Bermeo, Ordinary people in extraordinary times: the citizenry and the breakdown of democracy (Princeton, NJ, 2003).

79 Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of contention (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 322–5. Speaking to another theoretical perspective, it could also be said that fairly broad-based support for the moderates created the conditions under which the ‘institutional compromises’ necessary to democratization could be fashioned: cf. Adam Przeworski, ‘Democracy as a contingent outcome of conflicts’, in Jon Elster and Rune Slagstad, eds., Constitutionalism and democracy (Cambridge, 1988).

80 Tarrow, ‘Mass mobilization and regime change: pacts, reform, and Popular Power in Italy (1918–1922) and Spain (1975–1978)’, p. 206.