Raquel Varela

On the 25th April 1974, a coup destroyed the ranks of Portugal's fascist Estado Novo government as the Portuguese people flooded the streets of Lisbon, placing red carnations in the barrels of guns and demanding a 'land for those who work in it'. This became the Carnation Revolution—an international coalition of working class and social movements, which also incited struggles...

A People's History of Portugal reconstructs the last two hundred years of class struggle in Portugal. Raquel Varela and Roberto della Santa examine the material conditions of its people, exploring the real causes of the revolutionary waves and counter-revolutionary backlash. Starting in the early nineteenth century, the theme of colonialism and its antithesis runs through the narrative, as working-class life...