Revolutionary syndicalism in Portugal

Abstract

The circumstances under which the revolutionary unionism influences organized portuguese workers coincides with the economic recession of late 19th century and it’s tragic outcome –the imposing of an authoritarian solution. In the same period, the working-class emerges as a new social protagonist in Portugal, opposing the regime pillars –capitalism, parliamentarianism and the bourgeois domain. Since the mid-19th century, their associations grow in number, led by the reformist Portuguese Socialist Party. It is at the dawn of the 20th century that the movement changes by slowly adopting direct action against employers, as the only way to confront the growing cost of living which characterizes the whole period. The effectiveness of this new tactic, imported from France, transforms the workers movement radically, attracting anarchists, hardening socialists and, especially, transforming the old class associations into real trade unions, mobilizing workers. The attractiveness of revolutionary unionism came from partial and immediategains that satisfied the reformers and the apolitical working masses, despite it’s purpose –the radical transformation of society, replacing capitalism by trade union management. However, these postulates did not pass the liberal crises unchanged. Phenomena such as the political revolution, the Great War, the Russian Revolution and the employer’s reaction, in the 1st quarter of the 20th century, determine the ideological evolution of workers’ leaders and Socialists schools.