During the time of the First Portuguese Republic, he began organising strike actions within the General Confederation of Labour (CGT).

Exiled, he went on to participate in the Madeira uprising and later clandestinely returned to Portugal, where he organised the Portuguese general strike of 1934.

[5] After the 28 May 1926 coup d'état, which overthrew the First Portuguese Republic and established the National Dictatorship, he was elected as general secretary of the CGT and oversaw the reorganisation of its structure.

[8] He was sent to the coastal city of Novo Redondo, then to inland towns such as Amboiva, Conda and Seles, where he worked as a clerk for a plantation.

[12] Half of the book was dedicated to analysing the material conditions of the Angolan people, and the consequences of Portuguese colonialism in the African country.

[13] He was fiercely critical of the Portuguese Empire's claims to be carrying out a "civilizing mission" in Africa,[14] which he described as having been a deceitful justification for exploitation and dehumanisation.

[19] In 1975, his book Quatro Anos de Deportação (Four Years of Deportation) was posthumously published in Lisbon by Seara Nova [pt].