General strike brings Portugal to a standstill

This offensive against the working class is not a whim of Luís Montenegro, although his right-wing government is consciously aligned with the bosses. It rather reflects the objective needs of Portuguese capitalism at a time of crisis. There is a global crisis of overproduction and Europe is losing out. In order to increase ‘competitiveness’, bring their debts under control, and finance their imperialist ambitions, the European capitalists must turn the screws on the workers.

Portugal’s parasitic ruling class has always relied on hyper-exploitation to compensate for its backwardness. With the centre-right in power, the bosses are now renewing their offensive against labour rights in the crudest way possible. But this is giving a powerful impetus to the class struggle.

The last general strike in Portugal took place almost thirteen years ago, during the post-2008 austerity memoranda. The trade union leaders were in no mood to call one now, but were given no choice by the government. They would lose all their legitimacy if they had not agreed to call the strike.

The strike took place on Thursday 11 December. There are no precise statistics on how many workers took part. The government claims that under 10 percent of the workforce struck, while the unions give the figure of three million strikers (over half of the employed population).

What is certain is that the strike paralysed critical sectors of the economy, such as transport and distribution, large-scale industrial production, and, especially, the public sector: state schools and universities, waste collection facilities, and health centres. Admittedly, it had a limited following in more precarious industries in the private sector – which are heavily staffed by migrants – such as hospitality, construction, and retail. This is due to systematic bullying and intimidation by employers (particularly effective against migrants), low trade union membership in these sectors (largely due to the passivity of the unions), and workers’ reluctance to lose a day’s pay when they can barely make ends meet.

However, the impact of a strike cannot be measured solely by its direct following: we must gauge its general social support. In this respect the 11 December general strike enjoyed the wholehearted sympathy of most of Portuguese society. An opinion poll by newspaper Diário de Notícias revealed that 61 percent of respondents supported the stoppage, and only 31 percent were opposed. This broad social sympathy was felt on the day of the strike, with moving scenes of cleaning workers and waiters cheering on the demonstrators and the picketers.

The youth take the lead

The trade union leaders approached the general strike in a routine manner. While the small UGT federation threatened another general strike, the much larger CGTP, which is supposedly more radical, fudged this issue, proposing instead to continue the struggle by… gathering signatures! Their strategy is clear: flex their muscles in a one-day strike and then wrest concessions from the government at the negotiating table. However, for the masses, especially for the youth, the general strike provided an outlet for their pent-up anger.

The demonstration in Lisbon on Thursday afternoon was no routine matter. It was a remarkable show of force of the working class not only for its numbers but also for its electric atmosphere. Young people predominated in this enormous crowd, chanting revolutionary slogans such as ‘general strike against capital’, ‘the country is in a pit, what will you do? Revolution and people’s power!’, and ‘it is the worker, Portuguese or migrant, who fills the pockets of the bosses’.

The trade unions were hardly to be seen. The same goes for the Communist Party. The crowd was undoubtedly to the left of the tops of the CGTP and PCP. It was largely a leaderless demonstration.

A successful general strike always raises the question of power. It reveals the enormous force of the working class, without which not a lightbulb shines, not a wheel turns, not a telephone rings. This power remains latent in normal times but comes to the surface during a strike. The mood in Lisbon on Thursday, a mood of anger but also of confidence, insubordination, and joy, reflected this rising power of the workers moving as a class, even if still timidly and gropingly.

This revolutionary mood exists primarily amongst the radicalised layer of the youth. This sector is growing in numbers under the relentless pressure of the crisis, but it is still a small minority in society. However, seen within the larger processes taking place among the masses, this youth heralds the radicalisation of much larger layers, who will, however, require more time and events to draw revolutionary conclusions.

Unforeseen consequences

Portugal is by far the poorest country in Western Europe, and – despite some (lacklustre) economic growth – inflation, lack of housing, and collapsing public services have been steadily gnawing away at living conditions. A mood of anger and frustration has built up in Portuguese society over the recent period. However, this acquired a distorted political expression through the rise of the right-populist party Chega.

Chega and its leader, André Ventura, owe their popularity to the discrediting of the left after eight years in power in 2015-2023, when they ended up simply managing the crisis of the system. The different left parties have not recovered, as they parrot their empty reformist formulas that are out of touch with the mood in society. The way is being paved for Ventura’s accession into government.

Ventura is a capitalist demagogue who has galvanised an extremely heterogeneous base of support, which ranges from racist fanatics and reactionary businessmen to angry workers who previously voted socialist or communist, or did not vote at all. Ventura has benefited from the relative stagnation in the class struggle, which allowed him to wage cultural wars over questions such as migration, criminality, and corruption.

The general strike, however, has put class questions firmly on the table. This puts Ventura in a difficult bind. He initially supported the government’s labour law, but, feeling the groundswell, he had to change tack. According to the aforementioned poll, 67 percent of his followers supported the general strike!

In recent days, he has attacked the law bluntly and adopted a pseudo-workerist rhetoric. This is empty demagoguery, but it will enthuse his working-class followers, similarly to Donald Trump’s rhetoric during his 2024 campaign. However, being an opportunistic capitalist politician, he will not be able to live up to these expectations: on the contrary, he will pulverise them. His base of support will crumble. The pendulum will then swing powerfully towards the left. The sharp radicalisation we now see among a segment of the Portuguese youth will take place among the masses in general. The problem is there is no alternative on the left. It must be built.