The Emancipation Of All Beings In The Future Society: Utopian Social Landscapes In Early 20th Century Portugal And The Struggling For A Better Life

Abstract

In spite of the extensive historiographical literature on labor relations in Portugal during the first decades of the 20th century, the environment remains a subject undervalued in the history of labor organization and struggles (Barca. 2012; Montrie, 2000, 2008, Neto, 2004). In this paper, we explore how new relationships with nature were embedded in anarcho-syndicalism Utopias, values and struggles for human emancipation. We shall focus first on the diverse contemporary workers' narratives about future society and then in the struggles of the fishermen of Setubal for a better life from the 1890s to the 1930s before they were defeated by industrial and fascist forces. We show how those struggles have been trigged by the aim of preserving of fishery resources and illustrates how lowering of social inequality induced degrowth and promoted sustainability. This process towards lowering work and extractivism were conscious and alarm the conservative forces. Industrialists used technology and State power to overcame those revolutionary menaces from bellow.