Syndicalism and anarchism in Portugal during the interwar period: Struggles, ideological competition, and repression

Abstract

The history of the Portuguese labour movement during the interwar period has been a narrative of the loss of the hegemonic influence that anarchists achieved among the workers’ organizations at the end of the I World War. It has been also emphasized the strategic defeat of the syndicalism in the confrontation with the catholic corporative State, and of the growing influence of the communists under the dictatorship due to the efficiency of their organization, discipline, and propaganda. Since the 1970s, the Portuguese historiography has insisted on the ideological and organisational shortcomings of syndicalism and anarchism during the First Republic (1910-1926) and Military Dictatorship (1926-1933), recovering the Marxist critique of that period and overshadowing the action of ideological competition and struggle among social militants at that time. In this paper, we reappraise the organisational trajectory, the struggles against the bosses and the State in the context of fierce competition between libertarians, and authoritarian communists during the period of adversity for the working classes. We conclude that after the end of the Spanish civil war, the changing international environment, the efficient communist propaganda, the efficacy of their clandestine organization and their antifascist strategy led to a growing isolation of libertarian ideals. Despite that, there were proposals for a strategic and ideological renewal of the libertarian movement after the 1940s.