General strikes and workers’ struggle in defence of their hard-won rights demonstrate that, beneath appearances, the Portuguese people are far from asleep. Join us on Telegram , Twitter , and VK . Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su While the government of Luís Montenegro (a coalition of the right and the Salazarist far right) buried its head in the sand rather than confront reality, Portuguese workers once again challenged the attempt to impose what they describe as a slave-labour package through a nationwide general strike that was felt across the country on 3 June.
The government sought to play down the impact of the mass stoppage, dismissing it as insignificant. Montenegro and his entourage, sustained by fascist forces that are not formally represented within the governing coalition, remained trapped in their parallel reality — an image of the country in which the workforce and the creators of wealth simply do not exist. It is a vision marked by undisguised hostility towards ordinary people and the population at large, an expression of neoliberal brutality taken to its furthest extreme.
The general strike was called by Portugal’s largest trade union confederation, the CGTP-Intersindical Nacional.
Its general secretary, Tiago Oliveira, stated that the action was “at least as significant as, and possibly larger than, the strike held on 11 December last year”.
“This strike is not the end of anything,” Oliveira added. “It was another stage in the struggle, a demonstration of strength, a collective affirmation, a clear warning that workers will not passively accept the dismantling of their rights.”
His words amount to a pledge that the struggle will continue, in whatever forms prove necessary, until the government’s labour package is defeated.
The proposed legislation is designed to dismantle fundamental labour and human rights, including those first established by the revolutionary authorities following the 25 April 1974 Revolution.
Workers’ rights have been under sustained attack ever since the reactionary coup of 25 November 1975. Although these rights are enshrined and protected in the Constitution of the Republic adopted on 2 April 1976, attempts to erode them have never ceased.
Two factors have made this possible through successive revisions of labour legislation, whether under Socialist governments or under the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the only “democratic” alternative tolerated within Portugal’s political system. The first is the complete domination of executive and legislative power by employer interests — and, at times, even of the judiciary. The second is the disturbing reality that the Constitution has repeatedly been ignored and violated by those charged with defending and enforcing it, including the Constitutional Court itself.
The new labour package seeks to eliminate what remains of workers’ rights and their social and humanist foundations. It reflects the slave-owning mentality inherent in neoliberal fascism and aims to reopen the path towards forms of exploitation more commonly associated with the beginning of the twentieth century.
Workers are defending themselves and fighting back. The general strike remains one of their most effective weapons, reminding the country of the strength of the often ignored and despised world of labour.
Despite the widespread precariousness of employment, which leaves workers highly vulnerable to employer arbitrariness and abuse, participation in the 3 June stoppage across major multinational private companies was remarkable. It represented a powerful display of courage and a sign that the movement possesses the strength to continue and intensify its struggle.
There was a reason why the government attempted to ridicule the strike’s impact in the private sector through the microphones of a compliant media. Dozens of private companies were affected, including firms in the automotive, food-processing, mining, cement, glass and textile industries.
In the public sector, participation rates exceeded 90 per cent in many areas, including healthcare, schools, higher education, municipal transport systems in the major cities, social security services, tax administration, local government, the justice system, culture and museums, rail transport and aviation. The result was a country profoundly affected by this day of collective action.
Significant stoppages also took place in the energy sector, the media, postal services, telecommunications, and the arts and entertainment industries.
A few days after the strike, the labour package suffered yet another defeat in Parliament, revealing the unmistakable impact of workers’ mobilisation and, at the same time, exposing the contradictions that continue to divide the ruling class on this issue — whether out of political opportunism or for other reasons.
The Salazarist-inspired far right abandoned what had appeared to be a prior agreement with the government, fearing the impact that the proposed labour laws could have on its own electoral base. This was particularly significant at a moment when, according to the latest opinion polls, the party remained in second place despite a change at the top of the political rankings.
First place is now held by the Socialist Party (the neoliberal party led by José Luís Carneiro), while the governing Democratic Alliance coalition — which frequently acts in ways scarcely distinguishable from the far right that draws inspiration from the old regime — has slipped to third place.
The dominant image of Portugal continues to suggest a society firmly under the grip of a neoliberal regime with increasingly pronounced fascistic tendencies.
Yet general strikes and workers’ struggle in defence of their hard-won rights demonstrate that, beneath appearances, the Portuguese people are far from asleep. On 3 June they delivered a “clear warning” — and they have no intention of stopping there.