The Revival of the Carnation Revolution : Another Story of Police Repression and the stupidity of the Portuguese Law

[antitude420]

On the 25th of April of 1974, the portuguese people united, as one, to bring down the dictatorship and put an end to opression. In a peaceful demonstration of opposition to the regime, tanks, soldiers, workers, house-keepers, boys and men and women marched the streets and overthrew the regime with cloves on their guns and hands.
The regime was over, people were finally free...Or so they thought.

33 years later, on the same day, people again gathered to show their discontent for the government. Though, something different happened and their voices were only heard until the police arrived and started bashing everyone and people were forced to retreat under a shower of clubs. People injured in a peaceful demonstration, burning of squats by police, illegal searches, breaking down doors without warrants...36 years later, where the hell is our freedom?

11 people were arrested at this demonstration and only earlier this month were they released due to lack of evidence. On a press conference though, in the same day, they said that the violent actions of the policemen were NECESSARY and, well, nothing happened to them, while 3 of our brothers remain with their records fucked up and were held up for 3 years. Justice? Where?!?

Also, roughly 30 more people, who had nothing to do with the case were illegaly 'checked up' just because the police suspected they had connections with 'large anarquist and animal rights organizations'. Privacy? Where the fuck?!

I'm not being able to express all my damn rage through this text, my english is failing on me right now, fuck!

I'll leave you some links with videos and photographies of the demonstration:

http://cravadonocarmo.wordpress.com/fotografias/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCDm-iltV1w

Also, a little info on the 25th April of 1974 :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution

I hope my english would be better for me to be able to answer to some of the questions.

[punkmar77]

Do you speak any Spanish, A420 ?

[antitude420]

Well, portuguese and spanish aren't that different so, yea, I do speak a bit of spanish. Though, I'm better at actually reading because I don't speak very fluently. Actually, I find it a lot easier to speak and write in english than in spanish...

Why, btw?

[punkmar77]

Because I'm on a campaign to pull more Spanish speakers to this site and start having more music, and topics etc. and I thought if you are having trouble in English you could always post in Spanish and in Portuguese

[antitude420]

Oh, nah, I usually don't have trouble with english it's just that I was a bit off my mind when I wrote the text and my mind was a bit blank.

Full support with your campaign. It's hard to spot portuguese people here and many of them seem not to be active in the forum...
As far as music goes, I'll be sure to start uploading some portuguese stuff here!

Btw, punkmar, if you understand a bit of portuguese, here are some links on those events I posted about :

http://pt.indymedia.org/conteudo/editorial/1985

http://cravadonocarmo.wordpress.com/

[punkmar77]

I speak fluent Spanish and no Portuguese but I can understand a lot of what is said, like 75%, but thanks!

[antitude420]

Well, I never had a spanish lesson in my whole life and I understand it so I guess the reverse is also possible.

I guess 75% of what happened is enough to still be pissed off. The 2007 demonstration was probably the largest anti-capitalist demonstration here in Portugal and just seeing stuff like what the police did and the charges that they made up etc. so close to me (it's a small country) just pisses me the fuck off! Especially when some of the people on that demonstration where friends or friends of friends.

off-topic:

just uploaded 3 new portuguese albums and i'll be sure to keep uploading, check them out if you can. good initiative