General Confederation of Labour (Portugal)

CGT

General Confederation of Labour
Confederação Geral do Trabalho
CGT logo, with its motto "Bread and Liberty"
Predecessor	National Workers' Union
Established	13 September 1919; 104 years ago (1919-09-13)
Dissolved	February 1927; 97 years ago (1927-02) (banned) c. 1938; 86 years ago (1938) (defunct)
Type	National trade union confederation
Headquarters	Calçada do Combro, 38, Lisbon
Location	Portugal
Membership (1922)	150,000
Secretary General	Manuel Joaquim de Sousa [pt] (1919–1922) José Santos Arranha (1922–1925) Manuel da Silva Campos (1925–1926) Mário Castelhano (1926–1927) Emídio Santana [pt] (1927–1937)
Publication	A Batalha [pt]
Affiliations	International Workers' Association

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The General Confederation of Labour (Portuguese: Confederação Geral do Trabalho; CGT) was a Portuguese trade union confederation. Established in 1919, as the successor to the National Workers' Union (UON), the CGT was the only national trade union centre in Portugal throughout the early 1920s. The organisation was led largely by anarcho-syndicalists, who declared the CGT to be independent of all political parties and proclaimed its goal to be the abolition of capitalism and the state. Opposed to Bolshevism, it refused to join the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) and instead joined the International Workers' Association (IWA), which was aligned with anarcho-syndicalism. An internal schism between the syndicalist leadership and members of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) followed, as unions aligned with the latter broke off from the CGT. Following the establishment of a military dictatorship in Portugal, the CGT led a workers' uprising against it, but they were defeated, the organisation banned and many of their members exiled to Africa. After the establishment of the fascist Estado Novo regime, the CGT attempted to resist the creation of a corporatist economy and led a general strike against it, but this too was suppressed. The CGT's secretary general then attempted to assassinate the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, but was unsuccessful. The CGT was ultimately driven underground and eventually disappeared, as the fascist regime was consolidated in Portugal.