Newly revealed documents reveal that MI5 taught Brazilian secret police the techniques deployed by the 1964-85 military dictatorship in horrific prisons like Rio de Janeiro’s House of Death. SARA VIVACQUA reports
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A return to the spirit of 1974?
Are we seeing an anti-colonialist resurgence like that in the wake of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, asks PAWEL WARGAN
LIBERATION: Guerilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front, who finally won their independence from Portugal in 1975, following a ceasefire and withdrawal of Portuguese troops after the Carnation Revolution
CHRISTOPHE DOMEC speaks to the France Insoumise politician facing constant persecution from French authorities
It can be hard to discern conspiracy theory from reality and under the Trump regime the two might just be the same thing, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
ALAN SIMPSON says responses to the Golders Green attacks risk deepening divides across our country
Capturing the general strikes history is a vital part of our struggles today, posits HENRY FOWLER
On a tumultuous day in Welsh politics DAVID NICHOLSON looks at the key issues for progressives in Wales to grapple with the rise of the far right
ON APRIL 24 1974, the people of Portugal overthrew the fascist dictatorship of the Estado Novo after nearly five decades of brutal rule. Textile workers, engineers, women’s movements and landless peasants joined hands with the increasingly exasperated soldiers of Portugal’s colonial army. They took to the streets in droves. Passersby put red flowers in the barrels of the soldiers’ guns, christening the uprising the Carnation Revolution.
A few days later, on May 1 1974, the nations of the South mounted a collective offensive against the neocolonial economic system. At the United Nations general assembly, they proposed the New International Economic Order (NIEO), an ambitious vision that sought to translate the gains of political decolonisation into a new economic compact made in the image of the South.
The story of the Carnation Revolution — like that of the NIEO — was one of Southern protagonism in an international system long characterised by Northern domination. Both moments were forged in the convergence of two historical processes that shaped the course of the 20th century.
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