Portugal: The Impossible Revolution? by Phil Mailer

PM Press, 2012, 300 pages.

PM Press (of Oakland, California) is set to re-publish Portugal: The Impossible Revolution?, Phil Mailer’s fascinating first-hand account of the Portuguese Revolution of 1974-1975. The book was originally published in 1977 by Solidarity, a relatively large group of British co-thinkers of Cornelius Castoriadis. The Portuguese Revolution was a remarkable event and can be legitimately described as the last time the red flag flew on the continent of Europe. Raya Dunayevskaya singled out the revolution’s prominent feminist current, as well as its new idea of apartidarismo, or “non-party” ecumenism (See her 1976 Political-Philosophic Letter, “Under the Whip of Counter-Revolution: Will the Revolution in Portugal Advance?”). Unfortunately, the time-honored tradition of socialists rushing in to save capitalism from itself won out again. While he is not mentioned in Mailer’s book, Jose Manuel Barroso—now President of the European Commission and one of the most powerful politicians in the world—was a militant of the Maoist Movement for the Reorganization of the Proletarian Party at the time.

Google Books has a preview of the original Solidarity edition available.