Not only young adult university students, such as those led by Jorge Sampaio in Lisbon in 1962, or by Alberto Martins in Coimbra in 1969, were students who protested against the Estado Novo.
From the mid-1960s onwards, secondary education developed in Lisbon, from secondary schools such as Pedro Nunes or D. João Castro (which no longer exist), but also at technical schools, an organized movement whose actions the regime led to the extreme act of arresting minors. It got to the point where Deputy Casal-Ribeiro, in a speech to the National Assembly, advocated the need to ruthlessly crush these “fearless teenagers” – a speech that marked a worsening of repression.
MAEESL, the abbreviation for Movimento Associativo dos Estudantes do Ensino Secundário de Lisboa, was the name and existed from 1967 to 1974. Figures such as the socialist activist Ana Gomes and journalist José Manuel Fernandes (publisher do Observador), Nuno Crato (former Minister of Education), Miguel Portas (1958-2012, founder of Bloco de Esquerda), the singer of Trovante Luís Represas or the actor Joaquim de Almeida, and many others.
The 16th Saturday will mark 50 years since the most spectacular act in the life of the MAAESL took place: the arrest of 151 of its activists by the PSP as they gathered in the Lisbon Faculty of Medicine, which is still located today is. is today at the Hospital de Santa Maria.
They were between 13 and 18 years old. Surrounded by police armed with machine guns, they are taken to the civilian government of Lisbon. Fifty girls are packed into one cell. Twelve high school students and five higher education students (who had only gone to the university to check the agenda) are taken to Caxias, where they spend about four days. The Civil Government boys are released the next morning, but not before the police shave off their hair. Then some start wearing hats on the streets, while others proudly display their shaved heads, like war trophies.
About these events, the exhibition There is always someone who says no – Student opposition to the dictatorship in Lisbon’s secondary education (1970-1974) opens today at 4 p.m. at the Torre do Tombo National Archives (ANTT), in Lisbon.
The organization was carried out by Coletivo Que Diz Não!, consisting of Rui Gomes, Miguel Mira, Jorge do Ó, Jorge Silva, Ivone Ralha, Rita Areosa, António Salgueiro, Rui Cartaxo and Rui Capão (now deceased).
Speaking to DN, Rui Gomes, now a 68-year-old retired university professor and then leader of MAEESL – known as Tarzan for his strong physique – says that the exhibition will reveal, for example, the list that PSP created of names of the 151 young people who lived in that cold night of December 16, 1973.
It also shows copies of the daily reports made in Lisbon high schools by undercover PSP agents.
The exhibition, which was mounted without any support from the 50th anniversary Commemoration Committee on April 25 citing a lack of funding, will be on display at ANTT until February 28, 2024.
Source: DN
