Carnation Revolution
[PORTUGAL.]
O povo está com o MFA. Dinamização cultural, acção cívica. Comissão dinamizadora central, [Lisbon, 1974].
[offered with:]
[PORTUGAL.] Centro dei Comunisti. Lotta di classe e potere politico in Portogallo (Quaderni Comunisti). Rome, 26 September 1975.Two works, I: colour poster (c. 330 x 330 mm; light creases, else very good; II: folio, pp. 78, [2]; illustrated with photographs, folded colour poster loosely inserted; a little light spotting; very good.
Two rare pieces of ephemera on the Portuguese ‘Carnation Revolution’ of April 1974.
Composed of left-leaning officers in the Portuguese military opposed to the authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo, the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA) sparked the ‘Carnation Revolution’ (in which almost no shots were fired and carnations placed into the muzzles of rifles) with a military coup on 25 April 1974. Backed by a popular campaign of civil resistance, the Revolution led to the fall of the old regime and the withdrawal of Portugal from its overseas colonies.
The striking propaganda poster, designed in the aftermath of the revolution by the Lisbon artist João Abel Manta (b. 1928), shows young and old offering gifts of food and drink to a soldier of the Movimento das Forças Armadas, under the caption ‘The people are with the MFA’.
The pamphlet historical overview of the Carnation Revolution and its aftermath, including a reproduction of João Abel Manta’s famous poster showing Vasco Gonçalves, Portugal’s prime minister, with his arms around a member of the MFA (Movimento das Forças Armadas) and one of the people. Gonçalves had been dismissed from office the week before this publication appeared.
I: OCLC shows only one copy, at the International Institute of Social History library; II: No copies outside Italy on OCLC.