Colonial Labour Internationalized: Portugal and the Decolonization Momentum (1945–1975)

Abstract

The history of the convoluted devolution of power in late colonialism can only be fully apprehended if its international and transnational dimensions are brought into the picture. Diverse modalities of internationalism shaped the disparate trajectories of colonialism and decolonization in multiple societal domains, in diverse ways. We depart from the labour question in the Portuguese late colonial empire to highlight three main inter-related aspects in order to demonstrate this argument. First, that the history of Portuguese late colonialism and decolonization was significantly moulded by international and transnational actors, institutions and networks, despite the authoritarian and nationalist nature of the metropolitan regime. Second, that the social and economic dimensions of Portuguese colonialism were a permanent feature of administrative and diplomatic ruminations regarding possible strategies of imperial resilience in a context of mounting anti-colonial pressures. Therefore, they need to be properly studied in order to advance our understanding of the trajectories of imperial disengagement. Third, that despite the increasingly hostile global order to imperial and colonial powers, noticeable in many international fora, the latter were always conceived both as channels for the expression of anti-colonial dissidence and as potentially useful instruments for those interested in advocating the continuity of imperial formations.