ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature of violence against strikers in three different events that took place in Spain and Portugal between the last decade of the nineteenth century and the years preceding WWI: the strikes of the 1890s and early twentieth century in the building works of the canal of Aragon and Catalonia, in the province of Huesca (Aragon); the agricultural strikes of 1901–2 in Spain’s largest province, Badajoz (Extremadura); and the strikes that took place in the Alentejo region during the first years of the Portuguese Republic (1911–15). These conflicts emerged in all three cases in the rural peripheries of both countries, which during these years were the scene of important socio-economic and political transformations. The violence against strikers was carried out by four different forces: the army; the respective gendarmeries, Spanish Civil Guard and Portuguese Republican National Guard; the local security forces; and the private forces or civilian volunteer corps, which in both countries played an important role in defending property interests. This combined action demonstrates the extent to which these unprecedented events turned out to be a new threat and reveals the efforts of both states to reach their peripheries and to overcome new internal challenges.
