The Portuguese Revolution and the Anti-Austerity Social Mobilizations of 2010-15

This talk analyses how social movements, trade unions, and left-wing political parties mobilized the memory of the “Carnation Revolution” of 1974 during the ‘years of austerity’ (2010 and 2015), a period when—under the direction of the “Troika” of international lenders (EU–ECB–IMF)—Portuguese governments embarked on a series of spending cuts and supply-side reforms in the context of economic crisis and high unemployment. The talk proposes that the resistance to austerity articulated a series of rights and institutions as “conquests of the revolution” perceived as under threat, framing the work of the revolution as “unfinished” and, therefore, requiring an overhaul of existing institutions.