Towards the end of
World War I, Portugal fell into a serious economic crisis, in part due to the
Portuguese military intervention in the war. The Portuguese working classes responded to the deterioration in their living standards with a wave of strikes. Supported by an emerging
labour movement, the workers achieved some of their objectives, such as an
eight-hour working day. But a feeling of political powerlessness, the lack of a coherent political strategy among the Portuguese working class and the growing popularity of the
Russian Revolution, led to the foundation of the Portuguese Maximalist Federation (FMP) on April 27, 1919. The goal of FMP was to promote
socialist and
revolutionary ideas and to organize and develop the worker movement. One of the main figures of the organization was
Manuel Ribeiro, director of the federation's weekly newspaper
Bandeira Vermelha. At the beginning of the 20th century, revolutionary syndicalists were opposed to purist anarchism, and defended
Georges Sorel's position that only the trade union held the capacity to achieve a revolution. However, the Maximalists never failed to assert themselves as anarchists. For the maximalists the "proletarian army of conscientious men" was the only weapon against the
bourgeoisie, one that could bring anarchism to operate in the masses and syndicalism to organize the economy. In issue number 2 of
Red Flag, the maximalists launched a program for social reorganization, in which they outlined a future maximalist society. The first step to be taken would be the abolition of
private property and the right of
production and
consumption for all. Its other proposals included "the abolition of
inheritances, the abolition of
taxes, the suppression of
public debt, the extinction of
prostitution,
free medical care, the
prohibition of the sale of
alcoholic beverages, the abolition of
gambling and the implementation of
religious freedom." On October 5, 1919, the
FMP launched its weekly publication, the
Bandeira Vermelha (
Red Flag), a newspaper that became very popular with the Portuguese working classes, eventually reaching a circulation of 6,000 newspapers. Although it is not possible to specify an exact number of militants in the federation, maximalist nuclei were found throughout much of the country: After some time, members of the FMP began to feel the need for a "
revolutionary vanguard" among Portuguese workers. After several meetings at various
trade union offices, and with the aid of the
Comintern, the
Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) was founded on March 6, 1921. ==References==