Collective Action, Strikes and Unions in Portuguese History

Contributed by Emilia Margarida Marques [CRIA-Iscte/IN2PAST]

In 1933, the Portuguese right-wing dictatorship (1926–1974) introduced legislation to take direct control of labour unions as part of its efforts to secure a compliant and inexpensive workforce. Despite the labour movement's weakness and divisions at the time, a joint board was established, uniting anarcho-syndicalists, communists, socialists and others. They called for a general strike and other mass action on 18 January 1934. This effort was largely unsuccessful, with only a few actions taking place. The ensuing fierce repression further weakened labour, with most of the insurgents being imprisoned for extended periods.

The movement was particularly expressive in the glassmaking town of Marinha Grande. The glass workers had long established themselves as a skilled and cohesive occupational group. They fully recalled the role their unions had played in securing better pay and working conditions by the early 1920s. Since their union was to be taken over, they rose up in arms on 18 January, seizing the local police force and reopening the union premises (then already sealed by the authorities).

Their victory lasted just a few hours, as police reinforcements and the military swiftly retook control. Nevertheless, the 18 January uprising in Marinha Grande went on to play a crucial role in establishing the town's reputation as a communist and opposition stronghold. This inspired resistance to the dictatorship in Marinha Grande and beyond over the years. There were also practical effects, prompting the dictatorship and employers to be more cautious about working conditions in the glassmaking industry.

Following the Carnation Revolution, which ended the dictatorship, memory disputes over the nationwide events of 18 January 1934 erupted, particularly among leftist groups arguing about the respective roles of communists and anarcho-syndicalists in the movement and its subsequent defeat. However, this debate has had little impact on how the revolt is remembered locally in Marinha Grande. 18 January 1934 has instead become part of the area's local history and heritage. For instance, a re-enactment of the event was organised to mark the opening of the Glass Museum in 1998. The memory of the uprising has become intertwined with local narratives about glassmaking.

These narratives emphasise the importance of glassmaking in the town's economy and society since the 1750s, and they incorporate a variety of views, sometimes conflicting, on the contributions of glass workers' expertise, artistry, and labour struggles to this importance.

The Glass Workers Union has played a crucial role in shaping these representations. It organises annual commemorations of the 1934 uprising and frequently invokes its memory to inspire contemporary labour struggles, as exemplified by the '18 January is whenever a glass worker wants it to be!' banner displayed at a picket line in March 2025. The union has collaborated with the National Archives and academic experts to organise an exhibition of documents and publish a book on the uprising. The book features insights from veteran trade unionists on how the union has honoured the memory of 18 January over the years.

The union also played a key role in the erection of a memorial to the uprising in Marinha Grande in 1984, marking the 50th anniversary of the movement.

Contributed by João Freire

The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in Spain was founded in 1910, when in Portugal, in transition from a liberal monarchy to a republic, the labour movement was taking its first steps towards organic unification, with an initial Executive Committee of the Trade Union Congress (1911), followed by a National Workers' Union (1914) and finally, in 1919, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). There was a clear influence of French revolutionary syndicalism, much more pronounced than in the Spanish CNT, where its federalist and regional base denoted a greater presence of anarchist militancy. However, capitalist concentration and the struggles then waged for better wages and shorter working hours (the 8-hour day was still the main objective) led to the concept of a ‘single industry union’ voted at the Sans congress of the CRT of Catalonia in 1918 being quickly adopted by the Portuguese CGT, which thus exerted significant offensive pressure against employers and the republican government in the following years. The 8-hour day was adopted in Portugal by law in 1919, with a socialist labour minister; but in reality it took longer to implement.

It was against this backdrop that, in late 1923, already under the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera, Portuguese trade unionists Manuel Joaquim de Sousa and Manuel da Silva Campos were arrested in Seville on charges of preparing an organic agreement between the CGT and the CNT. In fact, there were several attempts to create an Iberian Labour Confederation, the last of which was at the CNT congress in Zaragoza in May 1936, attended by the Portuguese Emídio Santana, where a proposal to this effect was voted by acclamation, although this gesture was little more than symbolic.

Contributed by João Freire

Until the arrival of the dictatorship and Salazar's Estado Novo, the Portuguese labour movement followed the revolutionary syndicalist ideology imported from the French CGT and the Charte d'Amiens (1906).

In successive stages, national congresses were held in 1909, 1911, 1914, 1919, 1922 and 1925. The CGT (Confederação Geral do Trabalho – Worker’s General Confederation) was founded in 1919 and operated openly until 1927 and clandestinely until the 1960s. Its main leaders were Manuel Joaquim de Sousa, Manuel da Silva Campos, Santos Arranha and Mário Castelhano.

It was joined by industry federations such as those representing agriculture, cork, footwear, metallurgy, the press, seafarers, construction, commerce, wood, railways, cooperage, canning, textiles and food, and also had local organisations in the main cities, especially Lisbon and Oporto. It grew to represent more than 100,000 workers.

The CGT joined the International Workingmen Association (AIT, Berlin, 1922), but from then on there was a friction between factions, with a minority of unions favouring membership of the Red International of Labour Unions (communist), with strong positions in the unions of state workers and even rural workers in the Baixo Alentejo region.

From 1919 onwards, the CGT published the daily newspaper A Batalha, initially edited by Alexandre Vieira, which was one of the country's highest-circulation newspapers. After 1930, this newspaper had successive clandestine editions. It reappeared in 1974, after the Carnation Revolution, under the leadership of Emídio Santana, one of the former militants from the time of the Republic