Message from the Comintern (SH)

on the occasion of the 50th anniversary

of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal

We send militant greetings to the Portuguese Section on occasion of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal.

Today we're celebrating 50 years of the Portuguese carnation revolution of 25th of April 1974, that liberated Portugal from fascism.

This design features the Palestinian flag with a carnation on top.

25th of April stands for victory over fascism and the Palestinian cause is interconnected with our worldwide fight for the world socialist revolution.

Fifty years ago today, the fascist form of bourgeois dictatorship was replaced by the "democratic" form of bourgeois dictatorship in Portugal. As we had already explained and stated in our article on the 90th anniversary of the P"C"P, it was very far from being any kind of "socialist revolution", but was merely a coup d'état organised by one section of the bourgeoisie against another that remained linked to fascism. In fact, since the end of World War II, when the Portuguese fascist-colonialist regime lost its main ideological partners (Nazi-fascist Germany and fascist Italy), certain parts of the bourgeoisie in Portugal realised the dangers of maintaining an openly fascist form of their class dictatorship, as it promoted the acquisition of a communist consciousness by the workers in the face of the explicitly bourgeois and repressive class nature of the fascist state. However, for many decades, the aspirations of this so-called "liberal" bourgeoisie had to stand still, because Anglo-American imperialism emerged as the new major supporter of Portuguese fascism as a bulwark in the struggle against comrade Stalin's socialist camp and later against its social-imperialist rivals for world domination. This is how Portuguese fascism lasted for 48 years (!), the longest period of a fascist form of bourgeois dictatorship that has ever existed. Portugal had more years of fascism than Albania had of socialism. After the defeat of the Axis forces and the surrender of Nazi Germany, very few believed that Portuguese fascism could last. But thanks to the interests and needs of the Western capitalist-imperialists in their fight to prevent the world socialist revolution, the Portuguese working classes had to endure fascist repression until 1974. In this year, the supposedly "liberal" sections of the bourgeoisie finally managed to convince the army (previously one of the main pillars of fascism, but which was becoming dissatisfied with the unsuccessful colonial war being fought in African colonies) to side with them and overthrow the regime, on 25 April 1974, when it was called "the Carnation Revolution", due to the fact that on that day, to celebrate the end of the fascist period, some women in Lisbon put red carnations on the rifles of the soldiers who were taking part in the operations to put an end to the old regime. Even today, revisionists and neo-revisionists repeatedly declare that this episode is proof of the alleged "peaceful and poetic character of the Portuguese revolution". The social-fascists of the P"C"P claim that:

"(...) the military movement was transformed into a peaceful revolution." (http://www.pcp.pt/avante/1378/7803m4.html, 25 April Always, Portuguese edition)

In fact, if it turns out to be anything at all, it's that the "Portuguese revolution" could never be anything other than a "bourgeois-democratic" revolution, which aims to replace one branch of the bourgeoisie with another and which aims to perpetuate profit-maximising capitalism by hiding the inevitably and inherently oppressive and exploitative class nature of its state behind "democratic" and even "popular and socialist" masks, preventing the exploited and oppressed masses in general and the workers in particular from acquiring real revolutionary consciousness and keeping them away from Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism-Hoxhaism. And this is because all genuinely socialist and proletarian revolutions must necessarily involve class violence and bloodshed, as the exploiting and oppressing classes must be ferociously crushed by the exploited and oppressed classes under the leadership of a Bolshevik-type communist party. Soon, they must always include the dictatorship of the proletariat. This may not sound as "poetic" and "romantic" as women giving flowers to soldiers, but it has already been proven by the teachings of the Classics and confirmed by history. As comrade Lenin once said:

"Scientifically speaking, the dictatorship (of the proletariat) is a power which is not limited by law (...) and which is directly based on violence." (Lenin , quoted by Stalin in Questions of Leninism , 1931, translated from the French edition )

Of course, we don't want to ignore the fact that the democratic turn in the history of the Portuguese people cost them a lot of sacrifices in the fight against fascism. Nor do we want to deny that the Portuguese Carnation Revolution and the victory over fascism had a certain progressive content and were relevant acts of evolution in Portuguese society and the significance of the democratic struggle for the preparation of the socialist revolution in Portugal, for the abolition of the inevitability of fascism and for the establishment of proletarian democracy through the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be underestimated. The Carnation Revolution allowed Portuguese African colonies to obtain formal independence, even if they were promptly transformed into Soviet neo-colonies. Some formal bourgeois "rights" that simply didn't exist under fascism were granted. After all, it's not the same as fighting under conditions of open fascism or with some legal opportunities. Of course, we could never ignore this difference. After all, we have to fight for democracy and we can't leave it in the hands of the revisionists. If the revisionists hold the democratic field of the class struggle in order to deceive the masses, then we must take this weapon away from them. We must denounce them and convince the people that we are the only true representatives of the struggle for proletarian democracy and against bourgeois "democracy". The masses must learn the difference between the class character of democracy. Without combining the socialist revolution with the struggle for the democracy of the people, of the proletariat, this would not be enough to seize political power. If the democratic struggle is in the hands of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, then we are not allowed to leave our own field of class struggle to democracy - which facilitates our struggle for socialist revolution. We must never give up the lever of democratic struggle that is vital to our socialist struggle. This does not mean that we should forget that only socialism, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, guarantees the elimination of the danger of fascist restoration. The restoration of fascism is inevitable if the working class does not destroy capitalism completely. Only in combination with the socialist struggle and especially through the subordination of the democratic struggle to the socialist struggle can the bourgeois dictatorship be violently overthrown. The democratic struggle itself is totally incapable of getting rid of the exploitation and oppression of the ruling classes. Everything else is revisionist - reformist rubbish and "democratic" lip service in the interests of maintaining the class domination of the bourgeoisie. Moreover, the social-fascist lackeys are the main promoters of the restoration of fascism. We cannot defeat rising fascism if we ignore the importance of democratic demands in our struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. It is our duty to unmask the revisionists for what they really are: the agency of fascist transformation within the workers' movement with the aim of saving the bourgeois dictatorship from being replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat. Social fascists and fascists are twins who are enemies of democracy. Therefore, we must fight for democratic demands always in the interests of the socialist revolution against both twins. Underestimating this need would mean "left" opportunism, and overestimating it would mean right-wing opportunism. We have to fight both right-wing and "left-wing" deviations and defend our correct communist line in the correct handling of the democratic question.

Today, the fight for democracy in the concrete conditions of the current world capitalist crisis is becoming increasingly important. In Portugal, the growing resistance of the proletariat and other working classes is very dangerous for the maintenance of the rule of the Portuguese bourgeoisie. The recent colonialist invasion and its "austerity measures" orchestrated by the EU and world imperialists have caused untold suffering on the Portuguese workers, who are now submerged in the most horrible misery. Even for the most politically inactive of them, the bourgeois-democratic "Carnation Revolution" left a lot to be desired. This is also why we must absolutely call for the struggle of the exploited and oppressed classes against open fascist terrorism through democratic and socialist demands, because the world bourgeoisie in general and the Portuguese bourgeoisie in particular are inevitably bound to elaborate and implement sooner or later the transformation of their dictatorship into open fascist terrorist forms against the workers and the people, and especially against the revolutionary forces in Portugal, including the Stalinist-Hoxhaists, who will lead the class struggle in Portugal.

The Portuguese and world bourgeois classes fear us Stalinist-Hoxhaists because we are the only ones who can lead the class struggle in Portugal, who can guide the Portuguese masses to victory as a detachment of the world red army marching towards the world socialist revolution, towards the dictatorship of the world proletariat, for world socialism and communism.

Portuguese exploited and oppressed classes - unite!

Don't be fooled by bourgeois "democratic" facades!

Under capitalism, all regimes, without exception, are repressive dictatorships of bourgeois exploitation - it doesn't matter whether they wear "democratic" or fascist clothes!

Down with the revisionists and neo-revisionists who want the democratic struggle to be an end in itself!

The democratic struggle is nothing without the struggle for socialism!

World communism = the only way to abolish the inevitability of fascism once and for all!

Long live the progressive side of the Carnation Revolution!

Long live the world socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the world proletariat!

Long live the 5 Classics of Marxism-Leninism: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Enver Hoxha!

Long live world socialism and world communism!

Long live the Comintern (SH)!

25 - 4 - 2024