José Gregório
Encyclopedia
José Gregório was a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 glassmaker in Marinha Grande, a center of the glass industry in the country, a trade unionist and a member of the Portuguese Communist Party
Portuguese Communist Party
The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist....

. He became notable for being one of the leaders of a major riot in his hometown against the dictatorial regime in 1934.

During the 1930s, the Party was the major force in the resistance against the dictatorial regime led by António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...

. After the approval by the government of a law forbidding the free trade unions, several strikes and riots began all over the country. In Marinha Grande, the workers, in a riot led by the Gregório and other members of the Party, controlled the entire town. Only a massive intervention by the military ended the strike.

In 1938, Gregório was arrested by the PIDE, the political police, and was tortured for several times during his imprisonment. Released in 1940, Gregório had an important role in the reorganization of the Party in the early 1940s. In 1943, he became a member of the Party's secretariat and presented reports related to the Party's work among the trade unions in the 3rd and 4th congresses.

José Gregório died in 1961, after living more than 20 years clandestinely, due to the persecution of the political police.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK