Thread by @Igualitarista

to mark the 45th anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution, I'm reading the original post-revolution Constitution, before all the subsequent revisions to negate its revolutionary and socialist character.

Preamble: on April 25th 1974, the Armed Forces Movement, concluding the long resistance of the Portuguese people & interpreting their deep sentiments, toppled the fascist regime.

To liberate Portugal from dictatorship, oppression, and colonialism represented a revolutionary transformation and the beginning of a historic turn in Portuguese society.

The Constituent Assembly upholds the decision of the Portuguese people to defend their national independence, guarantee fundamental rights...and open the way to a socialist society

Article 1: Portugal is a sovereign Republic, based on the dignity of the human individual and the popular will, committed to its transformation in a classless society.

Article 2: The Portuguese Republic is a democratic state, based on popular sovereignty...that has as its objective to guarantee the transition to socialism through the creation of conditions for the democratic exercise of power by the working classes.

Article 3, section 2: The Armed Forces Movement, as guarantor of the democratic conquests and the revolutionary process, participates, in alliance with the people, in the exercise of sovereignty.

Article 5, section 1: Portugal encompasses the historically defined territory on the European continent and the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. [may seem like a simple passage, but represents the dramatic process of decolonization following April 25th)

Article 7: Portugal is guided in international relations by the principles of national independence, the rights of people to self-determination & independence...to not interference in the internal affairs of others states, & cooperation with all peoples for human emancipation.

Article 7, section 2: Portugal seeks the abolition of all forms of imperialism, colonialism, and aggression; general, simultaneous and controlled disarmament, and the dissolution of political-military blocs.

Article 7, section 3: Portugal recognizes the rights of peoples to insurrection against all forms of oppression, namely colonialism and imperialism.

Article 9 (tasks of the state): to socialize the means of production & wealth... to create the conditions to allow the promotion of the well being & quality of life of the people, especially the working classes, to abolish exploitation & oppression of man by man.

Article 10, section 2: The development of the revolutionary process, on the economic plain, requires the collective appropriation of the principle means of production.

article 13: No one may be privileged, benefited, prejudiced, or deprived of any right... by motive of their sex, race, language, territory of origin, religion, political or ideological convictions, education, economic situation or social condition.

article 22: it is guaranteed the right of asylum to foreigners & stateless people as a consequence of their activity in favor of democracy, social & national liberation, peace among the people, & the liberty and rights of people.

Article 25: Under no circumstances will there be the death penalty.

Article 38 - Freedom of the Press, section 6: Television [broadcast] can't be privately owned.

Article 40, section 1: political parties & labor unions...will have the right to airtime on radio & television...
section 2: during electoral periods, competing political parties will have the right to regular & equitable airtime.

Article 50: the collective appropriation of the principal means of production, the planning of economic development, & the democratization of institutions, are guarantees & conditions to make effective economic, social & cultural rights & duties.

Article 53: all workers, regardless of age, sex & race...have right to:
A.)...the principle of equal pay for equal work
B.) socially dignified conditions, to facility personal realization
C.) to work in clean and safe conditions
D.) rest & leisure.... paid holidays

Article 55: It's the right of workers to create workers' committees for the defense of their interests... aiming to reinforce the unity of the working classes & their mobilization for the revolutionary process of building workers' democratic power.

Article 56: rights of workers committees:
A.) to receive all necessary information to the exercise of their activity
B.) to exercise management control in their companies.
D.) Participle in elaborating work legislation & social-economic plans related to their sector.

Article 59: The right to strike is guaranteed.
Article 60: The lockout is prohibited

Article 63: it's incumbent on the State to organize, coordinate, and subsidize a unified and decentralized social security system, in agreement & with participation of the labor associations & other working class organizations.

Article 64: 1.) all have the right to healthcare and the duty to defend & promote it.
2.) the right to healthcare is realized through the creation of a universal, general & free of charge national health service...socialization of medicine & medical-pharmaceutical sectors.

Article 73: the state will promote the democratization of education...to contribute to personal development & the progress of a democratic & socialist society.
Article 74: The state must modify education to overcome its conservative function in the social division of labor.

Article 76: access to university must have in account the necessities of the country in trained personnel & to encourage & preference the entry of workers & the children of the working classes.

Article 80: The social-economic organization of the Portuguese Republic rests on the development of socialist relations of production, & collective appropriation of the principle means of production & natural resources, & the exercise of democratic power by the working class.

Article 81 - state priorities:
a.) promote the welfare of the people, especially the most underprivileged classes
g.) eliminate or prevent the formation of private monopolies through nationalizations & other forms.
h.) carry out agrarian reform

I.) eliminate social & economic differences between the city & countryside.
L.) create legal & technical structures necessary to establish democratic economic planning.
O.) encourage working class participation in planning, oversight & execution of all economic-social measures

Article 82: the law can determine that the expropriations of agrarian landlords ( latifundiários), major owners, businessmen or shareholders do not require any indemnization.

Article 83: All the nationalizations carried out after April 25th, 1974, are the irreversible conquests of the working class.

Article 96: Agrarian reform is fundamental for the construction of a socialist society...the transference of land & means of production to those that work it, as the first step to new relations of production in agriculture.

Article 97: the transfer of land rights & the means of production... to those that work it will be obtained through the expropriation of agrarian landlords (latifúndios) and the large capitalists farms.

Article 100: Completing the objectives of the agrarian reform requires the creation by rural workers & small & medium farmers of production cooperatives with state support...as well as others forms of collective farming by workers.