Portuguese general strike of 1934

Strikes and demonstrations were held in the capital Lisbon and in Porto, Coimbra, Braga, Leiria, Almada, Anadia, Setúbal, Silves, Sines, and many other locations, and these were sometimes accompanied by sabotage.

23 050 by the authoritarian Estado Novo government, led by António Salazar, although steps were being taken to plan a strike even before the decree was formally announced.

The rest joined in preparations for a national strike under a United Front, made up of the communist Inter-Union Commission (CIS), anarcho-syndicalists of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), the socialist Federation of Workers' Associations (FAO), and others.

[1][3][4] The protests resulted in the proclamation by the government of a "State of Siege", with the closure of businesses and the prohibition of circulation in downtown Lisbon.

[3][5] The immediate aftermath included a loosening of censorship, with newspapers being encouraged to report on the violent events of the 18th, thus creating a climate in which the government could maximise the subsequent repression.

Efforts were made by the government to place most of the blame for the strike on the unions supported by the Portuguese Communist Party.

It created the Portuguese Legion in 1936, which was a paramilitary organization reporting to the Ministry of Interior with the task of "defending the national heritage and combatting the communist threat and anarchism".

[2] Marinha Grande is a town close to the sea, approximately half-way between Portugal's two leading cities of Lisbon and Porto.

Struggles by the glass workers prior to 1934 had created a favourable environment for union action, and only in Marinha Grande was there a serious insurrection on 18 January 1934 that went beyond a simple strike.

At 05.00, armed strikers surrounded the GNR barracks, whose occupants surrendered, as well as taking the City Hall building and the post office.

The military required the factories to open on 19 January and to provide lists of workers who were not at work on that day, enabling them to identify the strikers who were still on the run.

Many of the Marinha Grande strikers were initially sent to Cunene in Angola and, subsequently, to the Tarrafal camp in Cape Verde when it opened in October 1936.

Notable among these were the workers at the Parry & Son shipyards, as well as employees of flour mills located in Cova da Piedade and those working in the canning sector.

[6] In 1934, Silves, in the Algarve region, had about 10,000 inhabitants and was an important centre for the cork industry, producing largely for export.

[6][10] On the 18 January the CGT supporters moved to put out of action all telegraph and telephone exchanges, aiming to isolate the town.

Some of the leaders were armed with pistols, revolvers and bombs and their efforts were successful, with nearly all workers leaving their posts and joining a demonstration in the centre of the town.

However, when the 07.00 train finally arrived the strikers realised that support for the strike in other parts of the country was not as great as they had imagined, and at this point GNR forces attacked them.

It appears that the government had decided to set an example in Silves, as it applied the new rule more rigorously there than in some other areas, particularly those where work of national importance was being carried out, such as naval dockyards.

Furthermore, the Estado Novo retaliated against Silves by effectively closing the town's cork industry, thereby reducing employment opportunities.