[1] In his youth, José Dias Coelho joined the Antifascist Academic Front.
In 1947 he participated in a great number of student demonstrations and actively pressed for the creation of an Academic Association in the Art Academy and against the 1952 NATO meeting in Lisbon.
[1] As a consequence of this action, he was expelled from the Art Academy, prohibited to enroll in any other faculty of the country and dismissed from his teaching position in the technical section of the educational system.
He died as a secret worker of the party when he was assassinated by PIDE, the political police of the Estado Novo regime, on 19 December 1961 on da Creche street in Lisbon, (now José Dias Coelho street).
[1] In 1972, Zeca Afonso released a song titled A Morte Saiu à Rua (Death is out on the Streets), a homage to Dias Coelho.