“Deeply moved by the invitation to preside over the Congress, I salute colleagues who are aware of the importance of this Congress for the central objectives of our struggle for democratic freedoms, the Portuguese people, independence, the colonial peoples, I declare the session open.”
These were the words sent by telegram from Rui Luís Gomes, “Chairman of the Unanimous Session of the National Commission” of the III Congress of the Democratic Opposition, who was in exile, and were read at Cine-Teatro Avenida, in Aveiro, on Wednesday, April 4, 1973, by Álvaro Seiça Neves.
The meeting – “the historic conclave” – whose “main purpose was the preparation of a common program and uniform lists”, intended to face the regime and the armed forces in October during the election campaign for the National Assembly of the National Action Popular , and which was to end on Sunday, April 9 with a police charge as participants made a pilgrimage to the grave of Mário Sacramento, a communist physician and writer who died in 1969, is now being commemorated for two days, yesterday and today at the CCB,” contextualizing and interpreting” of this moment that also contributed to the wear and tear of the regime – the “Marcelist spring was already over”.
Rui Bebiano, historian, scientific coordinator of the Lisbon celebrations [em Aveiro essa função ficou com Carlos Jalali]who was 20 at the time would have turned 21 in November, a week before the Congress he was “arrested, released”, he went to Aveiro and the “next week he was drafted into the army”.
Fifty years later, the “detached” and “scientific” gaze, which does not underestimate the importance of the event, identifies three mistakes: First – “it was not a congress that brought together all the opposition. It is not true. It was a congress where the PCP was the dominant force and organizer, there were so-called companions on the journey, many ASP militants [que dez dias depois daria origem ao PS], old republicanism, etc., but the most radical left formations were not there. There were some militants there from those sectors, but that was all”; Second – “it was not Congress that provoked or decreed April 25th. In no way. There was no preparatory work, in fact the question of the colonial war was not discussed at length, the minutes show that”; Third – “the mistake of the ASP which convinced itself at one point that it was going to defeat the Congress in its could influence direction, towards your goals. The truth is that the decisions adopted and the language used in the conclusions and political perspectives were those of the PCP. It looks like a review assignment, but the PCP took what it thought was the right position and did it with the support of a dominant number of Democrats.”
The “misconceptions”, at least one of them, were reflected in the greeting vote on April 6, on the 50th anniversary of the Third Congress of the Democratic Opposition, which the deputies unanimously approved when they said it was there, in Aveiro, that ” some of the strong ideas” of April 25, 1974 began to take hold, including the “inevitable 3D – democracy, decolonization and development – that would shape the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) program” and also when they say in the evocation that it is “at this congress that the proposition that the armed forces, which had helped establish the regime and had fought in the colonial war for 12 years, could be a political tool of rupture, in the service of the transformative ideal of the country”.
Historian Rui Bebiano underlines that Medeiros Ferreira’s dissertation, read by Maria Emília Brederode Santos, “was not, in fact, well received or considered in the conclusions of the congress”, despite the deputies taking the view that “the regime was undergoing a significant shock , the consequences of which were reflected in the April Revolution and democracy”.
Neither. “It is enough to reflect on the main purpose of the congress and verify the differences, contradictions and fault lines between the left. What happened after April 25 runs counter to the attempt at unity that the congress sought”.
Scheme
Testimonials II
Helena Pato, Mário Simões Teles and João Soares will take part in the debate, which will take place at the CCB between 2:30 PM and 4:00 PM, moderated by Maria Inácia Rezola, historian and president of the mission structure for the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of April 25 .
Interventions II
Between 4:15 and 6:30 pm there will be a panel with José Pacheco Pereira – “What the III Congress revealed about the state of the opposition”; Luís Trindade – “We will have to be more, I know”. Sounds, Images and Utopia in 1973″; Manuela Tavares – “Women in the Democratic Opposition and the Slow Road for Their Rights”; and Miguel Cardina – “April 1973: A Portrait of the Anti-War Opposition”. The debate is moderated by Rui Bebiano.
What has already been discussed
Carlos Carvalhas, Maria Emília Brederode and António Neto Brandão (in the panel of witnesses), Fernando Rosas – “Congress of Aveiro: in the time of eve”, Francisco Seixas da Costa – “1973 – A Fardado Look”,
José Manuel Lopes Cordeiro – “Aveiro, 1973: An Opposition Outside the Congress of the Opposition”, Luísa Tiago Oliveira – “From the Conclusions of the Congress of Aveiro to the Program of the MFA”, moderated by Irene Pimentel, were other specialists who participated in this event: From Memory to the Future: The Third Congress of the Democratic Opposition, 50 Years Later.
Source: DN
