Women and the Revolution in Portugal
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Women and the Revolution in Portugal L. Valleiy-Fischer and G. Fischer Symbols change in Portugal. The April 25, 1974, coup which eliminated a 48 year-old cruel, backward and authori• tarian regime, had its symbol--a red carnation stemming from a gun--an ex• pression of the intents of the young officers who staged the coup. The gun, symbol of violence and oppression, was to spread--instead of bullets--civi1 peace, democracy and, as expressed by the redness of the carnation, some kind of socialism was to be established in the new Portuga1. Since April 1974, Portugal has lived through many changes and crises. The first president under the new regime, General Antonio de Spinola, became more and more the symbol of a new right. He resigned in September 1974 and, since carnation on their suits and dresses. the unsuccessful and almost naive March As well, in the weeks before the elec• 1975 coup, shares exile in Brazil with tions another symbol appeared, this time the last president under the old regime, a photo. A woman in her sixties is Admiral Americo Thomaz. The young of• looking out from an open window, the ficers of the Movement of the Armed fingers of her right hand at her mouth, Forces have come into the foreground of her thoughts wandering and her face In• the political stage, occupying the key scrutable. The Christian Science Mon• positions in the new government. Mean• itor which published the photo captioned while, deep social, political, economic it: "From a Lisbon window: wondering and cultural mutations have wracked what is going on."l However it is not every sector of Portuguese society. only she who is wondering what is going on and how to react to it. Also, and On April 23, 1975, the first free elec• above all, the political figures of the tions were held after long decades of country are wondering what the opinion enforced civil passivity. The symbols of the women will be and how it will be of the Movimento revived again: the expressed in elections. After all, as electors, regardless of the party they elsewhere, more than half (about 53%) of chose, went to the polls with the red the population of Portugal is women. Among the great question marks before terest in public affairs. the April elections for the Constituent Assembly was what the trend of the After the coup, it was no easy task to women's vote would be. Surveys and make women speak out on political polls in Portugal are still in their issues. The socialist-oriented Lisbon adolescence; parties and private groups newspaper, Repub1? ca, at present the initiate them, but many people simply object of harsh political controver• do not yet want to reply to question• sies, published "instant" interviews in naires. The great mass of women, par• the summer of 1974. Women frequently ticularly in the villages, are very refused to answer, especially when in cautious in expressing their opinions the presence of their husbands, or re'- and judgments on political issues. This plied that politics was not women's is not surprising since in the years of business. And this occurred in Lisbon Salazar's regime women and politics itself which is much more politically were clearly a dichotomous notion. A active than other parts of the country. Portuguese variant of the German Kinder, In the north the Armed Forces conducted Kuche, K? rche had been developed and a campaign to "enlighten" the villages, there was no place for women in the pub• encouraging the people to proceed with lic life of the country. In the north what they call "cultural dynamisat ion." of Portugal--the area of scattered vil• Peter Niesewand in the Manchester lages and small hoidings--women, even Guardian has described activities in more than their husbands, were influ• the small village of Cabana Maior, "a enced by the Catholic Church which as place of such grinding poverty that it an institution supported the now de• sends out its laboi—its young men and funct regime, and, of course, advo• women go as migrant workers to France, cated the political passivity of women. West Germany and Belgium and mail money The old system regarded women's par• back to help their relatives to survive. ticipation in politics not only as un• Few return themselves."2 The village necessary but also as indecent, almost is composed mostly of young mothers, an insult to their womanhood, to their children and old people. The young of• motherhood and their role as wife. ficers spoke about democracy, about the Such a moral judgment was regarded as injustice of colonial wars, about no valid particularly for the daughters longer being sheep, but thinking and and wives of workers, peasants and acting independently, listening to what those belonging to the low middle the parties had to say. Lieutenant strata. As well the very high degree Tavares Pinheiro said: "You women, too, of illiteracy (about h0% in Portugal) don't let your husband tell you how to combined with the pressure of State vote. Make up your own mind." The and Church to discourage women's in• writer of the article adds, "The women sat silent and unmoving." But when from the wings of the small stage another officer, Captain Freitas the people's faces were alight Oliveira, spoke about the Church every• with glee, and the sound which body including the women came to life rocked the hall was pure national and took part in the discussion. The pride. officer mentioned that the priest has to have wages but the people were not However jaded many might have be• to be victims of extortion. One of the come in Lisbon, out here the povo women replied: "The priest gives his haven't heard the rumours or mass for the dead without being paid. A watched the manoeuverings and the few years ago it used to be 40 escudos memory of the revolution is clear you gave the priest and now it is 150 i n thei r mi nds. escudos because life has gone up." A man shouted: "The priest rides in a The correspondent of Le Monde also vis• car and my father goes walking." ited the same area during the elections. One hundred kilometers nort of Porto, A few miles away from Cabana Maior is near Cabana Maior, is a little hamlet Arcos de Valdavoz where the electricity of eighty inhabitants, Vi-llela de Lajos. cables stop. The "cultural dynamisa- The soil is poor and there is no water tion" group invited the inhabitants to or electricity; even the inn was closed the cinema. In the evening "the old --the owner had left for Montreal to black-dressed women leave their gossip• build skyscrapers. Newspapers and ing grounds on the street corners." radio are rare here. In front of the The military bands played, but the largest house in the settlement two audience was slow in warming up. Then women in black were playing with a came the famous song, Grandola Vila child. Voting? They will go in the Morena, the signal for the April 25 evening. For whom? A mute smile was coup, which has become a kind of the reply. They had the only television national song. "In every corner a set which was operated by a small gen• friend," it says, "in every face equal• erator. But it broke down and 150 ity." The effect of the song on the escudos ($50) were needed in order to men and women of Arcos de Valdavoz is get it repaired. Thus there was very described by Peter Niesewand as follows: little chance to follow the electoral Suddenly the cinema went wild. campaign. Of course they remember the Everyone sang and cheered and rose visit of the military. Yes, they were to their feet to shout slogans. here and they told them what is wrong, The povo (the people) are with the what has to be done, and above all, to MFA; they chanted. It was com• vote for what their own heads say and pletely spontaneous. Watching not the heads of others. Yes, the "others" are active also here. The re• mature enough for this sudden and porter witnessed that,at noon when complete freedom; we do not know what there was a break in the voting, the to do with it. We applaud the com• local priest came to an improvised pic• munist and we cheer the anti-communists. nic and told the people that the Church A good speaker, a good demagogue can forbids Christians to vote for Marxist succeed regardless of party affilia• parties. And the Socialists? The tion." And from the left one can hear priest answered in an uncertain way, "I similar appraisals. The leaders of the was told that they changed their program, military justify their resolution to maybe it is thus possible . ." But stay at the helm for five more years, the Socialist scrutineer was offended: saying that the Portuguese people need "No, Father, the Socialist party is a period of transition, of "civic ex• Marxist." With this reply the padre was perience," to be able to cope fully somewhat relieved that he would not have with democracy. to grant exemptions in a very dubious s i tuat ion.3 Of course it might be asked if this concept of "lack of maturity" (where do In Lisbon, further south, there are we have a fully mature public opinion?) women from every social class with is not a longing for and justification strong opinions who are courageous of some form of authoritarianism.