Between corporatism and class struggle: The portuguese labour movement and the Cavaco silva governments

Abstract

This article looks at how the conjuncture that began with the advent of the PSD minority government under Cavaco Silva in 1985 resulted in a definitive demarcation of the positions of labour and capital in the redemocratisation process and in the consolidation of a neo‐corporatist tendency within Portuguese industrial relations. It focuses on labour's struggle around issues of labour law reform and wage agreements from within and from without the Permanent Council for Social Concertation, the tripartite body for macro‐economic and social negotiation. The struggle over labour law reform is presented as a struggle fundamentally to modify the position of labour in democratic Portugal's political economy. The article argues that labour suffered a serious setback as a result of this struggle and that this setback provided the class basis for the emergence of a historical compromise establishing a new pattern of industrial relations in Portugal. It then looks at the sequels of this struggle to demonstrate the e...