Raquel Varela is author of A People’s History of the Portuguese Revolution.
Fifty years ago today, Portugal’s Carnation Revolution began as soldiers overthrew the dictatorship. Although the revolution was ultimately contained, it changed the face of European politics and hastened the shift to democracy in Spain and Greece.
On April 25, 1974, a mutiny in the Portuguese army put an end to five decades of dictatorship. The revolution that followed showed how working people can take a modern economy into their own hands.