FOR BREAD AND FREEDOM

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2012 :: RMTnews 21 Portugal’s first overseas shipping company founded in 1377 expanded after the unification of Portugal in 1411 to found the world’s first global empire. Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, and from 1519–1522 Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the Earth. The economic and military fortunes of Portugual have depended on her seafarers for 800 years. Older RMT members may recall the famous ‘Santa Maria’, a luxury Portuguese cruiseliner taken over by rebels led by Portuguese military officer Henrique Galvão in 1961 to overthrow the dictator, Salazar, and bring colonial independence. Today, an important part of the story of Portuguese seafarers is preserved in the shabby Lisbon offices of the Union of Merchant Seamen of Portugal (SMMP - Sindicato dos Marinheiros Mercantes de Portugal). The union today is barely active with a handful of remaining members as a result of the same factors faced by British Merchant Marine: flags of convenience, social dumping, bulk carriers and the added difficulty of a government- backed sweetheart deal since the 1980s between ship owners and other maritime unions designed to smash the SMMP. The SMMP was founded in 1916 as its slogan says: “In the struggle for bread and for freedom” (“Na luta pelo pão e pela liberdade”). The early trade union movement from the First Portuguese Republic (1910-1926) was threatened by a military coup in May 1926, which installed the fascist-corporatist ‘New State’ ("Estado Novo"). Under Salazar’s dictatorship trade unions and working class political parties were heavily repressed. The SMMP offices bear witness to the underground struggle to survive of Portuguese trade unions. The walls are decorated with marvellous murals depicting the lives of Portuguese seafarers painted by a political refugee from Salazar’s dictatorship who used the union office as a safe house. Unfortunately, a number of the paintings are in need of repair and unless resources are found to rescue them will be lost forever. Undoubtedly, the most unusual object is the desk of the general secretary, which contains a false front concealing a spiral staircase leading to a secret apartment where the muralist, who signed himself M A Santos but is said to be the anarchist artist, Emidio Santana, remained hidden for two years. SMMP’s office today accommodates a rooftop restaurant next to one of Lisbon’s most dramatic viewing points, graphic designers’ offices and a film studio. The beautiful modernist lettering above the glass doors and cabinets and a framed edition from Mayday 1925 of Portuguese syndicalist newspaper, A Batalha (The Battle) bear silent testimony from the 1920s to a great seafarers’ trade union of one of the world’s ancient maritime nations, locked away above the modern port of Lisbon and of the last time Europe was plunged into a corporate dictatorship. FOR BREAD AND FREEDOM RMT president Alex Gordon and retired shipping member Stuart Hyslop report on a visit to the headquarters of a Portuguese seafarers’ union For Bread and Liberty: Watch the video on RMTv at rmtv.org.uk Stuart Hislop appears out of the false desk front