Miguel Afonso Caetano on Nostr: "Burchett’s second book also captures the uncertainty and disillusionment that the ...

"Burchett’s second book also captures the uncertainty and disillusionment that the Communists and far left felt about the revolution in its final weeks. Like the PCP and much of the far left, Burchett entertained the possibility that the 25 November actions were planned by counter- revolutionary forces within the MFA and the parties to the right of the PCP (perhaps even the CIA). He also considered the alternative: that these insurrections were not centrally organised in any way that could lead to a left-wing coup within the provisional institutions. In summary: the centrists and the far-left parties accused the PCP of seeking to mount a coup with the help of rebellious armed forces units; the PCP, in turn, blamed the far left for fomenting insurrection in some armed forces units, denied any PCP role in an attempted coup, and accused the centrists of being counter-revolutionaries; finally, the centrist parties (and the centrist MFA faction) defended their actions, maintaining that they were a response to a coup attempt, and that their consolidation of power was a path correction setting the revolution on the road to democracy (one of the primary original goals of the MFA in overthrowing the Estado Novo)."