Persistent repertoires of contention in Portugal: from tax riots to anti-communist violence (1840-1975)

Abstract

During the summer of 1975, a year after the Carnation Revolution, thousands of Portuguese men and women took to the streets in order to prevent what they feared could be a Communist takeover. All over Portugal there were anti-communist demonstrations and rallies. This chapter compares the anti-communist violence of 1975 with the tax riots of the nineteenth century, and analyses the enduring use in Portuguese modern collective action of forms of action such as siege, attack, ransacking premises and burning property. The chapter looks at the influence of political opportunity structures on protesters’ choice of tactics in both periods, and explores the long-term social cleavages underpinning political behaviour in modern Portugal. The final section provides an analysis of the strategic and symbolic functions of these repertoires, which is essential if we are to fully understand their widespread use in nineteenth- and twentieth-century protest politics