Days and Works: Red-Letter Days

Speaking of Portugal, Professor F. A. Hermens recently reminded us again of what the Communists call “the day after,” meaning the confused situation following the overthrow of a long-established political system, when many opposition groups suddenly emerge in a wide-open field. The Communists alone have for years prepared themselves for this moment. While underground, they maintained their organization and worked out detailed plans and tactics. Now they move deliberately and with utmost confidence that they can capture total power out of chaos. It happened in Russia in 1917, and the story is the same in today’s Portugal. “The day after” occupies an important place in Communist ideology, but it is not the only day that is tactically crucial.

There is also what the Communists call “the revolutionary situation,” a crisis compounded of rebellious disobedience below and bumbling ineptitude above, a moment when bonds dissolve, which can be fostered in many ways (although never manufactured at will) and for which one must wait. The Communists have trained themselves to wait. In Portugal they had waited since 1926, and when the “revolutionary situation” came they moved instantly. But neither “the day after” nor “the revolutionary situation” can of itself give the Communists total power. The fiber of society is too tough to be destroyed by popular upheaval or the driving out of a ruling class. The Communists may have power on “the day after,” but they must share it with other groups of the former opposition, and even with residual forces of the overthrown system. Usually they are numerically inferior. Again they must wait.

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Gerhart Niemeyer

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Speaking of Portugal, Professor F. A. Hermens recently reminded us again of what the Communists call “the day after,” meaning the confused situation following the overthrow of a long-established political system, when many opposition groups suddenly emerge in a wide-open field. The Communists alone have for years prepared themselves for this moment. While underground, they maintained their organization and worked out detailed plans and tactics. Now they move deliberately and with utmost confidence that they can capture total power out of chaos. It happened in Russia in 1917, and the story is the same in today’s Portugal. “The day after” occupies an important place in Communist ideology, but it is not the only day that is tactically crucial.

There is also what the Communists call “the revolutionary situation,” a crisis compounded of rebellious disobedience below and bumbling ineptitude above, a moment when bonds dissolve, which can be fostered in many ways (although never manufactured at will) and for which one must wait. The Communists have trained themselves to wait. In Portugal they had waited since 1926, and when the “revolutionary situation” came they moved instantly. But neither “the day after” nor “the revolutionary situation” can of itself give the Communists total power. The fiber of society is too tough to be destroyed by popular upheaval or the driving out of a ruling class. The Communists may have power on “the day after,” but they must share it with other groups of the former opposition, and even with residual forces of the overthrown system. Usually they are numerically inferior. Again they must wait.